You know the feeling. The clock starts, you fly through round one, and you think, "I'm having a great day." Then round three arrives, and you're bent over the bar wondering who you were trying to impress.
Round one lies. You're fresh, the adrenaline is up, and fatigue hasn't caught up with you yet. It always does. Pacing is simply the skill of spending your energy where it counts, instead of where it's easiest.
The good news is that the trainer tips in the app keep coming back to the same handful of rules. Learn these six and nearly every workout gets better.
Rule 1: Your rounds should look the same
The best sign of good pacing is boring round times. One of the most common tips in the app is to keep your fastest and slowest rounds within about 30 seconds of each other. Barbara's tip goes further: keep every round within a few seconds of the first.
If round one takes two minutes and round five takes four, you didn't have a bad round five. You had a greedy round one.
Try this: the app records your round times as you go. Look at them after your next workout. A steep upward slope means you went out too fast. A flat line means you nailed it.
Rule 2: Break sets before you need to
This is the single biggest pacing mistake. You do pull-ups until you can't do any more, then spend a minute staring at the bar, doing singles.
Going to failure is expensive. The rest you need afterwards is far longer than the few seconds a planned break would have cost. Thirty pull-ups as three sets of ten, or six sets of five, almost always beats 18 unbroken followed by a dozen painful singles.
The tips put it best: break the ring dips before they break you. Break the deadlifts before your grip fails. Set the dumbbells down before your grip fails, not after.
Try this: decide your sets before the clock starts, and stick to them even when round one feels easy.
Rule 3: The runs set up everything else
In any workout with running, your run pace decides how the rest goes. Murph's tip is to go easy on the first mile. Nancy's tip is to run hard enough that you still stay stable under the bar. Daniel's: run steady so you can attack the thrusters.
A run should bring you into the next movement ready to start straight away, not needing to stand and recover.
Try this: if you can't speak a short sentence when you finish a run, you ran it too fast.
Rule 4: Transitions are where rounds go missing
"Keep transitions short: that's where rounds are lost." It's one of the most repeated tips in the app, because it's true.
In a 20-minute AMRAP with four movements, you might change exercises 40 times or more. Ten wasted seconds each time is several minutes of standing around.
Try this: set up all your equipment before you start the timer. Walk to the next station, don't wander. Chalk once, not every round. Start the next movement before you feel ready.
Rule 5: Match the pace to the format
Not every workout wants the same approach:
Short For Time workouts (around 8 minutes):
these are sprints. Keep rests short and push.
Longer AMRAPs:
pick a pace you can hold from the first minute to the last.
EMOMs:
finish each minute with at least 10 to 15 seconds of rest. If you're not, scale now, not in minute fifteen.
Tabata:
some Tabata workouts score your lowest round, so even effort beats a heroic first interval.
Ladders:
reps climb every round, so the early rounds feel easy. Don't sprint them. You'll need that energy when the reps get big.
Rule 6: The last round is where you spend it
Pacing isn't about holding back for its own sake. It's about having something left to spend at the end.
The ideal workout feels controlled for most of the time and very hard for the final stretch. If you finish with energy to spare, you were too careful. If you're falling apart halfway, you were too greedy. Somewhere between those two is a personal best.
How to practise
Pick an AMRAP you can repeat, something like Bodyweight Assembly Line or Belltower Cycle. Do it once, check your round times, and write down your score. Next time, aim for flatter round times, not a faster first round. Your score will go up anyway.
That's the whole secret. Slow down at the start so you can speed up at the end.
Pick an AMRAP and test your pacing. And this time, don't sprint round one, FATBOY.