Empower Weekly WOD: Week Beginning September 1st 2025
Monday, September 1st 2025
30 min AMRAP
800m Run
25 DB Thrusters @25/35#
400m DB Farmer’s Carry@25/35#
30 minutes sounds like a lot of time. And the dumbbells are lighter than usual so, it should be easy, right? Not so much. It was a rainy morning when I joined the 5am make-up day crew to do this one. I used 1 pood kettlebells instead of dumbbells because I find them more challenging.
Oh, the farmer’s carry! So challenging and yet so beneficial.
Tuesday, September 2nd 2025
Front Squat
3-3-3-3-3
Some days you just don’t feel it. I was struggling at 175lbs and thinking of capping my workout somewhere thereabouts when young Paul racked up his barbell and started doing 5x5 front squats at 225lbs across from me. Shame is a powerful motivator! I ended up working all the way up to 235lbs. And the crazy thing was that my sets performed at 225lbs felt like my easiest set of the day. So, I guess I had more in me than I initially thought. At 235lbs I felt my form collapsing slightly so I dialled it back to 205lbs for a couple sets just to accumulate a bit of volume at a respectable load. As long as you don’t get silly with it and do something reckless, a little competition can sometimes help.
Wednesday, September 3rd 2025: Make Up Day
See previous WODs
Thursday, September 4th 2025
15 min AMRAP
25m Handstand Walk
20 K2E
15 Hip Extensions
Look, I love the handstand walk so I get it if you’re a freak like me and want to give it a go. Hand-to-hand against the wall is a great progression and is exactly how I developed my handstand walk. But if functional fitness is your goal I believe you will get more benefit and less risk by performing a 25m Bear Crawl. Crawling is amazing for developing full body strength and you are far less likely to get injured than handstand walking.
Knees to elbows or hanging knee raises depending on your core strength.
It is a short set of hip extensions that can be done in a single set each round. Get on the GHD for this, it is such a great exercise for training you to activate glutes and hamstrings while learning how to isolate them from your low back muscles. At the same time you get to develop midline stability in an open chain, unloaded position. Safe and effective. There is no equivalent substitute.
Friday, September 5th 2025
20 Burpees
20 Hang Squat Snatches @95/135lbs
20 Bar Muscle Ups
20 Hang Squat Snatches @95/135lbs
20 Burpees
Loved this workout but only made it through the first 60 reps. 20 is a good set of burpees, Few enough that you can sprint through explosively the way they were intended but numerous enough that to do so requires you to push into discomfort.
With all the Olympic Lifting in the programming my skill is improving rapidly, I hope yours is too. September has a lot of Weightlifting for us so use every opportunity to improve your technique. As my coach said: “Skill is the greatest fitness hack.” I had to break the snatches up into sets of 5 which really slowed me down so I only got through the first set. 20 reps at 135lbs was enough though, I felt thoroughly exhausted. Pick a weight that allows you to get 5 good reps and really hone your skill.
Bar muscle ups were almost as challenging as the snatches. Do them if you have them. Banded is fair game. Chest to bar pull ups are a great substitute if you aren’t at bar muscle ups yet. Don’t have Rx’d pull ups yet? No problem, jumping or banded chest to bar pull ups are great ways to work on this skill.
It is good to see a pairing of skilled lifting and gymnastics movements showing up in the programming again! These types of workouts set Crossfit apart from any other training modality.
Saturday, September 6th 2025: Empower Team WOD
Come ready to team up and conquer!
Sunday, September 7th 2025: Make Up Day
See Previous WODs
