What is a Death By workout?
"Death By" is an escalating EMOM: in minute one you do 1 rep, in minute two 2 reps, in minute three 3 reps — continuing until you can no longer complete the required reps inside the minute. Your score is the last round you completed in full.
The genius of the format is the built-in ramp: the first minutes are almost insultingly easy, the middle minutes feel businesslike, and then — quite suddenly — the math wins.
How to use this timer
- Pick a movement. Burpees are the canon; 10 m shuttle runs, calories, thrusters and pull-ups are all popular victims.
- Leave the step at 1 rep per round, or raise it (e.g. +2 cals per round on the bike). Each round's target rep count is shown on screen.
- Press START and follow the clock. The moment you can't finish inside the interval, hit FAILED OUT — the timer records the round you died on.
Example Death By workouts
- Death By Burpees — the classic. Most athletes fail somewhere between rounds 12 and 18.
- Death By 10 m — add one 10-meter shuttle each minute. A staple of team training.
- Death By Calories — +2 calories per round on the rower or bike.
- Death By Thrusters — with an empty barbell. Sounds friendly. Isn't.
How long does it last?
The cumulative reps grow fast: by the end of round n you've done n(n+1)/2 total reps. Fail at round 15 and you've accumulated 120 reps, most of them in the last five minutes — which is exactly where the format earns its name.
Related: the plain EMOM timer for fixed work per minute, or the AMRAP timer for a fixed cap.
FAQ
- How do you score a Death By workout?
- Your score is the last round you fully completed within the interval. Fail during round 14 and your score is 13 (plus the reps you got into round 14, if the workout tracks them).
- What are the best movements for Death By?
- Simple, low-skill movements with a steady cycle time: burpees, shuttle runs, calories on an erg, wall balls, light thrusters. Avoid technical lifts — form collapses right when the reps peak.
- How long does Death By Burpees take?
- Until you fail — typically 10 to 20 minutes. Failing at round 15 means 120 total burpees, with the last rounds each packing near a minute of continuous work.
- Is Death By the same as an EMOM?
- It’s an EMOM variant: the interval structure is identical, but the workload increases every round, so failure is built into the design rather than the exception.