Emom in Weightlifting

I won’t lie if I say that any athlete from functional fitness, when he hears from a coach: “Well, today we have a short EMOM for 12 minutes”, he is already sweating and he realizes that “it will not be boring”. Read about how this method works in weightlifting in this article.

What is Emom?

EMOM – means every minute for a minute. This is a workout format in which you need to complete a set number of repetitions in less than a minute and rest the rest of the time before starting the next minute. The athlete can work at a moderate or maximum pace so that there is more time for rest. It depends on the goals and tactics of the athlete.

In functional fitness training programs, EMOM classes are usually short and include a very wide variety of exercises: gymnastics, cardio exercises, and the widest possible arsenal of equipment. The workouts last 10 to 20 minutes, although they can be shorter or longer. Typically, the load is planned so that the athlete has some time to recover. You can do the same exercise that works on specific skills or strengths, or alternate 2-3-4 to create varied training stress and/or work performance.

Strength Emom

EMOM is also used for the development of strength abilities, as an athlete in a time pressure condition needs full concentration and dedication. With this mode of work, it is important to be as focused and attentive as possible, since, against fatigue, we tend to make technical mistakes more often.

Agree, 9 minutes in a row to do 85% deadlift for 2 reps with a recovery deficit is not very easy. Also, EMOM training is a good way to test strength in extreme conditions. For example, start the clean + front squat complex at 45% and increase the weight by 5% for as long as possible with  the correct technique.

And this training option can be an excellent solution for practicing technical elements in uncomfortable conditions.

My Emom Experience

I honestly admit that when I started my journey with functional fitness, I did not understand and was lost in a range of incomprehensible names and terms: EMOM, AMRAP, B2W, DU, HSPU … but when I began to communicate better with the TOP athletes of functional fitness, then I began to understand and find a lot of interesting things in their training schemes.

I remember how we were cool together in training with my friend Noah Ohlsen, and then we had lunch in a big fun company and shared cool stories.

It was also a great honor for me when Cole Saeger took part in my seminar. Because he was already in the TOP-10 of the strongest functional athletes in the world, it was surprising to me why he needed to learn the basics of weightlifting. But his focus and dedication during training very clearly explained why he is an athlete of such a high level.

For me, it was a kind of revelation that EMOM was always present in my professional weightlifting training. We just didn’t call those training in this way, and in the national team we did not do targeted functional training, we always worked to show the best result on the international platform.

The fact is that in the pre-competition period when the team was at its peak and the main focus of preparation was on the quality of the performance, our head coach often set the task to do 5-8 sets of 90 +% weights with a 1-minute rest interval. By the way, the coach of Ruslan Nurudinov and Ilya Illin spoke about this in his interview.

For athletes who are just starting their way in weightlifting, let me remind you that at competitions it often happens that an athlete hits the comp platform after himself. This happens in two cases: if the athlete has an unsuccessful attempt and no one else lifts this weight; if the athlete, after a successful lift, sets the next weight and there are no more participants on it.

According to the competition rules, there are 2 minutes to prepare and re-enter the platform. It is not an easy task not only physically, but also psychologically. You also need to prepare for such situations and work them out. When I began to delve into the methodology of functional fitness, I suddenly realized that all this was already in my sports practice, but we simply did NOT call this type of training EMOM.

 t is important for everyone who enrolled themselves in the ranks of athletes to remember that the training process is ongoing. We constantly have to combine training cycles according to periodization. Preparation for the competition alternates with a transition period, if the next months of the competition are not planned, then you can concentrate on improving the strength indicators or moving to a new weight category.

Also, sometimes we all want to take a break from weightlifting and just do some bodybuilding, but with the benefit of the future result. And there are also situations when we return to training after a long break or disease. We already have cool training solutions for all these cases.

I’ll tell you a secret that it is you – my gang (torokhtiy_gang) that prompts me a lot of new tips, topics for articles, new products and training programs.

In my workshops, I often get questions from both functional fitness athletes and amateur weightlifters. How to properly organize the transition period if there is a desire to maintain your weightlifting form, improve general physical training and performance, but at the same time so that the training is not too hard and long?

The EMOM weightlifting training program is the solution to this problem. Short and varied and interesting workouts. I promise right away that you will have to breathe intensively and concentrate and strain against the background of short rest intervals. After all, good cardio performance and strength endurance are always a plus for a weightlifter, although many are often trite lazy to do something in this direction.

EMOM weightlifting will be able to harmoniously improve the functional base, which will then become a reliable foundation for subsequent progress as a result on the platform.

And I promise that in these 5 weeks you will take a break from the usual set of exercises, monotonous technical work, and too long warm-ups. EMOM weightlifting will increase efficiency and performance, maintain muscle tone and allow you to comfortably enter work mode, continue to prepare for a competition, or work on your leg and back strength.

To summarize, this program will be useful for functional fitness athletes who want to increase strength performance with an emphasis on weightlifting, as well as weightlifters who want to productively diversify their transition period.

For general motivation – I will reveal a secret that after a lockdown I often do such workouts to diversify my training routine. You will see it soon on my YouTube channel.

Welcome to EMOM weightlifting!