For most, CrossFit is a method of keeping fit. You go in to your local box, work hard, get fitter, stronger, faster. You make friends, support each other and come away feeling awesome. And that’s great. It’s enough.

But for some, CrossFit is a sport – one to compete in at a serious level. If you want to take your CrossFit training to the next level and aim to compete at Regionals, or even the Games themselves, you’ll need dedicated programming, and that can get expensive. Luckily, there are plenty of free resources out there for you to take advantage of.

In this post I’ve tracked down some of the best training programmes out there to help you improve your CrossFit performance. So, in no particular order…

The Best Free CrossFit Programmes

CrossFit.com

Clearly one of the best places to get CrossFit programming is the CrossFit site itself. CrossFit.com, or “mainsite” as it’s known, has 7 years’ worth of workouts to look back on and it’s known to have given an indication in the past of what might come up in the games. For example, when heavy DT (21-15-9 of deadlifts, power cleans and push jerks) was announced during the 2015 CrossFit Games, some athletes who regularly train off mainsite were pretty smug as they had done an even heavier version of DT from there a short while before.

Check in for workouts regularly and you’ll get an idea of where CrossFit HQ is pushing boundaries to.

http://www.crossfit.com/workout/

Built by Bergeron

The man behind the 2016 male and female individual winners of the CrossFit Games, Ben Bergeron programmes for the best CrossFit elites around. Katrin Davidsdottir and Mat Fraser put their trust in him for the second year in a row, and look where it go them… on the top of the podium! You have to pay for Ben’s Games programme, but his Regionals and Open programmes are free for the taking on his website and social media, so jump on board for some serious expert training!

Go here for some targeted, and proven to be effective, competition training.

http://www.builtbybergeron.com/comptrain

CrossFit Invictus

One of the top CrossFit boxes in the world, Invictus is home to many Games athletes and teams, including Lauren Fisher, Sam Dancer and Kristin Holte. They offer a daily programme with competition, performance and fitness options on their website going back further than you’d care to see. They also have an athlete programme which you can sign up for (at a cost) that enables you to choose elements you need to work on and caters for multiple sessions per day.

Invictus always have a good turnout at Regionals and the Games so they must be doing something right!

http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/wod

The Outlaw Way

Father and son weightlifting duo Jared and Dave Fleming provide a weekly barbell programme on their website, the Outlaw Way. All they ask is you add your progress in the comments so they can see what works and what doesn’t. Expect a cyclical programme (now in its 10th 15-week cycle) that addresses technique and strength with the aim of preparing you for a weightlifting competition.

If you want a weightlifting-specific programme that’s been developed with feedback from all around the world, then this is your one.

http://theoutlawway.com/category/blog/

Misfit Athletics

Started by a group of five self-proclaimed misfits, MisFit Athletics is a free daily programme that is designed to be progressive with cycles of training, including testing weeks. Their personalities and attitudes coming across in their programming and you’ll find the blogs as entertaining as they are helpful. Oh, and the programming is pretty disgusting… think all manner of burpees, muscle ups and multiple metcons.

You have to sign up to access this one, but don’t worry – it’s still totally free!

http://misfitathletics.com/blog/

Rowing WOD

Another sign up only resource, the Rowing WOD training plan is available to you as soon as you submit your scores for 2 benchmark sessions. Cardio endurance/capacity catches out a surprising number of CrossFit athletes, so if your rowing is lacking then get yourself on the Rowing WOD programme and work on those weaknesses. Who knows, maybe you’ll be setting world records soon, like Sam Briggs!

Perfect if you need a bit of a helping hand in the cardio endurance area (let’s face it, most of us do!)

http://www.rowingwod.co/

Weightlifting 101

Erik Lau Kelner, weightlifting coach to Sara Sigmundsdottir, Emma Mcquaid and Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson, offers free weightlifting programming on his website, Weightlifting 101. His programmes are intended to build a solid weightlifting base, while allowing for the unpredictable nature of CrossFit. Expect a programme that allows for good weightlifting potential even after a 5k run, or for high repetitions in what he calls “CrossFit Weightlifting”.

He’s recently changed his programme from a weekly schedule to a block of training that you can schedule when you want. Access his previous programmes below, and the current block of programming is also available from the main menu.

http://www.weightlifting101.net/previous-programs/

And if you aren’t interested in competing? You can still use any of these sites for workout inspiration when you can’t make it to the box, if you want to do a home workout, or just for ideas for open gym.

Have you used any of these (or any other) free resources before? Or have any of them peaked your interest? Comment below and let me know! And if you liked this post please feel free to share it or comment/like/follow so I know to do more like this!