EMOM: Every Minute on the Minute. This is a type of training approach that incorporates different movements performed at the top of every minute. For the past two weeks, athletes have been partaking in the EMOM Club at CrossFit Des Plaines! Here are 5 benefits that you can get from training through EMOMs:

1.  Your pacing improves. Ever go into a workout, and came out the gate a little too hot? It’s supposed to be “just 9 minutes” and all of a sudden, you’re almost at the halfway mark, and realize that you probably shouldn’t have gone blazing speed for the first 4? Learning to pace your workouts and learn about your body’s strengths and areas of improvement can all be learned with some controlled pacing with the EMOM structure.

2.  You gain awareness of breath control. So when you realize you’ve gone out the gate too hot, or you’re on that 3rd 400m run out of 6, what do you notice about your breath? Is it short, choppy and erratic? Or is it deep, calm and in control? As you move through EMOMs, taking notice of your breath, and controlling it is a huge benefit for when it comes time to your WODs, or on Game Day.

3.  You learn about your movement timing. Someone who is 6’0” doing a handful of thrusters will look and pace differently than someone who is of 5’2 stature; there’s a pretty big difference in range of motion, which also means a variance in timing. EMOMs are a great time to experiment with how quickly, but more importantly, how efficiently, you are capable of moving through different movements over a set period of time.

4.  You can start to gauge and set goals for your daily workouts! While some days, we just have to shut it off and “do the work” other days, we are typically strategizing and thinking about the most practical approach to the workout in order to perform to the best that we can. The more practice you have in set time domains, such as an EMOM, the more you are able to gauge a good pace, and an overall score for your workout. You’ll start to learn a slow–moderate–hard pace for your rowing, or you’ll know a little bit more about your muscular endurance, and how many repetitions of a movement you can do before becoming fatigued, or coming close to failure. As you get stronger, gain more experience, and also become more aware of your pacing through movements, the better performances you will have!

Your overall stamina will continue to increase! By the nature of an EMOM, where an individual is ready to “go” at the top of every minute, stamina is going to increase. At the beginning, a 10 minute EMOM may seem like a never-ending workout, but soon enough, carrying that over into workouts, and longer EMOMs, 10 minutes will seem like just the start… and as Coach Carl says “This is the warm up!”

Interested in trying out EMOM Club this week? Join us on Saturdays at 10 AM at CrossFIt Des Plaines for a fun little trial run. Message us at info@crossfitdesplaines.com if you are interested!