#154 - Who's Cheating?
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 for a lighter one. At the other, you see more subtle infractions, such as a judge giving a warning for a squat that is just shy of full depth. Both technically count as cheating, but they are worlds...
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#153 - How to Train?
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 the best of their ability is one of the best leverage points for a coach. Much of this comes down to observing and interpreting training outcomes. These results often reveal whether the athlete is...
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#152 - Are You Actually Getting Better?
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 slightly. Coaches can use tools such as variation, psychological momentum, and developing complementary areas to support progress—but what happens when an athlete hits a ceiling with a...
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#151 - Big Changes to Training
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 and what you train for, or you're shifting the direction and focus of your training while keeping the same goal, some of these changes can be reactionary and driven by frustration—this is where you...
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#150 - Arguing About Book Learning
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 skills to tackle more complex challenges. This week's episode is all about striking a balance between being book-smart and having the coaching experience to handle situations effectively. We discuss...
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#149 - Beyond MGW
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 information is considered the best approach, sometimes it doesn't hold up, and you need to rely on your own training or coaching experience to create something more contextual and effective. In this...
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#148 - World Fitness Project
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 professionally signed male and female athletes, along with 10 challengers at each event. Additionally, team and masters competitions will take place at these events. Overall, this competition appears...
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#147 - Improving Moderate Weight Barbell Conditioning
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 lot of other movements included in the workout. It’s not a heavy barbell where strength is going to slow you down, but it’s also not a lighter barbell where your breathing is going to be the...
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#146 - How to Train for the New Open
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 competition. Given the constraints of needing to complete Open workouts in an affiliate —most likely able to be done in regular classes—we can make some educated guesses about how these workouts...
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#145 - Local vs Online Competitions
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 online competitions often differs from those who thrive in local, in-person events. This disparity largely comes down to the types of workouts, movements, and equipment used in these formats....
info_outlineIn 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 easy to get overly invested in the open and why competing can help you enjoy your training and give you the experience you need to improve.
Check out this episode to learn when data can be helpful and when it can be less helpful in goal setting and know why athletes who manage chaos and setbacks tend to do better in the sport.
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These podcasts are posted in video format on YouTube as well.
Show Notes:
- [1:30] Goal setting in CrossFit
- [2:30] Over investing in the open
- [5:30] Enjoying your training
- [6:30] Glorifying obsessive and driven CrossFit Games Athletes
- [10:00] When people do well with goal setting
- [13:00] Keeping people engaged in training
- [16:00] Using competitions to guide your goals
- [22:00] When data isn't helpful
- [27:00] Managing chaos and handling setbacks well
- [30:00] Jon is mentally tough