Guides

EMOM workouts for beginners: how to pick reps and weight

Short answer: in an EMOM, you start a set at the top of every minute and rest for whatever's left. Pick a rep count you can finish in about 30 to 40 seconds, so you get at least 20 seconds of rest. If you finish with time to spare every minute, add a rep next time. If you run past the minute, take one away.

What EMOM means

EMOM stands for "every minute on the minute." A clock runs. When a new minute starts, you do a set number of reps. When you finish, you rest until the next minute starts, then go again.

The rest is built in, and it shrinks as you tire. Early minutes feel easy. Later ones feel harder, because the same reps take you a little longer and leave less rest. That's the point of the format.

An EMOM can use one movement, or two to four that take turns, one per minute. With two, minute one is squats, minute two is push-ups, minute three is squats again, and so on.

How to pick your reps

The most useful rule: finish your reps in about 40 seconds or less. That leaves you 20 seconds or more to breathe. If you need more than 50 seconds, the count is too high for you today.

Good starting counts for beginners:

Movement	Starting count per minute
Bodyweight Squats	8 to 10
Push-Ups (any height)	5 to 8
Dumbbell or kettlebell lifts (Goblet Squat, Row, Overhead Press)	8, with a weight you could lift about 15 times
Kettlebell Swings, once you know the swing	8 to 10
Jump rope	30 to 40 skips

How to pick your weight

An EMOM isn't the place for your heaviest weights. You do a lot of sets with short rest, so pick a weight you could lift about 15 times fresh, and do 8 to 12 reps a minute. When you reach 12 a minute with rest to spare, move to your next weight and go back to 8.

For bodyweight movements, more reps eventually stop helping. At around 15 reps a minute for upper-body moves like Push-Ups, or 20 for lower-body moves like squats, switch to a harder version instead. A floor Push-Up after an incline one, or a Split Squat after a regular squat, keeps the work focused on strength.

How long should an EMOM be?

Beginners do well with 8 to 12 minutes of work, and you can build toward 20 later. Warm up for about five minutes before you start the clock: easy movement, then a few light reps of each movement you'll use.

With three or four movements, a rest minute helps. With three movements and a rest minute, each round takes four minutes, so 12 minutes is three rounds.

Three sample EMOMs

1. One movement, 10 minutes

Goblet Squat, 8 reps, every minute for 10 minutes. Simple, and a good first EMOM.

2. Two movements, 12 minutes

Minute 1: 8 Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts (or Kettlebell Swings if you already know the swing). Minute 2: 6 Push-Ups. Repeat for 12 minutes, six rounds of each.

3. Three movements plus rest, 12 minutes

Minute 1: 10 Bodyweight Squats. Minute 2: 8 One-Arm Rows each side. Minute 3: 30 seconds of Mountain Climbers or 40 skips. Minute 4: rest. Repeat three times.

How to move on

Track one thing for each movement: how much rest you got each minute.

• Every minute done in 40 seconds or less: add a rep next time.
• Every minute done, but some were tight: keep the same count.
• Two or more minutes ran over (past 50 seconds, or not finished): take a rep off.

Change each movement on its own minutes. If Push-Ups were tight but squats were easy, add a rep to squats only.

Is an EMOM strength or cardio?

Both, depending on what you put in it. An EMOM of squats, rows and presses works strength and gets you breathing hard. A pooled analysis of circuit-style weight training in healthy adults aged 18 to 65 found gains in both aerobic fitness and bench press strength compared with no training (Muñoz-Martínez and colleagues, 2017). An EMOM isn't the same as those circuits, so take that as a hint, not proof.

An EMOM doesn't fully replace a strength session, because the weights stay moderate. It doesn't replace steady cardio either. Use it as a short session that covers some of both. To judge how hard it was as cardio, use the talk test, which research links to how hard your breathing is working (Persinger and colleagues, 2004): between minutes, could you talk in full sentences, only a few words, or not at all?

Common mistakes

• Starting too high. The first minute always feels easy. If your count feels hard in minute one, minute ten will fall apart.
• Using your heaviest weight. Save heavy sets for your strength days.
• Pairing two hard leg movements. Heavy squats and heavy hinges back to back tire the same muscles. Pair a lower-body move with an upper-body move instead.
• Doing an EMOM right before heavy squats. Hard cardio in the hours before a heavy leg session can hurt your lifting. Do it after, or on another day.

If you have heart disease or another health condition, or you get chest pain or unusual breathlessness when you exercise, check with your doctor before you start.

EMOM, Tabata and intervals

These look alike but ask different things. In an EMOM you finish a fixed amount of work and rest. In a Tabata you go as hard as you can for 20 seconds and expect your reps to drop (see Tabata done right). Intervals sit in between: hard work at a pace you could repeat.

How Axial Fit does it

• Length in minutes. You set 8 to 20 minutes of work, 12 by default, with an optional rest minute. Every EMOM opens with a five-minute warm-up, so the default session takes 17 minutes.
• Your own movements. You choose one to four movements from the ones your equipment supports. They take turns, one per minute.
• Counts that move on their own. You tap Done when you finish each minute. If every minute took 40 seconds or less, it adds a rep next time. A minute past 50 seconds ran over, and two of those take a rep off. If you didn't tap, it asks one question: "How much rest did you get each minute?"
• Weights you own. A weighted movement works between 8 and 12 reps. At 12 with room to spare, it moves to your next weight and back to 8. A bodyweight movement tops out at 15 reps for upper body or 20 for lower body. Then the setup moves you to a harder version, where there is one, and says so before you start, with Keep if you'd rather stay.
• It counts as strength and cardio. An EMOM with a squat, hinge, push, pull, carry or trunk movement counts toward your week's strength sessions as well as your cardio. After the session, one optional question, "How was your breathing?", sets how its cardio minutes count.
• Spacing. Because it counts as strength, it keeps a day from your other strength sessions. Hard cardio goes after strength, or at least four hours before it.

Sources

• Muñoz-Martínez FA, Rubio-Arias JA, Ramos-Campo DJ, Alcaraz PE, 2017. Effectiveness of resistance circuit-based training for maximum oxygen uptake and upper-body one-repetition maximum improvements: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 47(12), 2553-2568. doi:10.1007/s40279-017-0773-4
• Persinger R, Foster C, Gibson M, Fater DC, Porcari JP, 2004. Consistency of the talk test for exercise prescription. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 36(9), 1632-1636. PubMed 15354048