Over the years I have trained over thirty CrossFit Games Masters athletes, and of those thirty athletes, I have produced over nine podium finishers with four gold medal winners. All of the podium finishers have one thing in common, as it relates to mindset: they all have the ability to spot the forest through the trees.

Over the years, I have seen many athletes start off blazing hot and then at some point crash out due to not feeling fulfilled around other areas in their lives. What I have noticed through working with thousands of people is that humans have this urge to go “all in.” However, they often, in my opinion, misunderstand that terminology. Going “all in,” doesn’t mean drop everything in your life for this one thing. Going “all in” means doing everything you can to be successful in your endeavor. Now, I know those too sound the same, yet they are in fact different. Allow me to explain.

There’s so many options out there for you as an athlete. My goal here is to help you pick the right choice for your ability level and your wallet. Finding the best fit for you will keep you consistent, and consistency is more times than not the thing that’s stopping you from achieving your goals. First what I’ll do is summarize each and then we’ll get into more of the specifics of choosing what’s right for you…

In the sport of CrossFit, you may have heard the phrase “that athlete has an engine”. What that really means is the athlete is very aerobically fit. This athlete who is known to have an engine will look like they can just keep going for hours on end, without ever needing to stop. An athlete's aerobic capacity is the base of their performance. Aerobic capacity is the maximum amount of oxygen an athlete can utilize for a period of time.

Burnout is no joke; you begin to see a dip in performance, increased anxiety around training, and just generally feel like you don’t want to “grind” anymore. Some people would say that you’re not burnt out, but rather you're just under-recovered… Personally, I think that’s bullshit.

When considering all the ways that someone could maximize performance, one thing that is typically mentioned but maybe under-appreciated is recovery. That’s not to say that good behaviors around recovery do not exist, it’s that it seems to get an uneven amount of attention as compared to the actual training program.

Over the years, I have produced nine different teams that have qualified for the CrossFit Games. I am going to outline three things I do with the team to put them in the best possible position to succeed in the Team Crossfit Games Championship.

Plan accordingly. Too often athletes jump into programs without truly understanding what they need and what their priorities are. CrossFit Masters athletes need to really break down the last year of training and establish where they did really well, and where they fell short.

As more and more Masters athletes come to Conquer, the more I see how a large portion of the Masters community is working off old ideas and principles when it comes to training. Addressing the Masters athletes out there - I don’t fault you for it, it’s just what’s been/being offered to you. Read more.

As more and more Masters athletes come to Conquer, the more I see how a large portion of the Masters community is working off old ideas and principles when it comes to training. Addressing the Masters athletes out there - I don’t fault you for it, it’s just what’s been/being offered to you. Read more.

For everything we do, we need to have an elite mindset. Whether this is around your job, your relationships, or your passion, you need to have a strong mindset. So, the next logical question is: What is an elite mindset? You can take each priority of yours and think about what defines a strong mindset to you based around how you define success within that area.

For a long time, accessory work was not commonly included in a CrossFit athlete’s program. I have to imagine that it wasn’t because people thought it was unimportant, but rather that in those early days of CrossFit the method and style of training was just different. But now, as the sport has evolved and the baseline level of fitness needed to be “competitive” has gone to a level that I don’t believe anyone could have imagined, more care must go into the training programs for these individuals. Accessory work, although a small part of a program, is a simple way to support the athlete as they deal with the physical requirements of the sport.

In the sport of CrossFit your ability to perform gymnastics, perform gymnastics well, and perform gymnastics for a shit ton of reps is pivotal. I have seen so often athletes jump stages in their training which ultimately leads to a “functional ceiling” created with in their abilities. This “functional ceiling” is referring to how many reps they can essentially perform and sustain within a workout. So, why does this functional ceiling get created? Basically it’s from a lack of proper progression while building their gymnastics skills. So, below I am going to outline three ways to not only improve your CrossFit gymnastics capacity, but also continually work to improve your functional ceiling.

Everyone has their own methods and progressions for competitions, but I have a system that I believe leads to success when programming workouts. My rule is simple, start with the highest neurologically demanding workout/test and work your way down the systems to the most aerobic.

I am not sure if it is my age, or my connection, which is growing, to this community, but I am falling deeper and deeper in love with the programming around CrossFit Masters athletes. I feel this could be from the understanding and appreciation of their work ethic. These people usually have families, and full time jobs, yet they get the work day in and day out with very little complaining or excuses.

The problem that I see with a lot of remote crossfit coaching lies within the coaching. The space is becoming saturated, and with the saturation you will get an influx of people looking to make a dollar. So the coaching, the programming, and the connection will become watered down as people price shop and/or program hop. So, here are a few things that people should be looking for, or receiving with their CrossFit remote coaching program.

In the virtual training space, there are a few principles, as I see it, that each coach should be adhering to in order to ensure their athlete(s) are getting the coaching experience they deserve. So, below are my big four that every online personal program should be following.

The Conquer MMA program is developed alongside my training of the fighters from FAA CT (Fighting Arts Academy). Over the years, we have built a program that allows these fighters and practitioners to train on and off the mats in a way that compliments the other.

The problem that many people have around following a program always comes down to results and expectations. I often hear about people program-hopping due to a lack of progress from their current track. Now, I am not going to get into program-hopping because that in itself can generate another short essay. What I am going to talk about today are a few reasons why you are not seeing results with your current online CrossFit programming track.

Masters athletes require a personal coach who understands them, their goals, their needs, and their abilities even more than other athletes in order to make sure they are being guided along the right path to drive the right adaptation.