I sat down with Seth Page of Jump Ship Training to talk about something coaches and athletes still argue about: should you lift after a MetCon, or does conditioning first kill your strength? Seth runs three gyms on Oahu and one in Phoenix, and he writes the Jump Ship 90 program plus the affiliate class program that’s built from it.
The short version: Conditioning and lifting can help each other when the session is designed well. A MetCon with the right load, volume, and intensity warms up your positions and gets you out of your own head, and a lot of athletes lift more after one. It goes wrong when the conditioning is too hard, the movements are the wrong ones, or the athlete doesn’t own the lift yet.
| What you’re lifting after | What the conditioning should do | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic lifts (snatch, clean & jerk) | Open up range of motion and rehearse the pattern without frying you | Bike, dumbbell snatches, handstand walk, with a few squat snatches between rounds that get heavier |
| Slow strength (squat, deadlift) | Prime the nervous system with explosive work. More rounds, fewer reps, no deep fatigue | Small sets of box jumps, short runs, kettlebell swings |
| A test | Lift under real fatigue on purpose, like competition | A hard couplet, then a short window to hit a lift |
Does lifting after a MetCon kill your gains?
Not if the two pieces are built to work together. Seth’s example: before Diane, build to a heavy triple deadlift in 12-15 minutes. The deadlifts in Diane move easier because you’ve already handled heavier reps, so you can push the workout harder.
It works the other way too. If the load, volume, and intensity in a MetCon are right, it can prime you to lift better afterward. He doesn’t do this every day, only when it makes sense for the session.
Where I see it go wrong: athletes take that “heavy triple” to a true max and walk into Diane cooked. Or the conditioning before a lift is too hard, the movements have too much power output, and there’s nothing left for the barbell. The idea is fine. The application is usually the problem.
Why do CrossFit athletes respond to this differently?
CrossFit athletes are conditioned for it. Short, intense work is what they do all the time, so they recover from it faster. A deconditioned person lies on the floor for 10 minutes after Fran. Someone who’s been consistent in class is up and putting their barbell away in a minute or two.
Seth brought up the Open workout that paired chest-to-bar pull-ups with a heavy squat snatch ladder, where athletes hit snatch PRs 20 minutes deep. Traditional energy-system charts say that shouldn’t happen. My take: those charts assume continuous, all-out work. CrossFit isn’t continuous. You break the work up, and those breaks let you recharge enough to produce another big effort. Experienced athletes know how hard they can push on the bike and still walk over and hit a heavy single.
What’s the best MetCon format to set up a heavy lift?
Seth’s go-to is a longer interval piece, around 25-30 minutes, where the barbell gets loaded progressively inside the conditioning. For example:
- 3 minutes: bike, dumbbell snatches, handstand walk
- Go to the barbell and hit a few squat snatches
- Repeat, adding weight to the barbell each round
By the end you’re warm and you’re in the heat of battle. He says this is the format that gets him the most PRs from his athletes.
Ladders work too, as long as there’s something else in them. Double unders and burpee box jump-overs, then one power clean. Repeat with a heavier clean. Not much volume, just enough to keep your heart rate up and keep grease on the wheel.
Why do athletes lift more when they’re a little tired?
Two reasons came up:
- Positions. Most CrossFit athletes aren’t mobile, fast-twitch teenage weightlifters. They’re older and tighter, and they need more warming up to get into good positions.
- Overthinking. Give someone one snatch every two minutes and they spend the rest of the time obsessing over technique. Get them warm and moving and they stop thinking and just lift.
Seth’s example was double unders. An athlete who couldn’t string them together fresh picked up a rope after a workout and ripped off 30 in a row. She knew how to do them. She was just in her own head.
Time pressure helps too. If the piece is 25 double unders and one jerk every 90 seconds, adding 10 lb each round, it’s “just a conditioning piece.” That takes pressure off the number, and athletes often end up close to their best anyway.
One caveat: this is for intermediate athletes and up. If the lift isn’t in your brain yet, any fatigue will hold you back. Practice it fresh first.
Should you prime Olympic lifts and slow lifts the same way?
No.
- Snatch, clean & jerk: prioritize range of motion and the movement pattern. Bigger sets are fine as long as the weight is light. Sets of overhead squats at 95 lb could be good prep for a snatch.
- Squat, deadlift: prioritize explosive primers that wake up your nervous system, like box jumps, short runs, and kettlebell swings. Use more rounds and fewer reps so you never get deep into fatigue. Once you’re sloppy-tired, you can’t produce force.
For overhead work, there are low-fatigue ways to open things up too, like light overhead carries and overhead walking lunges. The key either way is managing your work rate across the whole piece.
How do you program strength without percentages?
Seth mostly stays away from cycles and percentages in the gym, because athletes are at such different places. Instead he controls a few variables:
- How long they have to lift (10 minutes to find a 5-rep deadlift is different from 20)
- How many sets
- How much rest between sets
- A one-sentence note on the goal
A set of 5 every 90 seconds limits how heavy anyone can go. A set every 4 minutes asks them to go heavy. Same lift, different stimulus, no percentages.
I mostly avoid percentages in class too. When I do use them, it’s off what the athlete built to that day, like a workout that says to use no more than 70% of the push press double you just hit. Everyone can do that, and nobody needs a 1RM that might be out of date.
What should a coach’s workout notes say?
The stimulus. For a push press, row, and pull-up workout, Seth’s notes would read something like: push presses in 1-2 sets, off the rower in a minute or less, pull-ups in sets of 5 or more. Pick a weight, distance, and variation that makes that happen. The rest is up to the coach.
When a MetCon is meant to set up a lift, the note might be “match efforts across all five rounds,” not “blow up in the first two and survive the last three.” The lift after depends on it.
Sometimes the goal is the opposite: crush yourself, then get a short window to lift. That’s a test, and it’s useful to see where an athlete’s ceiling is under competition-style fatigue.
Do you have to train mixed to be good at CrossFit?
Mostly, yes. There’s a place for separating things, especially for athletes near the top of the sport where the physiology matters more. But CrossFit is a mixed sport, so most of your training should be mixed too. You can’t just get good at each element on its own and expect them to come together on competition day.
Where can you find Seth?
Seth is on Instagram at @sethjumpedship and @jumpshiptraining. He also hosts The Steel Man on the CF Network on Sunday nights, where he argues the other side of what he believes and then tries to beat his own argument.
