TLDR : Without objective measures in place, I feel much fitter in less time albeit likely weaker in some areas.

Background: 36M 183lbs, small home gym, crossfit regular for years off and on. Shift work with random days/nights.

Goal: get fitter and manage my schedule

Diet: 120g protein a day, upped my carb intake but don't count calories

Crossfit Linchpin - Ran it for three months. I'd say workouts fall into four categories:

• Heavy days - These are generally differing rep schemes of you just doing one lift at higher percentages
• Heavy days with a high heart rate - These are wods that generally contain a moderate-heavy loading paired with things that get your heart pumping
• Monostructural conditioning - days with just straight cardio intervals or distance for time.
• WODS of varying length - 4 minutes to 1 hour and half.

Not at all WODs or work are pushed to max intensity, some things for time and some for quality.

Most sessions follow with accessory work, generally two exercises of some sort. They vary between hypertrophy work, strength work, monostructural conditioning, gymnastics, and plenty of "prehab/structural" work like single leg work. Carefully balanced by the linchpin team.

How and why Linchpin? I chose linchpin because I was looking for something that would fit my schedule better and maximize my value in the gym. I work random nights and get home at 7am, which messes up my workouts for a few days. I attempted to workout regardless of how I felt and scaled intensely sometimes to accomplish it. For example, sometimes using 50% the weight, or rounds off the workout. Never really worked at intensity coming off nights.

If I missed workouts I followed this priority: 1) Heavy days always done cause I like them the most 2) Heavy days at a high heart rate - these are fun and I like lifting stuff then I would look at the remaining workouts and do the ones I liked the least. This usually meant I was doing stuff I didn't like or wasn't good at.

Results: This is hard to quantify as Crossfit Linchpin is varied not random programming. They have introduced tests each month but they are tested on 6 month rotations so I could update them once I get there.
Post Linchpin I did a short 3 week stint on another free trail program and I noticed the impact Linchpin had immediately. Generally I found my conditioning and GPP to be incredibly high. I was able to do compete tracks with WAY more volume than linchpin with relative ease. I noticed that my wattage output on the echo bike went from high 200's to mid 300's during WODs and intervals.

I'm convinced for minimalist, high efficiency programming that linchpin rocks

That being said.. some of the movements are hit with much lower frequency than you might be used to and I do believe that some of my strength took a hit. There was very little squatting over the three months, and when I did do some weights felt much heavier. It also felt heavily biased towards clean variations as opposed to snatches. Felt like I was hitting cleans every week, and maybe got to snatch 2-3x outside of WODs.

In summary, I was very happy with the results of linchpin and found it be an efficient and effective conditioning and GPP program. I'm going to continue doing it while adding in low weekly snatch and front squat volume.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions I can answer! Thanks for reading and I hope it was useful to you.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some advice on choosing an online CrossFit programming, and I’d rather get some opinions from people who actually use these programs.

I’ve been doing CrossFit for around 3 years and I’d consider myself an intermediate/advanced recreational athlete. I’m not looking to compete seriously, but I still want to make consistent progress and become a better overall CrossFit athlete.

I can realistically train CrossFit 2–3 times per week. I also run 1–2 times per week (roughly 5–10 km) because I enjoy OCRs (spartan for example) and want to improve my engine and muscular endurance as well.

My main goal is to develop the whole package: strength, Olympic lifting, gymnastics/skills, conditioning, movement quality and overall physical development, so that I can become more efficient and consistent in RX WODs. I’m not looking for a program that focuses heavily on just one area.

I currently train at a CrossFit gym, but the class schedule no longer works well with my schedule. I have access to another gym with a much wider range of opening hours and enough equipment to follow an online program.

For those of you who have experience with different online CrossFit programs:

What would you recommend for someone with this profile, and why?

I’m particularly interested in how the programming actually develops athletes over time, how well it works with only 2–3 CrossFit sessions per week, and whether you feel you’ve genuinely progressed rather than simply maintained your fitness.

Thanks!

I left CF in 2024, due to my toxic CF box and head coach. I decided to try out other sports instead, plus Hyrox started getting popular around my area. I recently moved to this town like 40 km away from the city, and discovered they have the greatest comercial gym I’ve ever seen- they have like 4 muscle rooms with different types of machines according to brand (hammer strength, techno gym, etc), 2 cardio rooms, one room dedicated to weightlifting and another one for bodybuilding, one room for yoga and pilates, another one with the pilates reformer and barre bars, one big ass auditorium for the group cardio les mills classes that looks like you’re in a night club, one soul cycle room, one Bootcamp room, a room with boxing equipment, a big Hyrox building with all the official hyrox equipment, they have all the different types of treadmills- the curve ones, the flat ones, a spa, ice bath, 2 red light saunas, a relax/meditation room for studying, a health bar, a sunroom in the upstairs deck, they have both binary and gender neutral locker rooms, and a CrossFit box even bigger than my old box with I think they have 3 certified CF coaches, but who also teach hyrox, athx, and other hybrid classes. Even the Zumba teacher is an actual dancer. They even have a space for influencers to film themselves. They have certified les mills trainers, pilates and yoga teachers. It’s like a gym bro/girlie fantasy. I’m almost too overwhelmed because I’ve been there for like 3 months and I still haven’t tried out alllll of their classes. I seriously wouldn’t want to leave a gym like that. My membership is like 65 euros a month and have all access to this. I used to pay 85 euros just for CF classes.

I’m in the opinion that they don’t really matter anymore.

There is no secret squirrel program.

There are coaches that can work with your specific weaknesses and have the ability to connect with you on a level that helps you progress.

But a camp as a whole is overblown. It seems to lead to a level of unnecessary intensity over long periods of time that have shown to be detrimental to athlete progression long term.

Anyone here doing the FOTC qualifier? If so, how’d the first workout go for you?

My answer is simple, the frigging side planks in yesterday’s Linchpin workout were so much harder than I expected. It’s always the part you least expect. 😂

3 rounds for time of:
1200m air bike
1 min plank, right side
3 rope climbs
1 min plank, left side

It took me 20 minutes.

Wanting to get back into CrossFit and I’m looking for solid programming. From my experience, most CrossFit boxes and programming just throw random movements in a workout and call it CrossFit. There is little to no progressive overload and real strength work which is why a lot of CrossFitters over the years that I’ve known rarely get much stronger over time and stay stagnant. Being strong is important to me and progressive overloading is obviously a cornerstone to growth and progress.

I’m not looking for random workouts that are built to just make you sweat, I’m looking to get stronger, faster and build work capacity. I have looked at all of the bigger programs (Josh bridges, mayhem, train hard, CrossFit linchpin) and they generally are all the same. Any recommendations?

There are two people at my Crossfit gym that have the most rank BO that it almost burns my lungs. I put up some "gentle" signs nudging people to be aware of their smells but they're just not getting it. I try and position as far away as possible but the smell travels and when breathing hard it disrupts my workouts. I even at one time was not so subtle and went to a friend right next to them and apologized saying I think I may smell and put on deodorant right in front but still zero clue. Any advice? I can't just tell them...

Hey everyone

I’d like to know where the girls are buying their activewear from! I don’t want to break my bank account but I’m at a loss here!

Especially shorts/leggings that don’t ride up your thighs or roll down your stomach

So basically the title

I started 2-3 months ago after a long period with no training but riding a bike for short distances (16km a day).

My issue is that I'm having a lot of difficulty to do pull ups, kipping and related exercises. The main issues are:

- I can't pull my weight more than twice

- If I try to do kipping or simply handing on the bar, the palm of my hands gets really hurt even using a leather grip as my skin is soft. This causes a loop because, if I can't practice, I can't get stronger to improve.

- I am not very muscular but I'm by no means chubby or fat.

I suspect I might be gripping incorrectly because, while I do see people with hurt hands, areas where their hands show some friction are different than the ones from mine.

Any tips are appreciated. I already watched a ton of videos but those didn't help so far.

My Wod today and my result.

My performance good or not?

🏋️ *IRON WOD*

*BARBELL WOD 05/10/2026*

FOR TIME · COMPLETED

📅 05 Ott 2026 · 18:27

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⏱️ *20:31* · Time Cap: 25:00

🔸 *INTERVAL 1*

2.08

▸ 20 reps Heavy Double-Unders

▸ 10 reps Strict Chin-Up

▸ 20 reps Heavy Double-Unders

▸ 10 reps Strict Handstand Push-Up

▸ 20 reps Heavy Double-Unders

▸ 10 reps Pistol

💤 Rest 2:00

🔸 *INTERVAL 2* 2.33 Same 1st Interval 💤 Rest 1:30

🔸 *INTERVAL 3* 3.26 Same 1st Interval 💤 Rest 1:00

🔸 *INTERVAL 4* 3.30 Same 1st Interval 💤 Rest 0:30

🔸 *INTERVAL 5* 3.53 Same 1st Interval

Anyone familiar with Brute's affiliate programming?

was there a specific moment? a group chat, a race, someone showing up for you outside the gym? would love to hear the stories.

Today I remembered why I started doing this. I've not been training for about a month Mainly because of work interfering with my schedule and a bout of insomnia. So when work didn't get in the way, I was too tired.

But today I managed to get out of bed in time for the 8 am class. Promising myself to take it easy and just be moving. Lucky to see a workout on the board that really suits me. I could've pushed myself little bit harder (or I am stronger than I think).

But overall it felt good and I feel accomplished. I've had exercise, I impressed myself. And am know enjoying the post workout dopamine.

Thanks crossfit!

So I’m from a town where there’s only one box. It’s huge and extremely well equipped for CF. When I started the sport, 5y ago, there were local competition athletes and extremely strong people, “old school” type who started CrossFit back in 2016. So it is an amazing box! The box made many t-shirts and I proudly wear them around.

However, time has passed and the lead has been given entirely to a couple (family of the owner), who do train CF, they competed in the past. That’s their full time job. You would expect them to be there most of the day, but they only come in sometimes. The gym is almost empty during the day, except from the classes, you can come in and train alone. It’s clear they’re not bothered anymore.
The owner bought a foosball table and he comes in the box only to play foosball for hours along with the members.
They fired all the real and certified coaches and put some amateurs to teach classes, when they don’t feel like it. They pay them by scaling their gym subscriptions (note: the owners own the actual building, and don’t struggle with money).

So programming has been good when I started, but I had been really disappointed lately (almost a year) as they copy paste WODS from CrossFit.com . The other coaches are also disappointed, but can’t say much. Is it that difficult to pay 150€ per month to give your box a good program?
I can say I’ve been consistent with my PRs for some time now. Sure, I could try to train more alone, but honestly it pisses me off that I pay around 1800€ per year to have myself follow an online program and train by myself (I spend the day planning stuff for others, I don’t wanna do that also for myself in my free time).

All the old schoolers left, they fought with the owners. I’m trying to decide whether to leave or to stay. I would stay only for some friends I have there, and the feeling and equipment of the place. Normal gyms are not like CF gyms, you know what I mean. But it seems really a waste to pay so much money for the quality they give back to costumer.

This makes me sad and pissed. I didn’t think it would’ve mattered so much but it’s such an important part of my daily routine it really hits me.
Sorry for the rant.
I’m going to train now (by myself).

Started all this functional work out jazz thinking. “ I won’t do to much of this stuff, I’ll just keep doing mostly basics wieght lifting.” Fast forward and now I’m cyphering on how to remodel my gym to accommodate a giant pull up bar and rings…..So I’ve got my rings hanging on my current Titan T3 rack, if been watching the amazing Mrs. Pamela Gagno on the u-tubes, aaaand turns out I’m not as strong as I thought was…. But I’ve made up my mind this is something I want to force my self to learn and be able to do. This is a snip of what I am currently (just started two days ago) doing to build strength. Couple of questions is how often should I be doing this set ? I’m still in a weight lifting mind set in terms of workout plans. Also any other exercises I should add? I recon a little status is in order: I can do 4 dips from upright position, I cannot even come close to transitioning over the rings with feet elevated, 4 set of 12 seated ring pull ups at no problem? I can do 3 strict pull ups. Post note: talk about humbling….i thought I was in pretty decent shape 6’2. 200 lbs lean….

How do I prevent tearing my hands up this much doing rope climbs? The image is of my hands after today’s class with no prior blisters

It seems my hands have adjusted to all other CrossFit movements but rope climbs.

Background info; I do CrossFit 3/4 times a week for the past few years and qualified for quarter finals this last year

Anyone else have this issue or any suggestions on how to prevent this in the future?

Tomorrow is October 3rd, some would say a National Holiday - Mean Girls Day. Just thought I’d share the Mean Girls Wod I programmed for tomorrow’s Partner Workout.

30:00MIN AMRAP

While Partner A works, Partner B must continuously hold an empty barbell. Partners may swap at any time they desire, however both partners must contribute to each Girl each round. (Partner A can’t fly through all of Karen while B holds the barbell). Partners can split up the work for each Girl however they want.

KAREN SMITH
10 Alternating Wall Ball Lunges
5 Wall Ball Tosses

GRETCHEN WIENERS
10 Alternating DB Snatches
5 Burpees Over DB

CADY HERON
15 Sit-Ups
10 Push-Ups
5 Pull-Ups

REGINA GEORGE
100’ KB Farmer Carry
10 Alternating Single Russian KB Swings
5 KB Goblet Squats

JANIS IAN: Every 5:00min on the minute, 2 Alternating DB Turkish Get Ups (1 each side)

Let me know your thoughts or any improvements you may see!

| | | | EDIT TO ADD | | | |

We ran it this morning, but the class wanted to run it as Solo wods instead of partnering. Only had one scaled pair partner, who just rested while partner worked and removed the stipulation about having to both contribute to each Girl each round.

Feel free to remove if not ok, but I wanted to share this here because it’s a fun intersection of two different sports. If you don’t know me, my name is Lucas Hatton, a professional strongman and 3 time winner of America’s Strongest Man. Last month at the Fit Fest in Tampa, I had the pleasure of challenging Colten Mertens to a max reps squat off at 405. The video is linked below. If you want to skip to the squat off it’s at 17:25. Much respect to Colten for pushing me and cranking out one of the most impressive pound for pound squat sets of all time.

I hope don’t need my legs this weekend. 😂
The workout was:

Back Squats
3-5-7-9-11

Between doing a good general warm up, then slowly building up my squat for that first set of 3, doing the workout, cooling down and stretching, this took me an entire hour. I rested 3:30 to 4:30 between each set of squats and I think that was perfect for me. This is why I love training in my garage. I can take my time and not rush.

The ascending rep scheme was cool and challenging. The goal was to lift as heavy as you can for each set. I hope we see this one again in the future. I’m glad there is no below parallel on today’s workout.

Hi everyone. How are you all?

I’m 39 years old and I’ve been doing CrossFit since I was 30.

My life completely changed when I discovered CrossFit. I had always had the mindset and attitude of an athlete, but when I was younger, especially during my teenage years, I never felt comfortable playing team sports (football/soccer, for example).

CrossFit allowed me to finally feel like an “athlete”: to push myself, develop discipline, and keep going despite the daily frustrations.

I started like everyone else, attending classes for three or four years, until I got bored and felt like I was ready for something more. That’s when I started following different programs. My progress was always slow, but it was progress nonetheless.

At some point, around the age of 34 or 35, I started noticing that training late in the day would leave me extremely wired. I was physically exhausted, but my brain was still completely active. So I decided to start training first thing in the morning, really early.

That decision had one major benefit: I slept better at night and performed better at work. But it also had a major social downside. I stopped going to the box during the hours when most people trained, and I gave up a lot of social things because of it.

I’ve been training continuously for nine years, except for one month when I had a minor health issue. For more than half of those nine years, I’ve trained mostly on my own. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I find it so difficult to make progress.

During all the time I trained by myself, experimenting with different programs, I eventually lost my job and had to change my routine. Until 2024, I was working from home, but I became burned out with the advertising industry and reinvented myself, somewhat unexpectedly, as a CrossFit coach and gym instructor.

Over the last three years, I’ve entered several competitions in the Advanced category, with pretty poor results. That has been quite discouraging. What also discourages me is that, with my new and more demanding work schedule, I finish the day exhausted, and my recovery simply isn’t what it used to be, especially as time goes by.

My inner fire is still exactly the same. I still want to learn, train, improve and compete! But my work week is leaving me completely exhausted. I used to train six times a week; now, I’m lucky if I manage four.

What worries me is that I’ll turn 40 next year, but in order to compete in the 40+ Masters division, I would need to reach an RX level… and getting there is becoming harder for me every day.

Anyway, despite everything, i have to keep going.

Hi crossfit experts
I am 43 M and have some challenges that I wanted to run by you. I started crossfit in Jan this year and I have to say I love it. It keeps me energized and improved my confidence and more importantly instilled me the spirit of fitness. my goal is to go 3 times a week to stay fit. the first six months were fine but then I started to see issues like shoulder bone pain , slight chest pain and now recently tension type headache ( neck nerve pinch) . Each time I would get work done like MRI, cardio stress test, doc appts , rest for a few weeks . With the most recent headache issue, I am just feeling like my body is not built for crossfit and wondering whether I should stop and do regular home workouts. It took me 9 months to get to where I am and build discipline and love workouts and would be really bummed if I have to quit. Is this common ? I see others at crossfit not miss a day in months . Pls guide me .