Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast

Now that the Open is advancing significantly fewer athletes to the next stage of the CrossFit Games—online semi-finals—will we see athletes shifting their training to become more specialised? Looking at the numbers, only a very small number of athletes will make it into the top 1% of the Open. This means even the best of the best cannot afford a poor performance in any of the three weeks of compet...

With the recent announcements from CrossFit regarding changes to the 2025 season, some athletes are exploring alternative avenues for competition, placing less emphasis—if any at all—on the Open and the CrossFit Games season as a whole. While the top athletes in the sport excel in both in-person and online competitions, at the mid-tier and local level, the profile of athletes who perform well in o...

In this episode, we dive into the upcoming 2025 CrossFit Games season, sharing our initial concerns about the increase of online stages. Recorded before the official details were released, this discussion reflects many of the common opinions circulating within the community about the new season. We talk about the logistical challenges faced by affiliates, the high potential for cheating, and how l...

One common issue for athletes with some experience in their sport is struggling with 1–2 specific movements in grunt-style conditioning workouts. Even after extensive effort to develop these movements, they can still be a weak point, especially in competition or qualifier workouts. How can we help athletes improve at these movements? Should we focus on mastery, or reframe progress by mitigating th...

For busy individuals competing in CrossFit, it's rare to complete a training week exactly as planned. Sessions may be missed, accessory work moved, or entire training days shifted around. Athletes often worry that these adjustments will compromise their progress, especially those receiving individualised coaching. However, when asked if it's okay to adjust training, our answer is almost always yes...

Ever taken time off from training and found getting back to it feels like an uphill battle? In this episode, we dive into some of these challenges of returning to CrossFit competition and training after a layoff. Luke reflects on jumping back into a team competition after a five-year break, and Todd shares his journey of rebuilding post-Achilles injury. We discuss the hurdles of getting reacquaint...

In a varied sport like CrossFit, athletes often gravitate toward specific areas of focus, which can be influenced by their height and weight. Since weight is a changeable factor, some athletes set specific bodyweight goals. For example, some aim to lose weight to enhance bodyweight movements like pull-ups and handstand push-ups, while others seek to gain weight to increase strength in heavy lifts,...

Every athlete has probably experienced it at some point—hitting that wall in the middle of some mixed-modal intervals. One second, you're holding pace, and the next, it feels like everything falls apart. Bonking on mixed modal intervals is more common than when doing cyclical work because you don't have immediate feedback on paces from the machine. There is also a lag effect: You will likely push...

There comes a stage in training where week-to-week progress grinds to a halt, and it is often met with feeling like you have regressed or are stuck. You can even stretch this timeline out, and it might feel like noticeable progress doesn't happen for months. This can be a difficult realisation to overcome, and it is a constant battle that challenges many athletes and coaches. But progress doesn't...

For someone devoting themselves to the sport of CrossFit, the way they train and approach competition is pretty clear-cut. Similarly, for the person doing classes to be healthy and stay fit, the way you train is clear-cut. But for the person who wants to do local competition, treat CrossFit as a recreational sport, but isn't interested in overstretching themselves, it can be more challenging.  It'...

Continuing with our very timely podcast release schedule about this year's CrossFit Games season, this week's podcast features a recap of the semi-finals for one of Jon's athletes, Jacob Schmidt. This year, Jacob switched to individual competition after competing at the games for CrossFit Omnia's team in the last few years. Jacob's preparation was by no means a walk in the park. He had to get used...

A little late on posting this topical podcast. Here are our thoughts on the quarter-finals penalties that happened this season. Jon experienced firsthand as a coach how these penalties were rolled out this year. Check out this episode where we discuss the events of this season, live versus in person competition as well as how these situations could be resolved in future years and competitions. If...

It is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture in the fitness and performance industry. There is a lot of misleading information that coaches and athletes have to sift through, which is difficult when the information is accurate most of the time.  But do many of these claims move the needle and improve an athlete on the things that matter? Does doing a lot of zone two work help with CrossFit perfo...

This year's quarter-finals workouts were well received by the CrossFit community as a whole. Many enjoyed the simplicity of the workouts, which provided a good challenge for athletes of various levels. We saw workouts that were more compartmentalised than in previous years. There was less chaos, simpler skills, and no crushingly high volume of work on things like GHD sit-ups. The workouts this yea...

Qualifiers can be a stressful experience for athletes. The online leaderboard and the doubt created by not seeing other athletes perform all make for potentially neurotic self-comparison.    With quarter-finals being much easier to qualify for, the open has less weight than in previous years. And now you're starting to see athletes say they are not interested in peaking for the open, who then get...

Often, when someone comes through the ranks of class workouts and starts to contemplate competing in CrossFit, they conjure up an image of their training having to dramatically change to "take it to the next level". In reality, they need to get more exposure to the sport and develop experience. Telling someone to do more of the sport can seem like a cop-out answer, but there is so much to work on...

After a competition, athletes are usually keen to get to work and train for potential weaknesses highlighted in the competition. But often, this is too hasty, and it's wise to have a process figured out on how to approach the review and planning post-competition period. This week, we discuss some of our processes for reviewing an athlete's performance after a competition, reducing the noise, and c...

Since Adrian Bozman has led the programming for the CrossFit Games, each season has seen more variety in the skills and movements involved. From the max sandbag to shoulder event at the games to learning cross-over single unders in class, everyone in the sport has felt this inclusion of new skills in some way. This shift in the programming pays homage to the roots of CrossFit, and acts as another...

In a data-heavy sport like CrossFit, it can be pretty easy for athletes to get overwhelmed when setting goals. You have your placings in the open and other competitions and your training numbers. We don't have much control over leaderboards and tend to overestimate what we can achieve in our training when increasing numbers. In this episode, we talk about goal setting for CrossFit, how it can be e...

Recently, CrossFit announced a price increase for the yearly affiliation fee and that you must also hold a CrossFit Level 2 qualification to open an affiliate. This episode is a topical one, where we talk about the value of the CrossFit name now, whether the price increase is warranted and whether this is acting as a filter to elevate the brand name of CrossFit. If you're not already subscribed to...

Since the first CrossFit Games, there have been certain trends that athletes have adopted to excel in the sport. There have always been those athletes who do well under the direction of a coach and others who might be more independent or even train with a group of fellow competitors. But as the sport grows and coaching businesses grow with it, you're starting to see a lot of athletes training unde...

Team competition back in the earlier days of CrossFit consisted of relay-style workouts, where the total score was the sum of individual efforts. This style of workout meant that the training could primarily be individual, and often you would see a broader range of abilities in team, maybe with one athlete always getting bottlenecked by a certain weight or skill. Now we see elements like the worm,...

CrossFit recently announced another round of season changes to the CrossFit Games, most notably increasing the field for quarter-finals qualification and decreasing the available games spots at semi-finals in some of the strongest regions. With frequent changes to the season structure in the last five years, who has been the most affected by this, and how does it impact the sport for some competit...

This week, we look at Flux Training intervals again and how a coach might programme that for a CrossFit athlete. We also touch on some different, less tangible KPIs to look at when measuring an athlete's performance or improvement, mainly an athlete's ability to recover while doing work and how Flux Training can help build the fitness and pacing skills to do that. If you're not already subscribed...

Zone two training has done the rounds and is gaining much attention from the competitive scene. CrossFit, being an "endurance sport", is an idea that is gaining popularity, and big names like Mat Fraser and Chris Hinshaw talking about the importance of low-intensity endurance work has made this training type of training pretty popular recently. But is it effective for improving someone's endurance...