Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast

Speed and power training is something that is gaining traction in the training world and trickling into the CrossFit world. Elite athletes are posting videos of the more "out there" training they are doing, some people in the community are calling out the testing body of the CrossFit Games, and GPP purists in CrossFit are getting involved. Should speed and power be tested at the CrossFit Games, an...

CrossFit's primary message has always centred around health, but how healthy is competing in CrossFit at a decent level, and how healthy is taking any sport to its highest level? The trade-off between performance and long term health can be a murky line. Many hobbyists who take the sport seriously push performance to a point where it starts to affect their short and long term health. The common tr...

Training that is structured has its upsides, it is predictable and a safe bet, but progress can be slow and it can become boring. Chaotic training can produce quick results but tends to lead to plateaus and a lack of direction. Finding the right balance between the two is one of the more constant challenges in programming, particularly in a group class setting. How much variation is useful noise a...

This year's CrossFit Games Open workouts ruffled some feathers. The constraints of having only three tests mean that overdoing certain movement patterns, time domains, or workout styles can significantly skew the testing. This can really impact the enjoyment of your average CrossFit box member, who is not overly invested in their results but genuinely enjoys taking part. Ultimately, these situatio...

Striking a balance between using metrics and standards to guide fitness, without overdoing it, is more important in CrossFit now than ever. Fewer people are participating in the sport, both seriously and recreationally. The demands of the sport keep getting higher, and the competitive scene is unclear and somewhat chaotic, so more people are taking part in events like Hyrox or simply training for...

There is a fine balance between using metrics to guide your training and becoming overly fixated on daily results. Tracking data too closely can lead to counterproductive habits, such as "rep shaving" during classes or attempting to force progress, often undermining long-term consistency and general enjoyment. But failing to track performance at all can result in a lack of clarity regarding progre...

Getting stuck writing programmes on a Sunday night, with creative energy at zero, is an all too common occurrence for coaches and is probably where a lot of copy and pasted programming comes from. Writing programmes needs some creative input, but having systems in place to make it easier, and understanding the many small tasks involved in programming and stacking them together, can be really helpf...

The programme for a CrossFit affiliate's group class programme versus a CrossFit competitor is obviously going to look different, but does this mean the process for writing the programme has to be any different? We have spoken a lot on this podcast about the importance of templates, how to structure them and why this is how you should start a programme for a CrossFit competitor, and we have all wr...

Weird and wonderful fitness races and challenges have been around for a while. Over the years, CrossFit has created a sport that provides the variety and spectacle we see in other sports, but now we are seeing many more styles of fitness races becoming very popular. Hyrox has gained a significant amount of momentum over the last couple of years and still seems to be on the way up. Athx is trying t...

We often hear programming referred to as an art grounded in science, and learning to write good programming can take time. You get those with some academic background who struggle to match it with real world application, often leading to programming that is not feasible or that misses the forest for the trees. On the other hand, some coaches may struggle with the theory behind programming, which c...

Enthusiastic coaches can be susceptible to focusing on the details or the shiny new coaching idea they come across rather than the basic, simple things that matter the most. This coaching catnip might come from a good place of curiosity and a desire to share information, but it neglects the big rocks. This week we talk about some examples of the coaching catnip you might see in a CrossFit gym or i...

While the goals, training, and purpose of training between a competitor and the general population may differ greatly, there are many skills a coach can develop by working more with the other group. Most would assume that the focus and attention to detail shown by a competitor are what would be transferable, but in fact, the opposite is often true. Competitors showcase what is important, what is p...

There are always a few class members who, after a while, begin to progress at a very slow rate or become stagnant in their performance. This is often met with frustration and sometimes inaction, which raises the question of whether some people actually want to improve or if they are content simply turning up. This week, we discuss how class members might be able to improve and progress without nec...

Moving into a phase of lower training volume as a competitor taking things less seriously can be a difficult transition. CrossFit demands a great deal, and when you're accustomed to putting in the work to improve and progress, letting go of some of that progress, or even just slowing the rate of improvement, can feel like a big ask. Is it possible to improve at a lower volume than competitors typi...

Hang around a CrossFit gym for ten minutes and you'll probably hear some coaching of hip extension going on. It might be "popping the hips" during a kipping movement, "finish the pull" in a snatch or clean, or the old "squeeze your butt" at the top of a squat or deadlift. All coaching cues have a degree of truth behind them, but some are overused to the point where they are unhelpful or even misle...

With hybrid training and events like Hyrox on the rise, more gyms are adapting—some diversifying their class offerings, others going as far as de-affiliating from CrossFit entirely. In this episode, we explore how the functional fitness landscape is shifting and what that means for gym owners. Todd draws a brilliant analogy between the spectrum of fitness offerings and doom metal. On one end, you'...

As a competitor moves up the ranks, the experience they get from different competitions can vary drastically. At some competitions, the standard of the division matches really well with prior expectations and the qualification process. Whereas in a different competition, divisions are named the same as others, but it's a notch or two up or down when comparing. This difference can be very frustrati...

Cheating in CrossFit has been around since the early days of the Open and online qualifiers. From athletes looping videos to some competitors being exposed year after year at Regionals, it's a persistent undercurrent in the sport. But how widespread is cheating and does it always happen intentionally? At one end of the spectrum, you have blatant rule-breaking, like switching out a medicine ball fo...

One of the classic clichés often repeated by coaches is that the best programme in the world, executed poorly, is far less effective than the worst programme executed well. While it's true that a poorly designed programme can still be ineffective, there is merit in the idea that how you train matters more than what's on paper. Teaching athletes how to train effectively and execute a programme to t...

One of the challenges in a highly varied sport like CrossFit is determining whether we're actually improving. Once an athlete has accumulated a significant amount of training volume, the classic test-retest approach on isolated elements of the sport becomes less effective.   We can spend weeks or even months working on a particular movement, only to struggle with it again when the context shifts s...

Have you ever felt the urge to flip the table and completely change your training or someone else's programme? Maybe a few small competition experiences have made you feel like your training is heading in the wrong direction. Perhaps you're getting tired of working on the same things. Or maybe you want to change your training goal entirely. Whether you're making big changes to your training goals...

Having a formal education in sports science, kinesiology, or a similar field may seem beneficial for a CrossFit coach. However, you might end up learning a lot of technical information without any context or knowledge of how to apply it. Conversely, you may develop extensive coaching experience and navigate situations in the moment with ease but lack the technical knowledge or critical thinking sk...

When learning anything, it can be difficult to step back from the details, and this is especially true for CrossFit programming. Often, you'll find coaches who are highly focused on the means (the exercises, the sets and reps) rather than the methods (the programme, the desired stimulus, the weekly plan, etc.). As much as constructing a programme or workout based on the latest sports science infor...

In the past couple of months, a new type of fitness competition has been generating a lot of anticipation. Headed by multiple-time CrossFit Games athlete Will Moorad, the World Fitness Project is entering the competitive landscape in a year when the CrossFit Games is undergoing its biggest changes yet. The competition consists of two tour events and a finals event at the end of 2025. There are 20...

There are a few qualities in CrossFit that can be quite difficult to improve for certain people. It's usually a mix of different problems that manifest in one or two specific styles of workouts in CrossFit. It's not quite this, but not quite that, either. One of those qualities is moderate-weight barbell conditioning pieces—typically something like a 135/95 barbell performed for high reps with a l...