The Mode filter on Fatboy Fitness has six options. If half of them look like a cat walked across your keyboard, this one's for you.
Here's the secret: every mode is just a different way of using the clock. Same squats, same push-ups, same swings. What changes is whether the clock is chasing you, bossing you around, or waiting for you to finish. Pick the right one for the day you're having and the workout gets a lot better.
For Time
What it means: a fixed amount of work. Finish it as fast as you can. Your score is your time.
What it feels like: a race against yourself that turns ugly near the end. Grace is the purest example: 30 clean and jerks, done. Murph is the famous long one: a 1.6 km run, 600 bodyweight reps, another 1.6 km run.
Pick it when: you want a number to beat next time. For Time workouts are the best way to see progress, because the same work done faster is a clear win.
Watch out for: going out too hot. The listed minutes on each workout are a rough target, not a dare.
AMRAP
What it means: As Many Rounds (or Reps) As Possible. The time is fixed and the work isn't. Your score is rounds plus extra reps.
What it feels like: a steady grind. Mary gives you 20 minutes of handstand push-ups, pistols and pull-ups. Cannonball Burnout gives you 24 minutes of swings and halos.
Pick it when: you know exactly how much time you have. A 15-minute AMRAP ends in 15 minutes, no matter how slow you are.
Watch out for: transitions. Rounds are lost in the gaps between movements, not during them.
EMOM
What it means: Every Minute On the Minute. Start a set when the minute begins, rest for whatever's left, go again.
What it feels like: a strict boss. Chelsea gives you 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats every minute for 30 minutes. It feels easy at minute three and very different at minute twenty. Some versions rotate movements by minute (Hex Tick Tock), some run every two minutes (Knurled Alarm), and Death by Pull-Ups adds a rep every minute until you can't keep up.
Pick it when: you're feeling flat and know you'll slack. The clock makes the decisions, so you don't have to.
Watch out for: reps that are too ambitious. Aim to finish each minute with 10 to 15 seconds to spare. If you're beating the buzzer by two seconds in minute four, scale now.
Tabata
What it means: 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, eight times through. That's four minutes per movement. It comes from a 1996 study by Japanese researcher Izumi Tabata, done on exercise bikes at an effort level most people never touch.
What it feels like: short and savage. Bar Path Burst is four minutes of ground-to-overheads, total. Tabata Something Else chains four Tabatas together for 16 minutes.
Pick it when: you're short on time and want to suffer efficiently.
Watch out for: pacing it. Twenty seconds means all-out. Several Tabata workouts in the app score your lowest round, so a strong first interval and a dead last one costs you.
Rounds
What it means: a set number of rounds, often with rest built in. Sometimes each round is timed and your score is the total work time.
What it feels like: measured and repeatable. Barbara is five rounds of 20 pull-ups, 30 push-ups, 40 sit-ups and 50 squats, with three minutes of rest between rounds. Those three minutes go by very fast.
Pick it when: you want to practise consistency. The goal is keeping your fastest and slowest rounds within about 30 seconds of each other.
Watch out for: treating round one like a sprint. It's a warm-up for your pacing.
Superset
What it means: pairs of exercises done back to back (A1 then A2, B1 then B2), followed by a proper rest.
What it feels like: closer to strength training with a pulse. Volcano Double Header pairs handstand push-ups with pull-ups, then lunges with sit-ups, four rounds, 90 seconds of rest after each superset.
Pick it when: you want quality reps and you're working on strength or skill rather than pure conditioning.
Watch out for: cutting the rest short. It's there so the next set is good, not so you can scroll your phone.
So which one today?
Ten minutes and a pulse:
Tabata or a short AMRAP.
Want a personal best to chase:
For Time.
Feeling flat and unmotivated:
EMOM. Let the clock boss you.
Working on strength or a new skill:
Superset, or Rounds with rest.
Twenty minutes and you want to sweat:
AMRAP.
Can't decide at all:
hit Randomize. That's what it's there for.
Now you know what the letters mean, you've officially run out of excuses. Filter by mode and start the clock, FATBOY.