Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast

What is the lifecycle of a CrossFit athlete? How does one progress from starting CrossFit as a fitness program, deciding to do a bit of additional work, then progressing into doing competitions. How do athletes balance training with a group vs working on an individualized program as they get more serious about their training? And, how should athletes think about structuring a season with the myriad of opportunities to compete now available?

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Many athletes are limited by their muscle endurance in conditioning workouts. Their shoulders blow up and their burpee cycle time turns into a crawl. Their grip is shot and they can’t hang onto the bar for another 75# power snatch. Their abs are gone so they can’t get their toes to the bar for another rep. It’s not just about doing more accessory work and dumbbell exercises at the end of your sessions to improve muscle endurance. Instead, we need to understand what work an athlete can do in a sustainable environment, then learn how to progress that to more chaotic scenarios with more movement interference, more repetitions and more intensity.

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When designing conditioning sessions, it’s a challenging to understand how much sustainable work should be done (meaning paced, repeatable efforts) vs how much unsustainable work should be done (meaning high effort testing or competitive scenarios). Our bias is generally towards accumulating more volume at sustainable efforts, but having a balance of both types of training is crucial for long-term development in the sport.

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People often talk about wanting to improve their “engine,” but this can mean a lot of different things. Some people struggle with cyclical pieces based upon rowing, biking and running, but are great with mixed pieces of double-unders, thrusters and box jumps. Others can do well with long, grindy pieces, but fall apart when they have to do fast, high-turnover movements with quick transitions. How can we think about the different aspects of “having an engine” and what are some key concepts to keep in mind when working on training them?

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As coaches who generally love us some aerobic work, we’re generally onboard with athletes getting in a bunch of sustainable, well-paced training. We also often have folks asking if they can do “too much cardio” - between their high intensity conditioning, riding their bikes for commuting, and adding in supplemental aerobic training sessions. As you’ve come to expect, there’s no simple answer to this question, but there are some things to think about when considering adding additional aerobic training to your program. Check out the full conversation to learn more.

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Athletes must have intent when they train. They must understand exactly what they’re working on, and be relentlessly focused on observing their experience and learning both tacitly and explicitly how they can improve their pacing, their movement quality, their self-talk, etc. throughout their sessions. They must put in focused work, understand the difference between play, practice and competition, and develop the capacity for self-reflection that allows for constant improvement and learning from every session that they do.

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We all know someone who has done a Smolov cycle or a weightlifting program in an attempt to get stronger - and they usually throw that on top of their typical CrossFit “metcons.” But, is layering a strength program on top of a typical CrossFit program the best way to get stronger for the sport? Not really. The integration of multiple different aspects of fitness into performance in mixed modal settings is messy and unpredictable, and the principles for balancing the stress of a training program throughout the week can also be complex. It’s not enough to just do a squat program to get stronger. And, even if you do get stronger, it might not make you better at CrossFit.

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“I’m not feeling so good right now - I’ll just move through this at 80% to finish it off.”

  Athletes can get themselves in trouble when they start negotiating with themselves on pacing during a workout.   As coaches who often advocate slowing down and understanding your rate of perceived exertion, this can come across as a bit contradictory.   However, there’s a key distinction here: Athletes should decide on what the goal of a training session or a training piece is before starting, then modulate their pacing throughout in order to hit that specific training goal. You can slow down and speed up as you go, but you have a target feeling and stimulus in mind.   Issues start to pop up when negotiation happens about the goal of the session - ie “I was going to try to PR, but I’m off from my target pace so I will just quit."

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You may recognize Phil Mansfield from his recent hit appearance on the Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast a few episodes ago. Oh yeah, and he’s also Sara Sigmundsdottir’s coach. This time, the gang is all here - as Phil and his partner in RedPill Training James Jowsey (who coaches Samantha Briggs) join Jon, Luke and I for another podcast extravaganza. Jowsey and Phil’s expertise ranges from a detailed understanding of biomechanics and how it integrates with sport, as well as a higher order understanding of how to communicate with athletes and create buy-in for a long-term plan of development.

Check out more from Phil, James and RedPill Training

• Instagram: @philmansfield_msi//@jamesjowseytraining//@redpillcoach


• Website: www.redpilltraining.com


• YouTube: @redpilltraining


• Podcast: www.redpilltraining.com/redpill-pod

Show Notes

• [0:31] Clarifying the mobility/stability continuum in fitness athletes. “When we walk on ice, we have a smaller step than we do when walking on a stable floor”


• [16:46] After going through an assessment, how do you work in corrective work for things that come up as a problem? And, the difference between “can’t get into” vs “can’t get out of” range of motion problems.


• [26:11] How do you peel apart an assessment when someone has a range of motion in an unloaded situation (like reaching overhead with their arm) but struggles to achieve that position in a loaded situation (like hanging from a pull-up bar)?


• [32:14] “The functional continuum” – how to return to sport from an injury, correct dysfunctional movement patterns, and move well under high metabolic fatigue


• [39:31] How do you get buy-in from high-level athletes to take steps backward and work on basics?


• [48:31] “If you need someone to shout at you to do five more reps, you’re not going anywhere anyway.”


• [57:58] How do you structure an environment for competition amongst competitors? And how much competition do you encourage between athletes?

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There’s a lot of “fun” stuff to do in training. Snatches and muscle-ups, long grindy chippers, heavy squatting or clean and jerks… But these aren’t always the things that we need to do to get better. How do we set ourselves up to spend the time necessary in training to get better at all of the stuff that isn’t as fun and doesn’t have clear testing numbers or progressions associated with it. Stuff like movement quality work, corrective exercise, pacing strategy, and skill work. Luke and Todd discuss how they approach this in training with their athletes - as well as common pitfalls for athletes in terms of how they organize their focus in training.

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