The Twelve Labours
All twelve Deadly Dozen Labours in race order: targets, men's and women's weights, technique cues, the common faults that cost time, and the training that fixes each one. Farmers carry to devil press, fully mapped.
- Lane work: 900 m
- Total reps: 320
- Tonnage: about 6.6 t (men) / 4.0 t (women)
- Loaded carries: 720 m
Labour 1: Kettlebell Farmers Carry
Distance Labour · Target 240 m · Men 2 × 24 kg · Women 2 × 16 kg · Two kettlebells. Tests: Grip · trunk stiffness · walking pace under load.
Eight lengths of the 30 m lane with a kettlebell in each hand, straight off your first 400. On fresh legs it feels like a formality, which is exactly the trap: the farmers carry is the first entry in a grip account you will keep paying into for the next ninety minutes.
The race is won or lost on carries more than on any rep Labour, because carry pace is pure discipline: there is no rep to shorten and no range to cheat, only walking speed and how often you put the bells down.
Cues
- Walk fast, do not shuffle: a purposeful 30 m length costs around 20 seconds, a cautious one costs 30.
- Crush grip on the handle, knuckles heavy, shoulders packed down and back.
- Tall chest, short quick steps, eyes on the turn cone, breathe on a rhythm.
- If you must break, break at a turn: set down, shake once, pick up. Never mid-length.
Common faults
- Sprinting the first lengths: Burning grip at length two is a loan against Labours 7, 11 and every deadlift set. Even pace beats fast-then-broken every time.
- Letting the bells swing: Swinging bells double the grip cost per metre. Quiet bells, quiet forearms.
- Long rest at every turn: Six 10-second set-downs is a free minute given away on the simplest station of the race.
How to train it
- Weekly heavy carries: 6–8 × 40–60 m at race load or above, short rests, walking fast.
- Grip volume off the carry: dead hangs, towel holds and heavy KB deadlift holds, twice a week.
- Once a fortnight: 240 m at race load straight off a hard 400 m run, on the clock.
Labour 2: Kettlebell Deadlift
Rep Labour · Target 60 reps · Men 32 kg · Women 24 kg · One kettlebell. Tests: Posterior chain endurance · hinge quality when breathing hard.
Sixty deadlifts with a single heavy kettlebell, done on the spot. The load is deliberately below anything a trained athlete calls heavy: 32 kg is a warm-up weight in the gym, and that is the point. The test is not whether you can lift it but whether rep 47 still looks like rep 3 with a heart rate of 170.
For men this Labour alone is 1,920 kg of total work; for women 1,440 kg. Big unbroken sets are freely available here, and athletes who take them bank one of the cheapest splits on the course.
Cues
- Hinge, do not squat: hips back, shins near vertical, bell travels close to the body.
- Set a rep rhythm you can breathe to and hold it: a metronomic 60 beats three fast sets with gasping breaks.
- Grip switch or mixed hold is unnecessary at this load: both hands on the horn, done.
- Stand all the way up every rep: a judged short rep costs you the rep, and the redo is always more expensive than the standard.
Common faults
- Rounding at rep 40: When the lats and hamstrings tire the spine wants to do the work. Slow down two beats before form leaves, not after.
- Turning it into a squat: Quads are needed for lunges, squats and 400s all day. Spend the posterior chain here, save the knees.
- Sets of 10 with long rests: This is the Labour where fitness is cheapest. 2 × 30 or 3 × 20 with three breaths between is the recreational gold standard.
How to train it
- High-rep hinge blocks: 3 × 20–30 KB deadlifts at race load inside conditioning pieces.
- Breathing hinges: 60 reps for time immediately after a 400 m run, monthly, and watch the split drop.
- Strength insurance: conventional deadlifts or RDLs at moderate load, one session a week.
Labour 3: Dumbbell Lunge
Distance Labour · Target 60 m · Men 2 × 12.5 kg · Women 2 × 7.5 kg · Two dumbbells. Tests: Single-leg durability · the legs you need for nine more 400s.
Two lengths of the lane, walking lunges, a dumbbell in each hand. On paper it is the shortest loaded Labour on the card. In practice it is the one with the longest tail: sixty metres of loaded knee flexion is exactly the stimulus that turns the next Journey from a run into a negotiation.
The dumbbells hang at the sides, so the grip cost is real but secondary. What this Labour prices is eccentric control: athletes who have not trained loaded lunges leave here with quads that surcharge every remaining lap.
Cues
- Moderate stride, back knee kisses the track, drive through the whole front foot.
- Torso tall, dumbbells quiet at the sides, eyes up the lane.
- Unbroken is the target: at these loads a fit athlete should not need to set down.
- Find a cadence and count steps: roughly 40 lunges to cover 60 m for most athletes.
Common faults
- Overstriding: A long dramatic lunge doubles the eccentric bill. Short and rhythmic covers the lane faster and cheaper.
- Pushing off the back toe: That is a calf loan you will repay mid-Journey. Front leg does the work.
- Racing it: Winning 20 seconds here and losing 15 on each of the next three 400s is the most common bad trade on the course.
How to train it
- Weekly walking lunges: 4 × 20–30 m loaded, building to race load and beyond.
- Lunge-run couplets: 30 m lunges into a 400 m run, repeated, to teach the legs the transition.
- Eccentric strength: rear-foot-elevated split squats, 3 × 8–10 each side.
Labour 4: Dumbbell Snatch (alternating)
Rep Labour · Target 60 reps · Men 15 kg · Women 9 kg · One dumbbell. Tests: Full-body power endurance · rhythm under a rising heart rate.
Sixty alternating dumbbell snatches: floor to locked-out overhead in one movement, switch hands, repeat. It is the most technical Labour on the card, which for Deadly Dozen still means simple, but rhythm matters more here than anywhere else on the course.
Done well it is one long hinge-and-punch metronome. Done badly it is sixty single-arm swings muscled overhead, and the difference between those two is roughly a minute and an intact shoulder.
Cues
- It is a hinge with a punch, not an arm lift: hips throw the bell, the arm just guides it.
- Switch hands in the air or on the floor, whichever you drilled, but always the same way.
- Lockout every rep: elbow straight, bell over the shoulder, then drop into the next.
- Sets of 10–15 with two-breath resets beat one heroic set that ends in singles.
Common faults
- Muscling it with the arm: The bicep and shoulder cannot cash sixty of these. Every rep without hip drive shortens the set where it hurts.
- No lockout: A soft elbow overhead is a no-rep waiting to happen, and re-doing snatches is the worst redo on the card.
- Sprinting to 30 then stalling: The classic blow-up. A steady 60 in sets of 12 is nearly always faster than 30 fast, 30 grim.
How to train it
- EMOM snatches: 10–12 reps per minute for 6–8 minutes at race load, holding rhythm.
- Snatch-run couplets: 20 snatches into a 400 m, repeated 4–6 times.
- Technique at light load: crisp hip drive and lockout before adding fatigue.
Labour 5: Burpee Broad Jump
Distance Labour · Target 60 m · Men bodyweight · Women bodyweight · None. Tests: Whole-body conditioning · willingness, frankly.
Sixty metres covered as burpee into broad jump, over and over, roughly 35–45 cycles depending on how far you jump. It sits at the exact midpoint of the race, it is pure bodyweight, and it is the most uniformly hated Labour on the card because nothing about it can be outsourced to strength or technique.
The pacing question is jump length. A big jump covers the lane in fewer reps but spikes the heart rate; a modest jump keeps you moving continuously. Almost everyone who blows up here chose the big jump.
Cues
- Modest, repeatable jumps: 1.5 m every time beats 2 m for ten reps then 1 m of despair.
- Step-down burpees are usually legal and always sustainable: check the day's standard, then use it.
- Exhale on the jump, land soft, hands straight back to the deck. Make it one continuous shape.
- Do not look up the lane. Next rep, next rep, next rep.
Common faults
- Maximal jumps early: The rep count barely drops, the heart rate does not come back. Distance per rep is the cheapest variable to give up.
- Snake or worm push-up shapes: Whatever the standard allows, a sloppy shape costs more energy than a compact one.
- Standing rests in the lane: The set-piece rest positions are the turn ends. Mid-lane stalls are where whole minutes vanish.
How to train it
- Weekly intervals: 4–6 × 20 m burpee broad jump, resting as long as the work took.
- Mid-workout doses: put 10–15 burpee broad jumps inside longer conditioning pieces so they arrive pre-fatigued.
- Pace practice: find your all-day jump length on fresh legs, then confirm it tired.
Labour 6: Kettlebell Goblet Squat
Rep Labour · Target 60 reps · Men 16 kg · Women 12 kg · One kettlebell. Tests: Squat endurance · breathing with a load on the chest.
Sixty goblet squats with the kettlebell held at the chest. At 16 kg this is the lightest loaded Labour on the card and on paper the friendliest: fresh, most athletes could do 60 unbroken without drama.
You will not be fresh. It lands straight after the burpee broad jumps, and the bell on the chest taxes exactly the breathing you are trying to recover. The athletes who do well here treat it as sixty controlled breaths that happen to have a squat attached.
Cues
- Elbows inside the knees at depth, chest tall against the bell.
- Breathe every rep: sip in on the way down, out through the sticking point.
- Aim for 2 × 30 or unbroken; below sets of 15 this Labour is overpriced.
- Full depth and full stand-up every rep: judged standards are cheapest done right first time.
Common faults
- Bouncing out of the bottom: Sixty bounced reps bill the knees for the rest of the race. Control down, drive up.
- Holding the breath: The bell invites a braced breath-hold. Sixty of those and the next 400 starts anaerobic.
- Letting the bell drift: A bell away from the chest triples the cost per rep for the arms and upper back.
How to train it
- Density work: 60 goblet squats for time at race load, monthly, off a run.
- Tempo squats: 3 × 12 with a slow eccentric to build positional endurance.
- Front-loaded breathing: paced goblet squat sets inside conditioning, focusing on the exhale.
Labour 7: Weight Plate Front Carry
Distance Labour · Target 240 m · Men 25 kg · Women 20 kg · One plate. Tests: Arms and upper back · posture under a front load · patience.
Eight more lengths of the lane, this time with a single plate carried in front of the body: hugged to the chest, or gripped at the rim if the day's standard allows. Same distance as the farmers carry, completely different bill: the load is lighter but there is no handle, and the arms, chest and upper back hold every metre of it.
This is the Labour where the first half of the race sends its invoice. Athletes who overspent grip on Labours 1–4 discover it here, seven stations from home.
Cues
- Hug it high: plate on the chest, forearms wrapped, hands clasped if you can.
- Lean back a touch so the skeleton, not the biceps, takes the load.
- Same carry rules as Labour 1: fast walk, break only at turns, one shake, go again.
- Change grip at the turns, not mid-length: rim grip, hug, forearm cradle, rotate the cost.
Common faults
- Carrying it low: A plate at hip height is a biceps curl held for four minutes. High on the chest halves the price.
- Death-gripping the rim: The rim grip alone at 25 kg drains what the overhead carry in Labour 11 still needs.
- Slowing to a stroll: Because it does not hurt sharply, pace bleeds away. This is 240 m: strolling it costs a full minute against walking it.
How to train it
- Plate or sandbag front carries: 6 × 40–60 m, hugged high, weekly.
- Upper-back capacity: rows, face pulls and loaded holds so posture survives the distance.
- The double-carry session: farmers 120 m into front carry 120 m, repeated, to rehearse the race's real sequence.
Labour 8: Dumbbell Push Press
Rep Labour · Target 60 reps · Men 2 × 12.5 kg · Women 2 × 6 kg · Two dumbbells. Tests: Shoulder endurance · leg drive when the legs want no part of it.
Sixty push presses with a pair of dumbbells: dip, drive, lock out overhead. The push press exists so the legs can do most of the pressing, which is the joke by Labour 8, because the legs are the most taxed thing you own.
Still, the dip-drive is non-negotiable. Strict-pressing these to spare the legs hands the whole bill to the shoulders, and the shoulders also still owe Labours 10, 11 and 12.
Cues
- Shallow dip, sharp drive: the bells should feel thrown, the arms just catch the lockout.
- Rack the bells on the shoulders between reps, elbows slightly forward: never hold them floating.
- Sets of 15–20 with brief re-racks; breathe at the top, not in the dip.
- Full lockout, bells over the shoulders, head through. Standards again: right first time is cheapest.
Common faults
- Strict pressing when tired: It feels safer and costs double. Re-find the leg drive even when the dip aches.
- Holding the bells at the chest unracked: A floating front hold between reps is an isometric you cannot afford. Rack them properly.
- No rhythm: Random rep timing doubles the breathing cost. Dip-drive-breathe, at one tempo, sixty times.
How to train it
- Volume overhead: 4 × 15–20 push press at race load, short rests, weekly.
- Fatigued pressing: push press sets straight after lunges or squats, teaching leg drive on tired legs.
- Shoulder durability: strict press and lateral raise accessory work at modest loads.
Labour 9: Bear Crawl
Distance Labour · Target 120 m · Men bodyweight · Women bodyweight · None. Tests: Shoulders and trunk · humility · pacing on all fours.
One hundred and twenty metres of bear crawl: hands and feet, knees off the ground, up and down the 30 m lane four times. It is the second bodyweight Labour and the sneakiest thing on the card, because nobody trains crawling and 120 m is a very long way to discover that.
The cost lands on the shoulders and wrists, exactly the pieces the push press just emptied and the overhead carry is about to bill again. The back nine of this race is an extended conversation with your shoulders, and the bear crawl is where it turns serious.
Cues
- Hips low-ish, knees an inch off the track, opposite hand and foot together.
- Short contacts, quick rhythm: crawling slowly hurts more, not less.
- Break at the turns if you must: stand, shake the wrists, back down. Never kneel mid-lane.
- Look a metre ahead, not at the far cone.
Common faults
- Hips sky-high: The pike crawl feels easier for ten metres and shreds the shoulders for a hundred. Flat back, low hips.
- Overstriding the crawl: Long reaches load the shoulders unilaterally. Small quick steps share the work.
- Never having crawled before race day: The single most predictable time-loss on the course, and the cheapest to fix: crawling is free.
How to train it
- Crawl volume: 4–6 × 20–30 m bear crawl in warm-ups, twice a week. It costs nothing and pays minutes.
- Crawl-run couplets: 30 m crawl into a 400 m run to rehearse standing up and running off numb shoulders.
- Wrist prep: loaded wrist rocks and extensions so 120 m does not end the wrists.
Labour 10: Weight Plate Clean & Press
Rep Labour · Target 60 reps · Men 15 kg · Women 10 kg · One plate. Tests: Whole-body work capacity · the last big rep set on the card.
Sixty plate clean and presses: from the floor to overhead lockout, the whole plate, the whole way, every rep. Together with the snatches this is the biggest single block of work on the card, and it arrives when there is least left to pay for it.
This is, by common consent, the decisive Labour. The field's splits spread wider here than anywhere else: a composed athlete moves through in four minutes and change, a broken one stands over the plate for eight. The difference is almost never strength.
Cues
- One motion up: hips launch the plate, arms finish it. Two-stage reps cost double.
- Lock it out overhead, show control, then drop the plate down the front: the lowering is free, do not curl it down.
- Sets of 10–12 from the first rep. Nobody does these unbroken at lap ten, plan accordingly.
- Breathe at the top with the plate locked out or on the floor, never mid-rep.
Common faults
- Curling the plate up: An arms-only clean at rep 40 is how this Labour eats whole minutes. Hips first, always.
- No plan for the sets: Walking in with no scheme means singles by rep 35. 6 × 10 with three breaths between is a finish-line number.
- Soft lockout: The judged standard is overhead and locked. Sixty near-misses is sixty redone reps.
How to train it
- The direct rehearsal: 60 plate ground-to-overheads for time, off a run, monthly. Know your number.
- Interval doses: 15–20 reps inside mixed conditioning pieces, weekly.
- Hip power maintenance: KB swings and jump work so the launch survives fatigue.
Labour 11: Weight Plate Overhead Carry
Distance Labour · Target 180 m · Men 15 kg · Women 10 kg · One plate. Tests: Overhead stability · shoulder honesty after everything before it.
One hundred and eighty metres walking with the plate held overhead. The load is trivial; the position is everything. After push presses, the crawl and sixty clean and presses, holding anything overhead for six lengths is a genuinely hard ask, and the Labour is placed here precisely because of that.
It rewards structure over muscle: elbows locked, plate stacked over the shoulder joint, ribs down. Athletes who carry it with bent arms are doing 180 m of overhead triceps work, and their splits show it.
Cues
- Elbows locked, biceps by the ears, plate balanced flat: let bone, not muscle, hold it.
- Ribs down, glutes on: an arched back turns this into 180 m of lumbar work.
- Short fast steps, soft knees: bouncing makes the plate live.
- Break at the turns like every carry: plate to the chest, three breaths, back up.
Common faults
- Bent elbows: The single biggest cost multiplier on the card: a soft elbow makes the shoulders pay per metre what lockout gives away for free.
- Plate drifting forward: Every centimetre in front of the shoulder line is leverage against you. Stack it or pay for it.
- Arching to find lockout: Tight shoulders borrow range from the lower back. If overhead range is limited, train it: race day is not the place to find it.
How to train it
- Overhead carries: 6 × 30 m with a plate or single kettlebell, weekly, fresh at first, then fatigued.
- Fatigued rehearsal: push press to a set of 15, then straight into a 60 m overhead carry.
- Overhead mobility: thoracic and lat work so lockout is a position you own, not one you visit.
Labour 12: Dumbbell Devil Press
Rep Labour · Target 20 reps · Men 2 × 10 kg · Women 2 × 5 kg · Two dumbbells. Tests: Whatever is left.
The finisher: a burpee over the dumbbells into a double-dumbbell snatch, ground to overhead, twenty times. The count is mercifully short and every rep is the most expensive movement pattern on the card, which is why it is the only rep Labour set at 20 instead of 60.
There is no pacing subtlety left to discuss at Labour 12. There is a number, it is twenty, and the entire tactical content of this station is: do not stand still. Fives with two breaths between, or steady singles that never stop, both beat a fast ten followed by a long negotiation.
Cues
- Compact burpee, hands on the bells throughout: no re-gripping per rep.
- One swing, one punch: hips throw both bells overhead together, lock out, done.
- Decide the set scheme on the last 400: 4 × 5, 5 × 4, or twenty singles that never stall.
- Lock out the last rep properly. Being no-repped on rep 20 of the race is a story you tell forever, and not fondly.
Common faults
- Standing looking at the dumbbells: The devil press's true cost is the gaps between reps. A slow continuous grind wins.
- Muscling the bells up separately: Two single-arm efforts per rep instead of one hip drive: double the cost at the exact moment you can least afford it.
- Emptying the tank on the last 400: The final Journey should be strong, not suicidal: 20 devil presses on a redlined heart rate can take four minutes. A controlled last lap buys them back.
How to train it
- Race-pace sets: 5 × 4–6 devil presses at race load inside conditioning, weekly in a race block.
- The finisher rehearsal: 400 m hard, straight into 20 devil presses for time, in the last month before racing.
- Burpee economy: the step-down pattern and hands-on-bells setup drilled until they are automatic.
Frequently asked
What are the twelve Deadly Dozen Labours in order?
Kettlebell farmers carry, kettlebell deadlift, dumbbell lunge, alternating dumbbell snatch, burpee broad jump, goblet squat, weight plate front carry, dumbbell push press, bear crawl, weight plate clean and press, weight plate overhead carry, and dumbbell devil press. Distance and rep Labours alternate, and each one follows a 400 m Journey.
Which Deadly Dozen Labour costs the most time?
For most of the field it is the weight plate clean and press at Labour 10: sixty ground-to-overhead reps arriving on empty legs. The burpee broad jump and the alternating dumbbell snatch are the other two where splits spread widest. The carries lose the most time silently, through slow walking and long set-downs rather than obvious blow-ups.
How heavy are the Deadly Dozen weights?
Deliberately moderate: the heaviest single implement is the 32 kg kettlebell for the men's deadlift (24 kg for women), and the carries top out at 2 × 24 kg. No single Labour is a strength test. The difficulty is the volume: across the rep Labours men move roughly 6.5 tonnes and women roughly 4 tonnes, plus 900 m of lane work.
Can the Labours be scaled or broken into sets?
You can break sets and set carries down as often as you like; only the total work counts, so pacing and grip management are where time is won. Loads and targets are fixed per division: the scaling between men and women is built into the prescribed weights, and pairs and relay divide the work by their own rules.
