AMRAP With Friends

5 minute AMRAP

The Turbine

Cardio capacity · Engine Room · intensity 3 of 5

The workout

As many rounds as possible in 5 minutes of:

Overview

The Turbine is 20 high knees, 20 butt kicks, and 10 jump squats. The work moves through the full body and the quads instead of sitting on one muscle.

Muscles worked

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 20 high knees, 20 butt kicks, and 10 jump squats.

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

A continuous cycle of lower-body plyometrics. Breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth.

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 high knees be the set that collapses.

The movements

High Knees (Total)

Land lightly on the balls of your feet. If you are stomping flat-footed, you are destroying your momentum and your knees.

What not to do. Leaning back to swing the knees higher instead of keeping the torso stacked.

Butt Kicks (Total)

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.

Jump Squats

You only need an inch of air to make it plyometric. Don't waste energy jumping for the ceiling.

What not to do. Landing with straight legs instead of absorbing the impact into a bend.

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.

High Knees (Total)

  • 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.

Butt Kicks (Total)

  • 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.

Jump Squats

  • 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 high knees at a sprint makes the high knees the piece that falls apart.
  • Resting until you feel fresh between movements removes the point of keeping them in one round.
  • Letting the high knees shrink so the rest of the round can speed up changes the workout on the page.

Suited to someone who wants 5 minutes through High Knees (Total), Butt Kicks (Total), Jump Squats.

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 Turbine runs on a shared countdown: share a rally link, everyone gets the same 5-minute clock, and the leaderboard updates as people log rounds.

Start this workoutMore 5 minute AMRAPs