EMOM stands for Every Minute On the Minute. You start a set of work at the top of each minute, finish the reps, and whatever time is left in that minute is your rest. Then the clock hits the next minute and you go again.
That is the whole protocol. The clock, not your recovery, decides when the next set starts, and that single constraint is what makes an EMOM feel harder than the same total reps done at your own pace.
What EMOM 20 means
“EMOM 20” means twenty minutes. Because each round is exactly one minute long, twenty minutes is also twenty rounds. The number after EMOM is doing double duty: it is the duration and the round count at once.
So “EMOM 12, 5 burpees” means twelve rounds of five burpees, one round starting every sixty seconds, sixty burpees in total, twelve minutes on the clock. You will see the same thing written as “E1MOM” or “every minute for 20 minutes”. Same workout.
The reps are prescribed per minute, never in total. If a workout says twenty reps for an EMOM 10, that is two hundred reps, not twenty.
How to set an EMOM timer
On any interval timer, an EMOM is three settings:
- Work: 60 seconds
- Rest: 0 seconds
- Rounds: the number of minutes
The rest field is the part people get wrong. An EMOM has no separate rest interval, because the rest is the remainder of the minute. If you set 60 seconds of work and 20 seconds of rest, you have built an 80 second cycle, and every round after the first now starts at the wrong time. By minute ten you are a full three rounds out of sync with anyone else in the gym.
If your timer refuses to accept a rest of zero, you have two choices. Use a “rounds of 60 seconds” or “EMOM” preset if the app has one, or split the minute deliberately: 40 seconds work, 20 seconds rest, same round count. The second version still starts every round on the minute, but it now tells you to stop working at 40 seconds instead of letting you earn your rest by finishing early. That is a different training stimulus, and for some sessions it is the better one.
The stock iPhone Clock app cannot run an EMOM. It counts down once and stops. Anything that repeats needs an interval timer app, which is what most EMOM timer iPhone searches are really after. Rounds is one option, currently in open beta through TestFlight, and it handles the zero rest case as a normal setting rather than a workaround.
A worked example
Say you want an EMOM 20 of eight kettlebell swings. In the timer you create a workout, set the work interval to 60 seconds, leave rest at 0, and set rounds to 20. You get a countdown to start, then a beep every sixty seconds until the twentieth beep ends the session.
During the workout you swing at the beep, finish your eight reps somewhere around the 35 second mark, put the bell down, and wait. The waiting is the workout as much as the swinging is. When you hear the next beep you pick the bell straight back up, without checking the display, because an EMOM never changes what it asks for from one round to the next. That is the practical reason to run it on a device that speaks or beeps clearly: once the numbers are set, you should not need to look at the screen again.
EMOM variants and their timer settings
The minute is a convention, not a rule. Longer intervals give you room for heavier or more technical work, and the timer settings barely change.
| Variant | Timer settings | Typically used for |
|---|---|---|
| Classic EMOM (60s) | Work 60s, rest 0s, rounds = minutes | Conditioning, skill practice, moderate volume on one movement |
| E2MOM (every 2 minutes) | Work 120s, rest 0s, rounds = minutes ÷ 2 | Heavier lifts, longer sets, anything needing real recovery |
| E90 (every 90 seconds) | Work 90s, rest 0s, rounds = minutes ÷ 1.5 | The middle ground, often used for cleans, snatches, sled work |
| Alternating EMOM | Work 60s, rest 0s, rounds = minutes, even number of rounds | Two movements on odd and even minutes, so one rests while the other works |
| EMOM with a rest minute | Work 60s, rest 0s, rounds = minutes, every fourth minute empty | Long sessions where a full minute off keeps quality high |
Alternating EMOMs deserve a note. The settings are identical to a classic EMOM; the only difference is what you do when the beep lands. Odd minutes might be ten kettlebell swings, even minutes ten push-ups. Because each movement now gets two minutes of recovery, you can prescribe more reps per round than you could with a single movement.
Choosing the rep count
The rule that makes an EMOM work: pick a rep count that takes you roughly 40 seconds. That leaves about 20 seconds of rest, which is enough to reset your breathing and your grip without letting you cool down.
Work that takes 20 seconds is too easy and the session becomes a long warm-up. Work that takes 55 seconds gives you no rest at all, and by round six you are running an unbroken set with a beep in the middle of it.
A quick way to find the number: do one set at the intensity you plan to use and time it. If ten reps take 25 seconds, go to fifteen. If ten reps take 50 seconds, go to eight. Do this once and you will have a usable number for that movement at that load for months.
Failing to finish inside the minute is information, not a disaster. The first time it happens, note the round. If it happens in round fifteen of twenty, your rep count is close to right and you found your limit, which is often the point. If it happens in round four, the prescription was too aggressive and the remaining sixteen minutes will be a slow collapse rather than training. Cut a rep and carry on rather than grinding through a session that has already stopped doing what you set it up to do.
The other failure mode is quieter. If you finish every round with 30 seconds to spare and your last round feels the same as your first, the EMOM did nothing except pass twenty minutes. Add a rep.
Tracking progress across sessions
An EMOM produces clean data because so much is held constant. The clock never varies, so only three things can move.
Reps per round. The most direct progression. Five thrusters every minute for twelve minutes becomes six every minute for twelve minutes. Small step, obvious comparison.
Rounds completed before failure. Keep the reps and load fixed, and record the round where the work first spilt past the minute. Getting from round nine to round fourteen at the same prescription is real progress, and it is the number most people forget to write down.
Load used. Ten kettlebell swings a minute with a 24kg bell is a different session to the same ten with a 16kg bell. Log the weight or the whole record is unreadable in six weeks.
Write those three down at the end of every EMOM, along with the variant and the duration. “EMOM 16, 8 wall balls, 9kg, failed round 13” is a complete record in one line. Repeat that workout a month later and you know immediately whether anything changed.
Repeat the same EMOM rather than inventing a new one each week. Comparison needs two sessions that are actually comparable, and a benchmark you return to every four to six weeks is worth more than twenty sessions you can never line up against each other. If your timer keeps a history of what you ran, that record builds itself, which is the main reason to use an app rather than a wall clock.
Common questions
How do I set an EMOM timer on my iPhone?
Open any interval timer app and create a workout with a 60 second work interval, a rest interval of zero, and a round count equal to the number of minutes you want to train. The app then beeps at the top of every minute, which is the only cue an EMOM needs. The stock iPhone Clock app cannot do this, because it counts down once and stops rather than repeating.
How to set timer for EMOM?
Work 60 seconds, rest 0 seconds, rounds equal to your total minutes. There is no separate rest interval in an EMOM because your rest is whatever is left of the minute after you finish the reps. If your timer forces a rest value above zero, split the minute instead, for example 40 seconds work and 20 seconds rest, and accept that the rest is now fixed rather than earned.
What does EMOM 20 mean?
EMOM 20 means twenty minutes of work, which is twenty rounds, because each round takes exactly one minute. You start your prescribed reps at the top of minute one, rest for the remainder, then start again at the top of minute two. The number after EMOM is always the duration in minutes and the number of rounds at the same time.
Is EMOM effective?
EMOM works well because it fixes your work rate for you, so the session cannot drift into long unplanned rests between sets. It also makes progress obvious, since the only variables are reps, load and how many rounds you survive at that pace. It suits skill work, conditioning and steady volume accumulation more than it suits maximal strength attempts.
How can I track my progress using EMOM workouts?
Log three numbers each session: reps per round, the load you used, and the round where you first failed to finish inside the minute. Repeat the same EMOM a few weeks later with one variable changed and compare. If you finish every round comfortably, add a rep or add load rather than adding minutes.
Can I use an EMOM timer for CrossFit workouts?
Yes, a CrossFit EMOM timer is just a repeating 60 second interval with a round count, and most CrossFit EMOMs are written exactly that way. Alternating EMOMs, where odd minutes are one movement and even minutes are another, use the same settings and only change what you do on each beep. Keep the audio cue loud enough to hear over a busy gym floor.