AMRAP Workout

5 minute AMRAP

The Piston

Upper-lower switch · Blood Shunt · intensity 3 of 5

The workout

As many rounds as possible in 5 minutes of:

Overview

The Piston is 10 air squats and 10 hand-release push-ups. The air squats and the hand-release push-ups trade the quads and the chest.

Muscles worked

Energy systems

These are overlapping contributions. This workout is not assigned to one energy system.

  • Glycolytic: High
  • Oxidative: Low
  • Neuromuscular: Moderate

Training effect

Immediate demand

5 minutes, intensity 3 of 5. Today the limiter is the sets being the same size.

Intended stimulus

The style is built to switch the upper body and the lower body inside one round. On this workout that is 10 air squats and 10 hand-release push-ups.

Repeated practice

Repeat the same workout and compare the score. What can change over weeks is how long that pace lasts. One time through does not produce that change.

Body-composition context

Body weight changes with the rest of how you eat and train. This workout is one piece of work on one day.

Expected feel

The sets are the same size. The round gets hard when one of them breaks.

Pacing

The baseline test. Hips open fully at the top of the squat, chest rests dead on the floor.

The clock is short enough to start near the pace you can hold. Do not spend the first minute looking for a rhythm, and do not let the air squats be the set that collapses.

The movements

Air Squats

Let gravity do the work on the way down. Pull yourself into the bottom quickly, then explode up. Use your arms for rhythm.

What not to do. Cutting the depth once the legs burn, so the hip crease stops above the knee.

Hand-Release Push-ups

This enforces a dead-stop and prevents cheating the depth. Use this variation to humble users who claim they can do 50 push-ups unbroken.

What not to do. Resting the whole body on the floor instead of releasing and pressing straight away.

Why these movements

The air squats and the hand-release push-ups trade the quads and the chest.

Scaling

Keep an upper-body movement and a lower-body movement in the same round. Drop reps on both before you drop one of them.

Air Squats

  • To a seat. Squat to a chair or box and stand back up. Lower the seat as you improve.
  • Hold a support. Hands on a doorframe or chair back to sit deeper than balance allows alone.
  • Shorter range. Go only as deep as you can control, and stop before the heels lift.

Hand-Release Push-ups

  • Hands elevated. Hands on a bench, chair or step. The higher the surface, the easier the rep.
  • From the knees. Knees down, hips in line with the shoulders — do not let the hips pike up.
  • Partial range. Lower as far as you can control and press back. Depth grows as you do.

Mistakes and who it is for

  • Opening the air squats at a sprint makes the air squats the piece that falls apart.
  • Resting until you feel fresh between movements removes the point of keeping them in one round.
  • Letting the air squats shrink so the rest of the round can speed up changes the workout on the page.

Suited to someone who wants 5 minutes through Air Squats, Hand-Release Push-ups.

Scoring and progression

Work through the movements in the order listed, then start the next round. Your score is the number of complete rounds plus any reps of the round you were partway through when the clock hit zero — written as rounds plus reps, so seven full rounds and twelve reps is7+12.

Progression is repeating this workout and comparing that score. The page does not promise a change from one time through.

Related workouts

Track every round. Sync with friends when you want to.

The Piston is a 5-minute clock with rounds and splits for you. Share a rally link when other people join, and the leaderboard updates as they log rounds.

Start this workoutMore 5 minute AMRAPs