5 minute AMRAP
The Sprinter's Tax
Cardio capacity · Engine Room · intensity 3 of 5
The workout
As many rounds as possible in 5 minutes of:
Overview
The Sprinter's Tax is 12 sprawls and 20 lateral line hops. The work moves through the full body and the quads 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 lateral line hops.
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 12 sprawls and 20 lateral line hops.
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
20 lateral line hops is where the round gets hard. The other movements still have to be finished after it.
Pacing
Fast, violent hip extensions. Pick a line on the floor and jump over it with both feet together.
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 lateral line hops be the set that collapses.
The movements
Sprawls (No-Push-up Burpees)
Keep a wide stance. Landing with your feet outside your hands reduces the distance your hips have to travel and speeds up the transition to standing.
What not to do. Landing the plank with the hips high instead of level with the shoulders.
Lateral Line Hops
Keep your eyes up. Looking down at the line naturally rounds the shoulders and constricts the airway.
What not to do. Letting the feet come apart in the air and landing one at a time.
Why these movements
The work moves through the full body and the quads 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.
Sprawls (No-Push-up Burpees)
- 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.
Lateral Line Hops
- 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.
Mistakes and who it is for
- Opening the sprawls at a sprint makes the lateral line hops the piece that falls apart.
- Resting until you feel fresh between movements removes the point of keeping them in one round.
- Letting the lateral line hops shrink so the rest of the round can speed up changes the workout on the page.
Suited to someone who wants 5 minutes through Sprawls (No-Push-up Burpees), Lateral Line Hops.
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
The Sprinter's Tax runs on a shared countdown: share a rally link, everyone gets the same 5-minute clock, and the leaderboard updates as people log rounds.