#146 - How to Train for the New Open
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
Release Date: 01/13/2025
#167 - Using and Deciding on Fitness Standards
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 the sake of training. Todd has recently put together some standards for South Loop Strength and Conditioning, and in this episode we continue our discussion about what fitness standards and metrics...
info_outline
#166 - Right Amount of Legibility in Training
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 progress and this is something many people in CrossFit expereince. In the earlier years of CrossFit, single-modality testing and benchmarking were popular. Standarising tests like a 2km row, a max set of...
info_outline
#165 - How to Write Programming Faster
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 helpful. In this episode we talk about our ways of managing dips in creativity, where we get inspiration from, and how we batch certain tasks and programmes together. Check it out if you want to learn a...
info_outline
#164 - Templates for Group Programs
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 written programming for a CrossFit affiliate in a similar way. However, there is still a large portion of affiliate programming that uses a very zoomed out method. This might work for balancing things...
info_outline
#163 - Staying Power of Fitness Racing
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 to create an event that sits somewhere between Hyrox and CrossFit, providing a one hour fitness race like Hyrox, spread across three different workouts that test strength, endurance and mixed modal...
info_outline
#162 - Learning How to Program
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 can create challenges in long term development or in understanding how to go deeper when training certain qualities. A combination of learning the essential theory, like learning basic multiplication,...
info_outline
#161 - Coaching Catnip
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 in remote coaching, and reflect on what is actually important and what truly moves the needle forward in coaching. Check out the episode to hear more about breathing drills, secret weightlifting drills...
info_outline
#160 - How does Coaching Competitors Benefit Coaching Gen Pop
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 possible, and in some cases simplify how a coach views training. Some of these athletes do everything “wrong” according to certain strength and conditioning textbooks, yet they still improve. Check...
info_outline
#159 - Getting Better for Stagnant Class Members
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 necessarily doing additional work. Sometimes, having better intention and pulling the right levers can go a long way. If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, head over to to get a weekly...
info_outline
#158 - Minimum Effective Dose for Former Competitors
Legion Strength & Conditioning Podcast
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 typically maintain in such a high-volume sport? Keeping intensity and strength doesn’t require much, but the ability to tolerate the demanding nature of competition and qualifiers can fade quickly. It...
info_outlineNow 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 will be programmed. With three workouts, and potentially up to four scored events if there’s a two-part workout, the variety of movements will be limited. This means the weighting of any single movement could become disproportionately important—especially if one of the events involves a max lift, which would be scored on a single movement. It's likely we’ll see workouts designed with progressive skill levels, such as moving from pull-ups to chest-to-bar pull-ups, and then to bar muscle-ups.
These factors point towards a particular style of CrossFit workout that athletes may need to focus on in their training. For example, those who struggle with movements like burpees, wall balls, or rowing will likely need to dedicate significant time to improving in these areas.
But is it worth making such changes to your training? Considering the Games season is still evolving and will likely continue to undergo smaller changes and iterations in the coming years, it’s possible that next season could demand a different skill set.
In this week’s episode, we continue our discussion about competition and the changes to the season. We take a closer look at how these changes might impact athletes’ preparation and the decisions they’ll need to make about their training.
Listen to find out more about how these changes could impact athletes’ preparation, whether the Open now comes down to the luck of the draw, how to allocate training time for different competition styles, and the shift towards local events.
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 podcasts are posted in video format on YouTube as well.
Show Notes:
- [1:00] The structure of the new CrossFit Games season
- [2:20] Taking the top 1% from the Open
- [4:20] What does removing the Open do for athletes?
- [5:45] How many athletes will qualify for semi-finals?
- [6:30] Mistakes, penalties, and judging live or via video
- [10:20] Should people specialise just for the Open?
- [12:30] Will things change again?
- [13:30] Prioritising and allocating training time for different styles of competition
- [15:00] Is the Open now all about the luck of the draw?
- [18:30] The shift to local events
- [21:00] Archetypes of athletes making it through the Open