Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast

For the next mini-series on the Legion Strength and Conditioning podcast, Todd, Jon, and Luke discuss injury and pain and how it relates to CrossFit. Episode 84 kicks things off with a discussion on the relationship many athletes have with pain.

Whether an athlete is dealing with a long term overuse injury or a dislocated shoulder, it's important that they have realistic expectations of what the relationship between their injury and their level of pain will look like.

In this episode, we talk about some of the differences between a beginner's experience with pain compared to someone with a more advanced, competitive background.

Check this episode to find out what injuries are typical amongst CrossFit athletes, what navigating a chronic overuse injury might look like, and why top athletes are almost experiencing some sort of injury.

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [2:55] What are the typical issues that we commonly see with athletes doing CrossFit?
• [4:30] The difference between being "hurt" or being "injured"
• [6:20] What answers are people searching for when navigating pain in training?
• [8:30] Chronic overuse injuries like golfer's elbow
• [9:25] How should athletes at difference levels think about pain?
• [11:50] Upstream and downstream causes of pain and injury
• [14:45] Distinguishing between pain and discomfort
• [16:15] Giving athletes knowledge and frameworks to understand pain and injury
• [16:50] When should athletes train through pain?
• [19:00] Working through chronic pain and injuries as a competitive athlete
• [22:45] Jon's dry wit
• [23:30] Top athletes getting injured and tissue damage

Episode 83 of the Legion Strength and Conditioning podcast finalises the series in affiliate programming. In this episode, we get tactical and talk about programming specifically for strength training.

A big challenge when programming for groups is balancing the needs and wants of a diverse membership. Some people coming into the gym may never have touched a barbell before, whilst others may be ex-athletes looking for a new recreational sport. Jon and Todd dive into finding the right balance, and they share what has been helpful for them both at their gyms.

Listen to this episode to find out how to use levels in group programming, what different structures keep people engaged in boring old progressive training, and why percentage ranges and flexibility can be more effective than traditional textbook programming.

Listen to this episode to learn why some more experienced athletes 'get-away' with bad technique, what the guys think about Brooke Wells elbow injury at the games this year and how other factors such as lifestyle relate to pain and injury.

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [2:38] What does leveled programming look like in strength training?
• [4:40] Is there a role for training weightlifting and higher-skilled movements for general population clients?
• [6:20] Is Olympic Weightlifting actually dangerous for general population
• [08:30] A cost-benefit analysis of using high skill movements for group classes
• [9:45] Balancing appropriate training and CrossFit as a recreational sport
• [12:35] What do beginners need in strength training? How should a program balance the needs of beginners with the needs of more advanced athletes in classes?
• [14:50] Creating progression in a general group program
• [19:00] How to program assistance work while keeping members engaged
• [23:00] Creating progression throughout a training cycle in group training
• [26:00] Using percentage ranges rather than specific percentages in programming
• [27:20] How muscle fibre types can affect peoples stimulus in strength training

Episode 82 of the Legion Strength and Conditioning podcast is part three of our series on affiliate programming, with Luke and Todd getting in the weeds on how to actually write a week of training.

Figuring out what to include in a training week can be difficult when working with members who have inconsistent attendance habits and poorly defined training goals. Todd and Luke outline some things they include every week/fortnight to cover all the programming bases bases while keeping members engaged, happy, and improving.

Check out this episode to learn more about applying a biweekly template, balancing structure with traditional CrossFit, and some nitpicky details of what to include in a week of affiliate programming.

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [4:30] How to interpret member feedback on programming
• [8:00] How using general observations can help inform programming direction
• [9:00] Designing programming cycles with different priorities
• [11:10] What are the challenges of programming for people without specific goals?
• [12:40] The key buckets of training to touch on each week
• [15:50] Balancing structure and less-structured training
• [19:50] Using an A-week and B-week split to cover all bases in group programming

Episode 81 of the Legion podcast continues our series on programming for affiliates, with Luke and Todd diving into more details on what's helpful and important for gym programming.

A gym and its coaches must build trust and buy-in with the gym members, but this becomes more challenging as more people are added to the mix. Todd and Luke outline how to minimize discrepancies between what is programmed and what is actually delivered in class.

Being overly detailed in prescriptions can create more opportunity for mistakes and miscommunications. As much as progression, clever exercise selection, and fancy structures can be very effective in one-to-one coaching, it's a different story when having coaches leading group classes. You've got to find ways of keeping them engaged, consistent and improving, all whilst being an enjoyable experience.

In this second part of the affiliate programming series, we discuss using programming levels and avatars to communicate with members and coaches, and focus on how detail-oriented coaches can decide when things are "good enough" for the average member in class.

Listen to this episode to learn why some more experienced athletes 'get-away' with bad technique, what the guys think about Brooke Wells elbow injury at the games this year and how other factors such as lifestyle relate to pain and injury.

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [3:00] What programming can the coaches at a gym successfully deliver to build trust with members?
• [4:30] The different training cultures that exist at gyms and how that affects programming
• [9:30] How smaller groups in a gym can dominate training culture and clash with values of the business
• [14:50] Educating clients by programming with different levels
• [17:00] Pulling back on the details and not being over-analytical
• [20:40] Creating different avatars within general population groups to help coaches
• [28:30] Understanding what is "good enough" for your average gym member

Episode 80 of the Legion podcast is the first part in a series where Todd, Jon and Luke discuss programming for group classes at gyms.

Programming for individuals is more straightforward than programming for groups. Individuals usually have specific goals, specific strengths, and specific weaknesses which guide the program design process. However, when programming for a gym, there needs to be a balance between the fitness and health goals of the members, what they like doing, and what they need to do.

Groups can be finicky, and may not find structured, progressive training to be "fun enough." However, just giving them hard metcons all the time is not the best solution.

One of the biggest challenges with gym programming is aligning the members, the coaches, and the gym's ownership. It's not as simple as just coach and athlete now.

Listen to find out some of the biggest trade-offs you need to consider when programming for a gym and group classes, and how to communicate to create trust between everyone involved in the programming process.

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [2:25] What group classes members "want" vs what group class members "need"
• [3:45] Logistical considerations when programming for a gym
• [11:20] How to anticipate likely problems in your programming
• [18:30] Educating gym members through effective communication of programming
• [23:20] Reducing session volume to promote better quality coaching

In Episode 79 of the Legion podcast, we discuss how much CrossFit people should be doing — particularly intermediate athletes. How much time should they spend doing training with structured progression and how much time should they be doing chaotic CrossFit workouts?

Athletes often get to an intermediate level either through the brute force method of a "just doing a lot of CrossFit," or through a more structured strength and conditioning program. There is value in both approaches, but how do know when it's time to switch from Turkish get-ups and rowing intervals to more thrusters and pull-ups?

Luke, Todd and Jon talk about the merits and drawbacks of biasing training too far in one direction, the importance of buy-in from athletes, and how social influences affect training decisions.

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [2:50] How to find the low hanging fruit in someones training
• [6:35] What are the competing priorities in training — and how should they be balanced?
• [08:50] How do social influences affect buy in and training decisions
• [15:00] Why adherence is so important
• [21:10] How does being the best in the gym affect an athlete's training?

Episode 78 of the Legion podcast gets tactical and provides strategies for breaking up your reps in different conditioning workouts.

When performing conditioning workouts, there are a lot of moving parts to consider when devising a plan. For example, how many reps should you do unbroken, how much time should you take between singles, and is it better to break things up into small sets or big chunks?

In this episode, Jon and Todd discuss some of the different pacing strategies you can implement while you do conditioning workouts, and how to tune into your body's fatigue signals so you can adjust your plan as needed.

Listen and find out some things like how to break up a fifty rep chipper vs a high turnover workout like Cindy, why failing in training can be necessary, and why some athletes seem to have a magical intuition and pace their workouts perfectly.

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [5:10] The importance of developing intuition through training experience — and understanding your body's fatigue signals
• [7:05] Why hitting failure in training can help us learn to pace more effectively
• [19:20] How should break up reps in long workouts? Short workouts? Chippers with big sets?
• [28:50] How should athletes who tend to occlude or "blow up" on certain movements pace those movements?
• [41:45] Summary and practical takeaways on breaking up your reps

In episode 72 of the Legion podcast, we discussed translating improvements in weightlifting technique into actually getting better at weightlifting in conditioning workouts.

Improving your positions in a non-fatigued state doesn't always translate into better lifts after you've been running around the block and doing a bunch of double-unders. This isn't just an issue with weightlifting movements, though. We see the same thing with muscle-ups, handstand walking…and even grunt work movements like wall balls and dumbbell snatches.

In this episode, Todd and Luke develop some general strategies for bridging the gap between skill work and conditioning work.

While some athletes can just throw their weaknesses into metcons a few times per week and see consistent progress, others need to be much more deliberate with how they design their training. How do we bridge the gap so athletes can actually improve their skills in conditioning workouts — not just in drills and warm-ups?

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [0:13] The difficulties in translating improvements in skill work to improvements in doing movements while fatigued.
• [3:48] How to create training scenarios that allow you to "practice" doing new skills while fatigued — and still have success.
• [15:08] What is the difference between intermediate and advanced athletes in the mental game about progressing movements?
• [21:42] Wrap up and summary of tactical recommendations for bridging the gap between skill work and conditioning

People talk about "fast twitch athletes" and "slow twitch athletes," but does categorizing people this way hold any water? Are muscle fiber types relevant for performance? Can muscle fiber types change with training?

On this episode of Science with Sergio, we discuss the paper Human Skeletal Muscle Fiber Type Classifications in an attempt to translate both the academic jargon and the bro science surrounding muscle fiber types into something useful.

While most coaches and athletes aren't going out to get their myosin heavy chains tested anytime soon, we can still improve our training by understanding what differentiates muscle fiber types and how that impacts the way that different athletes fatigue.

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [0:13] How should we think about muscle fiber types for athletes competing in the sport of fitness? Does thinking about "fast twitch" vs "slow twitch" athletes hold up?
• [11:11] Technical categorization of different muscle fiber types. What is the mechanism for fatigue in muscle fibers?
• [21:00] Production of lactate as a proxy for fast twitch vs slow twitch muscle fibers — and the difference in recovery between fast twitch and slow twitch.
• [36:50] How do muscle fiber types relate to recovery and potential for overtraining?
• [42:50] How muscle fiber types change over time in response to training. Why does training make muscle fibers more oxidative?
• [54:41] How should coaches and athletes use this information in the gym?

Everyone has seen the Instagram posts of heavy snatches or ring muscle-ups with a caption that says something like "Finally! Been chasing this one for awhile…" This combination of exasperation and relief is palpable for anyone who has been tormented by a training plateau.

Athletes often get stuck at a specific skill level in training, and it can feel like they're never going to make progress. This can look like attempting ring muscle-ups over and over — without being able to turn them over and actually catch in the dip. This could be loading up 225# on a snatch — and never quite being able to stick the receiving position. This could be trying to do chest-to-bar pull-ups or handstand push-ups in a workout — and completely blowing up every time.

Athletes and coaches on these training plateaus often start looking for secrets to get them to the next level. Is there a specific exercise that will help? A magic progression? A clever, counterintuitive drill? Instead, most people would be better served by just getting more "shots on goal" with whatever they're working on.

What does this mean? Create training scenarios with a reasonable chance of success. Work on these training scenarios regularly. And, simply through repeated exposure, most people will see progression.

If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to www.legionsc.com to get a weekly selection of training tips and our favorite articles.

We run online workshops for coaches as well. Find out when our next workshop is here: https://legionsc.com/program-design-workshops

These podcast are posted in video format on YouTube as well.

Show Notes:

• [0:13] Athletes often plateau just before "getting over the hump" with new skills like muscle-ups. One of the best ways to break through these plateaus is to get more "shots on goal."
• [09:50] Progression is rarely linear, and this can trick and confuse people. Plus, understanding "regression to the mean" can smooth out emotions in response to training results.
• [21:37] Improving the "floor" of performance — in terms of both day-to-day variation as well as performing a skill in the worst case scenario" — is one of the highest leverage things an athlete can do.

Links and Resources Mentioned:

• South Park episode on World of Warcraft
• "The New Science of Fatigue Resistance" from Alex Hutchinson
• Regression toward the mean