What to Expect and How to Prepare for the CrossFit Games Open and Quarterfinals By: Briana Siegert

It’s hard to know exactly what to expect in the CrossFit Open and every year (almost) we get a new implement thrown at us. The bones of CrossFit is preparing for the unknown so you have to go into it with a childlike wonder and excitement for something new. There are definitely movements we see each year, some we see most years, and some we expect to see and then don’t. Now that the Open is 3-weeks long, we don’t see as much variety in movement. I like to think of Quarterfinals more as Open #2. I might be in the rare few that actually liked when The Open was 5-weeks long instead of 3. It tested what we needed to test without needing Quarterfinals or another tier to accomplish before an in-person event, but…we are here now so we will be talking about both The Open and Quarters. 

This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but it will give you an idea of how we think to prepare for something we don’t know (yet). 

What Are We Preparing For?

The Open is notorious for having movements that are : 

1. Lower Skill

2. Easy to judge

3. Lighter Weights

4. 7-20:00 time domains 

5. Test of capacity

The graph below shows us the movements we see most often in the open. Right away you should have an idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are and where we should be spending most of our time. Back in the day, CrossFit used to have at least one workout with ring muscle ups and if you were a girl and got ONE it would skyrocket you to the top of the leaderboard. Now that we have quarterfinals, we have, so far, only seen rings in that bracket, but we do see bar muscle ups in the open! 

The Open rewards those with a good aerobic capacity and muscular endurance, so whether or not you’re skilled or strong, it won’t matter as much if you can’t move at a steadily fast rate for 12-20 minute stretches. Developing your aerobic capacity will separate you into that top 25% that moves onto quarterfinals where you get to show off your strength and skill. 

So we need to ask ourselves this question: Do you have the capacity to qualify for quarterfinals? If you do, your training should be geared towards quarterfinals and just marking off the task of completing The Open. Which brings us to higher skill movements and lifting heavier under fatigue. 

If your aerobic capacity isn’t there yet, we need to train and develop that. More specifically, we need to train you to do workouts that have high cycle rates and reps of 300 or more because CrossFit loves that number in the longer Open workouts. Examples of 20:00 AMRAP’s that have low numbers like 3-6-9 where it’s easy to complete a round in :30, but can you hold that round pace for 20:00?

What This Means for Your Training

The Open has some movements we’ve seen every year, some that we have seen most years, and some that we have seen only a few years. We can also assume the list of movements will be limited to what the average CrossFit gym would have. We won’t be seeing ski ergs or bikes in The Open. THat doesn’t mean it would be excluded from Quarterfinals though. It’s unlikely, but it’s not impossible. 

Here’s the practical takeaway while you never know exactly what HQ is going to throw at you, history suggests the Open favors

1. Burpees

2. Double Unders 

3. Rowing

4. Thrusters

5. Chest to bar

6. Bar muscle ups

These show up every year and separate the field. A SMART preparation strategy doesn’t just “practice everything”, but it biases towards the common movement, themes, or patterns we see year after year. 

How to Train for the Open

Let’s look at a framework and some workouts that would be good training pieces to prepare for those open workouts. A couple of themes we see are: Long and aerobic, descending rep scheme with ascending weights and/or skill, compounding movements (pull+pull, push + push, etc). 

Let’s take a high cycle rate workout from the 2019 Open:

20:00 AMRAP

4 Thrusters @ 50/35’s 

6 Toes to Bar

24 Double Unders

In order to be successful at this workout you needed to accumulate more than 20 rounds here, meaning it was faster than an EMOM pace. For most, doing this for 8-10 minutes would be no problem. Holding it for double that time frame is where the separation begins. 

A training piece might look like:

5 Sets 

8 Dumbbell Thrusters 

12 Toes to bar 

48 Double unders 

Rest 1:00 b/w sets 

Then

10 Rounds for Time

4 Thrusters 

6 TTB 

24 double unders 

For the compounding skill, we can reflect back to the double Diane variation CrossFit masterfully came up with of 

For time:

21-15-9

Deadlifts @ 225/155

Handstand push ups 

Right into…

21-15-9

Deadlifts @ 315/225

50’ hsw 

A training piece to prep for that could look like: 

5 Sets

5 Deadlifts @ 315/225 

50’ HSW 

Rest :60 b/w sets 

Rest 3:00 

15:00 EMOM

1- 15/12 cal echo bike 

2- 5 Deadlifts @ 225/155 + 5-10 Kipping handstand push ups 

3- Rest 

Another large piece of The Open is light to moderate weight barbell cycling and for a LOT of reps. Think back to 2019 Open event of 10 rounds for time: 8 Ground to overhead @ 75/55 and 10 bar facing burpees. Light weight and something you can move through, but the barbell slingers and pacers were rewarded in this one. Going unbroken made a huge difference. Again, something that is easy for 5-6 rounds, but those final 3-4 rounds were breaking people. Training 10 round pieces in EMOM formats or high volume sets with little rest is helpful here.

Should You Hire a Coach to Help You Prepare

As coaches, we identify what you particularly struggle with and we can train the snot out of that going into your Open > Quarterfinal > Semifinal > Games season. Whether it’s the long pieces, lifting under fatigue, barbell cycling, or things that don’t get noticed without a coaches eye like cycle rate on squats, pull ups, or a technical flaw on things as simple as burpees. Those are all things we can help with and train so that you are prepared going into the CrossFit Games Season. 

So, yes, hiring a coach to help you prepare is going to be the most optimal way for you to see progress and adapt in your training the fastest. Sign up for a free discovery call with one of our coaches to talk about your goals!