Programming
AMRAP training campaigns
A campaign is a 2 to 12 week AMRAP programme that opens with a benchmark workout, trains around it, and then retests that exact workout later — so at the end you know whether the training moved the number, rather than guessing.
The problem it solves
Most people train hard and never find out whether it worked. You change the workout every time, so every score is a different number, and none of them can be compared. Six weeks later you feel fitter, which is not evidence.
A campaign fixes that by making one workout the measuring stick and everything else the training.
The four kinds of day
Benchmark
The opening mission. Go hard and record it honestly — this score is the number the whole campaign is measured against.
Retest
The same workout again, later. Identical movements, reps and cap, so the difference is attributable to the training rather than to the workout being easier.
Easy day
The light mission before a retest. Deliberately held back, so the test measures fitness and not accumulated fatigue.
Everything else
The training itself — varied workouts across the time domains and training stimuli. The benchmark workout is deliberately kept out of this rotation, so the retest measures fitness rather than practice at one specific workout.
How it is scheduled
You pick the length — 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 weeks — and how many missions a week, from 1 to 5. The calendar is built from there. A short campaign tests at the start and the end; longer ones add a checkpoint in the middle, so an eight-week campaign tests in weeks 1, 4 and 8.
Campaigns below eight weeks do not schedule a deload: a six-week campaign that goes easy twice has given up a sixth of its training to recovery it did not need yet.
Run it with other people
A campaign works alone and works better with a crew. Everyone benchmarks the same workout in week one, trains the same calendar, and retests together — so the standings show who improved most, not just who was fittest to begin with.
Related questions
How long should a training campaign be?
Four to twelve weeks. Shorter than four and you are measuring noise rather than adaptation; longer than twelve and life intervenes before the retest arrives. Eight weeks is the usual sweet spot — long enough to change something, short enough to finish.
Why retest the same workout instead of a harder one?
Because a different workout produces a different number, and a different number tells you nothing. The retest has to be identical — same movements, same reps, same cap — or you are comparing two things that were never comparable.
Why an easy day before a retest?
So the retest measures fitness rather than fatigue. Testing the day after a hard session reliably produces a worse score than the training earned, which is the opposite of what a test is for.