Rich Froning Training Tips

CrossFit has recently started influencing my training again, so I’ve been researching Rich Froning for ideas as to how he approaches his training. Thanks to this research, I’ve spotted a few patterns and have put together a short list of Rich Froning Training Tips.

I recently watched the Rich Froning documentary, ‘Froning‘. It’s an official documentary about the four-time winner of the CrossFit Games, widely accepted as the Fittest Man Alive.

This isn’t a review of the documentary – I didn’t watch it to criticise it. I wanted to see how the fittest man alive trains, especially when his sport is absolutely randomised; no competitor has any idea of what they have to do, so their training has to cover all bases.

I watched it with an interest in fitness – what lessons could we all learn from Rich Froning about his training that we could apply in our own way.

Rich Froning Training Tips…

Strength Comes First

The most obvious lesson that jumped out at me was how everything is based around strength. Although of course he has to do his conditioning work, his endurance work and skills work, his strength training comes first. I’ve watched a lot of Rich Froning clips and this is a constant.

It makes sense: being strong makes exercises at a heavier weight easier and less fatiguing. It’s also a way injury-proofing your body; all things being equal, a strong body is less likely to break down than a weak body. Given the huge volume of work required to be a successful CrossFit games athlete, he can’t afford to be injured.

It takes longer to build strength than it does conditioning, so put the hard yards in earlier and more regularly.

Rich Froning Training Tips: Strength is the most important aspect of your fitness. Strength allows you to move, carry, balance etc. Focus on that – cardio comes later. A strong body is more robust than a weak one.

Train Movements, not Muscles

Training seems to be split into days, based on the strength exercises (see above). A typical week may be ‘Squats, Presses, Deadlifts, Presses, Squats’ with heavy snatches and heavy cleans thrown in twice per week to keep his strength and technique in those exercises.

Notice there isn’t a ‘leg day’, ‘chest day’. It still amazes me that so many young guys in the gym follow a split routine when they can barely squat their body weight. Focus on compound exercises, done regularly and well to increase strength, power and muscle mass.

Rich Froning Training Tips: Train movements, not muscles. If it’s good enough for the fittest man alive, it’s good enough for a skinny 17 year old. With correct exercise selection you can make gains much faster and safer.

Don’t think you can develop muscle with full body routines? I beg to differ….

CrossFit (and Rich’s training) have a lot of bodyweight exercises in there. If you’re interested in trying a different type of workout routine, check out the bar brothers system, a routine focusing on calisthenics – it’s a great way to incorporate whole body, bodyweight workout routines in to your training.

Listen to Your Body

CrossFit famously believe in a randomised approach to exercise and nobody personifies this more than Rich Froning. In one documentary I watched about him, when asked how he does his programming he replied “by the seat of my pants”. It’s the embodiment of listening to your body.

Daily workouts are adjusted depending on how he feels on a given day. This almost casual approach to programming means stress levels are kept lower as he won’t ever feel as though he didn’t do what he should – instead he did what he could. There is an important distinction there – stress raises cortisol, which catabolises muscle. That may seem trivial, but at the level he’s competing at, it’s the 1% that can make the difference.

Rich Froning Training Tips: Do what you can – if your prescribed workout that day is too easy, do more. If it’s too tough, do less. Don’t follow if it doesn’t fit.

Clear Workout Focus

Rich Froning trains multiple times per day (3-6 daily workouts), and each one has a clear focus. He doesn’t seem to ‘mix modalities’ within a workout, for example he keeps his strength workouts and his conditioning workouts separate.

Contrast this with a typical gym goer, who may spend 20 minutes on a bike or treadmill and then try to lift weights. Would they be lifting as well as they possibly could having already done 20 minutes work? I doubt it. That means the potential improvements in stamina and strength have both been blunted.

Rich Froning Training Tips: Pick a focus for a workout and stick with it. One day, so strength work. Another, do conditioning. Just don’t mix them as you’ll blunt progress in both. This also allows for shorter, more intense (therefore beneficial) workouts.

Mental Toughness

Work capacity is often a matter of mental toughness. It’s well established scientifically that your brain works on a self-preservation basis – it’ll tell you to stop before your body will.

Rich Froning has said a number of times that he isn’t the strongest or the fittest in his sport, but he’s the toughest mentally. There have been thousands of motivational posters made along those lines, including this one of Rich Froning himself…

The truth is training is hard. Sometimes it’s really hard. But it’s also temporary and most importantly, it’s bloody good for you.

If you can’t tolerate a little discomfort every now and then, your fitness will never increase to any reasonable degree. As they say, if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. There’s a lot of truth in that.

Rich Froning Training Tips: Learn to live with the temporary discomfort of exercise. Sometimes you just have to work a little bit harder to see results. The only way to train this is to experience hard work a little more often, so up your frequency!

I hope you’ve learned something from this article. It’s important to look for the effective shortcuts to better health and fitness and these Rich Froning training tips should help you do that – as the fittest man alive, he knows a thing or two about training!

P.S. I’m giving away a FREE eBook ‘101 Health and Fitness Tips’ to everyone who subscribes to my VIP email list. By joining the list you’ll have access to exclusive content, discounts, offers and products from both me and selected partners. Click here to download!