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These four CrossFit EMOM workouts will build superior full-body strength. In addition to forging functional fitness, the following workouts will also enhance muscle endurance while improving all-round physicality.
But if you incorporate CrossFit EMOM workouts into your training routine, you stand to gain more benefits besides those outlined above.
The EMOM workouts that feature in this article are organised around compound exercises and Olympic lifts. Such exercises are excellent for developing transitional efficiency and posterior chain strength.
Moreover, because these CrossFit EMOM workouts activate all the major muscle groups, they will provide you with a whole-body workout. But before you set your countdown timer, I've answered a few frequently asked questions. This section is more for those that are new to EMOM training. (Juts want to start the workouts? )
EMOM workout meaning
EMOM = every minute on the minute
An acronym for “every minute on the minute,” the EMOM exercise methodology challenges you to complete a specific number of exercise repetitions in less than 60 seconds. The time remaining allows you to recover before the next minute starts.
Why do CrossFit EMOM workouts?
As exercise methodologies go, EMOM is one of the best. In another Hungry4Fitness article, EMOM Training | The Complete Guide, I discuss the many benefits of including EMOM workout into your exercise regime.
Some of those benefits have been encapsulated in the list below. But if you would like a comprehensive overview, access the link above.
Key benefits of CrossFit EMOM workouts
Building strength
Burning fat
Improving muscle definition
Whole-body conditioning
Developing stamina and muscle endurance
Maintaining training discipline
Reducing time wasted resting (or texting, posing, gassing, etc., etc.)
The benefits of CrossFit emom workouts
In recent years CrossFit has exploded in popularity with affiliated gyms popping up all over the country. But it's no surprise that CrossFit has caught, what with the supper-muscled competitors and enviable feats of physical strength.
The slew of YouTube videos and documentaries of hulking athletes battling it out in multi-disciplinary fitness events inspired millions to adopt the CrossFit training methodology.
As people started to discover, CrossFit training confers loads of fitness benefits.
Related: Try these 21 CrossFit WODs >
Become a complete athlete with CrossFit
By dint of design, CrossFit demands that competitors become physical ‘Jack of all trades’, master at none. Similar to MMA, which is an amalgamation of all combat sports, CrossFit athletes must ensure that they have no chinks in their armour. It’s not enough for a competitor to be strong. They must also develop cardio fitness, muscle endurance and a whole host of other physical attributes.
Across the four days of CrossFit competition, athletes are put through a gruelling series of fitness challenges – sometimes up to three separate events each day. The challenges could include anything from Olympic lifting, swimming events, marathon row and strongman complexes.
Related: Best Olympic barbells for the home gym
CrossFit develops whole body fitness
To prepare for such a diverse range of disciplines CrossFit athletes must cultivate a high degree of competency in multiple components of fitness. The only way to achieve this, of course, is by incorporating a diverse range of exercise methodologies and disciplines into their training regime.
So, if you begin including CrossFit-inspired workouts into your routine, you will forge functional fitness across a range of training disciplines.
4 CrossFit EMOM Workouts
Now that we've reviewed a range of benefits of CrossFit EMOM workouts, it's time to set that countdown timer, and start training. What follows is four workouts for you to try. Each one features a brief outline of the training process including the key fitness components it targets.
A quick word on the workouts. If the any of the workouts are too challenging, or feature exercises that you are less than 100% confident at performing, don't hesitate to modify the plans.
10 minute EMOM
Whether you love them or loathe them (most people harbour the latter feeling), you cannot deny that the barbell thruster is a super whole-body exercise. This single movement will develop supreme quad, core and deltoid strength.
Furthermore, because barbell thrusters engage such a wide range of muscle groups, they also stimulate the cardiovascular system.
So, in addition to developing all-round physicality, thrusters can also build cardiac muscle tissue which will improve the strength of the heart.
EMOM: 10 X 1-minute barbell thruster (aim for 10 reps for the first 5 minutes and 15 reps for the second 5 minutes)
Total reps: 150
20 minute EMOM workout – Macho Man
I’ll be straight with you, I filched this workout from a CrossFit YouTube video. In the video, Matt Fraser, five times CrossFit Champion, along with a crew of other dedicated CrossFitters, worked through a clean and press complex.
But instead of performing the exercise in one movement, it was broken down into three parts: power clean, front squat, and overhead press.
They completed 3 reps on each of the separate movements, totalling 9 reps per minute. This doesn’t sound like a lot, I concede. The average time each athlete took to execute the 9 reps was 20 seconds, leaving 40 seconds to recover.
However, the movements are complex, which means they must be approached with extra caution, and the weights are high. I think Fraser was throwing around a 90kg barbell.
Depending on your current level of fitness, it might be worth starting this workout with a light bar. As you progress through the rounds, incrementally increase the weight. This approach will improve your chances of completing the entire workout.
EMOM 20 X 1-minute: 3 reps deadlifts, 3 reps hang cleans, 3 reps overhead press – 9 reps total.
Total reps: 180
30 minute CrossFit emom workout
Following a similar theme from the preceding workout, for 30 minutes you will progress through a clean and press complex.
Again, the exercise is broken into its three constituent movements: deadlift, front squat and push press. But where this workout differs from the one above is that each exercise forms its own EMOM workout.
So, the first EMOM sees you perform 12 deadlifts on the minute every minute for 10 rounds. The following two 10 minute emom workouts are the same except that the exercises change.
For the advanced trainer, or those wanting to really push themselves, we’ve included an optional challenge. If you’ve got enough gas in the tank you can pit yourself against the full clean and press over 5 X 1-minute rounds. The reps are low, a mere 6, but it’s a beast of an exercise.
EMOM 1: 10 X 1 min deadlifts (aim for 12 reps)
EMOM 2: 10 X 1 min front squats (aim for 12 reps)
EMOM 3: 10 X 1 min overhead push press (aim for 12 reps)
Challenge rounds: EMOM 4: 5 X 1 min clean and press (aim for 6 reps)
Total reps: 360 (390 including the challenge)
40 minute full body emom workout
As the saying goes, save the beast till last. The final EMOM workout is a compendium of CrossFit exercises.
Comprised of a mix of calisthenics, functional movements and Olympic lifts, this EMOM brings you the full CrossFit experience. But in doing so it will test every aspect of your physicality.
It starts off deceptively easy and thus can lull you into a false sense of security. After the first 10 minutes, you’ll think you’ve got this one in the bag.
But the intensity starts picking up as you enter the second set of 10 minutes. From there this EMOM workout gets awfully messy and if you hope to see the final round you’ve got to be prepared for a tough physical fight.
EMOM 1: 10 X 1 min 4 reps box jumps + 4 toes to bar
EMOM 2: 10 X 1 min 6 reps dumbbell thrusters + 4 bar jumps into burpees
EMOM 3: 10 X 1 min 6 reps single-arm dumbbell snatch (3 reps each arm) + 4 reps kip pull-ups
EMOM 4: 10 X 1 min 4 reps barbell power cleans + 4 reps barbell thrusters
Total reps = 360
Enjoyed these workouts?
Get your hands on 80 more with the Hungry4Fitness Book of Circuits & Workouts Volume 3.
About Adam Priest –
A former Royal Marines Commando, Adam Priest is a content writer, college lecturer, and health and wellbeing practitioner. He is also a fitness author and contributor to other websites. Connect with Adam at info@hungry4fitness.co.uk.
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