AMRAP With Friends

15 minute AMRAP

The Steady State

Upper-lower switch · Blood Shunt · intensity 3 of 5

The workout

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:

Overview

The Steady State is 20 air squats, 10 diamond push-ups, and 20 down-ups. The air squats and the diamond push-ups trade the quads and the arms.

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: Moderate
  • Oxidative: High
  • Neuromuscular: High

Training effect

Immediate demand

15 minutes, intensity 3 of 5. Today the limiter is the arms.

Intended stimulus

The same upper-lower switch, held long enough that the work keeps moving while the heart rate stays up. On this workout that is 20 air squats, 10 diamond push-ups, and 20 down-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 sets are the same size. The round gets hard when one of them breaks.

Pacing

Triceps will fatigue late. Break the push-ups into two sets of 5 early on.

Keep the later rounds moving at the same size as the early ones. Do not drop the air squats to keep the other sets moving.

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.

Diamond Push-ups

Muscular failure happens suddenly here. Break your sets earlier than you think you need to.

What not to do. Letting the elbows drift outward as the set gets hard.

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.

Why these movements

The air squats and the diamond push-ups trade the quads and the arms.

Scaling

Keep an upper-body movement and a lower-body movement in the same round. Drop reps on both before you drop one of them.

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.

Diamond 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.

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.

Mistakes and who it is for

  • Opening the air squats at a sprint makes the air squats 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 Air Squats, Diamond Push-ups, Down-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

The Steady State 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