Some sessions are built to leave you gassed. This one is built to leave you ready. We put your conditioning before your strength work today on purpose — so that by the time you pick up a barbell, you’re warm, switched on and moving well. You’re the one doing the lifting later; this is how you arrive prepared for it.
Here’s the piece you’ll work through: a 20-minute EMOM — every minute on the minute — cycling through three stations, five times through. Five wall walks. Eighteen single-arm dumbbell snatches. A sprint on the bike to close out each round. The bike sits at the end for a reason — you can empty the tank for the full minute, because your recovery is built into the rotation.
Wall walks — earn the shoulders
Every rep starts with your chest on the floor. Bum comes up, feet find the wall, and only then do your hands start to move. Walk in as far as you’re comfortable, then — the part most people skip — walk your hands back out. That walk-out is where the shoulder strength is built.
The sheet says five, but five is a target, not a rule. If wall walks aren’t your movement yet, do a number that gives you a solid 45 seconds of honest work. Challenge yourself, and scale to where you’re at.
Single-arm dumbbell snatches — drive with the legs
This is a leg-drive movement, not an arm one. The dumbbell starts on the floor between your feet. Drive through the floor, let your hips do the work, and the dumbbell travels overhead with the arm guiding it rather than muscling it. Keep your free hand off your thigh — let it float, don’t rest it on your leg. Switch hands in front of your face if you’ve got the control, or set the dumbbell down and switch on the floor. “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast” applies here: clean reps under fatigue beat rushed ones every single time.
The bike — where the rest is hiding
Your guide is 15–12 calories (15 for the blokes). Quicker riders, chase 18; if the legs are cooked, 12 is plenty. The point was never the number — it’s that you go for the full minute, then get a full minute back. If you want the deeper logic on why the bike is real work and not bonus work, we broke it down in Catch in the Squat — the cue that buys you more time on the bike.
Then comes the strength
And you’ll be glad you’re warm for it. To set yourself up well, here’s the barbell warm-up flow we run before every lifting day, how to attack a heavy complex when the bar starts to climb, and our key tips for building real strength over the long run.
And if today felt like you were a step behind everyone else? You’re probably not — you might just be moving at a pace you can actually keep. Show up, do your reps, scale where you need to.
That’s the whole game.