A CrossFit Coach and Athlete Ranks the Best Training Plans for CrossFit

Maybe you’re a long-term Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr fan-girl. Maybe you were wowed by Saxon Panchik’s recent dominance. Or maybe you have a soft spot for Shane Orr after watching the most recent CrossFit Games documentary. 

Whatever your background or interests, you’ve probably heard of PRVN Fitness, the virtual training program led by five-time Fittest Woman on Earth and her coach and husband. PRVN Fitness has a few different tracks for athletes based on their ages, fitness levels, and goals, including PRVN60, Compete, and Masters. 

As their names suggest, Compete is for advanced athletes who want to be higher-level competitors, and Masters is designed for athletes in the 35+ community. PRVN60, however, is the better option for the majority of people reading this. Why? Because it is designed for athletes of all fitness levels who have big goals… but who are also short on time. 

Named because it’s designed to be completed in just 60 minutes per day, the length of a usual CrossFit affiliate class, PRVN60 is, in two words: efficient and effective. Every day looks slightly different (#constantlyvaried), but most days include a warm-up, strength training, and a metcon. 

What really sets this track apart from the other online workout programs is how detailed the instructions are. Each and every training piece features a comprehensive written description about what the piece should feel like. Every training day also opens with a video explaining the training objectives of the day. Together, these pieces of information help you maximize the quality and effectiveness of your time in the gym.

PRVN also uses software many CrossFit athletes are familiar with: Beyond The Whiteboard. Formatted to allow you to easily navigate your workouts of the day, Beyond The Whiteboard allows you to compare scores with other PRVN athletes. 

Hard work pays off, and for athletes with big goals, so does the HWPO PRO track. 

Based specifically on the type of training that earned Mat Fraser gold five years in a row, HWPO PRO uses progression, repetition, and attention to detail. Seriously, do just one day’s worth of the accessory work programmed and you’ll realize HWPO forces you to strengthen muscles most other coaches don’t even think to focus on. 

Bluntly, the HWPO PRO track isn’t for the faint of heart. 

If you need the promise of sexy workouts to convince you to get your butt in the gym, you’ll flop on this programming. It is exceedingly rare for Fraser and his team to program a metcon with a sexy rep scheme. Unless you’re a true sicko, you will rarely look at a HWPO workout and think, “Fun!.” 

Unlike other training programs that persuade their athletes to work hard with sweet structures, or trick them into doing volume via sneaky-sneaky EMOMs, what you see is what you get with HWPO. 

I know what you’re thinking: Dang GK, you’re really not selling it. I know, I know, but allow me to return to where I started: This program works. Truly, every single day that you leave the gym you will leave feeling like you accomplished something big. 

The one big call-out I have about this program is that it isn’t built for people who have a strict two-hour rule. During the heart of the season, doing the programming in full will take upwards of four to six hours. 

The bottom line: If you’re a gritty athlete who is willing to do the work it takes to meet your lofty goals, this is the program for you. Respectfully, however, if you still view CrossFit as your fun side hobby, this may be too hardcore for you. 

The Misfit Athletics Hatchet program is designed for Quarterfinals-level athletes who have specific goals and are looking for remote programming. 

What sets this option apart from other higher-level options is how personalized it feels. How? Well, Misfit gives athletes a variety of accessory work and strength work options each week. Athletes are then encouraged to select which pieces they do based on what their weaknesses are. If you’re not interested in getting better at your weaknesses, this isn’t the programming for you. 

One of the things that helps make the Hatchet program feel like individualized programming is the media the Misfit Athletics team makes to support it. 

Sure, these days nearly every single trainer and training program has a podcast and YouTube channel. But the truth is that not all of them are good. Misfit Athletics, however, doesn’t just put out okay supplementary media, it puts out great supplementary media. 

Their podcast, The Misfit Podcast, is a weekly podcast where three of the founders (Drew Crandall, Hunter Wood, and Matt Sherburne) sit down and talk about things that can help you become a better athlete, coach, and/or competitor. 

Unlike some of the other podcasts in the space which feel a little try-hard (don’t @ me, it’s true!), this podcast makes you feel like you’re sitting in a circle with three of your closest, smartest friends. 

Their YouTube channel, The Misfit Athletics channel, is similarly informative but offers a greater range of topics. Some of the videos, for example, are all about how to move effectively. And others are more day-in-the-life style. 

Another perk of doing The Misfit Athletics programming is that it gives you access to the down-to-earth community. Accessible through both Instagram and the community Discord group, this program has attracted some darn genuine peeps. 

Maybe you want to be able to run a sub-6-minute mile.  Maybe you want to get more comfortable on the rower. Maybe you want to prepare for the inevitable endurance event in QuarterFinals or Semifinals. 

Regardless, if endurance (ahem, aerobic capacity) is your weak point, Aerobic Capacity should be your next programming pick. 

Created by Chris Hinshaw, widely considered one of the best endurance coaches in the world, Aerobic Capacity offers a variety of training templates. 

Current program options include a 2000M Row Training Plan, General Swim Workout, 5k Training Plan, and Half Marathon Training Plan.

To be very clear: Most CrossFit athletes shouldn’t use it as their sole program. Most of the plans include just one or two workouts per week. Plus, you won’t find barbell work or gymnastics integrated into these plans. 

These are merely meant to supplement whatever work you’re already doing!

You know Invictus. Heck, you probably have one of their signature green and white shirts even if you’ve never actually dropped into one of their locations (just me?). 

But did you know that Invictus offers 10 (10!) different online training programs? To name a few: Invictus Weightlifting, Invictus Engine, and 8 Week Strength. Well, another one of the programs is Invictus Gymnastics.

With the oh-so-convincing tagline, “Gymnastics skills don’t just appear, they take work,” Invictus Gymnastics is here to improve your pulling and pushing strength, no matter your starting point. 

The program itself costs just $39 per month, which gets you access to three workouts each week that take about 20 minutes each. Each of the three workouts are released with three different scaling options, which you choose between based on your current fitness level. 

The fact that there are three different levels is ideal for athletes who have extremely specific weak spots. For instance, someone might be perfect at pull-ups but garbage at handstand push-ups. This person might elect to do the hardest level on pulling day, but the lower level on pushing day in order to build up that missing strength. 

RELATED: Best CrossFit Grips

This online programming option is created by CrossFit legend Jason Khalipa, who won the 2008 CrossFit Games, and it’s one of the best personal training apps out there. 

“I appreciate that Jason is personally in there answering questions and engaging in comments from other members, as well as other coaches from Train Hard to help give a sense of not being alone while you are grinding through some of these workouts,” says Coop Mitchell, Garage Gym Reviews founder and an expert product tester who used the Train Hard app for a month. Coop rated his overall workout experience a 5 out of 5.

The app has three different tracks, and you’ll get access to all three when you pay the monthly $30 per month fee. 

There are two tracks that we think are best for CrossFit-style Workouts: Force and EMOM (every minute on the minute). Both follow a very typical class-style format and program strength and classic CrossFit Metcon on most days. Most of these workouts can be completed in under an hour. Woot!

The equipment demands differ between the two. “You will need the typical equipment one would find in a CrossFit box gym,” Coop says of the Force track. The EMOM track uses minimal equipment, Coop says.

The main downside of this option is that it doesn’t prioritize powerlifting or higher-level gymnastics skills. For people who have their sights set on Semifinals or The Games, this isn’t ideal. The other downside is that the Train Hard app is not available on Android devices.

Created by renowned fitness expert Marcus Filly, Functional Bodybuilding is designed to get you to move well and look good. How? By having you train the movement patterns you work outside of the gym, with good form. 

Like traditional CrossFit-style workouts, this program features a wide variety, making it optimal for folks easily bored by their training programs. 

This program also prescribes a variety of intensity levels programmed, each explained in detail by the coach’s notes included with every workout. Any athlete who has ever felt burnt out by the high levels of intensity of traditional programming will be thrilled by just how often this program prescribes moderate intensity. 

In this program, you can expect to see lots of tempo work and a lot of EMOMs. You’ll do a mix of CrossFit-style exercises and hypertrophy-focused exercises, plus pre-fatigue sessions and mobility work. 

When you squat snatch does it look like your power snatch is riding an elevator to the bottom floor? Do you struggle to Sots press with anything more than a training bar? Do you usually put on lifters for pistol squats? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re a good candidate for Pliability, formerly known as ROMWOD. 

A common sponsor of CrossFit events like Wodapalooza and The Games, Pliability is a top mobility streaming platform in the functional fitness space. While it seems the brand has been getting slightly less buzz in recent years, the brand was all the rage from 2015 to 2018. And for good reason: It effectively helps athletes access greater ranges of motion over time. 

A monthly subscription, ringing up at $14 per month, gives you access to a brand-spanking-new daily mobility session every single day. Plus, you get access to their back catalog of workouts which features nearly 2,000 additional flows, categorized by the main muscle group they are designed to target. 

For athletes short on time, one nice feature is that you can sort the workouts by length. Even if you only have 10 minutes, Pliability has a stretch sesh you can do to center your mind and stretch your body. 

The one downside of the app is that you can’t play background music (or a podcast) from the device that you’re playing your mobility routine on. To be clear: The music built-in to the routines isn’t bad—but it’s no Fit Radio station. 

Available since 2016, Street Parking did not get the big welcome that HWPO and PRVN got when they came on the scene in recent years, but you’re doing yourself a disservice if you snooze on this program. One of the first-ever at-home-friendly CrossFit programs, Street Parking makes CrossFit accessible to everyone—even those who aren’t a member of a box, or who have limited equipment in their spare bedroom.  

When you subscribe to some of the other training providers, you have to figure out which program specifically you want to elect. Then, you get access to that program only. For instance, paying for PRVN60 does *not* give you access to PRVNCompete. Street Parking isn’t that rigid. You simply sign up for a subscription and then are given access to all of their tracks. 

All Street Parking Members have access to every program/version of the daily workout, which are programmed six days a week. This includes Program A (dumbbell), Program B (barbell), Program C (other, such as sandbag, bike, rower), and something called SHIFT, which is a simplified version of the daily WOD and ideal for seniors, beginners, and people who just need a break from the intensity. This customizability is especially clutch for people who travel frequently for work or who only have a three-day-a-week membership at their local affiliate. 

You’ll also have access to micro-programming that will help you meet your specific goals. If you have your sights on improving your endurance, for example, you could add in their weekly endurance workout (usually available in a running or rowing format). If, however, you want to work on your Olympic lifting skills, you could add in their weekly Olympic lifting work. 

All that said, while Street Parking is great for maintaining and progressing your general fitness level, it isn’t the best option for people who are specifically interested in becoming more skilled in the Olympic lifts or bulking up. After all, the heart and soul of this program is metcons, not lifting. 

Ahh, the place where it all started! 

If you’re new to the sport of CrossFit, you may not realize that when the sport first took over in the early 2000s, almost everyone who participated did the same exact workouts! Where did they get these workouts, exactly? CrossFit.com. 

In its heyday, CrossFit.com was a HAPPENING site. That’s because athletes didn’t just do the workouts: They did the workouts then logged on to share their scores and discuss with the other people who had done the workouts. 

As more and more CrossFit affiliates took their programming in-house, fewer and fewer people were doing the workouts that CrossFit.com posted. However, they never stopped posting. And actually, we’re seeing a resurgence in the number of people who are doing the workouts! 

These days, most workouts still get somewhere between 20 and 70 people sharing their scores in the comment section. That may not sound like much, but it’s certainly more than commenting on Wodify or SugarWOD at your local box!

Likely the reason these workouts are getting a following again is that every workout includes a video featuring a CrossFit expert or coach, which explains how to do the workout, as well as how to properly scale the workout. 

The main downside of this program is that it doesn’t include much strength or accessory work. Or to be honest, really any at all. You’ll certainly get fit doing it, but you won’t necessarily become a more skilled or stronger athlete doing it. 

Another downside is the fact that the rest days are not on a specific day of the week. That makes planning your workouts a little tricky. Still, all in all, this is a great option for people who are new to CrossFit and want to explore the sport without forking out a monthly fee.