In 2013, I launched the RX Cross-Training Gymnastics Program. The impetus to develop the program came from seeing hundreds of clients over the course of five years of being a Strength and Conditioning coach at various Cross-Training gyms and observing that the standard Crossfit programming resulted in glacial progress of a client’s pull-ups, handstand pushups, and other bodyweight movements that are consistent in Cross-Training programming. If you’re reading this, you’re likely to have noticed the phenomenon of seeing dedicated 20 to 50-year clients who have been consistently Cross-Trainingting for 1-2 years and still struggle with basic movements like pull-ups. They come in 3-5 days a week, work hard, and yet struggle with the gymnastic component of Cross-Training.
This observation eventually led to an understanding that there was an inherent limitation for progressing bodyweight strength movements in the standard Cross-Training programming repertoire. Simply put, there were too many people dedicated to Cross-Training programming who were not getting strong enough to do the basic gymnastics movements. I take issue with this because it doesn’t require much effort to develop the necessary strength with a smart and pragmatic linear strength program. To this day, there still are far more barbell linear strength programs in comparison to gymnastics linear strength programs despite the weight Cross-Training places on individuals being able to be competent in bodyweight movements. There is a multitude of factors that explain the disproportionality but that can be left to another time.
From that understanding of the shortfalls of Cross-Training in developing bodyweight strength, I eventually developed a yearning to develop a solution. For months I tested, wrote, and researched in order to develop a program that could be used in conjunction with a standard Crossfit programming, and so the Cross-Training Gymnastics program was born. Since its inception, I’ve had the opportunity to work with over a thousand Cross-Trainingters to get stronger with the gymnastics movements while still making progress with other skills required of the sport.
Along the way, I also developed the RX Barbell Program. It operates under the same precepts as the gymnastics program where it is meant to develop the barbell strength of an athlete to the point where they can RX the standard Cross-Training workouts with weight lifting movements without having to substitute or decrease weight.
Since the launch of the RX Barbell program in early 2015 I’ve been unsatisfied with my Cross-Training strength programs in the sense that they treated Gymnastics and Barbell movements as totally different aptitudes. If someone lacks enough bodyweight movement strength to be effective in Cross-Training they probably also lack the strength in the barbell movements. Sure, someone could buy both the Barbell and Gymnastics program and cobble them together but this is messy and inefficient; not a graceful solution the least bit.
That’s where the RX Athlete program comes in. A holistic and elegant strength training program for individuals who want to get stronger so that they can RX Cross-Training workouts. It doesn’t matter if it is kipping pull-ups or thrusters. The RX Athlete program will get any athlete to the point where they can walk into a Cross-Training workout and be confident they can write a big fat RX next to their name on the whiteboard.
