Linchpin Conversations

• Intro
• Low Ceilings & Going Overhead.
• Underutilized Equipment.
• The VNR Cycles.
• Air Bike vs Rowing.
• Banded March.
• Strength vs Conditioning.
• Why Do People Love Running?
• Accomplishments I'm Most Proud Of.
• How Are The Goal Times Determined?
• Programming For Gyms 7 Days A Week.
• Training While Sick.
• Strongman Training.

Jared & his wife have 9 kids. He says having a big family is the best decision he & his wife ever made. He has worked in the trades for 35 years as a carpenter. His weight & his other health markers were in a very bad place for quite a while under he made some serious changes. He improved his nutrition & starting working out. Good things happened. He has been with Linchpin for over 4 years. This is his story.

• Intro
• How much Fitness is enough?
• How to develop a Strict Ring Muscle-up.
• How many thrusters = a wall ball?
• Deload Week vs Modulating Intensity.
• Moving a little bit during the day.
• Thursdays & Sundays as Rest Days.
• Re-arranging the training days.
• Chalk or no chalk?
• 1 workout a week.

Sean is a husband & father. He has a young son & very soon his daughter will be born. He experimented with P90X before joining the Army. During his time in the military he kept running into very fit people who said they did CrossFit. He did not try it himself until he watched the 2018 CrossFit Games & got motivated. He has been at it ever since. After several years at an affiliate he burned out & plateaued. This lead him to Linchpin & he has no plans on leaving.

• Intro
• Best Workout Songs
• Burpee Broad Jumps
• Don't Quit & Don't Get Hurt.
• 3 Biggest Things I've Learned.
• Wind Guard on Air Bike
• Run, Bike, & Row Conversions.
• When To Move From Scaled to Rx'd.
• Extra Training.
• Realistic Expectations & Phases of Life.
• "Leaky Ankles"
• Amraps, EMOMS & More
• What Does a "Healthy Body" Look Like?
• Using Sleds & Odd Objects
• My Fitness Goals.
• Subs For Running & Other Machine Work.
• Convert Barbell Workouts to Dumbbells.

Mike is a father to 3 grown children, all of whom are currently serving in the military. He spent some time in the Navy as well before working 15 years in the oil industry. He has been a member of various gyms, but has decided to call the Linchpin community his home. This is his story.

• Intro
• Fitness Freedom
• Do Seasons affect your mood?
• The best time of the day to train.
• Subs for HSPU.
• Training in the winter.
• "SLIPS" explained.
• When to use a lifting belt.
• Why do I think Linchpin is the best?
• Butterfly Pull-ups at 40+ years old.

Cieran was born & raised in New Zealand. He moved to the U.K. & joined the Royal Marines Commandos. After serving 12 years with that group & moved to Scotland. Now he is a Police Officer, a husband & a father of a 2-year old girl. This is his story.

• Intro
• Too Fit to Quit.
• V-ups vs T2B.
• Competitor Programming.
• Is Logging Workouts Important?
• PostPartum Running & Jumping.
• Are Saturday's Workouts Extra Tough?
• Training on Tired Legs.
• Daily Egg Consumption.
• Changing Rest Days.
• Help Me Lose Weight.
• Increasing Rep Range on a Heavy Day.

Kristof is a husband & a father who has struggled off & on with his weight for many years. At 5 ft 8 inches tall he has weighed as much as 300 pounds. After lots of trial & error he's found what works for him & a nutritional lifestyle that is sustainable. This is his story.

• Intro
• Regaining Strength after Not Working Out.
• Landmine Twist.
• Double-unders & Frustration.
• Body Building Movements I Miss.
• Pull-ups Guidance.
• Developing the L-sit.
• You Gotta Breath.
• Tempus.
• Playing with Rep Schemes.
• Hip Extensions with No GHD.
• Meal Prep.
• VNR Cycles.
• Tabata & Logging in btwb.
• Lessons Learned in Programming.
• Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity.
• Strength vs Fitness.

Jeff is a 45 year old husband with 3 kids. He has a busy, but sedentary job as an electrical engineer in California. He started following Linchpin in 2012 with a set of weights he bought at Costco. He is surrounded by people who desperately need to improve their health & fitness, yet he has been unable to convince people that CrossFit can be scaled for literally any ability level. This is his story.

Linchpin Test 15 is brand new. It is discussed & explained. Also, we are beginning some "just for fun" monthly challenges.

Dan is a 45 year old father of 3. He is a high school math & computer science teacher. He has played hockey his entire life & still gets on the ice twice a week. He first started doing CrossFit 13 years ago when his sister introducd him to it. This is his story.

• Honest growth vs click bait.
• The VNR cycles
• Strong clean but weak jerk.
• Zone 2 with a bad knee.
• Training with a weight vest.
• CrossFit for longevity.
• More back squats please.
• The biggest change in CrossFit I've seen.
• Lifts from the hang.
• Training after the military.

Bruce has been doing CrossFit for a very long time. He first started doing it in 2008 when he was 41 years old. Now he is 59 with lots of lessons & experience under his belt. In 2022 he sustained a major injury & the doctors told him he would never train again. Bruce chose his own path. This is his story.

• Intro
• Warm-ups & Stretching.
• Linchpin Test 13.
• Fixing an early arm pull.
• Barbell complexes.
• A good pump session.
• Deviating from the programming.
• Working out Monday thru Friday.
• Linchpin meet-ups.
• Big Glutes & Handstand Walking.
• Measuring Fitness across your lifetime.
• Why do L-sits hate me?
• Is flexibility programmed?
• How did I do on the 45 minute bike ride?

Brandon is a husband & a father of an 11 month old baby boy. Over the last year he has dealt with the major life changes that happen when you become a parent. Free time disappears & priorities shift. Through all of this he has found a way not to lose himself or his fitness. This is his story.

• Repeat workouts vs new workouts.
• How to improve your pull-ups the right way.
• Double-under vs Single-unders.
• Do Hobbies exist?
• Squatober, Deadcember, Benchuary
• Burpees & Linchpin Test 13
• Workout Variations & Equipment.
• Do I follow the program with everyone else?
• Pelvic floor concerns.
• Zone 2 training.
• Box Step-up Heights.

This is my second interview with Phil & a lot has happened since the last time we spoke a couple of years ago. During that time he spent about 18 months on a GLP-1 & also did a bit of program hopping. In this conversation he speaks candidly about his personal experience on the weight loss drug as well as what lead him back to Linchpin.