AMRAP With Friends

15 minute AMRAP

Endurance Tow

Cardio capacity · Engine Room · intensity 3 of 5

The workout

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:

Overview

Endurance Tow is 12 down-ups, 12 w-press ups, and 30 butt kicks. The work moves through the full body and the upper back instead of sitting on one muscle.

Muscles worked

Energy systems

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

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

Training effect

Immediate demand

15 minutes, intensity 3 of 5. Today the limiter is 30 butt kicks.

Intended stimulus

The same capacity work, with movements you can repeat for the whole clock. On this workout that is 12 down-ups, 12 w-press ups, and 30 butt kicks.

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

30 butt kicks is where the round gets hard. The other movements still have to be finished after it.

Pacing

Floor transitions and butt kicks carry the pace; the W is the structural pause. Elbows pinned every press.

30 butt kicks is where the round gets long. That set is where a planned break belongs. If that set falls apart, shorten the down-ups on the next round rather than rushing it.

The movements

Down-Ups

This movement is all about hip-hinge efficiency. Minimize the time spent with your hands on the floor.

What not to do. Popping the chest up before the hips, so the body peels off the floor in sections.

W-Press Ups

Avoid excessively arching your lower back to cheat the range of motion. If your hips pop off the floor, you are losing the isolation in your mid-back. Keep your neck relaxed and look straight up.

What not to do. Arching the lower back until the hips leave the floor to fake extra range.

Butt Kicks

Lean slightly forward from the ankles (not the waist) to maintain an aggressive, forward-driving posture even while stationary.

What not to do. Kicking the heels out behind rather than straight up to the glutes.

Why these movements

The work moves through the full body and the upper back instead of sitting on one muscle.

Scaling

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

Down-Ups

  • Step the feet. Step back and step in instead of jumping. Same shape, no impact.
  • Hands elevated. Hands on a bench or step so the floor never comes all the way up to you.
  • No jump at the top. Stand tall and reach instead of leaving the floor.

W-Press Ups

  • Shorter lift. Drive into the floor but only lift as high as you can control without the hips or neck cheating.
  • Hold the squeeze. Reach the top and freeze for a count instead of cycling reps. Same drive, less fatigue management.

Butt Kicks

  • Low impact. Keep one foot down throughout — march the pattern instead of running it.
  • Slower cadence. Same movement, fewer beats per minute. Cadence is the dial, not the shape.

Mistakes and who it is for

  • Opening the down-ups at a sprint makes the butt kicks the piece that falls apart.
  • Resting until you feel fresh between movements removes the point of keeping them in one round.
  • Spending the first minutes hard leaves the later rounds as a different, slower workout.

Suited to someone who wants 15 minutes through Down-Ups, W-Press Ups, Butt Kicks.

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

Endurance Tow runs on a shared countdown: share a rally link, everyone gets the same 15-minute clock, and the leaderboard updates as people log rounds.

Start this workoutMore 15 minute AMRAPs