In today’s information age, finding an online coach is like shooting fish in a barrel. Everywhere you look there is another platform, another program, another coach. Even though the principles are the same, what varies from coach to coach is their ability to not only apply the principles to the athletes they are working with, but their deliverables to the clients in a professional manner.

Here are Conquer Athlete’s seven principles to being a good online coach.

CrossFit is a demanding fitness regimen that incorporates a variety of exercises and movements to improve strength, endurance, and overall fitness. To get the most out of your Crossfit workouts, it's essential to incorporate the principle of progressive overload into your training. This principle involves gradually increasing the intensity, volume, or frequency of your workouts over time, to continually challenge your body and promote ongoing gains in strength, endurance, and fitness.

Here are some tips on how to use progressive overload in Crossfit.

The CrossFit Open brings mixed emotions for most athletes. Some thrive under the pressure, while others crumble. How you plan for the start of the competitive season can play a major role whether you thrive in the OPEN or you just survive. 

When I’m working with athletes, I think of competition in three phases, before, during and after and each phase has specific skills attached to it. As athletes, the sooner you realize and embrace that competition is a skill the sooner you’ll begin to thrive in it. 

The CrossFit Open is here! For some, this is just another walk in the park. For some, this is a fun community event where they get to throw down shoulder to shoulder with other members of their community and compare themselves to the best of the best. For others, this is the start of what they have been training for over the past year(s).

There are many variables to doing well in the CrossFit Open. However, my goal is to touch on four topics that can yield a huge impact for you.

Here are some ways that coaches and athletes can prepare themselves for the CrossFit Open. This is definitely not exhaustive, but will surely help to get you focusing on what will put YOU in the best position to perform at your best. As always, having a Coach to help guide you through the X’s and O’s will always be your best resource, but for now, let’s call this a close second.

Conquer Athlete had quite the showing at WZA in Miami last weekend. Here are the athletes who represented Conquer, results, and highlights.

One major problem I see with “proving” if CrossFit is an effective program lies in one of its foundational principles of preparing for the unknown and unknowable. The application of it is different for everyone. Because there is no centralized delivery of workouts, it’s up to the affiliates to interpret the method and put out a product. It is up to both the program design side and how you the athlete decides to complete it that determines if it’s a “proven” and effective program.

A common question that coaches are asked is whether or not they should seek out Remote Coaching or In-Person Coaching. In truth, there are very compelling reasons why either could be more serviceable so it’s not a matter of if one is better than the other, per say. What needs to be determined is which is the best option for the athlete at any given point in time.

Dec 11th, 2022 marked the conclusion of the famous CrossFit Legends Championship. For those that do not follow the Competitive CrossFit space, this is a Master’s only competition held at CrossFit Mayhem in Tennessee. The Conquer Team had amazing athletes there that we want to highlight!

CrossFit, as a sport, is based around the idea that through “constantly varied training” we will be “prepared for the unknown.” This means that athletes in the sport must be able to perform movements from Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Powerlifting, Endurance Training, Strongman, and more without any idea of how they will end up being tested. With so many different skills and exercises to learn and only so much time to train, the question then becomes how do we include the right amount of variety without sacrificing structure within our programming?

One of the most impactful things we can do as a coach is to understand that we are also leaders and guides. Oftentimes as leaders, egos can get in the way. When the leader presents himself as the end all be all, there will be a lack of those who will follow. As coaches, we need to be able to have conversations, and take in information from our athletes, our staff, and know that others may have expertise in areas that you don’t.

Program design is an art, there’s so many variables when it comes to building a program. Fatigue principles, intensity prescriptions, internal and external stress, time, athlete experience, injuries, the list goes on and on. If you’re serious about reaching your highest potential, which I’m sure you are if you’re reading this, I’m here to tell you that your piecemail program is killing that potential.

It’s 2022 and people are still out here dogging CrossFit and its effectiveness as a training model. I think we’re at the point now where we can really look at CrossFit as a tool to develop all forms of athletes when the time is appropriate, and that's the big caveat here: timing.

Program design is an art, there’s so many variables when it comes to building a program. Fatigue principles, intensity prescriptions, internal and external stress, time, athlete experience, injuries, the list goes on and on. If you’re serious about reaching your highest potential, which I’m sure you are if you’re reading this, I’m here to tell you that your piecemail program is killing that potential.

Everyone has, at some point in their training, experienced a plateau regardless of how fit they are. It can be very frustrating and leave you feeling disinterested and unmotivated with your training. This feed-forward cycle can wreak havoc on long-term success which is why I want to discuss some ways coaches and athletes can break through plateaus before they become problematic.

Master CrossFit Athlete Coach Jason Leydon lists a 10-step approach to programming for a CrossFit Masters Athlete. Read more.

Over the years, we have seen a total influx of on line coaches and fitness “experts” appear out of thin air. With this, comes each person's “expert” view on how to train, look good, move good etc. However, many people are missing the key ingredient to any coaching experience, and that is the part of BEING A COACH. Read more.

The 2023 CrossFit Open is a short five months away! With the holidays approaching, by the time you come up for air, the open will be here. So, this is the perfect time to really dial in the necessary tools to ensure you have the best CrossFit Open season yet. For this to happen, I broke down the top three action items you need to put into place.

The longer people are involved in training, the harder and harder it takes to hit new PR’s. However, that doesn’t mean that their skills need to slow down too. Rather, what you should be seeing is an increase in your ability to perform them, or you’re able to add onto your skills in a way that will benefit you and your workouts. Yet, for some reason many people see a slow down in their ability to perform skills, add to skills, or progress in their skills. So, I have listed some main reasons for this.

Compared to the early days of CrossFit, the average athlete in the sport is now expected to perform a wider array of gymnastic movements at ridiculously high volumes. It’s amazing to watch and it’s even cooler to sit back and think about how far these athletes have come in such a short period of time. But with expectations and demands still increasing, I have found myself wondering if we have forgotten the value that a strong foundation has on improving performance and preserving the athlete.