LEARNING LIBRARY

If you have been coaching for any period, you have likely received a question or complaint about wrist pain in the front and/or the overhead squat. Here's how to help your athletes.

Achieving health and fitness goals isn’t about willpower alone — it’s about creating a smart action plan, reshaping your mindset, and focusing on small, manageable steps. By automating decisions, addressing triggers, and designing environments that support healthy habits, you can reduce reliance on willpower and build momentum. Viewing willpower as a skill to practice and linking small, achievable goals to larger ambitions creates a cycle of success. Whether you’re reigniting an important goal you set months ago or preparing for the 2025 CrossFit Open, these strategies will help you stay on track and achieve lasting progress.

While there are many ways to structure a CrossFit class, Nicole argues that using a whiteboard is essential for fostering a results-driven environment where both coaches and athletes can thrive. It’s a simple tool, but when used effectively, it enhances learning, tracking, and community engagement — making a lasting impact on a gym’s culture.

Struggling with gymnastics skills in CrossFit? You're not alone. Many athletes feel overwhelmed by movements like toes-to-bars and handstand push-ups, unsure how to improve. The key to mastering gymnastics is breaking it down — just like weightlifting — by focusing on four foundational elements: shapes, tension, flexibility, and strength. By consistently practicing static holds, mobility drills, and strict strength work, you can build a solid base for kipping and dynamic movements. This guide offers a structured three-week plan to improve your gymnastics skills, helping you do workouts as prescribed with confidence.

Affiliate owners, we want to feature your programming in the official Community Cup workouts! Learn more about the contest from how to submit a workout, who can participate, programming considerations, and more.

During a recent clinic for people new to CrossFit, someone asked how CrossFit differs from traditional HIIT classes. The distinctions are clear: CrossFit prioritizes planned variance to improve broad fitness, incorporates high-power and high-skill functional movements, and offers superior coaching that emphasizes mechanics and progression. Unlike HIIT, which often relies on fixed circuits and low-intensity movements, CrossFit maximizes intensity through short, high-power workouts and task-priority programming. Additionally, its emphasis on measurable progress and a structured nutrition philosophy sets it apart, making it a comprehensive fitness methodology rather than just a workout.

The 2021 NCAA basketball tournament highlighted a long-standing misconception about women and strength training, but CrossFit has always challenged this narrative. In CrossFit, women lift heavy, develop real-world strength, and reap the benefits of resistance training — including improved metabolism, bone density, mobility, and overall health. Strength is essential for true fitness, and any program that neglects it is incomplete. Strong women aren’t the exception — they’re the standard.

Butterfly pull-ups are one of the most debated skills in CrossFit — praised for their efficiency yet criticized for their mechanics. Born from competition, they allow athletes to complete more work in less time, but do they belong in your training? This article explores the pros and cons of butterfly pull-ups, when (and if) you should learn them, and the strength prerequisites needed to perform them safely. Whether aiming for elite competition or just improving your gymnastics skills, this guide will help you decide if butterfly pull-ups are right for you.

Aging doesn’t mean slowing down — especially in the CrossFit world. Despite societal misconceptions, aging adults often see the most significant fitness gains, improving strength, mobility, and overall well-being. CrossFit’s emphasis on functional movements, weight-bearing exercises, and high-intensity training helps counteract age-related muscle loss, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular decline. Beyond physical benefits, it fosters mental resilience, social connections, and a strong sense of community — crucial for maintaining motivation and independence. With scalable workouts tailored to individual needs, CrossFit empowers aging adults to stay active, confident, and engaged, proving that fitness is for every age.

CrossFit’s foundation of varied, functional movements at high intensity has proven its effectiveness, but the rise of accessory work has sparked debate. Should it be included, and how? This article explores its role in strength training, rehabilitation, and performance enhancement while emphasizing that it should complement — not replace — CrossFit’s core methodology. When used strategically, accessory work can fill movement gaps, improve stability, and address weaknesses without compromising intensity. This first installment outlines key accessory categories and common pitfalls, setting the stage for Part 2, which will cover targeted exercises for improving CrossFit movements.