All Posts

By: Briana Siegert One of the first things we do with each of our clients in their initial 2-Weeks into the program is an assessment. This includes movement assessments, strength tests, aerobic tests, and gymnastics tests of all varieties (max unbroken reps, analyzing movement/technique, and capacity). One thing I noticed is that Victor has great relative strength. He has a strong weighted pull up and his strict movements are great, but he struggled with a couple things tha

By: Kyle Spears Syndicate and NCC wrapped up this past weekend, sending a new batch of athletes to the 2026 CrossFit Games. While I say “new,” this is only new for the 2026 season. As we look across the leaderboards, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: time in the sport is extremely important if you want to compete at the highest level. Most athletes heading to the Games this year are multi-year veterans. Many have competed at multiple Semifinals or the Games on a team,

By: Bri Siegert “The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence; the past is a place of learning, not a place of living.”–Roy T. Bennett We’ve all been there. You’re prepping for a competition and there it is. The one movement you’ve been dreading all along. It’s one that seems to haunt you every time you see it because you think back to the last time you were tested on it and you failed. It might have been an unbroken barbell complex, a handstand walk obstacle,

By: Kyle Spears I’ve been having a lot of conversations with athletes lately about not “feeling great” during training sessions. Whether it’s during a metcon, a lift, or the entire day in general, the dialogue usually starts with, “This is normal, especially at this point in your training cycle.” In a work-capacity sport, sometimes the work just needs to get done. Intensity can be sacrificed depending on the day and the priorities of the training cycle, but volume is what tru

By: Michelle Pohle Lactate threshold runs are often one of the most intimidating sessions on the training schedule for athletes. They sit in an uncomfortable middle ground, harder than an easy aerobic run, but not quite an all-out effort. Because of that, athletes often approach them with uncertainty. Some run them too conservatively and never truly challenge the system, while others attack them like race day and completely miss the purpose of the workout. Threshold training

By: Kyle Spears In every other professional sport, athletes sit down and watch game film. In CrossFit, this isn’t much different at the top level—but more often, athletes engage with it because they love the sport or enjoy the entertainment around it. One of the biggest things up-and-coming athletes can do to improve their ability to compete is to watch film of higher-level athletes. I’ve seen many athletes learn tough lessons—or experience a slower development curve—because

By Michelle Pohle There is a version of hybrid training that looks productive on the surface but quietly erodes progress underneath it. This version is built on good intentions, it adds running to improve conditioning, increase fitness, or simply “do more”, but without structure, that added work becomes noise. Running often sits too close to heavy lifting sessions, lives at the wrong intensity, and accumulates fatigue in ways that are hard to trace but easy to feel which caus

By: Kyle Spears “Sporting Performance depends heavily on psychological factors such as; motivation (to achieve certain goals), aggression, concentration, focus or attention, the ability to tolerate pain or to sustain effort, the perception of sensations and events in training and competition, the placebo effect, communicative skills, the ability to cope with anxiety or stress, attitudes towards events and participants in sport, attitudes towards winning and losing, learning a

By: Bri Siegert Highly palatable and processed foods are designed to make us eat more. First, let's get it out of the way that most food is processed in some way. We can't avoid it and the word "processed" isn't necessarily a bad thing. If a food undergoes any type of change while it's being made it's technically "processed." Here, we are talking about foods like chips, sweets, cereals, breads, juices, etc. Before we dive deeper here, it is important to note that competitiv

By: Michelle Pohle I’ve been running for 25 years, long enough to have done it wrong a lot. Long enough to have chased paces that didn’t matter, ignored injuries I shouldn’t have, and learned the hard way that longevity in this sport isn’t about who can push the hardest. I’ve also spent the last 13 years strength training, CrossFit, hybrid training, coaching athletes, and that completely changed how I view running. Because here’s the truth: Running alone didn’t make me better

By: Briana Siegert When athletes say, “My first round felt the worst” or “I just felt so tight”, I immediately think, “ ahh. So, we didn’t warm up well enough.” If you or someone you know is guilty of a less than adequate warm-up then this one is for you. This one’s specifically for handstand push ups, but can really transfer to anything overhead: jerks, snatch, handstand walk, or even wall walks. And any of these might come up in 26.3 tomorrow given who our athletes are tha

Injury hits different when you’re a hybrid athlete. You’re not just lifting heavy or just running far. You’re asking your body to do both, often in the same session. So when something breaks down, it doesn’t just sideline one quality. It disrupts your strength, your engine, your identity, and your rhythm. But here’s the truth: Injury doesn’t end your competitive season. Poor transition planning does. The Hybrid Athlete’s Dilemma Events like HYROX and CrossFit Games demand str

By: Bri Siegert Every year, the Open rolls around and we see the same story unfold: athletes show up hyped, see the workout, hype themselves up… and then the clock starts. Two minutes in, dying and gasping on a 20:00 amrap. Sound familiar? The Open doesn’t reward bravado, it rewards pacing. Even more so, it rewards fitness and well-roundness, but that was a topic we’ve discussed if you go back to our recent blog posts. Today, we will be talking about pacing strategies. Why P

As a hybrid athlete coach, I see a pattern over and over again. Athletes train hard, they stack miles, they chase PRs, and they jump into whatever challenge, program, or event is next. But many of them are unknowingly building on a fragile foundation. Hybrid training isn’t about doing everything all the time. It’s about building a body that can handle everything for a long time. That requires a long-term approach to strength. Not just lifting heavy, not just “staying fit.” B

By: Kyle Spears The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin was a very influential book early in my coaching career. In it, he discusses how cultivating deep focus and establishing strong processes enabled him to master both Tai Chi and chess. He emphasizes that the process should be the primary focus in any endeavor, rather than obsessing over winning. What often gets missed, however, is that on his way up in both disciplines, Waitzkin did focus intensely on winning—and the proce

By: Briana Siegert For the last 10-15 years, we’ve been sold the idea that leaner is better. We can thank Fitspo for that. The thing is…most of those people that were selling this ultra lean body on the internet weren’t the healthiest. Many later came back with GI issues, hormones of a menopausal woman, despite being in their 20’s, eating disorders, and poor mindsets with food and body image. The internet can put is in a vicious comparison cycle that makes us think we have t

By: Michelle Pohle From the desk of a professional online coach who loves ambition, but loves long-term progress more. If you’re a hybrid athlete, chances are you’ve said (or thought): “I want to do HYROX, The Tactical Games, Hybricon, a CrossFit competition, and maybe a marathon… this year.” You’re capable. You like training. You don’t want to be boxed in. But here’s the hard truth most athletes don’t want to hear: Trying to train for everything at the same time usually mean

Over the past couple of months, I have been having a lot of conversations about what could be called the second generation of CrossFit competitors and competing in that era. This would be the 2011–2018 time frame, starting with the introduction of the Open to the death of Regionals (RIP). This was really a special era of competitive fitness, and we saw a lot of athletes make a living for themselves and really set an amazing foundation for the sport. With the setup of the seas

It’s hard to know exactly what to expect in the CrossFit Open and every year (almost) we get a new implement thrown at us. The bones of CrossFit is preparing for the unknown so you have to go into it with a childlike wonder and excitement for something new. There are definitely movements we see each year, some we see most years, and some we expect to see and then don’t. Now that the Open is 3-weeks long, we don’t see as much variety in movement. I like to think of Quarterfina

One of the most common questions athletes ask when they first look at a HYROX race is: “How long do I need to train for this?” The honest answer is that it depends on what you already bring to the table. HYROX isn’t just a long run with some weights, and it isn’t a strength event with a bit of cardio sprinkled in. It demands repeated high-force pushing and pulling, muscular endurance under fatigue, a strong aerobic base that can recover between stations, and the ability to ha