Good grief. I think whoever comes up with these WODs must be a sadist.

Today was Jumping Tabata.

Eight rounds of 20-second AMRAPs of the following exercises:

• Box jumps, with 10 seconds rest between each round. (Rx: 24” box for men/18” box for women.)
• – 40 seconds rest.
• Quick feet, with 10 seconds rest between each round. (Rx: 24” box for men/18” box for women.)
• – 40 seconds rest.
• Weighted jumping lunges, with 10 seconds rest between each round. (Rx: 25-lb. plate for men and 10-lb. plate for women.) – I ditched the plate after the first round.
• – 40 seconds rest.
• Side-to-side jumps, with 10 seconds rest between each round. (The men had higher hurdles than the women.)
• – 40 seconds rest.
• Jump squats, with 10 seconds rest between each round.

I know 20 seconds doesn’t sound like much but, trust me, when Karen yells out, “Four more rounds!” it takes everything in you not to throw in the towel and just collapse of the floor.

The thing is with these Tabata workouts, you only keep track of your lowest score. Let’s say you did 18 box jumps during your first round but were wiped out by the second round that you only did 10. For the subsequent rounds, it doesn’t make sense to try to do any more than 10 reps as, when you tally everything at the end, only your lowest score counts. So even if you have time left on the clock, you’re better off using it trying to catch your breath rather than killing yourself doing more reps that won’t count anyway.

I scored a total of 42 for the entire WOD, then did 50 sit-ups afterwards.