If You Want to Be Better at CrossFit, Stop Doing CrossFit

As an Affiliate Owner, Affiliate Programmer, CrossFit Coach, and Online Coach, let me begin by saying something perfectly clear:

I absolutely fucking love CrossFit.

It has been the only style of training I’ve followed for the past 14 years and I’ve never looked beyond it, I’ve never needed to. CrossFit gives us the freedom, structure and specificity to develop all 10 physical skills it set out to target when it launched in 2001. It remains, in my opinion, the best general physical preparedness programme ever created.

But let’s be very clear…

If you are reading this right now, you’re probably not the target audience CrossFit was originally created for.

And that matters.

Why We Fell in Love With CrossFit

Most of us came to CrossFit because of three things:

• The community

• The constant chase for intensity

• The overwhelming feeling of achievement when you collapse on the floor after a metcon

I certainly did and I lived that version of CrossFit for far too many years, likely to the detriment of my long term progression.

Class programming is brilliant for what it’s designed to do. It helps Sarah, who trains four times per week, improve her general fitness, get stronger for life activities, stay motivated and be healthy. That’s the fundamental purpose of CrossFit: broad, general preparedness.

And that’s exactly what it delivers.

But generalised training creates generalised outcomes.

And that’s the hard truth most people don’t want to hear.

Here’s the Problem:You Want More

You want to be better at CrossFit. Not just fitter or healthier for life, you want to:

• Hit bigger lifts

• Master higher level gymnastics

• Improve your engine

• Compete, even at a local level

• Stop feeling “stuck” at the same numbers and skills

If that’s you, then here’s something that might sting:

If you want to be better at CrossFit, stop doing CrossFit.

Or rather…

Stop doing CrossFit class programming.

The programming that created CrossFit was never designed to make you a competitor or an advanced athlete. It was built to serve the broad population.

You have decided you are not the broad population, you want more!

Your goals require a different approach.

Why Class Programming Won’t Take You Where You Want to Go

CrossFit classes have one job: create balanced, scalable fitness for the general public.

They must:

• Cater to all ability levels

• Balance volume so people don’t overtrain

• Rotate through movement patterns

• Train large groups efficiently

• Keep workouts safe and achievable within 60 Mins (Important)

• Maintain intensity for everyone

That’s why CrossFit Classes work, but it’s also their biggest limitation.

Class WODs are not designed to:

• Drastically improve your Olympic weightlifting or strength

• Improve high skill gymnastic technique

• Double your engine capacity

• prepare you for competition style volume

And no, doing more classes or pushing harder won’t change that.

You simply cannot out intensity your way to high level skill.

INTENSITY IS KILLING YOU AND YOUR GAINS:

Intensity is incredible for the people who only train 4 hours a week. For them, intensity is king and something they rarely get elsewhere. In that context, it’s perfect.

But if you’re training with specific goals in mind, intensity can quickly become the single biggest killer of your progress.

You cannot build real strength, refine technical, or develop high level movement quality when every session feels like chaos. You cannot improve your lifts if every day is a race. You cannot fix positions when your heart rate is redlining. You cannot master high skill gymnastics when you’re clinging on for dear life.

Tell me this! How many high level CrossFit athletes train with the same percentage of all out effort that you currently do?

The answer is almost certainly close to zero.

Because here’s the truth:

Intensity is a tool. Not a lifestyle. Not a default setting. A tool.

Elite athletes apply intensity strategically, in the right sessions, at the right times, under the right conditions. It is never constant. It is never the daily objective and it is never allowed to interfere with the development of strength, skill, or technique.

If you want to be better at CrossFit, stop trying to live in a permanent state of intensity.

You need structure. You need progression. You need sessions where the goal is mastery, not survival.

Once you learn to use intensity properly, ironically your CrossFit performance will skyrocket beyond anything you’ve achieved by simply going harder.

What You Actually Need

If your goal is to be better at CrossFit, your training must evolve into something more intentional and progressive.

1. Strength cycles

Not random strength days, actual cycles with measurable progression.

2. Skill sessions

Dedicated time to refine gymnastics, barbell cycling, Olympic lifting, positions, timing, and technique outside of the noise of intensity.

3. Engine development

Aerobic intervals, pacing work, threshold sessions not just whatever metcon appears on the whiteboard.

4. Accessory work

Stability, unilateral strength, positional work and injury prevention, the foundations that make everything else possible.

5. Consistency

This is the biggest factor to improvement, being consistent, hitting the percentages, working those skills regularly! With all the will in the world, class programming can never provide the same level of consistency required to see leaps in performance, and nor should it.

CrossFit Isn’t the Problem — Your Approach Is

CrossFit remains one of the greatest training methodologies ever created.

But using class programming to become a high level athlete is like taking a beginner guitar class and wondering why you’re not ready to play lead guitar on a stage.

Class programming does exactly what it’s meant to do.

It’s your goals that have changed and when your goals evolve, your training must evolve with them.

We should all attend a class session every once in a while, it reminds you why you started, shows you how far you’ve progressed and keeps you connected to the community. But don’t lose sight of your goals. Too many class sessions become missed training opportunities and missed training opportunities stall progress. Random is not what provides progress. Intent and direction is!