The best coaches use tools to reduce fatigue, improve the precision of their prescription, and autoregulate training — not because the tool itself is magic.
A few themes stood out from this conversation:
1. Autoregulation > Fixed Prescriptions
Whether it was:
- Velocity tracking (VBT or VT) → Stop sets when bar speed drops below target.
- Repeat desaturation (NIRS) → End sessions when athletes can’t hit oxygen/wattage targets.
- BFR → Increase stimulus while reducing load. As Tyson puts it “artificial intensity.”
The goal was always the same:
Stop training once the desired adaptation disappears.
Most CrossFitters, in my experience, are good at grinding until they break.
Few know when (or how) to appropriately push without going overboard.
2. More Fatigue ≠ Better Training
One recurring idea:
The ability to keep suffering doesn’t mean you should.
Endurance-biased athletes especially can accumulate absurd amounts of junk fatigue (aka. reps they won’t make them better at game day pace.)
So they need…
Velocity cutoffs.
Speed cutoffs.
Wattage cutoffs.
All become guardrails against turning productive work into unnecessary exhaustion.
For CrossFit athletes balancing strength, conditioning, skill work, and sport practice:
Fatigue management is performance enhancement.
3. BFR Works Best When Positions Already Work
Some people who observe BFR (Blood Flow Restriction) training in progress think it’s a shortcut or a hack.
But the truth is, it’s a brutal way to drive a very strong stimulus with less mechanical loading. Far from a shortcut, but it has distinct advantages.
4. The Best Coaches Experiment Carefully
The conversation kept coming back to this:
The best coaches in CrossFit tend to be trailblazers.
Not because they chase trends.
Because they’re willing to test ideas, measure outcomes, and discard what doesn’t help.
The difference between experimentation and gimmicks is:
Experimentation is measured. Gimmicks are marketed.
Keep chasing the 1% — Stay the Course.