For time / workouts

A for-time workout rewards a plan. The work is fixed, so the only thing you control is how you spread your effort across it, and most bad times come from a bad first minute rather than a lack of fitness.

Make a plan before you start. Decide your sets in advance. For Fran, many people split the thrusters 12 then 9, or 11 then 10, even if they could go unbroken when fresh. Planned short rests beat the long rest you take when a set falls apart. A useful rule of thumb: keep the first third controlled, the middle steady, and push the last third.

Scaling to keep the intent. Each workout has an intended time. Fran, Grace and Isabel are short and sharp, so scale the load until you can finish well inside the cap, usually under eight minutes. If you scale only to finish, you turn a sprint into a grind and train something else entirely.

Using them over a training block. Pick two or three for-time workouts as tests, record your times and standards, and repeat them after eight to twelve weeks. Between tests, train normally; you do not need to practise the test itself to improve on it.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Skipping the warm-up because the workout is short. The shorter the workout, the more warm-up you need.
• Breaking too late. Failing a rep costs more time than resting two seconds earlier would have.
• Changing standards between attempts, such as a different pull-up style or a lighter bar, then comparing the times.