AMRAP With Friends

10 minute AMRAP

First Contact

Cardio capacity · Engine Room · intensity 1 of 5

The workout

As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes of:

Overview

First Contact is 15 air squats, 15 strict sit-ups, and 10 push-ups. The air squats and the push-ups trade the quads and the chest.

Muscles worked

Energy systems

These are overlapping contributions. This workout is not assigned to one energy system.

This workout departs from its style on the profile below.

  • Glycolytic: Low
  • Oxidative: High
  • Neuromuscular: Low

Training effect

Immediate demand

10 minutes, intensity 1 of 5. Today the limiter is holding the opening pace.

Intended stimulus

The round is small enough that the task is repeating the opening pace. On this workout that is 15 air squats, 15 strict sit-ups, and 10 push-ups.

Repeated practice

Repeat the same workout and compare the score. What can change over weeks is how long that pace lasts. One time through does not produce that change.

Body-composition context

Body weight changes with the rest of how you eat and train. This workout is one piece of work on one day.

Expected feel

The round is small on purpose. Round one is the pace the rest of the 10 minutes has to match.

Pacing

Establish your baseline pace in the first round and hold it. No heroics.

Keep each round about as long as the first. The score is what you can repeat, not what you can open with.

The movements

Air Squats

Let gravity do the work on the way down. Pull yourself into the bottom quickly, then explode up. Use your arms for rhythm.

What not to do. Cutting the depth once the legs burn, so the hip crease stops above the knee.

Strict Sit-Ups

Do not throw your arms forward to generate momentum; force the core to pull the weight.

What not to do. Anchoring the feet under something to pull yourself up.

Push-Ups

Do not let your hips sag to touch the floor before your chest does.

What not to do. Bouncing the chest off the floor to get out of the bottom.

Why these movements

The air squats and the push-ups trade the quads and the chest.

Scaling

Keep the round short enough to repeat. Drop reps so you can stay moving, rather than resting the round into a different workout.

Air Squats

  • To a seat. Squat to a chair or box and stand back up. Lower the seat as you improve.
  • Hold a support. Hands on a doorframe or chair back to sit deeper than balance allows alone.
  • Shorter range. Go only as deep as you can control, and stop before the heels lift.

Strict Sit-Ups

  • Knees bent. Bend the knees to shorten the lever. The shorter it is, the lighter it is.
  • Partial range. Move only through the range where you can keep the lower back on the floor.

Push-Ups

  • Hands elevated. Hands on a bench, chair or step. The higher the surface, the easier the rep.
  • From the knees. Knees down, hips in line with the shoulders — do not let the hips pike up.
  • Partial range. Lower as far as you can control and press back. Depth grows as you do.

Mistakes and who it is for

  • Opening the air squats at a sprint makes the air squats the piece that falls apart.
  • Opening faster than you can repeat makes the score a story about the first round.
  • Letting the air squats shrink so the rest of the round can speed up changes the workout on the page.

Suited to someone who wants 10 easy minutes to set a pace and can already do Air Squats, Strict Sit-Ups, Push-Ups.

Scoring and progression

Work through the movements in the order listed, then start the next round. Your score is the number of complete rounds plus any reps of the round you were partway through when the clock hit zero — written as rounds plus reps, so seven full rounds and twelve reps is7+12.

Progression is repeating this workout and comparing that score. The page does not promise a change from one time through.

Related workouts

Run it with friends

First Contact runs on a shared countdown: share a rally link, everyone gets the same 10-minute clock, and the leaderboard updates as people log rounds.

Start this workoutMore 10 minute AMRAPs