"There isn't one single population where I'm like, it's only if you've reached the semifinal CrossFit level that you've earned BFR. It's just another tool like a barbell or a leg extension machine." BFR lets people build strength and muscle at lighter loads and lower volumes, which is what most of the exercising population is missing. I use it with everyone from 60+ masters athletes to Games athletes, once they've been screened. The rest of it: - the cuff placement mistake I keep seeing from people who teach BFR - why I keep the cuffs inflated through the rest, and what my endurance athletes said after resting in cuffs between heavy sets - the study where world-class rowers took seconds off their 2k with four weeks of mostly easy rowing - why classic hypertrophy work can make a CrossFitter's triceps fail sooner - IPC, and Ryne's pushback on whether cutting muscle damage blunts adaptation - the six-week on-ramp I use before any BFR strength work - manual vs Bluetooth cuffs (stick shift or automatic) Full episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7yVeNI98DJmGZcpGsN47lk Written recap with every study linked: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/fieldnotes/bfr-training-not-just-for-elite-athletes Two corrections from the episode: - I ranked "cuffs inflated during the sets, deflated during the rest" as the worst option. The research doesn't back that ranking: inflating only during the sets, only during the rest, or the whole time all produced similar strength gains in the lab. - The IPC training study I mentioned used knee extensions, not squats. Questions and pushback in the comments. If there is a topic you want us to cover, put it here.

Coaching Field Notes No. 12 is live. On this week's Ruth Performance Collective call, we started a new four-week theme: fatigue. The major question for the first call was how do we track training load and readiness for an athlete in a mixed modal sport? The problem is that most of the popular systems for monitoring fatigue just don't really have the flexibility to track well for mixed modal sport. Full note: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/fieldnotes/load-isnt-fatigue New note every week. It goes out by email first: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/fieldnotes

That was the starting point on Tuesday's Collective call, Week 1 of our Managing Fatigue series. Fatigue comes in two buckets. Performance fatigue is an objective drop in output: bar speed, jump height, reps at a fixed load. Perceived fatigue is how the athlete feels: session RPE, check-ins, soreness. Sleep, life stress, mood and expectations all move that second bucket. That's why the same prescription can end up with two very different internal loads, for two different athletes or for the same athlete two weeks apart. The takeaway: session RPE x minutes measures training load in a CrossFit session better than a wearable does, because intense strength sessions and intense endurance sessions both get high RPEs while only endurance training gets a meaningful heart rate response. Collect it within about 30 minutes of the session, and compare your current week to the average of the previous four to guide training load decisions. The full call and the call doc are inside Ruth Performance Collective: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/collective

"They're elite athletes because they move like elite athletes." That was Ryne's answer to the idea that you can't move like the elites because you aren't one. The number one change I make with a new athlete is cutting them back to one or two true metcons a week and putting that time into technique and the weak parts of their energy systems. Nobody is immune. The rest of it: -why you run better on the air runner than on the road -when to stop running a steep climb and power hike it -why a four-slide carousel isn't the same as reading the blog -the tape drill that made burpee box jump-overs 3 to 4 seconds faster per 20 reps -peaks and valleys: why nothing has to progress in a straight line -why threshold work written as mixed-modal pieces misses the stimulus -the 3 x 10s Echo sprint protocol that took a Games athlete's peak from the high 1200s to just shy of 1,400 -accessory vs assistance work, and the grip I use for rope climb pulling Full episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3pUjaSp7QPGPsBlUpfwM5k Written recap with every study linked: https://kyleruthcoaching.com/fieldnotes/first-things-we-change-new-athlete Questions and pushback in the comments. If there is a topic you want us to cover, put it here.

I wrote a blog post on the differences in running on the road and the air runner and why each favors a different profile of runner. Would love to hear anyone's thoughts or experiences with this nuance of running https://coachrynesullivan.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-air-runner-and-road-reward-two.html