Praise for the EMOM

The first time I ever heard of the concept Every Minute On the Minute I was jumping rope. We did a certain number of jumps each time big hand hit the 12 on the wall clock.

Little did I know back in 2009 that the EMOM would become an effective and efficient training tool I still use to this day.

Through my experiences with a variety of training modalities, I've used an EMOM in countless contexts.

Greasing the groove and building density while learning kettlebells, dynamic effort speed work for powerlifting, interval workouts for ultra marathons, honing technique and building volume for Olympic weightlifting or even for building muscle and strength. It can be time efficient and skill driven. Which as a coach, I appreciate.

When creating an EMOM, I first want to identity the goal stimulus. This can be anything. Technique practice, speed work, volume and conditioning are the usual cases for us at Gain, and maybe even sometimes we're tackling all those at once.

Once that's taken care of, we can pick the exercise. Total body, compound lifts are best. Squats, swings, deadlifts, overhead press variations or the Olympic lifts work well.

From there, I determine how many total reps would be appropriate for the desired outcome.

Let's say, for example, you've been goblet squatting 5 sets of 8 repetitions for the past several weeks.

For your next workout you EMOM 10, 5 goblet squats.

We're automatically increasing the volume (how many total reps), the density (total reps within a time period), we get fixed practice of squats (I.e., you don't have to concentrate on anything else) and you get a side dish of conditioning because after 4-5 rounds, not only will your legs be burning, your heart will be pounding too.

The following week we can easily increase the volume by adding a couple minutes to the EMOM.

It's a sneaky way to build serious fitness.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain