Mic'd Up Workout with CrossFit Games Athlete LUKE PARKER
Luke Parker, a CrossFit Games athlete, walks through a mixed workout: rowing intervals, pull-ups and dumbbell presses, then a short bike and burpee finisher. He talks pacing, technique, and the idea of laying a brick—small daily progress that builds over time.
Questions this video answers
4 minutes row, 2 minutes rest; 3 minutes row, 90 seconds rest; 2 minutes row, 1 minute rest; 1 minute row (final interval).
Start at RPE 7, then ~7.5 for the next interval, gradually increase (one gear faster) as intervals shorten; final intervals approach sprint effort (RPE near max).
Chapters
Come on, Kyle.
That hurt.
All right, so what do we. What are we doing today? We're laying a brick. And that's essentially something I. So I'm an ex baseball guy, right? Grew up playing baseball my whole life. That was my dream, to play in the big leagues. Now I'm a crossfitter through fitness racing for a living. Everyone that's ever taught me anything is just like, trust the process. And what is trusting the process? Coming in day in, day out, whether you feel like it or not, and doing something. I think we're just gonna do a little bro session. A little pump. Yeah, I think that's. I think that's. That's it. We're gonna do a little cardio first. It's kind of like a warm up and get the lungs going a little bit.
Let's do some triceps in there. Let's do.
Yeah.
I'm Luke Barner. I'm making a workout. I'm just over here. Give me three of that.
Four of these. No round of reason.
We're about to sweat, baby.
Come on. Remember my first workout in here, bro? That's right. We just whiteboarded. I think you schemed a little bit.
I think you won.
I don't know about that.
All humble myself. I wasn't. I wasn't as fit back then.
He doesn't know this yet, but my man's getting to throw down today in a first form traditional workout called the BMF workout.
Okay.
You'll quickly learn what that is.
I can't tell if he's messing with me or not. We're gonna do a few sets of this. It's essentially 4 minutes of rowing, 2 minutes of rest, 3 minutes of rowing, 90 seconds rest, 2 minute row, 1 minute rest, 1 minute. Ro. RPE is fancy way of saying rate of perceived exertion, fancy way of saying effort level. So just think scale 1 to 10, 10 being absolute max effort sprint. We're gonna start at RPE 7. Get the lungs going. That's gonna hurt for four minutes. Rest a little bit. 7.5. Rest a little. The rest.
Slowly get shorter as the time domain gets shorter. And then we're gonna end up doing. These are almost like two pretty much two sprint intervals. And then.
Be done with the cardio and pump it up a little bit. I was thinking some strict pull ups, some dumbbell, strict press, maybe a little bit of shoulder accessory work.
A little pump, maybe some triceps in there. I don't know. We'll see. Maybe some biceps too. All right, let's do this.
Do you have any tips to be a good rower?
So the rower just want to be as fluid as possible. I think one big thing that people don't think about is like my arms right now, if you look at my arms, I'm keeping them as straight as possible until the last second and then I. It's like doing a row, right? If I was just going to row with my arms only.
Arms straight and I'm rowing to my body and if I was going to row with just my legs, see how my arms are straight? I don't pull my arm or the handle to my chest until right before my legs are about to lock out. It's not just the upper body movement. You can use and utilize your legs a lot on the rower. I think a lot of people forget that.
Alright, any workout you're doing, you gotta have a plan or a purpose for why you're doing what you're doing or you're wasting your time. Sometimes it can be just get in and move around, sweat a little bit, you know, get the lungs going. Or if you have a muscle group today the muscle group is pulling. So we're going to focus on all our pulling muscles. Lats, right. Like I said, we might get a little biceps in there, the pump sesh. We're going to add some pressing as well. But for now we're warming up our strict pull ups because that's what we're doing later in the lat, pull downs and we're going to get our lungs going. You know my routine and regimen is usually pretty structured with CrossFit. This is my offseason. So right now I'm just trying to move around a little bit, get the lungs going a little and get a little pump sesh. So you know, I'm not going to be crazy hard on myself, but we're going to get the lungs pumped up here and we're going to do that with this contraption.
It.
A lot of that comes with seat time and I think a lot of you people who are watching this and it doesn't matter even if you're doing a pump session, but especially if you're doing something where you're breathing hard. Like yeah, there's benefits and there's always a time to come out hot. What do I mean? Full sim like you give everything, you got that first interval, let's say you have five sets, five intervals and you sell out that first interval and you have nothing left, you're gassed. What are you going to do on that? Second interval. You can't help to go zone two recovery pace or go slow because you just, you know, blew up and just, you know, crash and burn on that first set. There's nothing wrong with that. You get fitter from that. There's a time and place to like want that to be the focus. But I think it's important to honestly, first round though, psychologically, like I'm way more fresh than I think I'm way more fresh than I know. So first round, I'm going to, I'm going to purposefully feel like I'm holding back. And then that second set, kind of feel out where you're at. Let's say we're doing five sets. For the sake of my example here, intervals, let's say it's rowing. And then by that third set, you know, okay, I only have, you know, probably this much in the tank. So for me to sell out and pace properly, to have the same pace all sets or even in the perfect world, you want the same pace every set or because you have to pace perfectly for that, which is really hard, or even better than that is negative splits. What does that mean? Every set you get a little faster, a little faster, a little faster every set. What we don't want is the rookie mentality. Come in, blow the first one up and then everyone just passes you every set after that. Where your sets are positive splits, you get slower and slower and slower every set. Alright, now we're hitting three minutes at RPE 7.5. So I'm gonna go a little bit, a little tick like one little gear faster.
Butt cheeks are on fire, which is funny. You think pulling muscles, you think your your lats and your biceps. But pulling muscles also mean your butt, your hamstrings and your calf. Your posterior chain. Quick little mindset nugget before I got 30 seconds is zoom out. What's the zoom out method? If you zoom in on pain, if you're going through an obstacle or struggle or something, or pain. Right. In a workout, if you zoom in, it's gonna hurt worse. But if you zoom out, bird's eye view on why you're even doing it, it's not gonna hurt as bad. Was that latching onto your why? That's what zooming out does for you. Three, two, one.
Another gear faster. This is the two minute interval.
Yeah, I was spicy.
OG bro chocolate chocolate milkshake. What's your favorite pre workout flavor?
It's a hard one because I usually take my pre workout with other electrolyte powder. So it Doesn't. I don't get the full taste right now, probably.
Well, I'm about to start. What is it? Pink lemonade Megawatt.
All right.
Yeah. I was thinking about going shirtless. Yeah. For the pump. Yeah. Or yeah, if you want to take it off, take off your shirt. All right.
Let'S do this.
There you go. All right. All right. Let's just dive in and see how we feel sometimes. I think. I think this is a good, like, testament to, hey, like.
Do this if you don't have much time in the gym. Like, I'm about to just. I wrote down four movements, two and two. I'm going to superset, roughly 10 reps ish of each movement. Back and forth, superset. Like three to four sets each for both these movements. And then I'm gonna see where I'm at. If there's a muscle group that I want to hit more than the other or get a little work of something else, I'm gonna hit that as a finisher, but I'm gonna get mine in those three to four sets, these supersets, we're gonna make the supersets like, it feel like an entire pump session by itself.
Do you have any tips on how.
To do a good pull up? Well, I mean, CrossFit, right, we get a. Everyone gives us a hard time because we do the butterfly and the kipping, but we also do strictly, and we actually have real pull ups. We don't go halfway up, halfway down, so we let elbows, shoulders be fully extended, and we actually get our chin up over the bar, most of us. All right, that was 10.
Strict press with dumbbells seated and then back to pull ups. We're going to superset this. And that's the cool thing about pump sessions. You can still breathe hard. You just, you amp you up the ante with intensity by just not resting just for the sake of time. This first set will be like a warm up.
Or at least like warm up, warm up weights. Nate. I can't even see.
At first. I did a little lighter weight.
Kind of is like, hey, first set warm up. So I did 15 reps instead of 10. But I'm always going to keep the strict pull.
Pretty much gonna on the strict pull ups. Always 10. I'm gonna like, work up to a heavy 10 for me on strict press. If it's too light next set, I might do 12, but we'll see. I'll probably end up doing 10.
Nine.
Go 40s.
See what 10 feels like. Come on, dude.
I think 45s might be perfect. It really is cool, though. Like, every time I come here, I get this crazy hunger when I get home, because the standard of excellence is outmatched.
All right, two more.
Last one.
All right. I think.
The fatigue settling in, and.
We'Ll see. We'll see what happens. This feels easy. We'll go at 50s, but I think 45s is where you're going to stick.
Bingo. That's the way I'm looking for right now. Best advice, one word consistency.
Remember what I said when we walked in here? We went to the whiteboard, like.
Yeah, I know. I'm different, right? I do fitness racing for a living. CrossFit. Right? But we came in here to lay one brick. I don't need to work out today. Sure didn't want to. But just do a little something goes a long way, and that's what we're doing, brick by brick, right? Just takes one step at a time. Doesn't matter how you feel. Just get something in. Even. It's 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes to an hour. You can accomplish a lot. You just got to get the momentum going. Like me on the rower. I didn't want to go until I got my momentum going. I started getting a little fire going because I was like, all right, I got more than I think.
I feel good now. Now I feel like I can have some fun. The pump is real.
Dude. I can't believe I'm about to be a father. Next time I see you guys, I'm gonna be holding my son. I have a little nugget, probably with a bottle. Probably gonna have to change his diaper, wipe his butt. Had a buddy who's like, hey, wait till. Wait till he pees in your face. I'm like, bro, what do you mean? I'm gonna, like, keep him contained, you know, make sure that thing's pointing not in my direction. But I'm changing his diaper. He's like, yeah, that's when you'll bond with your son, is when he pees in your face. I'm like, bro, I'm gonna have better technique than that with diaper changing. I feel good, man. I think we should hit five sets.
All.
Right.
Looking good, bro. Try it. You're looking good, bro. I like the camo, man. I'm itching, man. I'm itching for hunting season. I can't wait to get in the woods. I got my big hunting trip this year because I won't have a whole lot of time. It's Southern Illinois trying to go for, like, four to Six days in the rut.
I don't want to leave until I bring home a monster.
So I will say this, like that was. Those were. Those last few sets were hard. But if you want like as fast results as possible when it comes to bodybuilding, and I do, I do do that a lot with accessory for CrossFit is there's times you have to hit failure. Like you have to, if you're not feeling reps and you're not pushing your body enough. I know right now I'm not trying to do that, but.
I think that's something some people are scared to do. Like, don't have bad form and like, you know, drop weights on yourself. But there's like, you can train past failure, get a spot, get someone to help you do a couple more reps with you. You know, like, if you're not really struggling and shaking on something, then what are you doing next? Two movements, superset tricep pull downs, lat pull down. The lats are getting cooked today.
When I do lat pull down. I love this thing, like squeezing on my thighs. That's one thing too. I'll say for my.
My gym rats know this, but for my non experienced lat pull downers.
Like there's so many different ways you can do this. Like, I can get my momentum going and yank it down. I think the best way is to find lightweight to start and really try to control it.
It's fun. Let's find the actual hard weight system.
We want to. I'm done playing games, Alex. Trying to find some real weight. Oh yeah, that's hard. Let's go a little heavier.
Triceps are eating today.
No, they're hungry.
Now we're feasting. All right, one more. All right. Yeah.
All right, bro. I know I only have a couple more sets left. I'm almost done, but I need, I need some carbs. I gotta get some hydration real quick. Ultra performance. What is it? Electrolytes plus a little bit of carbs, AKA energy, AKA lightning and ice in my veins.
People always ask, hey, creatine before or after your workout? Doesn't matter, just get it in. It has tons of benefits after that are unique for muscle recovery, but also tons of unique benefits from like muscle endurance before. So I usually just take it before and after, but hey, I forgot to take it today. So here we go.
If you weren't doing CrossFit right now.
What do you think you'd be doing?
UFC FIGHTER no, I'm joking.
I'm all show, man. I got no Wrestling or any jitsu experience. But I'll rush somebody and spear them, bro. Give me the octagon. I'll rush him. They may fold me in a pretzel, but to start, I'll. I'll be a hammer. And then I'll probably end up being a nail because those dudes are so freaking talented.
Yeah. One more set.
Literally. Eight more reps, Coach.
All right. For a jerk kicks me in the balls.
Well, homie, three rounds for time.
Here's what you're gonna do.
10 calories on the bike. You don't have to do anything. We'll set the bike for you, all that stuff immediately. You're gonna hop off, off on the left. Ten burpees. Once you know, ten burpees, rinse and repeat for three rounds. Ten calories on the bike. Ten burpees.
Ten.
Ten.
Okay.
Four minute time cap.
Stand by. Five seconds.
You can back up.
Four, three, two, one, go.
Got the whole world watcher, baby.
No f after.
Luke.
Got to go quicker, brother. Got to go quicker.
Just embrace it. That's it, big guy.
Come on.
Little bit behind.
Pace, Luke.
Take him down. Take him down. Get on there and go. Don't think.
Move.
Let's go.
Hammer.
Luke. I need more, Luke. I need more.
Stay in it. Stay in it. Stay in it.
Get off there. Get on the bike. Come on. Let's go.
Perfect, baby.
Come on, Luke. Gotta go fast. Come on, Luke. Come on, Luke. Come on, big dog.
Come on.
Come on, Luke. No plate. No plate.
It's just discomfort. It's temporary. Hey, Andy's done. You can yell. Let's go.
Come on.
Come on, Kyle. Kyle.
Let's go, Luke. Let's go. Last one.
You are behind. Figure it out.
Empty the tank. Come on.
Come on.
Come on. Empty the tank. Let's go. Come on.
L. Come on. Come on, brother.
Send it now.
Send it now. Send it. Come on. Come on, Luke. Come on, Luke. Let's go, babe.
Come on.
Let's go, luke.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on. Stay strong. Stay strong.
Let's go.
Wait. Get off my bike. Why are you on my bike?
That hurt.
I don't know.
There it is. I'm gonna throw it up.
I didn't know. We're gonna do a little Echo Sprint buyout. Thank you, Jarrett Bond. You know, iron sharpening iron, even when you don't want to.
But, hey, thank you guys for watching me do a little bit of fitness and rant a little bit about fitness. Just remember, every day counts. Do the work every day, even if you don't feel like it's.
