Beyond the Comfort Zone: How Elite CrossFit Coaches Push Athletes to Their True Potential

CrossFit’s coaching standard is the gold standard for fitness. The CrossFit coach is not a cheerleader. The act of coaching is deliberate, focused attention: looking at one person at a time, considering their specific context, caring deeply about their goals and challenges, and helping them progress step-by-step so they can discover their true potential. 

Coaching excellence on the gym floor extends beyond the context of helping athletes master technique, implementing high-level teaching progressions, implementing expertly crafted lesson plans, or programming detailed workouts. All of these things are valuable, but may be secondary to being able to provide the appropriate challenges relative to each athlete’s capacity. 

Master coaches know how to push their athletes for more and when to pull them back from doing too much. This may mean we are called on to take athletes out of their comfort zone, regardless of their level of experience. Many of our athletes are unaware of their true capabilities or potential. We are responsible for helping them realize their true potential. Yes, we have our athletes do hard things, but it’s not aimless or with the sole goal of smashing them into the ground for the sake of doing hard things — although I do love that on occasion! 

Threshold training is a core coaching concept we utilize to provide the appropriate challenges to our athletes daily. When implemented appropriately, the physical and psychological benefits will be valuable. Next, we will explore how to provide challenges throughout an athlete’s journey and examine practical scenarios of what threshold training may look like on a daily basis. 

Beginner CrossFit Athlete

Beginner and/or deconditioned athletes are focused on the mechanics of movements and low doses of focused intensity. Providing challenges for these athletes typically revolves around achieving the primary points of performance of our movements and scaling workouts effectively to meet the demands of the day. We positively reinforce the athletes when these attributes are achieved. Taking these athletes out of their comfort zone may include trying new things common to CrossFit athletes but uncommon to them. For example, using a barbell, any form of jumping, performing any variation of a pull-up (scaled), and executing workouts with any degree of intensity will often be unfamiliar and create a sense of nervousness. Provide these challenges in the appropriate doses and celebrate these victories. Doing so may keep the athlete motivated for future progress. 

Intermediate CrossFit Athlete

Intermediate athletes encompass a broad range of individuals who have plenty of experience executing the movements and can occasionally do workouts as prescribed. They may struggle with higher-level skill movements, such as muscle-ups, handstand walks, and squat snatches, but can perform easier variations of these movements with sound mechanics. They may also struggle with workouts that involve challenging prescribed loads or high-volume bodyweight movements. 

This athlete has plenty of room for progress, but can become complacent with scaling options, loads being utilized, and level of effort. This complacency may lead to premature plateaus. 

Aiding these athletes’ long-term development may be best achieved by some of the following: 

• Dedicated focus on acquiring new skills. Acquiring higher-level skills can provide a huge boost in overall performance. Including times where athletes focus on advanced skills (e.g., muscle-up or snatch) in their warm-ups and/or cool-down, or as a part of additional 15- to 30-minute skill sessions, are easy ways to provide new opportunities for practice in low-stress environments.
• Vary scaling options. Athletes at this level may become complacent with scaling workouts in the same way (e.g., always scaling pull-up workouts by using the same band), so coaches need to guide athletes to alternatives to drive progress. Consider rotating primary scaling options monthly to provide your athletes with more varied training. Learn more about this strategy and much more in our conversation with gymnastics specialist Pamela Gagnon here.
  
  Varying scaling options may also include scaling toward a weakness. For example, if your athletes struggle with heavier loading and always scale workouts by reducing the load and performing all of the reps, consider having days where they reduce the reps and utilize a more challenging load. This can be an easier opportunity for them to include an additional session each week, targeting an area of improvement.
• Push intensity. We will explore this further in the threshold speed/load sections below, but in brief, this athlete may simply need more intense daily workouts and potentially new goals/expectations. As an athlete’s capacity increases, so does the level of difficulty being placed upon them. This is one of the many reasons why CrossFit never feels easier! See more on this topic in our discussion with Pat Barber on plateaus here.

Tenured CrossFit Athlete

These athletes may be those who have been with your affiliate for several years (potentially a decade or more). They may have reached a point where hitting new personal records is infrequent, and they may be starting to regress slightly. First, this is part of the athlete’s journey that we discuss at the CrossFit Level 1 Certificate Course when we discuss our definition of health as workout capacity across broad time and modal domains throughout life. In this discussion, we say the athlete will have a period of time where they build capacity, a period of time where they maintain capacity (achieving personal records occasionally). As the athlete ages, they will see a regression in performance. It’s easy to lose sight of this natural evolution. For example, I started CrossFit at 25 years old and am still doing CrossFit at 45 years old, but my days of hitting new records are likely behind me due to age, shifting priorities, etc. 

For these athletes, it is imperative you still find opportunities to provide new challenges for them, as it’s easy to feel unmotivated. It may involve adding an extra 5 lb to their barbell before a workout, challenging them with a specific work-to-rest ratio, or setting new goals. It is easy to let these athletes slide, but they still want the challenge and are thankful when it is given to them instead of always being left performing what is comfortable. Seek out opportunities to provide these challenges. 

Threshold Training

Threshold training is how CrossFit can provide challenges to individuals on a daily basis, relative to their physical and psychological readiness. Threshold training is a method of pushing an athlete’s physical limits at a relatively high intensity to improve fitness over time. The key is to maintain sound mechanics and consistent technique while working at an elevated pace; if form breaks down, athletes scale back, regain control, and then push again, effectively increasing their capacity at a high effort level. It is a balance of intensity (speed, load, volume) and precision of movement. 

This concept applies to conditioning workouts as well as heavy days. 

Threshold Speed

Threshold speed refers to conditioning days and is deemed to be the speed at which an athlete can work without a breakdown in mechanics. This speed increases over time and must be challenged. Moving too quickly or too slowly must be avoided to maximize an athlete’s progress. 

Consider the following:

Athlete A: Performs every rep perfectly.

Athlete B: Performs every rep with technical errors. 

Athlete C: Performs nearly all reps correctly, but has very infrequent and subtle breakdowns in mechanics. 

In each of these instances, it’s crucial to determine the appropriate course of action as a coach. Essentially, we need to assess who is threshold training. In this example, Athlete A likely needs to be pushed for more intensity (working below their threshold), Athlete B needs to have intensity reduced (exceeding their threshold), and Athlete C is performing their workout at their threshold and likely needs no changes. 

Threshold Load

Although not an official concept presented at the Level 1 Course, it is important to know how to manage athletes’ loading during heavy lifting days instead of letting them solely determine their loads. The threshold load may be deemed as the load someone can use without a technical breakdown or a load that forces the athlete to exert a high level of strain.

Take a look at the following scenario for a heavy set of 5 back squats:

Athlete A: Mechanics are good, and bar speed is good for all reps.

Athlete B: Mechanics are good, and bar speed is very slow.

Athlete C: Mechanics are good for 4 reps out of 5, with the 1-rep deficiency being a minor error (a slight shifting forward).

Athlete D: Mechanics are unsound for 4 out of the 5 reps.

In these instances, Athlete A should likely be pushed for more load, Athletes B and C are likely working at the correct load, and Athlete D has exceeded their threshold and would benefit from a reduction in load. 

This seems simple, but managing these often overlooked factors is critical. Correctly managing our athletes will help them to be safe, motivated, and improve their results for a longer period than they ever thought was possible.

About the Author

Eric O’Connor is a Content Developer and Seminar Staff Flowmaster for CrossFit’s Education Department and the co-creator of the former CrossFit Competitor’s Course. He has led over 400 seminars and has more than a decade of experience coaching at a CrossFit affiliate. He is a Certified CrossFit Coach (CF-L4), a former Division 1 collegiate wrestler, and a former CrossFit Games athlete.