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Jason Leydon, CSCS

@jasonleydon

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Coaching high performers and coaches to reach their goals, stay sharp, and perform above their competition. @conquerathlete

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Power goes first. Every time.

Plyometrics are not conditioning. They are a neural quality, and neural qualities need a fresh nervous system. That means they live at the start of your strength day, not the end.

Pair heavy with explosive. Back squat then box jump. Press then med-ball throw. Hinge then broad jump. Heavy for 3 to 5, explosive for 3 to 5, full recovery between rounds. The heavy set wakes up high-threshold motor units and the jump after it expresses more power.

Dose it like medicine. 20 to 40 total jumps. Two to three minutes rest on intensive work. One to two sessions a week. The second ground contact slows down or mechanics slip, you are done.

And stop putting plyos in finishers. Tired practice grooves tired patterns. If it is not fast, it is not power.

Full breakdown in the carousel. Save this one.

I teach coaches to place methods like this inside the mentorship. Link in bio to learn more.

#coacheducation #strengthandconditioning #programming #plyometrics #powerdevelopment #conquerathlete

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⏰ LAST CALL: the Conquer Coaching Course starts tomorrow, October 21st. 
This is a 12-week program for coaches who want to learn how to build athletes with confidence.

What’s included: ✅ 12 weekly small group calls, mixing teaching with discussion among you, your mentors and your peers ✅ 6 one-on-one mentor calls you can schedule whenever you need them ✅ Online learning modules and mentor office hours

It’s built for CrossFit coaches, Hyrox coaches, online coaches, gym owners, personal trainers, strength coaches, and anyone who writes programming for athletes.

The course is approved for CEUs through NSCA, NASM and AFAA.

👉 Spots close soon. Tap the link in bio to enroll before we start.

#ConquerAthlete #ConquerCoachingCourse #CoachingEducation #CrossFitCoach #HyroxCoach

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Most coaches program energy systems like they are fixed qualities. They are not.

The phosphagen, glycolytic, and oxidative systems each have a price to develop and a recovery cost to respect. Phosphagen work needs full recovery between efforts. Glycolytic work needs 48 to 72 hours before you repeat it. Oxidative work is the most trainable and the most forgiving, which is why the base comes first.

And whether two qualities blend or fight depends on the block you are in. In a strength block, aerobic base work blends with max strength all day. But threshold work gets separated by 48 hours minimum, because it degrades bar speed. The demands of the sport and the demands of the tests decide what leads. Change the block, change the rules.

The year maps like this. Base buys threshold. Threshold buys repeatability. Repeatability buys expression. Each phase makes the next one possible.

Full breakdown in the carousel. Save this one.

I teach coaches to build this map inside the mentorship. Link in bio to learn more.

#coacheducation #strengthandconditioning #programming #energiesystems #periodization #conquerathlete

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Don’t get wrapped up in the numbers.

The number is the end goal. The athlete in front of you is a human first. Coach the underlying quality: is this person strong enough because they need a strength cycle, because they need more lean muscle, or because they can’t express the strength they already have?

Ask that first and the program answers itself.
That’s how we build durable, resilient athletes. October cohort of the mentorship is capped.

DM me MENTOR.

@conquerathlete
@jasonleydon
@long.range.athlete

#coacheducation #strengthandconditioning #programming #mentorship #conquerathlete

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New series. I teardown Games workouts the way I'd teardown your programming.

First up: Hammer Down. Event 7, 2025 Games.

But the story starts at Event 6. Throttle Up: 35-cal ski erg, 28 chest-to-bar pull-ups, 24 burpee box jump-overs, with a vest, 6-minute cap. Event 7 started 7 minutes later. Same chassis. The ski became the bike. The chest-to-bars became bar muscle-ups.

Here's what I see. The test starts before Event 7 does. Two events, 7 minutes apart. Phosphagen refills fast. Glycogen doesn't. Whoever paces Event 6 owns Event 7.

For time, 8-minute cap: 35-cal C2 bike, 28 bar muscle-ups, 24 burpee box jump-overs. Too long to sprint. Too short to settle. Lactate management decides how the muscle-ups break up. And I've watched technique die at rep 15. The athletes who hold their kip win.

What works: the mirrored design. One variable at a time, clean test. Bike first is right. Legs buy the aerobic base while the pulling muscles stay as fresh as possible.

What fights: the joint budget. 28 chest-to-bars, then 28 bar muscle-ups. Same lats, same grip, same shoulder girdle. Metabolically two events. Structurally one bill. And here's the part coaches miss. Metabolic recovery runs on minutes. Tendons and joint capsules run on days. The tissue clock is slower and quieter. The lats and cuff fatigue before the prime movers do. Scapular position breaks down. Then the shoulder pays. Pain is the last signal, not the first.

If this were training, I'd split the pulling across two days, put the muscle-ups before the bike, and widen the window. The Games tests. Training builds. Know which one you're writing before you copy the workout.

I break down programming like this inside the mentorship. Link in bio to learn more.

@jasonleydon @conquerathlete

#crossfitgames #workoutteardown #programming #coacheducation #strengthandconditioning #mixedmodal #jointhealth #conquerathlete

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Man this was a long time coming.

After a week of reflecting on our first-ever Non-Superficial BS Conference, I’m still not sure I have the words for it. But I do know that the most fulfilling thing was seeing it all finally come together.

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I never claim that my work, or anything we do at Art of Coaching, is “perfect.” And to be frank, that’s not the goal.

But I’ll be damned if we don’t bring people together, make them think, make them laugh, make them confront things they otherwise wouldn’t, and help them grow and adapt—all while they help us do the same in return.

There’s no way I could capture that entire weekend in a set of photos or fully express the appreciation I have for everyone who was part of it.

But I know this: This was two years of trying to get this building done.

Ten years of a dream coming together. And in a couple of months, it all culminates with the official release of my new book, #TheAntiheroAdvantage

None of it came easily. There were more fights, setbacks, and moments of doubt along the way than I could ever adequately explain.

The lyrics of the song in this post was on repeat in my brain during the hardest months…”Not done fighting…I don’t feel I’ve lost…”

It was one battle after another.

But getting to bring all these people together, learn from some incredible speakers, and have my son there to experience even a small part of it made the whole thing that much more meaningful. And worth it.

‼️😈This weekend embodied what it means to be an antihero and a misfit. Someone who wants to do good but has a little chaos in them. Someone who wants to learn how to leverage their flaws, doubts, fears, and demons—all in the service of good.😈🏴‍☠️

What higher calling is there?

We’re all going to go through shit in life, and we need more pragmatic people and resources to help us overcome it.

That’s what our work is about.

When you read the final chapter of my book you’ll have a new definition of the word “RISE.”

Like the lyrics say- “is there more like us?” I hope so.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of this dream. And even to those who were part of the nightmare.

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Can you perform your skills when you’re under fatigue?

Performing a skill fresh is one thing, doing it tired is a completely different monster. And that’s something you train.

Want to have a plan built for you? Start 1:1 Individual Programming with us. Book a free consultation through the link in our bio.

#ConquerAthlete #IndividualProgramming #SkillsUnderFatigue

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Happy birthday to the best man I know. We don’t deserve you, but we’re keeping you.

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This one is a bit delayed, but I haven’t stopped thinking about this conference.

The Non-Superficial BS Conference was one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to. Skipping right past the neat, fake answers that conferences are know for, and instead diving into the tough conversations and challenging the assumptions underneath the questions.

So, belatedly: Day 2

@coach_brettb on reinvention. Change is inevitable, so how do you evolve with it? How do you become something new in a way that is still authentic to you and receivable by the people you are trying to reach?

@thereadystate on pain and the danger of looking at a multifactorial problem through a single lens. Pain asks us to stay curious, shift perspectives, and recognize that the first frame we reach for may not be the one that helps the person in front of us.

@jasonleydon on identity, and the much harder question of who are you when the things you built your identity around disappear. Who are you when the praise stops, the thing you were trying to prove doesn’t work out, or your value can no longer be attached to a specific output?

@mountaineeringa on leadership through the lens of caregiving. We spend so much time talking about what leaders owe the people they are responsible for that we sometimes forget the leader is a person too. You can’t pour from an empty cup is a cliche because it’s true, and no better arena exposes that than becoming a caregiver for another loved one.

@fingermash on heuristics, complex adaptive systems, and the humility of realizing that just when you think you understand something, you discover how much you don’t know. We work through models- imperfect, but actionable models. The skill isn’t finding the perfect model, but rather knowing which one is useful, what deserves priority, and which frame gives you enough clarity to act.

I left with a full notebook, a lot fewer neat answers, and much better questions.

Cannot thank @aocoaching @coach_brettb and @jasonleydon enough for creating a room where people are willing to talk about the messy parts: identity, uncertainty, failure, change, leadership, and what it takes to keep moving forward.
#NoBSConference

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Your first heavy lift feels great. Your fifth feels like a different sport.

That's a small battery. Battery training builds a bigger one.

Two things run heavy lifting: your fast-twitch fibers (they fatigue fast) and the phosphagen system — about 15 seconds of explosive fuel. Normal strength work rests 3–5 minutes to refill both. Battery training shrinks that window on purpose.

Five ways I build it:

01 — EMOMs. 80–85% for 1–3 reps at the top of every minute, 10–20 min. Teaches your nervous system to recover inside a short, fixed window.

02 — Fatigue-resistance intervals. A 500m row sprint straight into a heavy 75–85% complex. Forces your fibers to recruit when lactate is high.

03 — Contrast / cluster sets. Micro-sets with 10–15s rest: 1 rep @ 85%, rest 15s, repeat. High-percentage volume that would normally bury you.

04 — Rest-pause battery sets. 3 reps @ 80–85%, rack 15–20s, then 1–2 more to technical breakdown. Pushes the set past where it would normally die.

05 — Dynamic-action short intervals. 3 heavy power cleans @ 80%, straight into 5 bar-facing burpees or a 10-cal sprint. Rest 30–45s, repeat.

Two cluster protocols I run inside battery work:

Poliquin clusters — 5x1 @ 87–90% (your 3RM). Rack 15–20s between every rep. Rest 3–4 min, 3–5 sets. Five singles at a weight you'd normally only triple.

Micro-mini clusters — 6–8 reps @ 80–85% as a feel set. Rest :20. Then 2-rep clusters on :15 rest — as many as you can hold with perfect bar speed.

The goal: heavy weights that still move when you're gassed. The heavy max under fatigue. The high-density chipper with your heart rate maxed. Battery training teaches your nervous system to override the fatigue safety switch — 85% still feels crisp at 180 BPM. Technique holds, power holds, injury risk drops.

This is how we teach coaches to think inside the mentorship — 12 weeks, 6 one-on-ones, 12 cohort calls, lifetime access. October cohort is capped. DM me MENTOR.

@jasonleydon @conquerathlete

#BatteryTraining #StrengthEndurance #WorkCapacity #CrossFitTraining #MixedModal #PowerDevelopment #CoachEducation #ConquerAthlete

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Your 6th rep looks nothing like your 1st. That's a programming problem, not a strength problem.

A cluster set breaks one traditional set into mini-sets with short rest baked in. Instead of grinding through 1x6 @ 80%, you do 3 clusters of 2 reps with 15-20 seconds between. Rack the bar. Breathe. Go again. The set isn't over — it's just paused.

Why it works: heavy lifting runs on the phosphagen (ATP-CP) system — immediate fuel for 1 to 15 seconds of explosive force. Ten to thirty seconds of rest puts a real dent back in the tank. Bar speed comes back. Technique comes back. So you get way more good reps at 80-90% than you ever could straight through — without the breakdown that teaches bad patterns.

Five ways I use them:

01 — Strength clusters. Back squat 4x(2+2+2) @ 82%. 20s between clusters, 3 min between sets. Pure strength — every rep looks like the first.

02 — Battery clusters. Power clean 6x(1+1+1) @ 80%. 15s between clusters, 90s between sets. Repeatability under the bar, crisp when it counts.

03 — Upper-body clusters. Strict press 5x(3+3) @ 80%. 20s between clusters. Shoulders stay honest deep into the session.

04 — Poliquin clusters. 5x1 @ 87-90% (your 3RM). Rack 15-20s between every rep. Rest 3-4 min, 3-5 sets. Five singles at a weight you'd normally only triple.

05 — Micro-mini clusters. 6-8 reps @ 80-85% as a feel set. Rest :20. Then 2-rep clusters on :15 rest — as many as you can hold with perfect bar speed.

The coach's eye: rack the bar during intra-set rest — the pause only works if it's a real pause. Run a timer, because "about 15 seconds" becomes 40 when you're tired. And the stop rule never changes: the moment bar speed changes or mechanics drop, the set is over. Clusters buy you more good reps — they don't buy you bad ones.

This is how we teach coaches to think inside the mentorship — 12 weeks, 6 one-on-ones, 12 cohort calls, lifetime access. October cohort is capped. DM me MENTOR.

@jasonleydon @conquerathlete

#ClusterSets #StrengthTraining #BatteryTraining #WorkCapacity #MixedModal #PowerDevelopment #CoachEducation #ConquerAthlete

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Day 2 of the Non-Superficial Bullshit Conference. Phoenix, Arizonia.

Heavy hitters all day challenging not only what you think, but also how you think.

Today's lineup:
Brett Bartholomew [@coach_brettb] previewing his new book, The Antihero Advantage.

KStarr [@thereadystate] sharing his models to assess and progress athletes.

Jason Leydon [@jasonleydon] on identity and finding mirrors with the ones you love.

Matt Morrison [@mountaineeringa] reminding us who's looking out for the leader.

Stu McMillan [@fingermash] sharing his coaching journey and applying informed simplicity to our athlete's programs.

Then a guest panel I was fortunate to hop on, an all-speaker panel with open Q&A, and Brett's final takeaways to close us out.

Two days. No hacks. No hype. Just honest people telling the truth about leadership, setbacks and life.

Clear head. Full notebook. Can't lose.

Thank you Art of Coaching [@aocoaching] for building a room like this.

#NoBSConference #ArtOfCoaching #CoachingLeadership #CaptainsAndCoaches

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