How do You Score Kettlebell Workouts?
How do you score kettlebell workouts and what is the use of scoring your workouts? Scoring your workouts is an important part of your progression. It allows you to keep track of how you progress with your weight, reps, rounds, time, etc.
On our website, we provide an online scoring tracker to keep track of the scoring for each of our workouts, on each workout you can find a link to record your scoring (if the workout is scored).
- Scoring EMOM Workouts
- Scoring AMRAP Workouts
- How to Deal With Unfinished Rounds?
- Full Rounds Only Scoring
- Scoring FOR TIME Workouts
- Scoring Multiple Tasks
- How to Take Weight Drop in Account
Here’s how we score our workouts at Cavemantraining for AMRAP, FOR TIME, and EMOM.
Scoring EMOM Workouts
For EMOM workouts we mark each round that you completed as intended as successful and otherwise as unsuccessful, which means that will get deducted from your other scoring. Usually, we’ll program an EMOM with another task. For example, your 10-minute EMOM results in 8 successful rounds and 2 failures. With 10 it’s quite simple to calculate but it’s best to always stick to the following formula:
1 divided by the number of rounds × successful rounds
On a 12-minute EMOM with 8 successful rounds that would be 1 / 12 = 0.083333333333333 × 8 = 0.666666666666667. So, your scoring for the EMOM would be 0.666666666666667, this is the value that you multiply the scoring of whatever follows. In other words, how you do in your EMOM determines how much is left of the work you put in on the following tasks.
For example, let’s say that a 10-minute AMRAP follows in which your scoring is 1,450, you multiply that by 0.666666666666667 and your final score will be 966.66666666666715, which you can round up to 967.
Scoring AMRAP Workouts
There are several ways we score AMRAP workouts, the simplest being rounds × total weight, and the more elaborate scoring would take into account tasks that can easily produce a high scoring. For example, if task 1 is a combo of Turkish Get-Up and 4 racked squats versus task 2 which would be 4 minutes as many kettlebell swings as possible, then task 2 would produce a very high scoring compared to task 1. To account for this we assign a weight to the task. That weight can also take into account other factors of complexity. For example, 120 kettlebell swings for task 2 with a weight of 0.6 would result in 120 × 0.6 = 72.
How to Deal With Unfinished Rounds?
Unfinished rounds, unless defined otherwise, are usually scored as 1 divided by total exercises for that round multiplied by the number of exercises completed in that round. For example, the task of 1 Turkish Get-Up and 4 racked squats per round. When completing the second squat and the timer goes you would have completed 3 out of 5 exercises. The formula for that round would be 1 / 5 × 3 = 0.6. Your final score would be however many round you had plus the outcome of this unfinished round, for example, 12.6 would be 12 rounds and 0.6 for the unfinished round.
Full Rounds Only Scoring
Some scoring might only take into account full rounds (Full Rounds × Weight) and not unfinished rounds. We like to program AMRAPs like this as it teaches you timing and pacing. You will become more attentive to how long it takes to complete one round, how it feels, and what you can get out with a sprint at the end.
Scoring FOR TIME Workouts
FOR TIME workouts can simply be scored by looking at the time and the weight used, the faster and higher the weight the better the scoring. Our preference is to set a time cap on the workout and multiply the number of seconds left from the time you completed the task to the end of the time cap by the weight used. For example, a 10-minute time cap which resulted in a 6:09 would leave 51 seconds plus 3 full minutes (3 x 60) equals 51 + 180 = 231 seconds left. Multiply the 231 seconds left by the weight and you have the total scoring. For example, 2 x 16kg would be 231 x 32 = 7392. Make sure to convert your scoring in kgs or lbs depending on what you want to compare to.
If no time cap is set, you can divide the total number of seconds it took to complete the workout or task and divide that by the weight used. You can calculate the number of seconds by multiplying the minutes by 60 and adding the seconds. For example, 14 minutes and 16 seconds would be 14 x 60 = 840 to convert the minutes to seconds and then add the remainder of seconds + 16 = 856. The seconds would be divided by the weight used. The lowest scoring wins. In some cases, you might want to define what weight is counted. In cases of dropping weight during the task or workout, the lowest weight used is counted.
Scoring Multiple Tasks
Some workouts are scored as one whole workout and others are scored per task. Some workouts can have several different tasks of different types. It could be that each task counts individually or that all tasks are added up and the total counts. Those details will be defined in the workout details.
How to Take Weight Drop in Account
If it’s allowed to drop in weight during a workout, then there is a change of formula to take into account. When the scoring is seconds divided by weight or seconds left multiplied by weight, all require you to calculate the average weight, which is done as follows.
To calculate, multiply the reps performed for each weight and then divide by the total number of reps. For example, the workout/task has 40 reps that need to be completed, and 20 of those reps were completed @ 2 × 12kg, and 20 reps @ 2 × 8kg.
The formula would be 20 (reps) × 24 (2×12kg) = 480, and 20 reps @ 2 × 8kg is 20 × 16kg = 320, add those up and you get 800. Divide 800 by 40 and you have the weight to use for the final calculation, which is 20. The final calculation would be the number of seconds divided by 20.