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10/16/2026

Gymnastics tests on the menu today for Nikita.

Set 1
For Time:
21 HSPU
21 Pull-ups
15 HSPU - 2” Deficit
15 Chest to Bar
9 HSPU - 4” Deficit
9 Bar Muscle-up
(3:15 ish)
—10 Min Rest
Set 2 - Videoed
For Time:
21 HSPU
21 Pull-ups
15 HSPU - 2” Deficit
15 Chest to Bar
9 HSPU - 4” Deficit
9 Bar Muscle-up
(3:30 ish)

Each that was performed unbroken. That wasn’t the intention of the design specifically, but it was something I thought she could do.

Nikita moves really well through all of these movements. The challenge of the movements increase of each level of the set. Again, it is a hallmark of good CrossFit competitors to be able to perform these types of designs quite well.

So I tried to come up with design that would be both engaging and challenging for her. Mission accomplished (I think).

—Michael

10/12/2026

Ayasha was not supposed to do this in her training. She asked me if we were working towards testing “Grace“. Because this is 2026 and not 2013, I probably have to explain what “Grace“ is to many people.

Grace
For Time:
30 CJ @ 135lb/95lb

Anyway, she wanted to know if we were working towards testing Grace. I said no, but I said if you wanna do it, you can do it right now.

It was a section of her training that just involved doing some barbell cycling work. We had been doing this for a few weeks in a row and I think she probably assumed we were building up to testing Grace.

Previously, I used to think like this for competitive individuals. I used to think training towards a specific benchmark was a really good way of training. But I don’t actually think that is actually a great idea for competitors anymore. Some exceptions, moving on…

So, I asked her if she wanted to do it right now instead of what I had planned for her. She accepted the challenge and gave it her best effort. I can’t remember her time exactly but it was just over 90 seconds. She gave a great effort.

Moral of the story, there has to be athlete buy in for training to be at its best. That said, it is good for the athlete to see that their training is not a porcelain doll, that cannot handle any form of stress. The training plan is not fragile. It should be adaptable, flexible. It should be able to handle surprises and necessary adjustments. It is not pre-planned, it is not actually periodized.

I believe it’s good for the athlete to see this in their Coach. For them to see that if they change something or make a mistake or miss something it’s not a big problem, it’s just a very small thing. And it may not even be a bad thing.

—Michael

The real benefit to using the hardware-software spectrum/framework is that of coming up with good ways of progressing a ...
10/09/2026

The real benefit to using the hardware-software spectrum/framework is that of coming up with good ways of progressing a movement forward in terms of the hierarchical progression (Fragile-Resilient-Anti Fragile).

So for instance, let’s say you have an individual that wants to learn how to do a ring muscle up. You get to know that person and their ability, then you discern that they don’t lack physical ability to perform the movement, they lack the skill set. They’ve just never done it.

So the lens you take is much more in terms of the software side of design.

The focus must to be on allowing the individual to experience the positions within the movement and to begin learning how they will perform the movement. As a Coach, you are not gonna give them the perfect drills, you just have to give them an opportunity to begin learning.

So, the emphasis is on designing movements and drills with the idea of improving the ring muscle movement as it is. The goal of the designs is not to create fatigue within one aspect or body part (to build work capacity). For that is a hardware lens of design. That doesn’t mean improper, it just means that’s not the intention with which you should be focussed on this person.

Conversely, maybe you have an individual that you are watching perform the ring muscle and you can tell that they simply just lack the physical power to make the movement better, or make it even happen.

It’s not that they can’t achieve a good swing, or they aren’t transitioning their energy from the swing into the turnover, or they don’t know how to do the turnover. They know how to do the movement and they know what they want to be doing, they just can’t do it.

More like someone who just simply can’t do a legless # rope climb. They don’t lack the skill set to climb the rope, they just can’t climb the rope. This is much more of a hardware limitation.

Therefore, it would make more sense to skew most of your designs towards that end of the spectrum, knowing full well that that is the problem with this particular person in this particular movement in this particular context.

Staying with the hardware and software spectrum idea I mentioned yesterday, you can think about this, not only in terms ...
10/08/2026

Staying with the hardware and software spectrum idea I mentioned yesterday, you can think about this, not only in terms of designing a training session for a particular person, particular movement and particular context.

as with the examples provided here, you can see that you can think of this in terms of:

1 - Various Sports
2 - Various Movements/Components within a sport
3 - Various Roles within a Team Sport

Different sports have different requirements in terms of the spectrum.

A sport like the 100 m sprint is extremely reliant on the individual having high level hardware. The amount of power and speed they can produce is what determines their success. I know there’s a lot more to it than that, but it is true that if this athlete has a slight reduction in their capacity to produce power and speed due to ageing or ailment, then their success will readily decline in a sport like this.

i’m not exactly sure where to place CrossFit on this, but I know it’s not as far to the left as a 100 m sprint and it’s definitely not as far to the right as golf.

I hope you can see the distinction between a sport like golf and the 100 m sprint. If an individual begins to lose some of their speed and power, they can compensate and adjust their strategy and play and still win.

CrossFit is in between the two here. While heavily reliant on the hardware, absolute physical capacity, tactics and strategy and knowledge etc are very important.

The requirements for different movements within the same sport would also fall on distinct aspects of the spectrum. This is simply a handstand push-up example. You can equivalent about where things should be and why they should be there, but I just want you to see that this exists and it’s important to think like this.

You can, and should, do this for all movements.

Within a team sport, different positions will demand different and will reward different types of athletes.

You can’t say the physical (hardware) and knowledge (software) demands are the same for the quarterback versus a defensive lineman. These positions will not only require people to be of different body sizes and abilities, they will require different skill sets.

Although not perfect, I believe the hardware and software spectrum I have developed over the years is a good model for t...
10/07/2026

Although not perfect, I believe the hardware and software spectrum I have developed over the years is a good model for thinking about training designs.

Hardware:
All the things you can readily observed and measured. How big someone is. How much muscle they have. How much weight they lift. How fast they can run. Things like that.

Software:
The stuff that doesn’t weigh anything. You can’t see it, you can’t touch it and you can’t measure it. Which many times, renders it less valuable among researchers. Why an athlete moves the way they do. Why they make the decisions they do in competition. Why they are able to react and adapt in certain ways. And things along that line.

Today’s example is meant to provide a way of seeing this in training for a ring muscle up.

Either option may be suitable here, depending on who you are talking about and in what context the training will be done. However, the point is to show that you need to think about these three designs differently. The intention of each design could be silo into some arbitrary part of the hardware and software spectrum.

it is very important that you do not think of this as an either or option. Hardware or software. Hardware versus software. They work together. I believe you can emphasize one side or the other. But you cannot remove one side or the other.

There are many more examples then what I have provided here and much more to discuss about this. If that interests you, you can register for my upcoming seminar.

Link - https://checkout.square.site/merchant/MLNSCB5BXHNDE/checkout/73QCAOZCEFGWHGIRTA3ROMNM

—Michael

This may be suitable for the individual that lacks pressing strength in a dipping specific manner. Nothing special about this design, basic bodybuilding principles. Goal being to make the movement and the triceps specifically stronger.

You are trying to isolate certain components of the hardware, and to train them specifically.

Well, this design will still carry components from the hardware design, being that there will very much be a limitation in the pressing musculature, this design is definitely elevated in terms of movement requirement and the failure point changing from solely cont

“And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams” - The Alchemist by Paulo CoelhoGiving effort,...
09/28/2026

“And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams” - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Giving effort, self inflicted discomfort, slightly chaotic, anxious, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year… this part of the performance process. Once you set your aim, clarify your goal, develop the meaning of the pursuit, the suffering then has a purpose. There is a reason for it. It can be understood as necessary, not inconvenient.

—Michael

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself” - The Alchemist by Paulo CoelhoThe indiv...
09/27/2026

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself” - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The individual that has put all their chips on the table, leaving themselves no excuses, is willing to be totally vulnerable in competition, they indeed will be ready to struggle, to suffer for what they want. And then, when it inevitably comes, they will realize that their fear of suffering was indeed worse than the suffering itself.

—Michael

This is a famous saying associated with British transit. It is quite literally asking you to pay attention to the gap be...
09/23/2026

This is a famous saying associated with British transit. It is quite literally asking you to pay attention to the gap between the platform you are standing on while waiting for the train, and the train itself.

You could take this statement and apply it to sport as well. Especially, Fitness.

What is a good competitor?

Their performance in any one particular event or competition, on first attempt, is closer to their true 100% than others.

That doesn’t mean they won, or finished first, but as a percentage, they got closer to 100% of their actual best on the floor than others. They had a very small “gap“ between their potential and their observed performance.

It should be easy to follow the logic here, but it is actually quite hard to measure this in any real sense. You could have the individual perform a new test in training, then have them practice the test in training in various formats, and then retest it and see how they do. That is one option among many. This assessment would also be heavily dependent on the athletes adaptability, especially if something is truly novel.

For the competitive athlete, their training then has 2 main purposes.

1 - raise what their 100% is in absolute terms. Increase their potential. Improve their measurable ability.

2 - minimize the gap between their potential and their actual performance in a novel scenario or in any scenario in a competition. Increase self efficacy and help them to know themselves. Minimize simple mistakes like not remembering the order of the event, where to be next or other associated requirements with the performance.

Personally, I always felt that I fit more into the first category here. I always felt like I was limited by my actual ability and I did feel like I always got the most out of myself in any competition. I just wasn’t good enough.

Just like anything, you will have to take this one individual at a time. Some people will need to focus more on the first part (like me) while others will need to focus more on the second part.

Either way, Mind The Gap!

—Michael

Picture taken during my trip to London, England for the 2018 IF3 world championships.

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