Exercise Scientist Critiques UNBEATABLE CrossFit Champion

Tia’s coach, Shane, has them hit skills like handstand walking regularly even though they may not come up. Dr. Mike explains that the physical machine is ready, but ‘the knowledge of how to do handstand walks, if you haven't done them in weeks, you could be rusty.’ In a sport where the events are a mystery until game time, any rust could be catastrophic. So the protocol is a deliberate shift from training to improve to training to maintain. He notes that most programs would normally continue to push skill gains, but the timing and the sport’s nature demand this inversion.

Dr. Mike walks through the coach’s reasoning: usually you do strength first because that sequence builds strength and endurance best. But because the CrossFit Games typically put the Metcon (longer conditioning piece) first and the heavy stuff later, athletes must know how to adjust. Tia’s program retains fresh strength days to continue pushing her absolute strength ceiling, while the fatigued strength days teach her body and mind what it feels like to perform heavy lifts when exhausted. Mike says that without this simulation, an athlete would be ‘out of their mind—your hips feel weird, your legs feel weird, your technique feels off’ on game day. The hybrid approach preserves both adaptation and specificity.

Dr. Mike was asked about the recovery metric after Tia showed a bad night. He says it’s ‘way better than nothing,’ but he would not use it like ‘chicken bones on the ground to predict how your workout's going to go.’ His framework is to carry on with the planned session despite a single low score. Only when low scores stack for several days, performance drops, and sleep is disrupted does he conclude it’s true under-recovery. The remedy is reducing training volume, increasing rest, food, and sleep. He emphasizes not making daily reactive decisions, which would disrupt the training plan.

While watching Tia’s third session (strongman at 1pm), Dr. Mike remarks on the necessity of advanced sport nutrition when training at this level. He doesn’t go into deep detail, but frames it as critical for maintaining high performance throughout a day that began with a 15km run. The pulsatile approach means not just a single huge post-workout meal, but frequent smaller feedings/hydration pulses to keep fuel status topped off.

Noticing Tia say she went to bed at 8:30 but lay watching the ceiling fan until 12:30, Dr. Mike says, ‘I hope she's not overreached. A sign of doing a lot of training and not recovering is a disrupted sleep pattern. And sometimes it just happens, though.’ He treats it as a yellow flag rather than a definite alarm.

Dr. Mike breaks the advantage into three components. First, the actual weightlifting movements—snatch, clean & jerk—are literally contested in CrossFit events, so technical proficiency transfers directly. Second, many other CrossFit movements are derivatives: squats, push presses, overhead stability patterns all stem from weightlifting and build a broad strength base. Third, weightlifting uniquely develops a combination of strength and flexibility that is hard to get from other sports. He also playfully notes the terminology: call a weightlifter an ‘Olympic lifter’ or confuse them with a bodybuilder/powerlifter, and they will be deeply offended.

Tia’s coach, Shane, has them practice a wide variety of skills (handstand walking, gymnastics) regularly in the build-up to the Games. Dr. Mike explains that an athlete’s fitness—muscles, bones, connective tissues, cardiorespiratory system—are already fully developed. However, the neural skill of complex movements can degrade in a few weeks without practice. Since the CrossFit Games events are unknown until shortly before competition, an athlete cannot afford to be rusty on any movement. So the goal shifts from skill improvement to maintenance: ‘you’re just trying to make sure you don’t get worse.’ This is a strategic pivot from classical periodization where you’d continue to overload skills.

Dr. Mike breaks down Tia’s 48 bpm as ‘phenomenal shape.’ He explains that months and months of hard training produce very oxygen-rich blood with high red blood cell counts, efficient at gas exchange and waste removal. Peripheral tissues become highly efficient at using oxygen, so when at rest they need less blood flow. The heart itself remodels to pump a large volume per beat (high stroke volume). Combined, these mean the body can sustain life with far fewer beats per minute. In contrast, poor health means the body demands more fuel and waste processing, blood is less capable, and the heart pumps little per beat, leading to a high resting heart rate, which is a poor health marker. He notes some gifted athletes can push into the 200s for max heart rate, but resting rates below 50 are exceptional.

After Tia shows a poor night’s sleep and a low recovery score, Dr. Mike is asked about recovery metrics from wristbands. He states they are ‘way better than nothing’ but must be validated against subjective feel and performance, as they can sometimes be ‘way off.’ His protocol is explicitly not to look at a single bad day and adjust. Instead, track the metric over multiple days. If the score is low for several days consecutively, performance is declining, and sleep is disrupted, that pattern is likely real overreaching and the only adjustment is to reduce training volume, increase rest, food, and sleep. This use of the tool as a trend detector rather than a coach-on-your-wrist is critical for serious athletes.