Had a great chat with one of my friends today who does programming and coaching for a good many Crossfit Regional and Games athletes. Our conversation centered on the necessity or ill-necessity of personalized programming templates down to the exercise, set, and rep. The question is does EVERY athlete need a program that looks different from every other athlete that is in theory “designed just for them?”
My first question would be where in ANY sport is that a reality? Does Julio Jones have a different amount of routes to run or balls to catch than Roddy White? Does Nelly Cruz need to catch more backwards running fly balls while David Murphy needs to catch more fly balls running forward? Has anyone noticed the entire MDUSA weightlifting team lifts off the same basic template? So if this is true for EVERY sport out there why would it be different for Crossfit? Cleans, Snatches, Front Squats, Sprints, and KB Swings are universally beneficial. Everyone needs to do them! How they are arranged and the exact loading should depend on the goal of the cycle and the phase of the season. The basic template for athlete development for Crossfit is pretty simple. Look at what part of the season they are in (off-season, preparatory, etc) and base their conditioning, lifting, and auxiliary work off the energy system being trained at that point. In the off-season EVERYONE needs to be gaining maximal strength and developing aerobic endurance. No exceptions to that rule. Can you ever be too strong for the sport? Can you ever have a 0ver-developed aerobic capacity?
That being said there are some things to be considered in programming differently for individuals. While I believe a basic lifting and strength cycle is widely-applicable basic common sense says that working out individual weaknesses is ALWAYS beneficial. If one of your competitors can’t efficiently kip the HSPU then technical and strength work specific for this skill is a must. If one of your athletes loses midline stability every time they do a front rack movement then clearly midline stability work needs to be a part of their programming. This is basic common sense. That’s no different than comparing Tiger Woods practicing his golf swing next to Rory Mcilroy. Are they both going to hit their driver some? Yep. Are they both going to chip and putt? Yep. Will Rory likely work on his short game more than Tiger? If he’s smart. Will Tiger spend more time on the putting green then Rory? If he EVER wants to win a Major Championship again. They both have basic skils and practice reps they have to hit to be good at the sport. However, as a part of their basic work they will always add weakness work specific to how they are currently playing.
The same reality is true of Crossfit programming. Everyone needs to do certain work. Strength gain is a must. However, if you are stringing 30 MU together in 2 min but can’t run a 400 m in under 3 min there might be some smart additional work to be done there.
My point is two-fold. If every coach out there created a different template and program for every one of their competitive athletes two things would happen:
1- The coach would never sleep
2- The athletes would get a watered-down, last minute program that has as much thought put into it as a baby puts into farting.
Secondly, a general strength and conditioning template has worked to develop athletes and competitors in every sport around the world for a century. Why would that differ for Crossfit athletes? You think Rich has some magical potion of genius programming and unknown strength template? Absolutely not! He’s a strength and conditioning coach. He uses what he knows and it’s pretty basic. (I’ve seen parts of it) Yes specific work has its place in development of skills and weaknesses. However, a different strength and conditioning template for every athlete in your program is a waste of time, not any more helpful than a general template, and quite honestly is an attempt by a coach to look smarter and more creative than they actually are. The world’s best athletes didn’t have a individualized program written just for them from the creative mind of their coach. Their coach used a basic template and created something that works. Be careful of anything else.
Glory 
But would you say that depending on the athletes goals, individualized coaching is necessary? I know you do it for Ingrid and Natalie. How is that different? I get that for some athletes who may just want to bust their ass in the gym and get results and have fun, a basic template may work. But what about those who have specific goals in mind and looking to compete at the highest level possible?
I think you’re confusing individualized coaching and individualized programming. Of course I believe in having a coach for you specifically BUT any coach with ANY understanding of basic strength and conditioning programming knows that one template for strength and conditioning training will be affective. I use a basic 12 week cycle for all my athletes including Natalie and Ingrid. For instance all my athletes in off-season programming did clean and jerk with a pause at the bottom of the knee today. They all did backsquat and they all did Pendlay rows. It’s a basic strength template that benefits every single one of them from Jason Hoggan to Ingrid. That being said, each of my athletes got slightly different auxiliary work and their conditioning movements may be slightly different based on their weakness BUT it was all based off the same template.
Any coach who thinks they need to create a completely different template with different work everyday for every athlete has ignored every sports team and competitive athlete’s training out there. It’s just not necessary and likely doing that for every athlete they coach creates more workload than any one coach can handle. Which in turn creates sloppy programming.
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I have to disagree here. Yes all football players do weight training and practice but the wide receivers program does not look the same as the linemen. In baseball, the pitchers program looks different than the position players. Yes, basic strength programs work for athletes but if you have 2 male athletes A’s #’s: Snatch: 295, Cl&J 355, Front Squat 370, Fran 2:05, FGB 275, 5k Row 22:05
Athlete B #’s: Snatch 225, Cl&J 275, Front Squat 305, Fran 2:15, FGB 401, 5k Row 18:03.
You can’t simply say they need the same program during the off season being a basic strength program and basic conditioning program.
Athlete A is obviously extremely explosive and powerful with no gas tank. Could probably improve is Sn & Cl&J with simply getting strong and no speed work. Needs a lot of aerobic work. Athlete B is not strong needs to work on speed strength and just getting strong. Has an incredible gas tank which probably needs very little if any off-season aerobic work. CrossFit is different than other sports b/c there are so many variables.
I clearly respect you a lot as a coach as I watch your blog all the time. This is not a jab at you, just something I like conversing about.
Two quick things on this.
1. A pitcher is literally playing a different position with different demands and different skills then a position player. Crossfitters all do the same movements the same amount under the same conditions inside of a competition. There are no positions or differences in demands required.
2. Athlete A Front Squats 370. You think if he front squatted 470 the 5k row would be easier for him? (apply less effort for the same meters) Athlete B has no strength and therefore if he gets stronger I would argue his conditioning numbers will always reactive positively. More strength equals less energy needed to complete the same work.
Bottomline: Getting stronger is ALWAYS beneficial for EVERY athlete regardless of numbers and gaining a better aerobic capacity (especially in the off-season) is ALWAYS beneficial for EVERY Crossfit athlete. So why create two different templates? They both need the work. One just has more room to grow in one area than the other. And general strength and conditioning work will create gains in both areas and generally the weak areas increase faster than the areas that are already strong.
1. Would Individualizing “season” of the trying cycle be the best way to build the CF athlete?
Specifically, assuming the Athlete is too weak to handle the Rx weights and is very far from their individual genetic potential yet has the technical proficiency (training for 2 years), be better off recycling the strength and aerobic conditioning cycle multiple times? IF so, can how many times and can over do this?
2. Also, I assume Strength training is not impaired by aerobic training?
Or said another way… adding anaerobic training to a strength cycle is a no no?? (for strength gains)
Thanks for all you do!
Stole my thoughts on your last response. Which leads me to ask why are dead lifts not programmed very often in olympic WL programming? I get that using them too frequently would be hard to recover from, however i dont see why adding in say 1X5 once every 5-7 days would hurt. If i take my DL up from 360 to 450 it seems to reason that now pulling my clean at say 255 would begin to feel lighter. i understand that a dead lift is slow and a clean is not excatly the same however once again the stronger you are well it seems the better you are.
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during the crossfitters off season when focusing on maximal sstrength development and aerobic capcity, how many conditioning sessions would you prescribe and allow for optimal srength gains ?
Depends on how you define conditioning. Traditional Crossfit style WODs maybe 2-3 but certainly monostructural low intensity conditioning is a big part
Ok, would you do the mono unstructural stuff on top of 2-3. In an active recovery format ? appreciate your insight.
No in replacement of