For time:
15 hang squat cleans
5 rope climbs to 15 feet
12 hang squat cleans
4 rope climbs
9 hang squat cleans
3 rope climbs

4 rounds
10 thrusters
15 bar-facing burpees

50 LBW overhead squats*

*Run 200 meters each time you set the barbell down

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps for time of:

Bench presses

Chest-to-bar pull-ups

Stimulus and Strategy:

Today’s workout is a classic push-pull combination and a good old-fashioned pump session. The movement pairing should create minimal interference, allowing you to transition smoothly from one exercise to the next. Choose a bench press load that lets you complete your reps in no more than 2 sets. That said, if you do not have a spotter, do not push to failure on any set. Be smart and rerack the barbell as needed. Aim to complete the chest-to-bar pull-ups in 1-2 sets. Advanced athletes who can maintain unbroken kipping chest-to-bar pull-ups and finish within the intended time domain may opt for strict chest-to-bar pull-ups instead.

Stimulus and Strategy:

Get ready for today’s triplet. The three movements all demand varying degrees of hip flexion and extension. You’ll run, squat, and perform sit-ups, with each movement contributing to heavy legs and fatigued hip flexors as the workout progresses.  Try to finish the air squats in under 2 minutes.

5 rounds for time of:

300-meter run

20 air squats

15 AbMat sit-ups

A purposeful workout always has a standard. A standard exists for a reason. It defines the stimulus, sets the expectation, and gives the athlete something to chase. Scaling is not the absence of standard — it is the path toward it. The goal is always to close the gap between what the athlete can do today and what the workout demands. We scale for progress, not participation. The standard never moves. The athlete does.

Programming is a science. It requires a deep understanding of movement, stimulus, adaptation, and the athlete in front of you. But it is also an art, and like any art, the tools only take you so far. What separates a good program from a great one is the understanding behind it. Why these movements? Why this format? Why now. Nearly 20 years of programming have shaped how I approach every workout I write. The foundation, the philosophy, the process, and the standard are all expressions of that understanding.

The goal has always been the same: to build people who are harder to break. In the gym and beyond it.

Gwen

15-12-9 reps for load of:
Clean and jerks

Back squat 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Practice

Coordination, accuracy, and balance are components of fitness just as real as strength and endurance. Working on a muscle-up transition, drilling a handstand, spending time on the bottom of a squat — all of it is developing fitness. It just doesn’t feel like it because there’s no time on the clock and no score to post.

And when you come back to the workouts, it shows. Movement that used to cost you extra seconds becomes efficient. Skills that require all your attention become automatic. Weight that felt impossible starts to move. The practice day didn’t slow you down — it removed a ceiling you didn’t know you were bumping against.

How To Add It Without Blowing Up Your Programming

A full dedicated practice day works if your schedule supports it. But it doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. After a shorter, lower-skill workout, a 15-minute practice window — structured or open — gives athletes something valuable without replacing intensity. Eight weeks of twice-weekly 10-to-15-minute skill progressions add up to four hours of focused practice that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. The improvements across that window are real and measurable.

And here’s the thing: practice brings something back into training that can quietly disappear the longer you’ve been at it. Play. No time clock, no weight requirement, no score to hit. Just you and a movement, working on it together. When you’re in the middle of a hard workout, that’s combat mode, and that’s great. But adding some play to your week makes the hard stuff better, too.

Give yourself permission to practice. The results are waiting on the other side.

6 rounds for time of:

19 kettlebell swings

7 burpees to a target