AMRAP With Friends

15 minute AMRAP

Dorsal Tow

Upper-lower switch · Blood Shunt · intensity 3 of 5

The workout

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:

Overview

Dorsal Tow is 8 burpees, 12 w-press ups, and 30 high knees. The work moves through the full body and the upper back instead of sitting on one muscle.

Muscles worked

Energy systems

These are overlapping contributions. This workout is not assigned to one energy system.

  • Glycolytic: Moderate
  • Oxidative: High
  • Neuromuscular: Moderate

Training effect

Immediate demand

15 minutes, intensity 3 of 5. Today the limiter is 30 high knees.

Intended stimulus

The same upper-lower switch, held long enough that the work keeps moving while the heart rate stays up. On this workout that is 8 burpees, 12 w-press ups, and 30 high knees.

Repeated practice

Repeat the same workout and compare the score. What can change over weeks is how long that pace lasts. One time through does not produce that change.

Body-composition context

Body weight changes with the rest of how you eat and train. This workout is one piece of work on one day.

Expected feel

30 high knees is where the round gets hard. The other movements still have to be finished after it.

Pacing

Burpees spike the system, the W loads the mid-back, high knees keep the shunt alive. Elbows pinned to the ribs.

30 high knees is where the round gets long. That set is where a planned break belongs. If that set falls apart, shorten the burpees on the next round rather than rushing it.

The movements

Burpees

Find a breathing cadence. Exhale on the drop, inhale on the floor, exhale on the jump. If you hold your breath on burpees, you will redline in 45 seconds.

What not to do. Sagging hips in the plank position.

W-Press Ups

Avoid excessively arching your lower back to cheat the range of motion. If your hips pop off the floor, you are losing the isolation in your mid-back. Keep your neck relaxed and look straight up.

What not to do. Arching the lower back until the hips leave the floor to fake extra range.

High Knees

Land lightly on the balls of your feet. If you are stomping flat-footed, you are destroying your momentum and your knees.

What not to do. Leaning back to swing the knees higher instead of keeping the torso stacked.

Why these movements

The work moves through the full body and the upper back instead of sitting on one muscle.

Scaling

Keep an upper-body movement and a lower-body movement in the same round. Drop reps on both before you drop one of them.

Burpees

  • Step the feet. Step back and step in instead of jumping. Same shape, no impact.
  • Hands elevated. Hands on a bench or step so the floor never comes all the way up to you.
  • No jump at the top. Stand tall and reach instead of leaving the floor.

W-Press Ups

  • Shorter lift. Drive into the floor but only lift as high as you can control without the hips or neck cheating.
  • Hold the squeeze. Reach the top and freeze for a count instead of cycling reps. Same drive, less fatigue management.

High Knees

  • Low impact. Keep one foot down throughout — march the pattern instead of running it.
  • Slower cadence. Same movement, fewer beats per minute. Cadence is the dial, not the shape.

Mistakes and who it is for

  • Opening the burpees at a sprint makes the high knees the piece that falls apart.
  • Resting until you feel fresh between movements removes the point of keeping them in one round.
  • Spending the first minutes hard leaves the later rounds as a different, slower workout.

Suited to someone who wants 15 minutes through Burpees, W-Press Ups, High Knees.

Scoring and progression

Work through the movements in the order listed, then start the next round. Your score is the number of complete rounds plus any reps of the round you were partway through when the clock hit zero — written as rounds plus reps, so seven full rounds and twelve reps is7+12.

Progression is repeating this workout and comparing that score. The page does not promise a change from one time through.

Related workouts

Run it with friends

Dorsal Tow runs on a shared countdown: share a rally link, everyone gets the same 15-minute clock, and the leaderboard updates as people log rounds.

Start this workoutMore 15 minute AMRAPs