An EMOM is a workout format where you perform a set amount of work every minute on the minute, resting whatever is left of each minute. I recently moved my training from Ben Bergeron's CompTrain to Mat Fraser's HWPO — Hard Work Pays Off — because when the five-time Fittest Man on Earth publishes his program, I want to know what he was doing. The best thing I have pulled from it so far is his foundational conditioning day: a four-exercise EMOM you can run anywhere, with almost anything.
Watch now: press play on the video above, or listen in the player at the top of the page.
EMOM stands for every minute on the minute. You start a piece of work at the top of each minute, and whatever time remains after you finish is your rest. The clock enforces both your pace and your recovery, which is what makes the format so effective for conditioning — you cannot slack off, and you cannot skip rest.
Pick any four exercises and assign one to each minute, rotating through them for your chosen time. A twenty-minute session means five rounds of each movement. The key is choosing rep counts that take about forty-five seconds on two of the movements and about thirty seconds on the other two, so every minute gives you work followed by a short, honest rest.
HWPO — Hard Work Pays Off — is Mat Fraser's training program, released through the Hybrid platform after he retired. Fraser won the CrossFit Games five times in a row, something no one had ever done, so when he published the training behind it I signed up out of pure curiosity. I have no affiliation; I actually pay for it. The workouts run about an hour and a half versus the forty-five minutes I was doing before.
Target time, not a universal number. On a bike or rower, find the calories you can finish in about forty-five seconds — that is 8 for some people, 12 for me, 14 or 15 for Mat Fraser. On bodyweight movements, pick counts that take around thirty seconds, like 25 pushups or 10 pull-ups. Then ask whether you can hold that pace for the full session and adjust.
Start at twenty minutes, which gives you five rounds of four exercises. Once the format feels dialed, you can extend to forty minutes or a full hour — just scale the reps down as the time goes up so you are not redlining for sixty straight minutes. For an hour I might drop from twelve calories to eight to protect the rest periods.
Yes — it is one of the best travel formats there is. You do not need a rower or a bike; running, burpees, jump rope, double unders, flutter kicks, and pushups all slot right in. Grab any free interval-timer app, set it to beep at the top of every minute, and you can run the whole session in a hotel room or parking lot.
Here is the exact conditioning workout I have been running from HWPO, scaled for any setup.
I walk through a full example minute by minute, with my actual numbers, in the episode. Press play in the player above.
Ben Bergeron is an outstanding coach and CompTrain is a great app — this was not about leaving something bad. Mat Fraser won the CrossFit Games five consecutive times, a thing nobody had ever done, and when he retired he put his actual training out into the world. I wanted to know what he was doing that nobody else was. I signed up, I am paying for it myself, and I am giving it six months before I compare results. I explain the experiment in the episode — press play in the player above.
The clock does the coaching. Forty-five seconds of work buys you fifteen of rest; finish faster and you earn more recovery. That work-to-rest rhythm holds your intensity honest for the entire session in a way that open-ended conditioning never does, and the four-station rotation keeps any single movement from burying you. It has become a staple in my week. I break down why it works in the episode, so press play in the player above.
This is the part that sold me. No rower in the hotel? Run, do burpees, hit double unders. Any free phone timer will beep at the top of each minute for as long as you set it. The format survives any equipment situation, which makes it perfect for fishing trips and travel weeks when the program back home is impossible. I share my travel substitutions in the episode — press play in the player above.
The Fraser program takes longer than what I was doing — about an hour and a half against forty-five minutes — and maybe that volume is part of why it works. I will know more in six months when I compare where I am to where I was.
In the meantime, steal the EMOM. Four movements, one clock, twenty minutes anywhere on earth. Thank you, Mat Fraser.
Mat Fraser · HWPO (Hard Work Pays Off) · Hybrid training app · EMOM · Ben Bergeron · CompTrain · CrossFit Games · Rich Froning · rowing machine · assault bike · double unders · travel workouts
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's Physical Friday series I share the training, nutrition, and mindset that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong, healthy, and in the game for life — short, practical episodes you can put to work the same day.
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