5 minute AMRAP
Lateral Combustion
Cardio capacity · Engine Room · intensity 3 of 5
The workout
As many rounds as possible in 5 minutes of:
Overview
Lateral Combustion is 15 skater jumps and 15 jumping jacks. The work moves through the quads and the full body instead of sitting on one muscle.
Muscles worked
Full body
Glutes
Quads
Energy systems
These are overlapping contributions. This workout is not assigned to one energy system.
- Glycolytic: High
- Oxidative: Moderate
- Neuromuscular: Low
Training effect
Immediate demand
5 minutes, intensity 3 of 5. Today the limiter is the sets being the same size.
Intended stimulus
The style is built so breathing and rhythm, not one muscle, are what the round keeps asking for. On this workout that is 15 skater jumps and 15 jumping jacks.
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
Constant side-to-side velocity. Stay light on the balls of your feet to minimize ground contact time.
The clock is short enough to start near the pace you can hold. Do not spend the first minute looking for a rhythm, and do not let the skater jumps be the set that collapses.
The movements
Skater Jumps (Total)
Keep the chest up. Looking down at the floor rounds the back and cuts off your airway.
What not to do. Bounding forward instead of laterally, so the hips never load sideways.
Jumping Jacks
Use this movement for active recovery. When paired with burpees or mountain climbers, the jumping jack is your opportunity to catch your breath.
What not to do. Bending the elbows so the hands never meet overhead.
Why these movements
The work moves through the quads and the full body 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.
Skater Jumps (Total)
- Step instead of jump. Same pattern, same range, no flight. Keeps the pace without the landing.
- Lower and slower. Keep the jump but cut the height and take the landing softly.
Jumping Jacks
- 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 skater jumps at a sprint makes the skater jumps the piece that falls apart.
- Resting until you feel fresh between movements removes the point of keeping them in one round.
- Letting the skater jumps shrink so the rest of the round can speed up changes the workout on the page.
Suited to someone who wants 5 minutes through Skater Jumps (Total), Jumping Jacks.
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
- The Cruiser
Same quads, longer clock
- The Hemodynamic
Same quads, longer clock
- The Turbine
Same quads, same clock
Run it with friends
Lateral Combustion runs on a shared countdown: share a rally link, everyone gets the same 5-minute clock, and the leaderboard updates as people log rounds.