Nancy
Five rounds of running and overhead squats. Demands mobility, stability, and aerobic capacity.
- Format
- For Time
- Time cap
- 20 mins
- Level
- intermediate
For Time
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Open in FizNancy is a for time workout by Fiz, built from 2 movements, with a 20 mins cap. It is set at intermediate level.
About Nancy
Nancy is five rounds of a four-hundred-metre run and fifteen overhead squats. It is the benchmark that separates athletes with genuine overhead mobility from athletes who have been quietly avoiding the position, because there is no way to fake an overhead squat when you are out of breath.
The hardest position in the sport, under fatigue
An overhead squat demands ankle, hip, thoracic and shoulder mobility simultaneously, plus the midline strength to hold a bar locked out over the middle of your foot while your legs are burning from running. Every one of those degrades when you are breathing hard. Athletes who own the position warm up into it and cycle fifteen reps unbroken; athletes who do not will lose the bar forward on rep six of round two and spend the rest of the workout resetting.
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Test the position before you start
Warm up the overhead squat specifically and honestly — if fifteen unbroken at the prescribed load is not comfortable fresh, it will not appear under fatigue, and you should scale the load now rather than discover it in round three. Run at conversational effort; unlike most run-based benchmarks the run here is genuinely the easy part, and arriving at the bar calm is worth far more than a fast lap. Take the bar from a rack if one is available rather than snatching it from the floor each round, and set your grip and your feet deliberately every single time.
What's a good Nancy time
Under twelve minutes is a strong Nancy and elite athletes go under ten. Twelve to sixteen is a good competitive time and most consistent athletes finish between sixteen and twenty. Scale the load without hesitation — an overhead squat performed badly is the fastest route to a shoulder or lower-back problem in the entire benchmark catalogue, and a lighter bar with an honest position is the version of this workout that makes you better at it.