EMOM vs AMRAP: how to run them and log them

Who this is for

You have done a few WODs, or you want to add short conditioning pieces to your lifting, and you keep seeing EMOM and AMRAP written on the whiteboard. This guide explains what each one is for, how to choose the weights and the pace, and how to run them so the clock does the counting.

The sample workouts are starting points, not a programme. If you are new to this kind of training, coming back from injury, or have a health condition, check with a professional before adding training. Scale every number to you.

Two formats, two jobs

EMOM means every minute on the minute. At the top of each minute you do a set amount of work, then rest for whatever is left of that minute. When the next minute starts, you go again. The clock sets the pace, and you get rest whether you earn it or not.

AMRAP means as many rounds as possible. You get a list of movements and a time cap, and you cycle through the list until the cap runs out. Your score is the number of rounds. You choose the pace, and you rest only when you decide to.

That difference is the whole point:

	EMOM	AMRAP
Who sets the pace	The clock	You
Rest	Built in, the rest of each minute	Only when you take it
Score	Did you hit every minute?	Rounds completed
Good for	Quality under fatigue, practising a skill, steady volume	Sustained effort, pacing, conditioning
Common length	10–20 minutes	7–20 minutes

An EMOM is a good place to put a movement you want to keep crisp: power cleans, double-unders, kettlebell swings. Because every minute resets, your form is less likely to fall apart. An AMRAP rewards the person who can hold a pace for the full cap, which is a different skill: going out too fast is the most common mistake.

Picking loads for an EMOM

Choose the work so that it takes about 40 to 45 seconds, leaving you 15 to 20 seconds of rest each minute. If you finish in 20 seconds, the minute is too easy. If you are still working at 55 seconds, the next minute will catch you and the one after that will fall apart.

Test it in the first two minutes. If the work already leaves less than 15 seconds of rest, cut a rep or two now rather than in minute nine.

Two ways to make an EMOM work:

One movement every minute. For example 10 minutes of 5 power cleans at a moderate weight.
Alternating minutes. Odd minutes one movement, even minutes another. A 12-minute EMOM alternating 12 calories on the rower with 15 kettlebell swings gives each half six rounds.

Picking a pace for an AMRAP

Pick a pace you could hold for the whole cap, then hold it. A good test: after the first round you should feel like you could go a little faster. If the first round already has you breathing too hard to talk at all, slow down.

Count rounds, not reps, and break sets early rather than late. Five reps and a breath is quicker over 15 minutes than ten reps, a long stop and five more.

Use weights you could do 15 to 20 reps with when fresh. An AMRAP is not where you test a heavy lift.

Sample workouts

EMOM 1: 10 minutes, one movement. Every minute: 5 power cleans at a weight you could do 10 with when fresh.

EMOM 2: 12 minutes, alternating. Odd minutes: 12 calories on the rower. Even minutes: 15 kettlebell swings.

AMRAP 1: 12 minutes. 10 wall balls, 10 box jumps, 10 kettlebell swings.

AMRAP 2: 15 minutes. 400 m run, 15 goblet squats, 10 push-ups.

Build it in One Rep Closer

A session in the app is a chain of blocks. To build either workout, open the Templates tab, tap +, use Add block to pick the block type, add the movements with Add movement, and Save. To train, go to the Train tab, tap Pick a template and then Start workout.

The EMOM: an Interval block

Add an Interval block and tap the EMOM preset. That sets 60 seconds of work and no rest.
Set Rounds to the number of minutes: 10 for EMOM 1, 12 for EMOM 2.
Add the movements with Add movement.

During the workout the ring is a clock counting down the minute, and the block moves on to the next round by itself, with no tap. The EMOM preset has no rest time, so the move from one minute to the next is silent: the clock on screen is your cue.

The screen shows the round and the clock. It does not name the movement for each minute, so for an alternating EMOM keep the order in your head or on a whiteboard: odd minutes rower, even minutes swings.

An Interval block records the rounds you completed, not the reps you did inside each round. If you want to keep the reps or the weight, note them somewhere else for now.

The same block runs a Tabata with the Tabata preset (20 seconds on, 10 off, for 8 rounds), or any work and rest you set yourself.

The AMRAP: an AMRAP block

Add an AMRAP block and set the time cap: 12 minutes for AMRAP 1.
Add the movements in order. A block takes as many as you add, and the same exercise can appear more than once.

During the workout the ring drains with the time cap and the number in the middle is your rounds. Finish a round, tap the ring once. When the cap runs out, the block ends itself and records the rounds you completed.

It records whole rounds. Reps into a round you did not finish are not recorded, so if you got halfway through the last round, note that yourself.

If you keep the AMRAP as a template of its own, with nothing else in it, the app keeps your best rounds as a personal record, and you can see when you beat it. Put a warm-up block in the same template and that record no longer applies, so warm up outside it.

Before and after

A WOD often follows a strength piece. Both can sit in the same template, a Strength block first and then the AMRAP or Interval block, and the whole session lands in one history with your lifts. The free plan has no limit on how many workouts you log and keeps two templates, so a strength-plus-WOD template and one conditioning template fit on it.

Choosing between them

Use an EMOM when you want quality reps under some fatigue, or a set volume of a skill. Use an AMRAP when you want to practise holding a pace, and to have a score you can try to beat next time. Doing one of each a week is a sensible place to start.

For the full picture of the formats the app handles, including For Time and circuits, see the WODs page.