Mat Fraser is the fittest man in history, having won the CrossFit Games more than any other male athlete. My highest accolade to date is being the top goal-scorer for my under-12 soccer team. 

Put simply, the two of us are on very different levels. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn a thing or two from his famously hardcore training routine. 

Fraser’s signature workout is a 40-minute EMOM—four moves, each performed every minute, on the minute for 10 rounds. 

If it’s good enough for the fittest man in history, it’s good enough for me, so I decided to give it a go. 

How To Do Mat Fraser’s 40-Minute EMOM

Every minute, on the minute, for 40 minutes:

• Minute one: Row x 15cal
• Minute two: Toes-to-bar x 15
• Minute three: Air bike x 15cal
• Minute four: D-ball over shoulder x 6 (150lb / 70kg)

In an interview with YouTube fitness content creator Zack Telander, Fraser described the EMOM above as “a typical, middle-of-the-road workout” he would use in his training. 

He says he did at least one 40-minute EMOM per week throughout his career and adjusted the intensity depending on at what point in the CrossFit season he was performing it. 

At the beginning of the season, he would incorporate shorter, higher-output efforts that left him more rest at the end of each minute. From here, he gradually increased the volume of work in each minute until he was close to “working for 40 minutes straight”, before tapering it back down right before the CrossFit Games.

My Takeaways From Mat Fraser’s 40-Minute Emom Workout

As we’ve already established, Mat Fraser and I are cut from very different cloth. And, while I’m a fixture at my local CrossFit box, I know the numbers above aren’t achievable for me.  

That’s why I scaled the workout down to 12 calories on the rower and the air bike, 10 toes-to-bar and five sandbag-over-shoulders. 

And for the first four rounds, I thought maybe I’d made a mistake. I felt good, finishing each exercise with time to take a decent breather before moving on. My toes-to-bar felt snappy and the sandbag moved smoothly. 

But this blissful start wasn’t to last. At the midpoint of the workout, my core and legs began to feel the effects of 390 reps, and my breaks at the end of each minute started to shrink. And it wasn’t just my muscles that were ready to pack it in.

“You’re only halfway, and you’re already struggling,” an unhelpful inner voice jibed. “Call it quits at the 24-minute mark and be done with it.” 

It was tempting and, while I was determined to reach the finish line, the next few rounds turned into a serious slog. My movement quality wasn’t what it had been 10 minutes before but after finishing the seventh round something funny happened. 

It was like my mind saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and a second wind helped me complete the workout without letting any of the exercises overrun their prescribed minute. 

Overall, I got lucky and picked numbers that provided a solid test for my fitness level, but Fraser says this type of workout takes some tweaking to get it right. 

“I did [40-minute EMOMs] so often, and so many times,” he tells Telander. “I did workouts that were too easy, I did EMOMs that were too hard; you have to f*** up to find out what’s right and find where those limits are.”

I’ve since made 40-minute EMOMs a weekly part of my training, experimenting with different exercises and targets in each minute. 

Admittedly, 40 minutes is a decent chunk of my total daily session to devote to a single training piece, but I’ve found the format can be adapted to help hit multiple goals. 

For example, you can make one of the minutes a higher-skill gymnastic exercise to practice technique and develop capacity in this movement. Or you could slip some bodybuilding in there to add a side-order of hypertrophy to the main course of conditioning. 

This way, the 40-minute EMOM becomes a time-savvy addition to your training, serving up skill, strength, muscle and endurance perks depending on how you structure it. 

The CrossFit Quarterfinals 2024 workouts have been revealed, and they’re a notable step-up from the Open tests before them. 

The four workouts were announced to athletes via email on Wednesday, April 17. Combined, they aim to test the strength, gymnastic skill and stamina of those tackling them. 

The top 25% of male and female CrossFit Open finishers have been invited to participate in this year's CrossFit Quarterfinals. This is up from the top 10% in previous years, meaning the 2024 Quarterfinals are set to be bigger than ever before. 

Here’s everything you need to know if you’re taking part. 

What Are The CrossFit Quarterfinals 2024 Workouts?

Workout One

Four rounds for max repetitions of:

• One minute of barbell snatches (135lb/61kg barbell for men, 85lb/38kg barbell for women)
• One minute of rowing (for calories)
• One minute of dumbbell box step-ups (50lb/22.5kg dumbbells for men, 35lb/15kg dumbbells for women, both use a 20in box)
• One minute of rest

Set a running clock. In the first minute complete as many snatches as you can, in the second minute rack up as many rowing calories as you can, in the third minute perform as many double dumbbell box step-ups as you can, then rest in the fourth minute.

Repeat this for three rounds. Your score is the total number of reps you are able to complete.

Revealing the workouts via an Instagram Live, CrossFit’s competition director Adrian Bozman says this first test is an “homage to Fight Gone Bad”—a classic CrossFit workout that follows a similar “max-reps in a minute” format.

“The best [athletes] are probably going to have pretty even reps across each those movements, and the rest of us are going to have one that really plays to our strength and some others that don't,” says Bozman.

Workout Two

Three rounds for time (20-minute time cap): 

• Wall ball x50 (20lb/9kg ball to a 10-foot target for men, 14lb/6kg ball to a 9-foot target for women)
• Lateral burpee box jump-over x50 (24in box for men, 20in box for women)

There’s not much to explain here. Perform 50 wall balls then 50 lateral burpee box jump-overs, and repeat this for three total rounds as fast as possible.

Your score is the time it takes you to finish all 300 reps, or the total number of reps you've completed if you hit the 20-minute time cap before reaching the finish line.

“It’s a straight-up grinder,” says Bozman. He says that, after featuring smaller chunks of burpees in the Open, the programming team wanted to “add reps, so [the sets] are more aggressive, and see who could hang on.”

Workout Three

For time (15-minute time cap):

• Handstand push-up x10
• Toes-to-bar x20
• Handstand push-up x10
• Toes-to-bar x20
• Handstand push-up x10
• Toes-to-bar x20
• Strict handstand push-up x10
• Rope climb x5 (15ft)
• Strict handstand push-up x10
• Rope climb x5 (15ft)
• Chest-to-wall handstand push-up x10
• Muscle-up x20

This is a gymnastic test, with the exercises ascending in difficulty as you progress through the workout.

There are three pairs of exercises, with the first pair (handstand push-ups and toes-to bar) performed for three rounds, the second pair (strict handstand push-ups and rope climbs) performed for two rounds, and the final pair (chest-to-wall handstand push-ups and muscle-ups) performed for one round.

Your score is the time it takes you to complete the workout, or the number of reps you complete if you don't finish it within the time cap.

“This is going to be a big separator for a lot of people,” says Bozman. “It’s a lot of gymnastic movements, so let’s see who can bust them out. [This is a] personal favorite of the set for me.”

Workout Four

As many reps as possible (AMRAP) in 10 minutes of:

• Clean and jerks x10 (135lb/61kg for men, 85lb/38kg for women)
• Rest for one minute
• Clean and jerk x10 (185lb/83kg for men, 125lb/56kg for women)
• Rest for one minute 
• Clean and jerk x10 (225lb/102kg for men, 155lb/70kg for women)
• Rest for one minute
• Max-reps of clean and jerks in remaining time (245lb/111kg for men, 165lb/75kg for women). 

For this final workout, start a rolling clock and get to work.

Begin with 10 clean and jerks at the first (and lightest) weight. Once you’ve finished these, you’ll take a mandatory one-minute rest before moving on to 10 clean and jerks at the second weight.

Take another mandatory minute of rest once these are completed, then work through 10 clean and jerks at the third weight before sitting back for another mandatory 60-second breather.

In whatever time remains of the 10 minutes after this, complete as many clean and jerks as you can at the fourth and heaviest weight (245lb/111kg for men, 165lb/75kg for women).

Your score is the number of clean and jerks you’ve completed when the clock hits 10 minutes.

“Finally, we have a strength endurance test,” says Bozman. “For those among us that are in that bottom percentile [in the CrossFit Open leaderboard] that just snuck in [to the CrossFit Quarterfinals], it’s going to be about how many you can get at that final bar.

“For the best [athletes] we’re going to see some amazing numbers there—there are going to be some real shootouts happening.”

When Are The CrossFit Quarterfinals 2024 Score Submission Deadlines?

There are two submission deadlines to remember for the 2024 CrossFit Quarterfinals. 

The scores for the first two workouts are due by 5pm PDT on Saturday, April 20 (1am BST on Sunday, April 21). 

Then the submission deadline for workouts three and four is 5pm PDT on Monday, April 22 (1am BST on Tuesday, April 23). 

The submitted scores will be reviewed before Monday, April 29, and the CrossFit Games team will publicly announce the results once the leaderboard has been finalized. 

How To Submit CrossFit Quarterfinals Scores

Scores can be submitted on the CrossFit Games website or app, as with the CrossFit Open. Workouts can be completed in any order so long as the scores are submitted before their respective deadlines. 

In an email sent to those who have qualified for the event, CrossFit encourages athletes to use a judge who has completed its 2024 Judges Course. 

The company also says that “the top 60 male and female athletes will be required to submit video recordings of all workouts should they wish to proceed to Semifinals”. 

On top of this, people who edit their submitted video “in any way risk disqualification”, and all scores must be uploaded before the submission deadlines listed above to be valid. 

What Is The CrossFit Quarterfinals?

The CrossFit Quarterfinals is the second stage of the competitive CrossFit season, after the CrossFit Open.

More than 343,500 people took part in this year’s CrossFit Open—an online fitness competition in which people across the world tackle three workouts over three weeks and submit their scores to a worldwide leaderboard. 

The top 25% of male and female athletes from the CrossFit Open earn the right to compete in the Quarterfinals, which is a second online stage taking place the following month. 

The top 40 men and women from each region (North America West, North America East, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and South America) are then invited to the CrossFit Semifinals. 

These are a series of in-person competitions spanning mid-May to early June, designed to decide which 40 men and women will compete at the CrossFit Games (the pinnacle of the sport) in Fort Worth, Texas, this August. 

With the CrossFit Open disappearing in the rear view mirror, it’s time to look ahead to the next stage of the competitive CrossFit season, the CrossFit Quarterfinals, which will decide which athletes progress to the Semifinals. 

Like the Open before it, this is an online competition. Unlike the Open, it’s invite only. To qualify in 2024, you needed to finish in the top 25% in the CrossFit Open. 

Whether you’re a regular participant, first-time qualifier, hopeful for next year or just curious about the format, I’ve gathered a quick-and-dirty guide to the CrossFit Quarterfinals.

CrossFit Quarterfinals FAQs

CrossFit Quarterfinals Equipment List

Ahead of both the Open and Quarterfinals, CrossFit usually releases an equipment list that tells affiliated CrossFit boxes what needs to be provided to athletes taking part. Participants often comb these lists for clues as to what the workouts will be.

But in 2024 CrossFit has not released an equipment list in advance. Instead, it says “all required equipment can be found in a typical CrossFit affiliate”, although “some workouts may require a specified distance between equipment for safety concerns”. 

The floor plans and equipment list will be posted on the CrossFit Games website after the release of the four CrossFit Quarterfinals workouts on Wednesday, April 17.

CrossFit Quarterfinals Leaderboard

The CrossFit Quarterfinals can be hard to follow as a fan. This is because, while the Open has the live announcements and both the CrossFit Games and CrossFit Semifinals have been live-streamed on YouTube, there are no live updates for this portion of the season. 

If you want to stay on top of the latest results, the best way to do it is to keep an eye on the CrossFit Quarterfinals leaderboard on the CrossFit Games website. Many athletes also post updates on their social media channels, if you want extra information on the competition. 

CrossFit Quarterfinals Workouts 2023

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 1

For time (15-minute time cap): 

1. Front squat at weight one (heaviest) x9 
2. 25 ft handstand walk x9
3. Front squat at weight two x15
4. Muscle-up x15
5. Front squat at weight three (lightest) x21
6. Chest-to-wall handstand push-up x21

Men’s weights: 225lb/102kg, 185lb/83kg, 135lb/61kg

Women’s weights: 155lb/70kg, 125lb/56kg, 95lb/43kg

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 1

As many repetitions as possible (AMRAP) in 12 minutes of: 

1. Dumbbell snatch on arm one x8
2. Overhead walking lunge steps on arm one x8
3. Dumbbell snatch on arm two x8
4. Overhead walking lunge steps on arm two x8

Men’s weight: 70lb/32.5kg

Women’s weight: 50lb/22.5kg 

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 3

Five rounds for time (10-minute time cap):   

1. Burpee box jump-over x5
2. Clean and jerk x1

Men’s: Barbell at 275lb/125kg, box at 30in

Women’s: Barbell at 185lb/84kg, box at 24in

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 4

As many repetitions as possible (AMRAP) in 20 minutes of: 

1. Row x1,000m
2. GHD sit-up x50
3. Row x500m
4. V-up x25 

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 5

For time (15-minute time cap):

1. Deadlift at weight one (lightest) x21
2. Chest-to-bar pull-up x21
3. Deadlift at weight two x15
4. Bar muscle-up x15
5. Deadlift at weight three (heaviest) x9
6. 15ft rope climb x9 

Men’s weights: 225lb/102kg, 275lb/125kg, 315lb/143kg

Women’s weights: 155lb/70kg, 185lb/83kg, 205lb/93kg

Get help choosing which is best for you with our guide to the best CrossFit shoes.

Mat Fraser has been named the fittest man on earth five times—more than any other male CrossFitter. As a competing athlete he kept his cards close to his chest, but since retiring he’s let slip some of the secrets of his success. 

In a recent interview with YouTube content creator Zack Telander, Fraser gave my favorite insight into his training methods yet—three fitness tests he used to make sure he was ready to reclaim the CrossFit Games crown.

The best bit is that anyone can use these CrossFit workouts (with some sensible adjustments) to deliver strength and fitness gains galore, as long as you follow Fraser’s advice for how to progress the workouts over time.

So if you ever wanted to try training like the fittest man on earth, now’s your chance. Just don’t try and match his numbers—take a look at our scaled recommendations and start from there. 

Mat Fraser’s Fitness Tests

1. Rowing Intervals

Sets 5 Time 1min 40sec Rest 20sec

Rest 1min

Sets 4 Time 1min 40sec Rest 20sec

The aim for this workout is to hold a target pace through all nine rounds. For example, Fraser’s end goal was to row at an average pace of 1min 40sec/500m. 

He describes it as a mental test, saying he would do it in his parent's shiplap-lined basement. For the whole thing, Fraser tried to stare at a single knot in the wood in front of him.

“If I could stare at that knot for the entire 20 minutes, I knew I was in a good place,” says Fraser.

I wouldn’t recommend trying to match Fraser’s pace straight out of the gate. Instead, pick a goal that’s challenging for you and make this progressively more difficult as your fitness improves. 

This goal doesn’t have to be pace-specific either, according to Fraser. 

“You’re always trying to progress,” he says. “[And you might] have to use a different metric, because going from 1min 40sec/500m to 1min 39sec/500m is a pretty aggressive jump. 

“But I know that a 1min 40sec split when I measure it in watts gives me this X value, so I’ll try and bump that metric up a little bit, and then I’ll jump over to calories and try to bump that up.”

Over time, these incremental gains helped him chip away at his overall pace. Another way to master rowing for CrossFit is with these expert tips.

2. 40-Minute EMOM

EMOM for 40 minutes:

• Row x 15cal
• Toes-to-bar x 15
• Air bike x 15cal
• D-ball over shoulder x 6 (150lb / 70kg)

Fraser says he did at least one 40-minute EMOM each week throughout pretty much his entire career. 

This helped him get a feel for how he moved and the paces he was able to hold, both fresh and under fatigue. So, when competition time rolled around, he was ready for anything. 

He would also vary the content of the EMOMs throughout the year to help him peak for the CrossFit season. 

“At the beginning of the season you have these quick bursts of high output work [in each minute] and lots of rest,” says Fraser. “As you get closer and closer to the season, I tried to move that time domain so it’s almost like I’m just working for 40 minutes straight. 

“And then, right before the competition, I’d tailor it all back to the sprints to get that fast-reflex [stimulus].”

Again, I’m not going to hold you to Fraser’s standards. If you want to give this a go, pick a lower-calorie target on the rower and bike that you can hold for all 10 rounds. From my experience of 40-minute EMOMs, the first four rounds should feel fairly routine. The rest, not so much. 

You can also lower the number of toes-to-bar reps, or substitute them for V-ups or butterfly sit-ups. 

Finally, if you don’t have a D-ball, use a lighter sandbag or perform dual dumbbell cleans instead. 

3. Back Squat EMOM

EMOM for six minutes: 

• Back squat x 6 (315lb / 143kg)

If you want to develop your squat endurance, this is the test for you. Fraser would progress it over time by playing with the variables of time, weight and reps. 

This began with adding an extra minute to the workout. When he could complete the prescribed work for eight minutes he’d strip it back down to six minutes and increase the number of reps he was doing to seven. When he could do this comfortably, he started adding weight.  

“By the end of it you’re doing six sets of eight reps on the minute at 335lb,” he says 

If I was giving this a go, suffice to say I wouldn’t have 315lb on the bar. Instead, start with 60% of your one-rep max and build from there.

Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr paced her way through CrossFit Open workout 24.3 to progress to the next stage of the CrossFit Games season.

The six-time champ pulled out of the 24.3 live announcement showdown with America’s fittest woman Arielle Loewen on Thursday, March 14, because of a wrist injury. But she was able to post a score before the submission deadline the following Monday to qualify for the quarterfinals next month. 

She completed the workout alongside popular CrossFit YouTuber Craig Richey, who posted a video of the pair throwing down on his channel. 

“Recently she [Toomey-Orr] has been dealing with a wrist injury and didn’t want to make it any worse,” says Richey. 

“So she made the executive decision with Shane [Orr, her husband and coach] for this workout to only get two rounds of the bar muscle-ups, make sure she’s safely in the top 25% and call it a day.”

Toomey-Orr raced through the first five rounds in approximately three minutes, then looked casual as she completed two rounds of seven thrusters and seven bar muscle-ups. 

While the CrossFit Open leaderboard is yet to be confirmed, Toomey-Orr’s 24.3 score of 128 reps currently puts her in 11,188th for the workout. 

This follows coming in 61st place for the 24.1 workout test one and 10th place for workout 24.2, resulting in a 2,607th placed finish in the CrossFit Open overall.

The top 25% of individual athletes in each region will be invited to compete in the quarterfinals, up from the top 10% in recent years. Toomey-Orr’s result puts her in the 98th percentile (or top 2%) of athletes worldwide, easily securing her spot. 

The quarterfinals are the second stage of the CrossFit Games season. Like the Open, it’s an online competition, but this time it’s to decide which athletes will compete in the semifinals, the first in-person stage of the season. The top 40 male and the top 40 female performers will proceed to the finals. 

While the workouts are yet to be revealed, quarterfinal registration begins on April 1, so if you finished in the top 25% in the Open you shouldn’t have long to wait for an invite to drop into your inbox. 

The quarterfinals take place between April 17 and April 22, with athletes facing five workouts in prior years. 

I’ve tested most of the current crop of CrossFit shoes, and whenever anyone asks for a top budget option I point them in the direction of the Puma Fuse 2.0. The shoe is exceptionally comfortable with a wide, stable base for lifting, and a responsive midsole for all your burpee and box jump needs. 

With an MSRP of $100 it’s already great value, but with as much as 52% off in the Amazon Big Spring Sale it’s a total steal.

The women’s shoe can be picked up from $47.80, and you can find the men’s shoe for as little as $58.06 (costs vary as Amazon’s convoluted shoe-selling system changes the price depending on the style and size you go for). 

The Puma Fuse 2.0 was comfortable straight out the box. My first time wearing it was at a Puma event hosted by WIT Fitness in London, where top CrossFit athletes Joshua Al-Chamaa and Chandler Smith subjected me to a pair of 15-minute AMRAPS. 

After however many rounds of toes-to-bars, dumbbell clean and jerks, squats, push-ups, lunges and 400m runs, my feet felt remarkably fresh—the rest of my body, not so much. 

The Fuse 2.0’s soft upper feels more like a sock than a shoe, molding to the shape of my foot and providing a locked-in fit around the heel. 

It also has some nifty CrossFit-specific features such as raised rubber guards around the midfoot for rope climbs, a handstand push-up-proof TPU bumper on the heel and a wider forefoot for added balance during Olympic lifts. 

It’s brilliantly springy too. The midsole proved responsive during plyometric exercises, helping me feel light on my feet during speedy metcons. So much so that my pair has now become my go-to shoe for padel. 

As with most shoes, there are a couple of areas for improvement. There are better shoes out there for straight-up lifting: squats, deadlifts and cleans all felt good, although I experienced a bit of compression in the heel when shifting weights of 220lb and up.

I was also concerned about the shoe’s durability at first. Within a month of wearing them, the heel lining had worn through, however this hasn’t affected their performance and I’m still wearing them regularly one year on. 

Overall this is a really easy-to-get-along-with CrossFit shoe at a very reasonable price—even more so now it’s been knocked down in the Amazon Big Spring Sale. 

CrossFit Open workout 24.3 is upon us, and thrusters are making a dreaded, if expected, comeback for the competition’s final week. The workout was revealed by Jocko Willink, a retired Navy SEAL turned author, podcaster and entrepreneur, during an announcement show on the CrossFit Games YouTube channel. 

After the unveiling, CrossFit Games athletes Arielle Loewen, Roman Khrennikov, Jay Crouch and Sydney Wells became among the first to tackle the third CrossFit Open test. Aside from Loewen, all of the contenders were drafted in at the last minute after Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr’s withdrawal due to a wrist injury. The six-time champ still plans to complete the workout over the weekend and compete in the 2024 CrossFit season. 

Read on to find out how to do CrossFit Open workout 24.3, and how to get a great score with top tips and tricks from PZL Programming head CrossFit coach Alex Conroy. 

What is CrossFit Open workout 24.3?

Five rounds for time of: 

• Thruster x 10 (95lb/43kg for men, 65lb/29kg for women)
• Chest-to-bar pull-up x 10

One minute of rest, then five rounds for time of: 

• Thruster x 7 (135lb/61kg for men, 95lb/43kg for women) 
• Bar muscle-up x 7

Compared with the rest of the 2024 CrossFit Open, this workout is far from accessible. You will tackle five rounds of 10 thrusters and 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups, take a mandatory minute of rest, then move on to five rounds of seven thrusters at a heavier weight and seven bar muscle-ups. 

There is a 15-minute time cap. The time it takes you to complete the first section will be used as your tie-break score if you don't finish the workout and reach the same number of reps as another athlete.

How to do CrossFit Open workout 24.3 scaled

Five rounds for time of: 

• Thruster x 10 (65lb/29kg for men, 45lb/20kg for women)
• Jumping chest-to-bar pull-up x 10

One minute of rest, then five rounds for time of: 

• Thruster x 7 (95lb/43kg for men, 65lb/29kg for women)
• Chin-over-bar pull-up x 7

The scaled version of CrossFit Open workout 24.3 uses the same format as the RX version. The only differences are that you will use lighter barbell weights for the thrusters, swap chest-to-bar pull-ups for jumping chest-to-bar pull-ups, and substitute bar muscle-ups for chin-over-bar pull-ups. 

For the foundations version of the workout, everyone will perform the first round of thrusters with a stick. Men will then use a 45lb/20kg barbell for the second round, and women will use a 35lb/15kg barbell. The chest-to-bar pull-ups are substituted for a bent-over row using a barbell weighing 45lb/20kg for men and 35lb/15kg for women. Then, the bar muscle-ups are exchanged for push-ups. 

For all weights in the foundations division, CrossFit states: "The load is a suggested starting point. If you are completing all the tests in the foundations division, you are free to decrease or increase the load as your skill level allows."

CrossFit Open workout 24.3 movement standards

This is a challenging workout—don’t make it more difficult by racking up costly no-reps. After all, no one needs more thrusters in their life. Take a look at CrossFit’s movement standards below to make sure you’re doing each exercise correctly, across the RX and scaled divisions. Then you can walk away from 24.3 with a happy judge and, more importantly, your best possible score. 

Thruster

• The crease of your hip must pass below the top of your knee in the bottom of the squat position. 
• Your hips, knees and arms must be fully extended at the top of the rep. This is the point where the rep is credited. 
• Each round must start with the barbell on the floor. You are allowed to squat clean the first rep to save time, but this is not a requirement. 
• You cannot re-bend the knee between the squat and press part of the movement. In practice, this means you can’t perform a front squat followed by any type of jerk or push press. 

Chest-to-bar pull-up

• All grip types are allowed. 
• You must start each rep with your arms fully extended and your feet not touching the floor. 
• Your chest must make contact with the bar “at or below the collarbone” for a rep to count.
• You can use strict, kipping or butterfly pull-up variations. 

Bar muscle-up

• Each rep must begin with your arms fully extended and your feet off the floor. 
• Your feet must not rise above the pull-up bar during the kipping portion of the movement.
• Any part of your arm other than your hands touching the pull-up bar will result in a no-rep. You are also not allowed to remove your hands and rest on your torso at the top of the rep.
• The rep is credited when you lock out your arms and your shoulders are directly over, or slightly in front of, the pull-up bar. 

Jumping chest-to-bar pull-up

• The pull-up bar needs to be at least six inches above the top of your head when you are standing upright. 
• Weight plates, boxes and other stable surfaces may be used to get closer to the pull-up bar where needed, as long as the top of your head remains more than six inches away when standing upright on the surface. 
• Both arms must be fully extended at the bottom of each rep. 
• The rep will count when your chest touches the pull-up bar at or below the collarbone.

Chin-over-bar pull-up

• Start with your arms fully extended and your feet off the floor. 
• A rep is credited when your chin is above the pull-up bar. 
• No-reps may be awarded for starting a rep with bent arms or “not breaking the horizontal plane of the pull-up bar with the chin”.

How to get a great score according to a CrossFit coach

To help you get the best possible score in CrossFit Open workout 24.3, we asked PZL Programming head coach Alex Conroy for his top tips on tackling this test.  He says there are two types of people who will attempt the RX version of this workout: those comfortable with the gymnastic elements and those not so comfortable with the gymnastics elements— and each type should take a different approach.

Type One: Comfortable With Gymnastics

• Try to keep the first round of thrusters unbroken. Either go for speed and pull that bar down if you know you can, or pause at the top, take a breath, then go again.
• Once you get to the rig, go for unbroken chest-to-bar pull-ups if these are a strength for you. But remember, there are a lot of bar muscle-ups to come later on, so break these up if that means your muscle-ups will hold together better.
• There is nothing wrong with pacing the first section—it's definitely a trap and you can easily get sucked into racing it before falling apart in the second section.
• Once you get to the minute of rest, chalk-up, stand tall and get your lungs open to try and settle your breathing.
• Approach the second round of thrusters with respect, breaking them into smaller sets if needed.
• The jump up to the rig for the bar muscle-ups isn't going to feel great—your quads will be pumped and your grip is going to be toast. Focus on being efficient and using your hips. Don’t go to failure here.

Type Two: Not So Comfortable With Gymnastics

• This is a detour away from the accessibility of weeks one and two. Focus on the workout as a whole to maximize what you can achieve. If this means breaking the thrusters into two or three smaller sets (of a six and a four, or a four and two sets of three), do it.
• Approach the gymnastics in a way that suits you. You can chip away at the chest-to-bar pull-ups in singles, just keep focusing on your next rep as each one will move you up the leaderboard. 
• If you get through part one of this workout, you’ve excelled. Then you can just chip through the heavier thrusters and, who knows, maybe the magic of the Open will get you that first bar muscle-up!

How To Warm Up For CrossFit Open Workout 24.3

As one of my old schoolteachers used to tell me on a weekly basis: “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” That rings true for Open workouts, and the final part of your prep should always involve a comprehensive warm-up. Luckily, the team at mobility app Pliability has put together a few moves to help prime your body for 24.3.

1 PVC external rotation

• Stand upright holding a PVC pipe at one end in your right hand.
• Lift your right elbow so your upper arm is parallel to the ground, allowing the pipe to hang down outside your left arm.
• Grip the bottom of the pipe in your left hand and gently pull it across your body, causing your right forearm to rotate to your right-hand side. 
• Hold this position and breathe into it for 30 seconds. 
• Repeat on the other side. Do this for two rounds on each arm. 

2 90/90 hip rotations

• Start sitting on the floor with one leg in front of you, one leg out to your side, and both knees at a rough right angle, as pictured above. This is called the 90/90 position. 
• Lift both knees so they are pointing upwards, then allow them to fall down to the opposite side. As you do this, twist your torso so you are facing the leg that was out to your side. You should feel this stretch in your hips and lower back. 
• You can place your hands on the floor behind you as you do this for stability. 
• Continue to slowly move between sides for 90 seconds. 

3 Kang squat

• From a standing position, push your hips back and reach down to grip your toes while keeping a flat back. 
• From here, push your knees outward and pull your hips down into a full squat position. Your torso should now be upright.
• To return to standing, lift your hips first to feel a deep stretch in your hamstrings, then straighten your knees. Your back should remain flat during this phase, too. 
• Repeat this sequence for 90 seconds, aiming to sink deeper into the squat with each repetition. 

4 Wall Y with thoracic extension

• Stand facing a wall with your forearms raised, upright, and flush against a wall. 
• Hold a band in both hands so it’s taught at chest height, with your hands beyond shoulder-width apart. 
• Pull your shoulder blades back and down, then slowly slide your forearms up the wall until your arms are locked out overhead, forming a Y-shape. 
• Slowly lower your arms back to the starting position, then repeat this sequence for 90 seconds. 

When is the CrossFit Open workout 24.3 score submission deadline?

You have until 5pm PDT on Monday March 18 (12am GMT on Tuesday March 19) to submit your score for CrossFit Open workout 24.3. 

How do you submit your CrossFit Open score?

To register a score for the 2024 CrossFit Open you will need to set up an account on the CrossFit Games app or website then register for the competition, which costs $20. 

Once you’ve done this, you can submit your score for 24.3 via your personal dashboard, which can again be found on the CrossFit Games app or website, any time before the submission deadline at 5pm PDT on Monday March 18 (12am GMT on Tuesday March 19).

If you complete the workout at a CrossFit-affiliated gym, you can submit your score along with the name of the person who acted as your judge. 

If you do the workout anywhere other than a CrossFit-affiliated gym, you need to video yourself completing the test and submit this alongside your score. To do this, upload the video to a hosting site like YouTube or Vimeo, then you will be asked to share the link to the video while entering your score on the CrossFit Games app or website. 

“What’s your Fran time?” is the CrossFit equivalent of “What do you bench, bro?”

The two-move CrossFit workout is the sport’s best-known benchmark test, and a sub-six-minute time will earn you a nod of approval from seasoned box-goers. 

That’s because to achieve that time you need to go to hell and back. The combination of thrusters and pull-ups is like a weekly push/pull/legs split condensed into a few minutes—it will send your heart rate soaring before leaving you flat on your back.

Still want to try it? Thought so. Find out how below, along with some top tips from professional CrossFitter and Represent 247-sponsored athlete Victor Hoffer for achieving your best possible time.

How To Do CrossFit Workout Fran

Perform 21-15-9 reps of:

1. Barbell thruster (RX weights 95lb/43kg for men, 65lb/30kg for women)
2. Pull-up

Fran is a straightforward workout. Complete alternating sets of barbell thrusters and pull-ups in a descending 21-15-9 rep scheme: 21 thrusters, 21 pull-ups, 15 thrusters, 15 pull-ups, nine thrusters and nine pull-ups. 

To meet CrossFit’s standards on the thrusters, the crease of your hip has to pass below the top of your knees during the squat, and your hips, knees and arms must be fully extended at the top of the rep. 

However, there are three options for performing the pull-ups. You can do butterfly pull-ups, kipping pull-ups or strict pull-ups. 

If you’re not racing and want a greater challenge, choose strict pull-ups. But if you’re looking for your best possible score, you’ll want to go for butterfly or kipping pull-ups, depending on which one you’re more proficient in.

These two pull-up variations use a leg swing to generate momentum as you raise your chin over the bar, saving your muscles and speeding up your reps. Kipping pull-ups see you swing up and down from the bar in a C-shape, while butterfly pull-ups involve moving your chest in a fluid, round motion—as your chest comes forward, your legs go backward, and vice versa. 

However, it’s recommended that you are proficient with strict pull-ups before progressing to kipping or butterfly variations. It’s also important that you learn how to do these advanced versions from a certified coach, as they require a higher level of skill to perform than the strict version of the movement. 

Who Created The Fran Workout?

According to the CrossFit Journal, CrossFit founder Greg Glassman believed that training with weights would improve his abilities as a gymnast, but he found traditional bodybuilding moves, didn’t light up his lungs and muscles like a traditional two-minute gymnastic routine on the rings or parallel bars.

This led him to pair thrusters and pull-ups using a 21-15-9 rep scheme—a workout he completed in 6min 46sec.

How To Get A Good Fran Time

Even though this is a short workout, the way you approach it will depend on your training experience and fitness level, according to professional CrossFit athlete Victor Hoffer.

“If you’re at that elite level then it’s quite a light thruster weight and the workout is very fast, so people will just want to go ‘full send’,” says Hoffer. 

However, if you’re a beginner or intermediate athlete, a 95lb/43kg or 65lb/30kg is going to feel fairly heavy, particularly after 20 reps. For this reason, Hoffer recommends breaking up at least the first round into smaller, faster and more manageable sets. 

“I think taking some breaks will help you go faster overall: do quick thrusters, drop the barbell, take a breath, then get back to doing quick thrusters.  

“When I have a big set like 21, I love to do sets of eight, seven and six reps. Every time you’re doing that little bit less, which can be good.”

You can mirror this with your sets of pull-ups, or tweak it depending on how confident you feel with this higher-skill exercise. 

“If you’re comfortable with the gymnastics move, it may be easier to do just one break,” says Hoffer. “Then for the round of 15 you could do an eight and a seven, before trying to go unbroken on the final round of nine.”

Dave Castro has kept up his annual tradition of providing weekly clues ahead of each of the 2024 CrossFit Open workout announcements. And, as tradition dictates, the clues have been head-scratchers. 

His 24.3 clue is a video of a dog tearing into a chicken leg, filmed from below. 

Within an hour of going up on Instagram, the video had more than 1,000 comments, with many simply poking fun at the seemingly random clip. But among these, there were a few people genuinely trying to decipher Dave’s latest post. 

A repeat of a two-part Open workout from 2021—21.3 and 21.4—is proving to be one of the more popular choices.

CrossFit Open workout 21.3 sees you tackle three rounds of 15 front squats, 30 reps of a gymnastic movement and 15 thrusters for time, with a mandatory minute of rest after the first two. 

Each round, the gymnastic movement increases in difficulty. In round one it’s toes-to-bar, in round two it’s chest-to-bar pull-ups and in round three it’s bar muscle-ups. There is a 15-minute time cap.

Immediately after the 15 minutes is up, you'll launch into 21.4. Here, you have seven minutes to hit a complex of one deadlift, one clean, one hang clean and one jerk using the heaviest weight possible. 

Other commenters have gone for a more linear approach to guessing—”Time to let the big dogs eat! Bring on the heavy barbell.”—while several suggested the inclusion of a chicken leg meant our lower bodies are in for a battering. 

Current third-fittest woman on earth Arielle Loewen also chipped in, writing: “Chicken wing = bar muscle-ups. Dog = You gotta have that dog in you to do good in this workout.”

The final workout of the 2024 CrossFit Open will be revealed this Thursday during a live announcement show. This will be streamed on the CrossFit Games website and YouTube channel, with the show starting at 11.30am PST (7.30pm GMT) and the workout being unveiled about 30 minutes in. 

Arielle Loewen will then go head-to-head with six-time CrossFit Games champ Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr as the pair become the first people to face the workout. 

The rowing machine has been a fixture at the CrossFit Games since the inaugural 2007 event. It’s also helped build some of the best engines in the sport, from 2009’s winner Mikko Salo to five-time champ Mat Fraser. 

To help you up your game, we’ve enlisted the help of Alex Dunne, managing director of Concept2 which makes the Concept2 RowErg, the rowing machine used in the CrossFit Games and boxes worldwide (and Coach’s pick for the best rowing machine). I’ve also quizzed Reign Total Body Fuel ambassador and serial Games athlete Emma McQuaid.

They talk you through their top tips for setting up your machine for success, and the technique you should be using to start pulling sub-two-minute splits with ease.

How To Set Up A Rowing Machine For CrossFit

Before you start setting 2K test records you need to set up your machine correctly, and your first job should be to sort out the foot straps. 

“Don’t just jump on and go,” says McQuaid. “If I rowed with the straps set to one [the highest setting] then my quads would lock solid.”

“Strapping your feet into the machine in the right spot affects foot and seat comfort,” explains Dunne. He advises adjusting the footplates using the five numbered settings so the strap is in line with the ball of your foot, although, he adds, if you’re less flexible you might want to let your feet sit a little lower by choosing a higher foot strap setting number so you can reach forward more easily. 

This is the case for McQuaid, who tends to let her feet sit lower to counter the limited mobility in her ankles.

The second thing Dunne recommends focusing on is your seat. “If your butt isn’t happy while you’re rowing, chances are the rest of you isn’t happy either,” says Dunne.

If you feel like you need some extra padding, he suggests placing a towel or bubble wrap over the seat. Alternatively, Concept2 offers a seat pad or rowing shorts which might make you more comfortable. 

If this doesn’t work and your backside still ends up void of all feeling, he counterintuitively suggests trying less padding on your seat. “Too much can cause cramping and numbness,” says Dunne.

What Damper Setting Should You Use In CrossFit

The damper is the lever on the side of the fan cage and it changes the amount of air allowed into the flywheel. The higher the setting, the more air is allowed into the fan cage as you row, and the heavier the stroke feels.

There’s no requirement for which damper setting to use during CrossFit workouts and competitions, so Dunne says the best thing to do is play around and find which one feels best for you.

“We recommend starting on a damper setting of three to five,” says Dunne. “Really focus on technique, and as you improve you may find that a lower damper setting gives you the best workout and results.”

McQuaid agrees, saying she works off a “rough guide for females of between three and five, and for guys it’s anything from five to seven”. 

Despite this, you might be tempted to thrust the damper setting up to 10 and try to crank out powerful pulls to maximize your output, but Dunne says this is a poisoned chalice.

Doing this can exhaust your muscles before you’ve had a chance to experience the rowing machine’s cardio perks. Instead, find a damper setting that allows you to achieve a consistent output, which you can gauge from feedback on the monitor. 

You might also want to vary the damper setting depending on the sort of workout you’re tackling. Dunne recommends trying a lower setting for a longer, aerobic-focused WOD, and higher settings if you’re looking to develop strength and power during shorter sessions. 

Rowing Technique

There are four stages of each rowing stroke; the catch, the drive, the finish and the recovery. I asked Dunne to break down each one, so you can hone your technique, one step at a time. 

1. The Catch

This is the starting point of each stroke. Your knees should be bent so your shins are vertical, and your arms should be straight out in front of you holding the handle. 

Look straight ahead, and keep a neutral spine with a slight forward lean towards the fan cage. 

It’s not necessary to keep your heels connected to the footplates during this phase. Allow them to lift if you need them to. 

2. The Drive

Use your legs to drive through your feet and push your body away from the fan cage. 

As your legs straighten lean back slightly, maintaining a neutral spine, then use your back and biceps to pull the handle to your sternum. 

The chain attaching the handle to the fan wheel should remain flat throughout this motion. 

3. The Finish

At the end of the drive phase, hold your position for a split second. Your legs should be extended, you should be leaning back slightly, and the handle is pulled to your body just below your ribs.

4. The Recovery

This is the phase people often switch off for, so pay attention. Instead of just crumpling back into the catch position, be deliberate about how you transition between the two, as this is your chance to take a breath before your next big drive. 

First, extend your arms, then hinge at the hips to lean towards the flywheel. Once your hands have passed your knees, Dunne says, begin to bend your knees to slide the seat back towards the flywheel. 

You should also try to relax your grip here to stop your forearms fatiguing. 

Workouts

There are plenty of CrossFit workouts with rowing as a prevalent feature. Perhaps the best-known is Jackie, which tasks you to complete a 1,000m row followed by 50 empty-bar thrusters and 30 pull-ups as quickly as possible. 

Or, if you’re after a rowing workout that keeps you in your seat throughout, try a 2K test. The gold standard for covering the distance is seven minutes, but be warned, it’s not as easy as it sounds. This 2K rowing plan will help improve your time.

CrossFit Open workout 24.2 has landed, and it’s worlds apart from week one’s lethal pairing of single-arm snatches and burpees. 

The workout was revealed by current WWE world heavyweight champion Seth Rollins during 2024’s second CrossFit Open live announcement. The wrestler has competed in the CrossFit Open for the last 12 years, and stepped in for Dave Castro to share the second test: a 20-minute AMRAP of rowing, deadlifts and double-unders. 

Two-time fittest man on earth Justin Medeiros and fan favorite Colten Mertens were the first to face the test in Medeiros’s home gym, with their efforts live-streamed on the CrossFit Games website and YouTube channel. 

Scroll down to discover how to do CrossFit Open workout 24.2, and find out how to get your best score with tips from experienced CrossFit coach and head of PZL Programming Alex Conroy. 

How To Do CrossFit Open Workout 24.2

As many reps as possible (AMRAP) in 20 minutes of:

• Row x 300m
• Deadlift x 10 (185lb/83kg for men and 125lb/56kg for women)
• Double-under x 50

Count up your reps (every 10 meters on the rower is worth one rep) and that’s your score.

One complete round is 90 reps. 

How To Do CrossFit Open Workout 24.2 Scaled

As many reps as possible (AMRAP) in 20 minutes of:

• Row x 300m
• Deadlift x 10 (135lb/61kg for men and 95lb/43kg for women)
• Single-under x 50

The scaled version of CrossFit Open workout 24.2 is similar to the RX one. It's still a 20-minute AMRAP, and you'll still face rowing, deadlifts and skipping. 

The only changes are that the barbells you use are lighter (135lb/61kg for men and 95lb/43kg for women) and you'll perform single-unders rather than double-unders. 

The workout changes slightly for the foundations version of the test. Perform a 20-minute AMRAP of 30 strokes on the rower, 10 deadlifts and 50 single-unders or jumping jacks. The listed weights for the deadlift is 75lb/34kg for men and 55lb/25kg for women. 

However, the CrossFit Games website states that this load is a “suggested starting point” and any athlete completing the workout in the foundations division is “free to decrease or increase the load as your skill level allows”.

CrossFit Open Workout 24.2 Standards

In prior Opens, CrossFit has issued floor plans for each workout, detailing how far each piece of equipment used in the workout needs to be. There are no such stipulations at the Open stage of the competition this year, so arrange the rowing machine, barbell and skipping rope as desired.

However, there are still form standards that must be met when completing 24.2. 

Rowing standards: The monitor on your Concept2 RowErg must be set to zero at the start of each stint—you can ask your judge to do this for you. You must also remain seated on the rower until the monitor shows 300m, so no relying on carry-over meters. 

Deadlift standards: Sumo deadlifts are outlawed—your arms must be outside of your knees—and the rep only counts when your hips and knees reach full extension, and your head and shoulders are behind the bar when viewed from the side. 

Double-under standards: If you trip on your tenth rep then you’ll only be credited with nine—attempts don’t count. In the 24.2 scorecard, CrossFit also specifies that “spinning the rope backward” will be a no-rep, just in case anyone is considering going a little wild with this one. 

How To Get A Good Score On CrossFit Open Workout 24.2

By CrossFit Open standards, this is a long workout. You won’t be able to go flat out for the full 20 minutes, so it pays to approach this test with a plan of action. To help you with this, I asked PZL Programming’s head CrossFit coach Alex Conroy for his advice on how to get your best possible score. 

• “This workout isn't about winning the first round, it’s about finding a pace that's a little uncomfortable, but one you can sustain—remember, 20 minutes is a long time!”
• “Try to keep your pace consistent. Don’t fall into the trap of going too hard then sitting with your hands on your knees, as before you know it you’ll have lost 45 seconds. Instead, try to save your big push for the end."
• “There are a lot of transitions, so keep these smooth to save yourself valuable seconds. Lay your rope out neatly after each set of double-unders, and keep the foot straps tidy on your rowing machine. Don’t stress about getting them really tight at the start of each round, you’ll lose time if you're messing around with this.”
• “The rowing machine is where you’re going to spend the majority of your time during this workout. Remember that, over 300m, holding a 1min 35sec/500m split rather than a 1min 55sec/500m split isn’t going to earn you a huge amount of time, but it sure will spike your heart rate and fatigue you for the rest of the workout. 
• “Aiming to row at a 500m split pace that’s a couple of seconds slower than your 2km pace was my immediate instinct after seeing this workout."
• “Relax your grip on the row during the recovery phase of each stroke.”
• “The deadlift loading isn’t too heavy or too light. You could be doing a lot of reps and, when coupled with the row, this will be a lot of work for the muscles in your posterior chain. [To limit fatigue] make sure you warm up thoroughly and focus on moving well throughout.”
• “Don’t get to a point where you fall apart on either the deadlifts or the double-unders. Instead, if you need to, plan to break these moves up early—and do so on your own terms.” 
• “Manage your breathing throughout; be purposeful and take a breath or two as you get off the rower to move to the barbell, and do the same before the rope."

The first recorded scores for CrossFit Open workout 24.2 are 930 reps for Justin Medeiros and 922 reps for Colten Mertens, according to the CrossFit Open leaderboard at the time of writing.

"Both athletes completed over 10 rounds, with Medeiros’ first round taking 1min 46sec and his second round being done by the 3min 35sec mark," says PZL Programming head coach Alex Conroy.

However, unless you have eyes on a trip to Fort Worth, Texas, this summer for the CrossFit Games, you might want to set your sights a little lower. 

“For us mere mortals, a solid score will be five to seven rounds," says Conroy. "And for those looking to push into that previous quarter-final target, finishing in the top 10% of their division [the cut-off was raised to 25% for the 2024 season], I'd anticipate that you'll need to be looking at eight-plus rounds.”

CrossFit Open Workout 24.2 Winning Scores

The winners of CrossFit Open workout 24.2 have been confirmed. 

The CrossFit Games Instagram account posted a video stating that Finnish athlete Henrik Haapalainen and Swedish athlete Emily Claw recorded the top scores in the male and female divisions respectively.

Haapalainen finished the workout with 997 reps (11 rounds and seven reps) and Claw recorded a score of 926 reps (10 rounds and 26 reps).

Tudor Magda had previously held the lead in the men’s division as the only athlete able to pass the 1,000-rep mark. 

However, according to a statement shared by the Morning Chalk Up, CrossFit dealt him with a “20% major penalty for consistent lack of hip extension in the deadlift”. This took his score down to 800 reps. 

Haapalainen was also penalized, although he lost just one rep for “performing only 49 double-unders in round seven”. This was not enough to knock him off the top spot, and as such he will receive the $2,024 awarded to the winner of each CrossFit Open workout this year. 

However, Claw will not receive this reward as she performed her workout at a CrossFit-affiliate gym and did not submit a video with it. Though performing an Open workout at a CrossFit gym is enough to validate your score, CrossFit says that “no video is available so Claw is not eligible to receive prize money.” 

CrossFit Open Workout 24.2 Submission Deadline

You have until 5pm PST on Monday, March 11 (1am GMT on Tuesday, March 12) to submit your scores for CrossFit Open workout 24.2. Before this time, you can redo the workout and resubmit your score as many times as you like. 

To enter the annual online fitness competition you first need to register for the Open, which costs $20. You can then submit your score to the online leaderboard. 

If you do the workout at a CrossFit-affiliate gym, submitting your score is simple. You just need to add it to the leaderboard via the CrossFit Games app or website, then have it validated by the affiliate manager at the site where you completed it. 

If you’re not doing the workout at a CrossFit-affiliate gym, you'll also have to film yourself completing it. The video needs to be uploaded to a common hosting site like YouTube or Vimeo, then there will be a prompt to input the link as you add your score on the CrossFit Games app or website. 

Your video may be assessed by the CrossFit internal review team, who can accept, modify or invalidate your score based on whether you meet the set standards for the workout. The Wodproof app is the easiest way to film your workouts as it comes with a template for each CrossFit Open test including an on-screen timer. 

Dave Castro has released his second CrossFit Open hint ahead of the 24.2 live announcement on Thursday and it’s as cryptic as ever. 

The former CrossFit Games director shared a video of a chess piece (a pawn to be exact) being knocked out of shot by what the internet has agreed is a shuffleboard puck. 

This has set the CrossFit community guessing what the next test could be. Although, given how vague his 24.1 clue was, many have lost hope of drawing an accurate prediction from the post.

Before CrossFit Open workout 24.1, he shared a picture of a mushroom, which supposedly related to the top-heavy nature of the workout; a variation of CrossFit’s popular 21-15-9 format featuring single-arm dumbbell snatches and burpees. 

Now, for 24.2, we have a pawn being pushed aside by a shuffleboard piece, which feels just as difficult to decipher. 

The most feasible prediction I’ve seen is from the current third fittest woman on earth, Arielle Loewen. 

She writes: “[A] pawn can move two spaces. Increasing rep scheme by two each round, with shuttle runs. [An] AMRAP: 2-4-6-8-10 etc.”

But for the most part, people have been having a bit of fun in the comments section. Among them were the Concept2 team, who suggested a “42,195m [marathon] row”, like the one athletes tackled at the 2018 CrossFit Games.

Personally, my glutes would be happier with a slightly shorter workout than that, but the test that awaits us later this week remains anyone’s guess. 

After weeks of guessing, we finally know what CrossFit Open workout 24.1 is. 

Dave Castro revealed the details of this basic but brutal test today during the first of three CrossFit Open 2024 announcements. 

Current CrossFit Games champ Jeffrey Adler, two-time podium athlete Brent Fikoswki, fifth-fittest woman on earth Alex Gazan and 2023 sixth-place finisher Alexis Raptis were the first to tackle the workout, with their efforts streamed live on the CrossFit Games website and YouTube channel. 

Read on to find out how to do CrossFit Open workout 24.1, and how to get a good score courtesy of some top tips from APX Fitness CrossFit coach Devon Jewsbury,  ForestFlow CrossFit owner Oakley Hardwick and TIO CrossFit owner Jamie Boston. 

How To Do CrossFit Open Workout 24.1

• Single-arm dumbbell snatch x 21 
• Lateral burpee over dumbbell x 21
• Single-arm dumbbell snatch x21
• Lateral burpee over dumbbell x21
• Single-arm dumbbell snatch x 15
• Lateral burpee over dumbbell x15
• Single-arm dumbbell snatch x15
• Lateral burpee over dumbbell x15
• Single-arm dumbbell snatch x9
• Lateral burpee over dumbbell x9
• Single-arm dumbbell snatch x9
• Lateral burpee over dumbbell x9

Buckle up, this one's going to take some explaining. There are only two exercises—dumbbell snatches and burpees—but the format is something we've never seen before in the CrossFit Open. 

It's a twist on CrossFit's popular 21-15-9 rep scheme. You'll perform 21 dumbbell snatches, all on one arm, then 21 lateral burpees over the dumbbell. After this, do 21 dumbbell snatches on the other arm followed by 21 more lateral burpees over the dumbbell. 

Repeat this for the rounds of 15 and nine to finish the workout. There's a 15-minute time cap.

To make it clear: in each set you will complete all reps of the dumbbell snatches on one arm, and change the arm you use after each set. You can start with either arm. 

The men's RX dumbbell weight is 50lb/22.5kg, and the women's RX dumbbell weight is 35lb/15kg.

How To Do CrossFit Open Workout 24.1 Scaled 

Doing CrossFit Open workout 24.1 scaled is incredibly similar to doing the RX version. It contains the same movements, follows the same rep scheme and has the same 15-minute time-cap.

The only difference is you use a lighter dumbbell; 35lb/15kg for men, 20lb/10 kg for women. 

If you want to compete in the foundations division, men will use a 25lb/12.5kg dumbbell and women will use a 15lb/7.5kg dumbbell for the snatches. You will also perform standard burpees rather than lateral burpees over dumbbell. 

How To Get A Good Score On CrossFit Open Workout 24.1  

Sure, you could just go “full send” on this workout, and all power to you. But if you want to shave a few extra seconds off your time and shoot up the CrossFit Open leaderboard, it can pay to pace yourself and approach the test with a strategy. 

That’s why it’s handy to have these top tips and tricks from APX Fitness coach Devon Jewsbury n your back pocket, as well as advice from ForestFlow CrossFit owner Oakley Hardwick and TIO CrossFit owner Jamie Boston, both speaking to Coach through R.A.D. 

APX Fitness coach Devon Jewsbury

• “This one is all about holding on to that dumbbell. If you want a top time, you can’t afford to drop it and step away. You need to hold on and rip it.”
• “Make sure you aren't flying out of the gate and rushing—you don't want any costly no-reps. Instead, make sure you’re fully locking out overhead at the top of each snatch, and hitting both heads of the dumbbell on the floor at the bottom of each rep.”
• “Start your first set of snatches on your weaker arm. When you’re tired later in the workout, you don’t want to be using your weaker arm and failing reps. Your best bet is to start with it so you can finish each set on your stronger side.”
• “For the burpees, stay smooth and maintain your pace throughout the sets of 21. As you get down to the sets of 15, it’s all about ripping and going dark, then the sets of nine are all about sending it. Do. Not. Slow. Down.”

ForestFlow CrossFit owner Oakley Hardwick, speaking to Coach through R.A.D

• “Some people will be pulling the pin from the start here, but that won’t be a clever tactic for everyone. Identify your limits and realistic potential—this will help you recognize how to attack this workout.” 
• “Take a little time to figure out if the burpees or dumbbell snatch will be your breather. On your stronger movement, you can choose whether to take that one a tad slower to breathe when you need to.”
• Pick a round that you are going to choose to push on.”
• Burpees and dumbbell snatches are both prime movements to fire up your lower back. Ensure you take the dumbbell to the floor without straight legs [to save your lower back as much as possible].”
• “Play around with a step up into the burpee rather than a jump, if you need to, but ensure to switch legs when stepping up to prevent getting a lower back pump.”

Jamie Boston, TIO CrossFit owner and CrossFit level three coach with more than a decade of experience, speaking to Coach through R.A.D

• “A controlled effort is required here, rather than thinking this is a quick workout. Doing 90 reps of each movement will add up. For most people, 10 minutes seems like a realistic time frame to aim for.
• “Step up from your burpees. Stepping up takes a little bit of effort out of the movement, saving it for when you get really tired. It’s not much slower but feels a lot nicer.”
• “Breathe on the dumbbell snatches. Taking a second at the top to relax is much better than being hunched over and not able to breathe at all.”
• “Try to keep the same technique throughout—the one you normally use for both the movements. This is not the time to try anything new, save that for training and not competing.”
• “Lastly, enjoy yourself. This is supposed to be fun and your score isn’t the be-all and end-all. Going in a group will be the way to get a fast time.”

How To Warm-Up For CrossFit Open Workout 24.1  

You might have heard the saying: “The shorter the workout, the longer the warm-up.” 

CrossFit Open workout 24.1 is a fast-paced race to the finish, so you’re going to want to make sure your body is primed and ready to go. Luckily, APX Fitness coach Devon Jewsbury has programmed a warm-up to stand you in good stead. 

General warm-up

Complete three rounds of:

• Bike for 1min at 70%
• Walk-out x5
• Squat to stand x10
• Resistance band strict press x15

Then complete two rounds of:  

• Yoga push-up x7
• Down-up x7

 Specific Warm Up

• Light dumbbell snatch on your left arm x10 
• Light dumbbell snatch on your right arm x10
• Burpee x5

Rest for 30 seconds, then complete two rounds of: 

• Dumbbell snatch on your left arm at working weight x10
• Lateral burpee over dumbbell x5
• Dumbbell snatch on your right arm at working weight x10
• Lateral burpee over dumbbell x5
• Rest 60 seconds

CrossFit Open Scores for Workout 24.1  

Though CrossFit Open workout 24.1 isn’t yet 24 hours old at the time of writing (5.10am PT), the online leaderboard is already filling up with scores. 

And, while many are awaiting validation from CrossFit, there are a few familiar faces near the top of the tree.

Jeffrey Adler’s time of 6min 13sec currently puts him in fourth and is so far the highest of any existing Games athlete. Bronislaw Olenkowicz is just behind him with 6min 22sec, Royce Dunne’s score of 6min 39sec sits in 11th, Brent Fikoswki is in 12th with 6min 43sec, and Lazar Dukic’s time of 6min 47sec is 19th. 

On the women’s side, eight-time CrossFit Games athlete Kristin Holte has the top time of any contender so far, finishing her final burpee at the 6min 2sec mark. 

Emma Lawson is in second with 6min 16sec, and Kara Saunders is third with 6min 21sec. 

And if, like myself, you’re not a professional CrossFit athlete but you do train regularly and are looking to submit your best possible score, experienced CrossFit coach and TIO CrossFit owner Jamie Boston recommends aiming to wrap things up in less than 10 minutes. 

The original Nasty Girls video is the reason many people started CrossFit, inspired by the sight of athletes grinding through their final few ring muscle-ups to finish a grueling workout.

It features a trio of CrossFit’s OGs—Nicole Carroll, Annie Sakamoto and Eva Twardokens—completing three rounds of 50 squats, seven ring muscle-ups and 10 hang power cleans. 

More than a decade on, CrossFit has revisited this workout as part of its new Rogue Fitness Golden Barbell competition, which sees four top-level athletes go head-to-head in three workouts, the third of which will be the first CrossFit Open workout of 2024. 

The cream of CrossFit’s current crop, fittest man on earth Jeffrey Adler, alongside Brent Fikowski, Alexis Raptis and Alex Gazan, all blitzed through the workout in less than six-and-a-half minutes, with Gazan recording the fastest time of five minutes 22 seconds. 

Watch them duke it out below. 

CrossFit pays homage to the original by recreating the conditions the athletes faced in 2005. That means the gymnastic rings are set low—very low—forcing athletes like 6ft 2in Brent Fikowski to complete them strict from an awkward bent-knee starting position.

The only thing missing from the 2024 edition was the need to touch a medicine ball with your butt at the bottom of each squat, as perennial CrossFit Games podium athlete Pat Vellner pointed out on the company’s Instagram post. 

Watch the original video below, or scroll on to find out how you can try the Nasty Girl CrossFit workout for yourself. 

How To Do The Nasty Girl CrossFit Workout  

Three rounds for time:

• Air squat x 50
• Ring muscle-up x 7
• Power clean x 10 (135lb/60kg for men, 95lb/43kg for women)

The CrossFit Open is one day away and the only thing the CrossFit community wants to know is what they’ll face during the three-week event. But, for now, all they can do is pick over Dave Castro’s 24.1 hint and wait for the CrossFit Open 24.1 announcement.

So, when I had the chance to chat to six-time CrossFit Games champ Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, I couldn’t resist asking for her predictions.

“It’s safe to say that you should be prepared for anything and everything, right? It’s CrossFit. And if you’re not, I think you missed the memo,” Toomey-Orr tells me.

However, this year CrossFit announced the top 25% of athletes in each division will qualify for the online quarterfinals—up from 10%—and Toomey-Orr suggests this shift could mean higher-skill exercises like muscle-ups and heavy Olympic lifts will be reserved for later stages of the season like the quarterfinals and semifinals. 

In other words, make sure you’ve brushed up on the basics. 

“I think they’ll focus on the general population in the Open. So things that are going to be very manageable for the affiliate to run within the facility, and things that allow people to feel accomplished when walking away—the classics like burpee box jumps.

“I definitely think we will see rowing in there, and probably some toes-to-bar, pull-ups or even muscle-ups.”

The most important thing for Toomey-Orr is that we see three Open workouts which, when combined, provide a comprehensive test of fitness.

“We need to make sure we’re capturing the right people who can really do strength; people who can do a lot of bodyweight movements well. Variety—in order to get to the next section—is going to be really important to set the scene for the whole season,” says Toomey-Orr. 

Toomey-Orr and her programming business PRVN will be hosting the CrossFit Open at their newly opened affiliate in East Nashville: PRVN HQ. This will also be the site of the third and final CrossFit Open 2024 announcement, where she will face the current third-fittest woman on earth Arielle Loewen in a head-to-head showdown.

This leads Toomey-Orr on to the other element she wants to prioritize in this year’s Open: enjoyment. 

“It’s meant to be a really fun time for the community to get together and see each other on the leaderboard,” says Toomey-Orr. “just have fun with it.”

“We will be doing the Open every week at PRVN HQ, and I know I will be doing my own workouts there. So if people are going to be in town and they need a gym, we will definitely be open for it. It’s going to be a very fun year because it’s the first year for us.”

As we dive into the final week of the CrossFit Open, one question remains: What is CrossFit Open workout 24.3? 

The last test of the 2024 event will be unveiled on Thursday, March 14, and there are plenty of guesses flying around as to what it could be after Dave Castro’s 24.3 clue. 

Many think Games creator Dave Castro and his team will hit us with a heavy barbell movement and some more complex gymnastics, both of which are yet to make an appearance in this year’s Open. Others think we’re destined for thrusters, which have appeared in 13 of the 14 Opens to date. 

All we know is that you can find out who’s right by watching the 24.3 live announcement show on March 14. To make sure you don’t miss it, I’ve gathered all the times, dates and information you might need below, and embedded the YouTube Live video so you can watch the announcement right here. 

Watch 24.3 Live Announcement

CrossFit Open Workout 24.1 Announcement

The opening workout of the 2024 CrossFit Open was unveiled on February 29 during a live announcement show streamed on the CrossFit Games website and YouTube channel. 

Former CrossFit Games director Dave Castro and his customary blackboard were back to talk us through the test—a couplet of dumbbell snatches and lateral burpees over dumbbell. And the workout took some getting your head around, with a never-before-seen twist on the 21-15-9 format.

Rather than alternating dumbbell snatches, you performed 21 on one arm followed by 21 lateral burpees, then 21 snatches on the other arm, followed by another 21 lateral burpees. The sequence then repeats with 15 and 9 reps.

After the workout was unmasked, the current fittest man on earth Jeffrey Adler faced off against Brent Fikowski, Alexis Raptis and Alex Gazan—all top-six finishers in the 2023 Games—in a live showdown.  

The champ posted the top time of 6min 13sec, with the other athletes hot on his heels, all coming in beneath the seven-minute mark.

CrossFit Open Workout 24.2 Announcement

CrossFit Open Workout 24.3 Announcement

Read more about this tried-and-tested selection in my guide to the best CrossFit shoes.

After impressive semifinal showings in 2022 and 2023, 25-year-old Aimee Cringle is entering the new season looking to secure a spot at the CrossFit Games. This is the gear she’s using to help her get there. 

Work Out Like Aimee Cringle

This is not the first time we’ve spoke to Cringle. She’s set readers this bodyweight challenge, shared her favorite four-move core routine and shared her tips for CrossFit Open workout 23.1.

The 2024 CrossFit Open is just days away and Dave Castro is up to his old tricks again, sharing an obscure hint on his Instagram page.

The former Games director posted a picture of a red mushroom and the caption “24.1”, sparking wild speculation as to what it could mean. 

Teasing the hint on his YouTube channel earlier this week, Castro said he was worried it would be “too obvious”, but there doesn’t seem to be much risk of that. 

Several commenters, including 10-time Games athlete Scott Panchik, thought the mushroom (if poisonous) could hint at a “death by” format. This would see athletes set a running clock then tackle an increasing amount of work each minute until they couldn’t continue—check out this death by burpees workout as an example. 

One popular suggestion for this format was a combination of burpees and rowing, courtesy of CrossFit podcast Coffee Pods & Wods. 

Other CrossFit fans linked the red mushroom to the Super Mario video games, suggesting we could be faced with box jumps because the mustachioed plumber has made a career out of jumping on boxes. 

In the March edition of the CrossFit Games newsletter, The Hopper, Castro gave further, albeit vague, clues as to what to expect from the workout.

“Programming this year is unique, effective and simply beautiful in the classic CrossFit style,” he writes.

My guess? Fran. Maybe not for the first workout, but I have a hunch we might see this CrossFit benchmark test sometime in the next month.  

When Is The CrossFit Open?

The CrossFit Open kicks off on Thursday, February 29, and concludes on Monday, March 18. It’s an annual mass participation event that sees hundreds of thousands of people tackle a workout challenge every weekend for three weekends to test their fitness. For the sport’s top athletes, it’s also the first step to qualifying for the CrossFit Games.

The first weekend’s workout will be revealed on Thursday evening in a live-streamed event, where elite CrossFit athletes go head-to-head as they become the first to officially take the test.

The first live announcement for CrossFit Open workout 24.1 will pit the current fittest man on earth Jeffrey Adler against perennial podium contender Brent Fikowski in an all-Canadian showdown.

Female athletes Alex Gazan and Alexis Raptis (the current fifth and sixth fittest women on earth, respectively) will also face off.

After the release of the workout on Thursday, participants will then have until the following Monday to complete the workout and register their scores on the online leaderboard. 

You can catch the action on the CrossFit Games website or the CrossFit Games YouTube channel. The live show starts at 11am PT (7pm GMT). 

You can still register for the CrossFit Open 2024 to take part. 

When I got the chance to speak to top European athletes after the 2023 Berlin CrossFit semi-final event, courtesy of their sponsor Reign Total Body Fuel, I had to ask them how often do CrossFit athletes train? It’s upwards of five hours a day, so what does their diet look like to support these superhuman efforts?

The simple answer is that they eat a lot. 

Here, Wodapalooza 2022 winner Emma McQuaid, Games athletes Emma Tall and Moritz Fiebig, and Spain’s third fittest man Aniol Ekai discuss their daily calorie goals, nutritional focus and the foods that help them perform at their best.

What do CrossFit athletes eat?

To hit those lofty calorie goals, CrossFit athletes have to be clever with what they eat. After all, if you wanted to chew your way through 6,000 calories of chicken and brown rice you’d barely have any time left in the day to train. So what’s Fiebig’s secret?

“Firstly, I love eating. Secondly, eating a lot of fats can help with eating a lot of calories, so I like nuts, eggs and avocado, for example, for breakfast. Then easy things like oats and rice help.”

Aniol Ekai aims for a similar 6,000-calorie daily goal and, while he says he enjoys his food, he admits he can get “tired of eating”.

“It’s just about finding the balance, like with everything,” says Emma McQuaid. “Even for an athlete. 

“Obviously we don’t want to have high-sugar foods in-season for inflammatory reasons, but sometimes on a Saturday night you want a bag of crisps, so it’s like, ‘well, I’ll have a bag of crisps’.”

I’ve never been named the fittest man on earth. Chances are, you haven’t either, but that doesn’t mean we can’t train like someone who has. 

Two-time CrossFit Games champ Justin Medeiros recently shared a four-minute workout finisher you can try at your local box or gym—all you need is a pair of dumbbells and a rowing machine, preferably the Concept2 RowErg. He’s even revealed his score so you can see how you stack up against the sport’s elite.

The session is simple. Start a four-minute timer and perform 20 devil presses (Medeiros uses a pair of 60lb/27.5kg dumbbells) then burn as many calories as possible on the rower before the clock hits zero. 

Medeiros reached 56 calories on the rower. Can you get anywhere near his score? 

Medeiros tackled this short but sharp challenge after a one-rep max deadlift using a buffalo bar—a barbell with a curve. 

This was part of a “max-effort lower session” with his physique coach Jesse Bifano, which offers a glimpse into the conjugate method training system he follows. 

This style of training revolves around one-rep max attempts at the barbell squat, bench press and deadlift. Since starting to use this system after the 2020 CrossFit Games, Medeiros reports countless PRs and a 15lb (7kg) increase in body weight. 

“It was adapted originally by Louie Simmons from Westside Barbell, from Russian training for weightlifters,” says Bifano in a separate video on Medeiros’ YouTube channel. “The idea is very similar to CrossFit. You’re using constantly varied movement patterns under high-intensity efforts to produce results. But where CrossFit is broad in general, ours is more specific in the nature of powerlifting—squat, bench and deadlift.

“But that system has adapted pretty comfortably into that CrossFit world.”

Way back in 2017, on a hunch, Coach contacted a few CrossFit boxes to find out if anyone had found love in a sweaty place. Of course they had and we featured four so-called CrossFit couples. Since then we discovered that it wasn’t just casual CrossFitters who had coupled up. Some of the sport’s elite had become involved romantically, too. So for Valentine’s Day 2024, we’re revisiting the feature and sticking our noses into the relationship of CrossFit Games athletes Elliot and Jamie Simmonds. The pair live in Abu Dhabi and are founders of Quintessential Health & Performance.

Elliot Simmonds, 30, and Jamie Simmonds, 32

Time together: 10 years 

Favorite part of CrossFit: Both love the community element, but exercise-wise Elliott is a fan of low–impact rowing—“I know I can do it forever,” he says—while Jamie loves a muscle-up.

Where did your relationship begin?

Jamie: We both moved to the Middle East in 2014. I’m from New Zealand and Elliot is from England. I moved there two weeks after Elliot and I began to train at the gym he was coaching at. We had to travel for the Dubai Fitness Championship (DFC) and we ended up staying overnight. All of us were too cheap to get more than one bedroom so there were three of us in the room and you get to know people better when you hang out with them that long. I then ended up working at the same gym as Elliott. 

Elliott: When I first moved I had a girlfriend, but after the DFC Jamie and I got to know each other a little bit better. It was one of those things where the timing was just right. We got on well and we needed a female coach at the gym. Jamie started working for us and I guess it went from there. 

When were you officially a couple? 

Elliot: I think our first official date—just me and Jamie—was at about 9.30pm at either Nando’s or this Australian burger place after work. We were in our gym gear. 

We didn’t define ourselves as a couple until I knew I was going home back to England for Christmas in 2014 and I invited Jamie back to the UK with me to save her staying in the UAE. We then got married in 2020.

You work together and live together. What’s your training routine like?

Elliot: We tend to train at the same time, but not do the same thing. On average it’s two sessions a day to get better for the CrossFit season. I ‘in-person coach’ Jamie, so I won’t write programs for her, but if she needs help on how to approach workouts, I’ve always helped. Sometimes we’ll jump into each other’s workouts or do qualifier workouts and go head-to-head.

Jamie: On holiday in New Zealand we did one session per day, but also outdoor stuff like mountain climbing, hiking, swimming. We get outdoors as much as possible. 

Elliot: We train, work and live together. People ask, ’Are you ever apart?’ and the honest answer is, no we’re not, but for some reason, it’s always worked!

You’re made for each other! Any advice for couples training together?

Elliot: There are still times when your patience wears thin especially when you’re tired and you’re in the middle of a workout and you get a dirty look! It’s more about understanding your partner I guess. There’s no specific advice other than to be attuned with your partner and know when to say something or when to keep quiet. 

How do you know when to speak or be quiet with each other?

Jamie: You need to know when he or she is in a bad mood and that now is not the time to speak up, or it’s about approaching something more diplomatically. Make suggestions rather than delegation! And don’t take in-the-moment comments personally.

Elliot: That’s something you learn as a coach of athletes, not just your partner. In the heat of the moment, it isn’t the person speaking—it’s their ego responding. As a coach and as a partner, you have to know that nothing is meant personally when your heart rate is high and you’re emotional.

Is there an exercise that makes you two really competitive?

Elliot: I wouldn’t say ‘exercise’ [laughs]. We’re both competitive people. Whenever we do the same workout we’re competitive with each other. Sometimes we do go into a workout and know someone is better than the others so it’s easier to know a loss is going to come. The longer a workout gets, the more likely I will win; the shorter it is, the more likely Jamie will win.

Do you compete together?

Elliot: We’re going back to our roots this year. The 2015/2016 CrossFit season, the first year we were together, we podiumed at the CrossFit Games as a team so that’s high in our memories and we did a couple of partner comps. Since then we’ve entered as individuals in most comps. 

This year we’re in the same team for the season and hopefully the CrossFit Games 2024. 

What is it that you each admire in each other in terms of training?

Jamie: With Elliot it’s his dedication. He shows the passion he has for it by the time he spends on the fine details. There’s no one in CrossFit who does it quite the same. He’s a very smart athlete—that’s why I go to him. 

Elliot: For me, Jamie has unwavering trust in herself. She goes into her workout and just backs herself. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but she always has the effort. There’s never an excuse, never a reason, just pure heart whenever she does it and that’s what I’ve admired the most about her. 

Six-time fittest woman on earth Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr is the most decorated individual CrossFit athlete in history. But even she started out in her local CrossFit box with an empty barbell and a whole lotta drills. 

It’s these early encounters with the sport that led her to name Nancy as her favorite benchmark CrossFit workout during a recent interview with Coach.

“Overhead squats were actually quite challenging for me when I first started. A lot of the weightlifting movements were,” Toomey-Orr tells me.

“Nancy is five rounds of a 400m run and 15 overhead squats. I was a runner prior to doing CrossFit so it allowed me to get ahead and do what I was really born to do, then it really challenged me when it came to the squats. But I could see progression every time I did it.”

CrossFit Workout Nancy

Five rounds for time:

• 400m run
• 15 overhead squats (95lb/42.5kg for men, 65lb/30kg for women)

Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr On How To Get A Good Nancy Time

Unlike in a complex chipper (a workout that could be up to an hour long with multiple moves), you won’t need to squint at the whiteboard for a mid-WOD reminder of the movements here. Nancy is a straightforward workout, which is part of the appeal for Toomey-Orr. 

But in CrossFit, straightforward rarely means easy. That’s why the perennial champ says the key to success is strategy, playing to your strengths and nailing down your technique for the overhead squats.

“When you walk into a gym and you see the workout on the whiteboard, I think the best thing to do is to work out where your strengths are and where your weaknesses are,” she says.

“For example, in Nancy, I knew that my strength was going to be on the running portion, but when I came back in from the run my overhead squats were going to be the limiting factor.

To hone her technique, Toomey-Orr tackled Nancy with an empty barbell at first, leading to her next piece of advice: Scale the workout where needed and work on building strong foundations in each of the movements.

If Toomey-Orr can benefit from scaling workouts, chances are you can too. 

“I had to learn not only the movement, but also build my body awareness as well,” says Toomey-Orr. 

“When you face movements that you’re less confident with, it’s about giving them a little bit more time, being a bit more patient with the whole process and just breaking it down. 

“Everyone wants to go from zero to 100, but you need to take your time and put the work in.”

Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr is the most decorated individual athlete in CrossFit Games history, winning the competition six times between 2017 and 2022. 

This streak followed two second-place finishes in 2015 and 2016. So what changed to transform her from title contender to the most dominant force the sport has ever seen?

A segment in her new book, The Heart is the Strongest Muscle: How to Get from Great to Unstoppable, suggests the answer lies not in her physical training, but in an overhaul of her mindset. 

If you watch the CrossFit Games documentaries, you’ll notice the difference in demeanor. In 2016’s edition, when a fan asks her for a photo ahead of the final day of competition Toomey-Orr replies, “you’ll probably want to delete that after today.” 

Now compare that to what she told the documentary crew in 2022.

“I believe in everything I do, what I can do and what I’m capable of. I know and have full confidence that no matter what happens, I will stand up on top of that podium, no matter who I’m going up against.”

After earning a second consecutive silver at the 2016 Games, Toomey-Orr realized it was her mindset that was holding her back. So she made some wholesale changes with her husband and coach Shane Orr. 

“We restructured our training program from head to toe,” Toomey-Orr writes. “We changed everything from our coach-athlete communication (such as more positive reinforcement), workout program (less volume but more intensity), and schedules (no more overcommitting). It was a full-throttled strategy for obtaining what I missed out on that year—first place.”

Part of this shift in mindset was Toomey-Orr’s adoption of the “American” way of winning after relocating to the States in 2018.

She says Americans are more vocal about winning, in a way her fellow Australians might perceive as arrogance and shut down with sarcasm. But Toomey-Orr found value in this attitude. 

“I have definitely earned it now,” she writes. “And I think a piece of me has tried to adopt the ‘American’ way after all the years I have been immersed in its culture. Why? Because I have come to appreciate their approach to winning. There is no need to be apologetic for your talent or drive.”

The CrossFit Open 2024 is rapidly approaching, and as is tradition for this open-to-all fitness competition, the workouts are being kept under wraps. It’s a savvy rule because it sends any committed CrossFitter into a frenzy of speculation. 

A great place to start if you’re looking for clues is the Workout of the Day (WOD) on CrossFit.com, commonly referred to as main site workouts. 

As CrossFit Games podium athlete Lindsey Valenzuela said in the 2015 Fittest On Earth documentary: “If you’re an athlete and you’re not looking at main site workouts, you’re not intelligent, because a lot of those movements appear either at the Open, regionals or Games.”

At the time of writing, the latest WOD is the hero workout Erin, which includes the dumbbell split clean, a move never-before seen at the Open. The exercise involves moving two dumbbells from the floor to your shoulders and catching them with your feet in a staggered stance as you would with a split jerk.

To pour a little extra fuel onto this fire of speculation, the CrossFit Games Instagram account also recently posted a video of “the first time we saw dumbbells in the Open”— it was 17.1, the first workout of the 2017 CrossFit Open, for those wondering. 

How To Do CrossFit Hero Workout Erin

Five rounds for time:

1. Dumbbell split clean x 15 (40lb for men, 30lb for women)
2. Pull-up x 21

What Other New Movements Could Feature In The 2024 CrossFit Open?

CrossFit competition director Adrian Bozman is responsible for programming the CrossFit Open, quarterfinals, semifinals and Games. Since taking the reins for the 2022 Games, he’s not been shy about introducing new movements. 

In the 2023 Open we were hit with shuttle runs for the first time, while Boz’s first Games saw a slew of new exercises including double-under crossovers, wall-facing deficit handstand push-ups and dips with parallel bar traverses. 

However, last month he told the CrossFit Games podcast that while CrossFit was “not going to do an equipment list this year” it is “very committed to using an equipment profile that’s, you know, pretty vanilla”.

It doesn’t get much more vanilla than dumbbells, and other new faces that have recently made an appearance on the main site and which don’t require unusual equipment include wall-facing handstand push-ups and squat clean thrusters (otherwise known as clusters). 

Hulking bodies stumble forward, faces contorted with pain. 

Not the description of a Renaissance painting or a zombie apocalypse, but the closing stages of Acid Bath at the 2018 Dubai Fitness Championships. It was the first time the world had seen the CrossFit workout which has since become synonymous with suffering in fitness. 

What is the Acid Bath workout? You have to complete 500m on a Concept2 SkiErg, 500m on a Concept2 RowErg and 1,000m on a Concept2 BikeErg as fast as possible. It seems simple but it’s its own special kind of awful.

“Right as the workout finishes, that’s when the pain starts,” five-time fittest man on earth Mat Fraser told film crews at the Dubai event.

CrossFitters tend to like hard things, so when a friend suggested a detour from my usual training to attempt the Acid Bath workout during a Saturday session, my curiosity got the better of me.

Acid Bath Workout

Complete the following for time.

1. 500m Concept2 SkiErg
2. 500m Concept2 RowErg
3. 1,000m Concept2 BikeErg

What I Learned Doing The Acid Bath Workout

1. The Aftermath Is Worse Than The Workout Itself

The workout isn’t a walk in the park. My heart rate spiked immediately, the skiing obliterated my core, and by the end, my legs felt like lead. 

Initially, however, I didn’t think it was as bad as everybody says. There was a point on the rower when I felt fairly calm and in control even though I was working hard. 

The discomfort in my muscles wasn’t overwhelming once I finished, what I didn’t realize was that the worst was yet to come. 

A minute or two after finishing I, along with two others who had done the workout with me, collapsed into a heap, lungs gasping for air and stayed there for a good 15 minutes unable to properly catch my breath. The only time I’ve experienced something similar is after attempting Fran (21-15-9 of thrusters and pull-ups).

2. Pacing Goes Out Of The Window

I know that, of these three movements, rowing is a strength and skiing is a weakness, so for a longer workout made up of these movements I would aim for a steady pace on the SkiErg, saving my energy to excel on the RowErg.

But this is a short workout. Male athletes in Dubai were given a six-minute time cap to get it done, while female competitors had only a marginally more generous seven minutes. 

I aimed to spend 1min 40sec on each machine, so I had to drop the hammer from the off  and flirt with pushing myself too far and blowing up. 

Even with my nemesis the SkiErg slowing me down, I made up time in the row and bike segments to finish in 5min 33sec.

For context, the male winner in Dubai was Roman Khreniikov with a time of 4min 54sec, while Laura Horvath won the female side with 5min 23sec.

3. Transitions Are Important 

As with many other CrossFit workouts, this test is “for time”, which means complete it as fast as you can. I could have completed it marginally faster if I hadn’t lost a few seconds clumsily transferring between machines. 

I hadn’t preset the damper on my rower to the setting I wanted, and getting off the machine my heel caught in the footplate. 

If a workout with transitions crops up in competition like the CrossFit Open, these seconds could be enough to move you up or down the leaderboard.

CrossFit may have its detractors, but most agree that the training top CrossFit athletes subject themselves to is among the most demanding fitness regimens in the world. These athletes train for the CrossFit Games, an annual test designed to find the fittest man and woman on earth.

The Games have certain recurring movements, such as burpees, double-unders, pull-ups, snatches and clean and jerks, as well as running and spells on cardio machines. 

However, organizers like athletes to be prepared for the “unknown and unknowable”. In the past, that meant peg-board ascents, ocean swims, paddleboarding and free-standing handstand push-ups.

For this reason, professional CrossFit athletes’ training tends to be varied, combining strength work, power development, aerobic capacity building, mobility, coordination and gymnastic skill development.

But just how intense is a CrossFit athlete’s weekly schedule? After the 2023 Berlin semi-final event, I had the chance to sit down with some of Europe’s top CrossFit talent—Reign Total Body Fuel athletes Emma McQuaid, Emma Tall, Moritz Fiebig and Aniol Ekai—so I asked this very question.

• Elite athletes explain how to train twice a day

To read more about each shoe, head for our guide to the best CrossFit shoes.

The CrossFit box I train at is like a R.A.D One showroom. Everywhere you turn there’s a new colorway; one coach owns seven pairs. The community has voted with its feet, so I decided it was time to get in on the action and test a pair. I wasn’t disappointed. 

The shoe was immediately comfortable and, although I found it didn’t match the stability around the heel of the Nike Metcon 9 or Inov-8 F-Lite G 300 for lifting, it more than made up for this during metcons with its springy and supportive SwellFoam midsole. Given WODs are (arguably) the defining feature of CrossFit training—and I think this shoe handles them better than any other—there’s a strong case to be made for saying this is the best CrossFit shoe. 

R.A.D One: Price And Availability

If you’re buying from the brand’s website, the shoe costs $150 in the US and £130 in the UK. It’s also available from Rogue Fitness. To my knowledge, the shoe is rarely discounted, but it’s built to last so you could argue it’s a long-term investment. 

Long-time owners I’ve spoken to have had no problems with wear and tear, with the knit-like mesh upper, midfoot bumpers and TPU midsole wrap standing up to the rigors of rope climbs and whatever other new movements Adrian Bozman pops in the next CrossFit Open (see: wall walks). 

How I Tested This Shoe

I wore this shoe for all my CrossFit training over the course of two months: five to six times a week, 90 minutes per session. These sessions tended to feature a strength and/or Olympic weightlifting element, gymnastic skill work, a WOD and accessory lifts. 

Design And Fit

The first thing to make clear is that, in my eyes, the R.A.D One is a beautiful shoe. It’s designed to hold its own in the gym and on the street, and does so on both counts—especially when you consider the functional but undeniably clunky look of rivals like the Nike Metcon 9. 

It’s not a case of style over substance. The construction of the shoe is based around three principles: performance, plyometrics and lifting. The SwellFoam EVA midsole is lightweight, springy and supportive, making it a welcome metcon companion when tackling high-volume burpee box jumps. 

There’s also a TPU “stability cage” that flares around the outsole to provide firm foundations when lifting and protect the shoe from damage during rope climbs. The knit-like mesh used for the upper promises to be breathable and durable, and the sole features herringbone grooves for grip on gym floors. 

I tested a US 11, which is my regular size. I found it ran slightly small, which was fine for me but may be worth considering if you’re close to the boundary between sizes.

Is The R.A.D One Good For WODs?

During CrossFit WODs and any other HIIT-like training, the R.A.D One truly comes into its own. It’s lightweight and breathable, and helped me feel nimble transitioning from shuttle runs and machine work to weighted exercises like devil press and dumbbell snatches. 

The springy SwellFoam midsole adds to this, providing a welcome layer of cushioning during box jumps without being so thick that stability is sacrificed. The comfort meant it was easy to forget I was wearing shoes at all, with no unwanted movement of the shoe throughout the varied workouts I subjected it to. 

If you’re after a new shoe for the next CrossFit Open or an upcoming competition, I think this (or the TYR CXT-1, if you have narrow feet like me) should be at the top of your list.

Is The R.A.D One Good For Resistance Training?

Making a CrossFit shoe can be like mixing a cocktail. Ingredients include the ability to support wearers through lifting heavy, running short distances and doing any number of exercises mid-metcon. The thing is, the thick midsole stack on running shoes will make these shoes bad for lifting. On the other hand, the unforgiving sole of a dedicated weightlifting shoe is going to feel unpleasant during even a slow-paced jog.

The features oppose one another, and striking a compromise is hard. That’s why the R.A.D One can fail to be the best CrossFit shoe for lifting but still be the best CrossFit shoe overall for most people. To be clear, it’s still a fine shoe for shifting heavy weights; I was able to squat, clean, snatch, jerk and deadlift happily while wearing it thanks to the flared “stability cage” around the outsole and its modest-yet-effective midsole cushioning.

I’ve found other CrossFit shoes like the Nike Metcon 9 or Inov-8 F-Lite G 300 have been built with more of a lifting bias. Their wider outsoles and firmer heels offer superior stability when catching a snatch. However, I found these competitors provided a much firmer ride during WODs, which could feel clunky during high-intensity workouts. 

Is The R.A.D One Good For Running?

A CrossFit shoe caveat: I don’t think any should be worn for distances of 5km and above. That’s what the best running shoes are for (a market the newer R.A.D R-1 is currently targeting, if you’re on the hunt for a chic new pair). 

What I would expect from a CrossFit shoe is for it to keep me comfortable during short efforts that crop up during CrossFit workouts—I’d see the two one-mile efforts at either end of the hero WOD “Murph” as the upper limit for distance here. And to that end, the R.A.D One performed excellently. 

As with the high-intensity workouts, I found the midsole delivered a surprising amount of support and bounce which belied how thin it is. The upper offered a sock-like fit that never threatened to cause pinch points or rubbing, and the breathable mesh-like material kept my feet cool. 

I was impressed by how well the shoe locked my heel down. This is something that has let me down on shoes like the Nike Metcon 9 and Under Armour Tribase Reign 5. Wearing both shoes, I felt some unwanted movement around the heel when running and rowing.

Is The R.A.D One Worth It?

The R.A.D One isn’t a cheap shoe, but it is a very good one. And, considering that after a few months of use the only signs of wear are some scuffs around the toe, I’d say they’re built to last. 

That’s why, if you’re a true CrossFitter, I think it’s worth investing in a pair. Hell, even if you’re a cardio-curious bodybuilder or general gym-goer looking for a stylish, versatile shoe, it’s probably worth it. The only exceptions are those whose training has a heavy running bias (the On Cloud X 3 may serve you better), dedicated weightlifters or long-time metcon fans. 

These last two groups will want either a purpose-built weightlifting shoe or a CrossFit sneaker that leans further towards stability than mid-WOD support, such as the Nike Metcon 9 or Inov-8 F-Lite G 300.

I’m rarely happier than when I’m working out, so I do it rather a lot. What I don’t (and really should) do so religiously is prioritize my recovery. 

This got me wondering: How do top athletes manage to train twice a day (or more) without burning out? 

Someone who trains harder than most is elite CrossFit athlete Noah Ohlsen. Alongside taking care of the fundamentals of recovery—a healthy diet and plenty of high-quality sleep—he boosts his recuperation efforts by following mobility routines from stretching app Pliability.

This, he says, is a “non-negotiable element of my daily routine” which helps him stave off injuries and improve his recovery.

The routine below is Ohlsen’s favorite for days when his shoulders and neck feel tight after training. That’s a feeling I’m familiar with, with CrossFit training combined with hours spent at my laptop resulting in an almost constantly stiff neck, so I decided to give it a go. Here are my thoughts, as well as instructions on how you can try it yourself.

How To Do Noah Ohlsen’s Mobility Routine

I used Pliability’s follow-along video to complete this routine (it’s in Pliability’s Shoulder And Neck Stress Relief pathway, if you need help finding it in the app). You can also use the instructions below to complete the session under your own steam. 

1 Self-cervical fascial mobilizations

Time 90sec each side

How to do it Kneel on your yoga mat, sitting on your heels. Place the fingers of your right hand on the left side of your neck, just above your collarbone. Gently press down with your fingers and look up and to the right. Hold this for a few seconds, then release the tension by bringing your head back to the starting position. Continue until the 90 seconds is up, then repeat on the other side.

How I found it This one took me a little while to get used to, and at first the biggest stretch I felt was in my quads (the effect of the kneeling position after a series of heavy barbell squats earlier in the week). 

I eventually found the movement that caused a stretch down the back and side of my neck, and made sure to look at the same point on the ceiling as I repeated the stretch.

2 Cross arm adduction

Time 90sec each side

How to do it Reach your right arm across your body, keeping it as relaxed as possible. Use your left forearm to hug it towards your chest. Inhale and exhale slowly. As you inhale, release tension on the arm, then when you exhale pull it closer towards your body. Continue until the 90 seconds is up, then repeat on the other side.

How I found it This was my favorite stretch of the lot. It brought back fond memories of my PE teachers’s warm-up routines, but 20 years and however many weight training sessions later I found it felt very different. There was a deep and enjoyable stretch in my lats and the back of my shoulder, and as the seconds ticked by I was able to pull the arm across my body further into my chest. 

I felt fantastic afterwards too. I’ve recently been dealing with light twinging and tightness in the front of my shoulders. It tends to flare up when my arm is extended upwards, but after this shoulder stretch I enjoyed far more freedom of movement around the joint without discomfort. 

3 Chin tuck

Time 90sec

How to do it Sit on the floor with your legs extended. Move your chin in towards your neck so your ears sit over your shoulders. Hold this position for one deep breath then release.

How I found it Prepare yourself, this one looks and feels a bit odd. It’s not the most flattering of movements, essentially asking you to create as many double chins as possible. I found it also produced a strange cramp-like sensation underneath my jaw, but

I’m glad I did it. After spending hours at my laptop or on my phone each day, my head tends to drop forward at every opportunity. The chin tuck can help develop neck strength to help you keep your head aligned with your spine. 

4 Glute bridge lat press-down

Time 90sec

How to do it Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor and hip-width apart. Position your arms by your sides with your palms facing down. Flatten your lower back into the floor using your abdominals. Press through your heels to lift your hips until your torso and thighs form a straight line, and press your arms into the floor to engage your lats. Hold this position for one second, then lower your hips to the floor under control.

How I found it I really liked this one. Working out at home during lockdown showed me how hard it is to work your back muscles without equipment, but this move cleverly engages the lats. I was surprised to find just how effective it was too, with these large back muscles feeling like they had been put to work after just 90 seconds of the exercise.

The Result

This routine promises a lot off the back of just four moves and 10 minutes. The Pliability team said benefits include “enhanced shoulder and neck mobility, improved upper-body workout performance, reduced risk of injuries, increased overall training effectiveness and enhanced athletic longevity”.

Given that I only did the session yesterday, I can’t speak to athletic longevity, but I did notice some of the effects in my next workout. 

My shoulders felt like they were able to move more freely, particularly in the overhead position which had been causing me some discomfort. As a result, I was able to do kipping gymnastics drills while hanging from a bar without feeling restricted.

I felt slightly less tension in my neck too, although it was still pretty stiff, but hey, it’s probably unfair to expect a 10-minute routine to fix nearly a decade of days bent over a laptop, right?

Pliability has shared more routines with Coach. There’s this mobility routine put together by Cody Mooney, Pliability’s director of performance. Mooney also contributed these mobility exercises for hips, and finally there’s CrossFit star Emma Lawson’s mobility routine.

The expert coaches at Training Think Tank—a monthly training program designed to improve your competitive skills in CrossFit—work with some of the world’s best CrossFit athletes. People like Alexis Raptis, Noah Ohlsen and Travis Mayer, to name a few. 

While I’m not an elite athlete I have been using the online training platform for the last couple of months.

I’ve made good progress in a short space of time, particularly on gymnastic skills like muscle-ups and handstand walking, but my favorite Training Think Tank workout is one of the most straightforward: a two-move CrossFit workout that alternates between the rowing machine and burpees.

That makes it accessible to anyone with a gym membership (or a rowing machine at home). The ideal rower is a Concept2 RowErg (Coach’s pick of the best rowing machine), which is often found in commercial gyms and is almost always used in CrossFit boxes, but any rower will do. Just brush up on good rowing form before strapping in. 

Being a generous sort of person, I decided to share it with Coach readers (with the coaches’ blessing, of course). Read on to find out the finer details, what represents a good time, and the lessons I learned while tackling it. 

How To Do Training Think Tank’s Rowing And Burpee Workout

10 rounds for time (time cap 33min):

1. Row x 500m
2. Burpees x 15

Rounds for time is a common workout format in CrossFit. It just means completing the workout as quickly as possible, but with a total of 5km of rowing and 150 burpees to complete in under 33 minutes, you have to pace the workout smartly.

The Training Think Tank team advises that you find a pace you can sustain comfortably and stick with it, leaving a little bit left in the tank for a “big kick at the end. Do not go at a max effort then blow up early.” 

The coaches say an elite score would be to finish the workout in less than 27 minutes. RX athletes (people who can tackle competitive CrossFit workouts without modifications) will be able to finish in under 30 minutes, while others should aim to finish within the time cap.

What I Learned Trying This Workout

My relatively long limbs are an advantage when rowing and I found I was initially able to hit my target pace of 2min/500m without too much difficulty.

Buoyed by this strong start, I added more power to my stroke and my pace quickened. My 500m splits fell to 1min 50sec, and the burpees didn’t seem too draining either. I was finishing each of the first few rounds in under three minutes, putting me on track for an RX time.

However, before long I was breathing hard and running out of steam. With a significant chunk of the workout still to go, I eased off and returned to my target pace, which I clung to for the last few rounds until the end. 

With one final push in the last interval, I finished the workout in 31min 44sec. I was happy with that time, but a steadier approach with more consistent pacing would have been more effective. The coaches were right. Stick with a sustainable pace—even if it feels easy in the early stages—until the final sprint.

Reebok, Nike and NoBull have dominated the CrossFit shoe space for years, with Tyr and R.A.D entering the scene in 2023. But a pair of shoes from any of those brands will set you back upwards of $130. 

Not so with the Puma Fuse 2.0—a solid all-rounder that can be bought for as little as $38.85 on Amazon. You can read why I awarded it the title of best budget option in our roundup of the best CrossFit shoes. 

Need proof of its CrossFit credentials? It’s worn by elite athletes including Chandler Smith and Emma Mcquaid. I can vouch for it too, and awarded it four out of five stars in my Puma Fuse 2.0 review.

It offers comfort straight out of the box, with a soft, flexible upper, as well as a surprisingly cushioned midsole for a CrossFit shoe. It provided a soft yet springy landing, helping me race through WODs loaded with explosive exercises like burpees and box jumps. 

The plush midsole does mean the shoe can’t match the stability of the Nike Metcon 9 or TYR CXT-1, because there’s a bit of compression in the heel when lifting heavy, but the flared support around the heel and wide toe box did help my balance during lighter barbell cycling and Olympic weightlifting exercises.

If you’re after a good CrossFit shoe at a great price, I recommend the Puma Fuse 2.0.

My favorite workouts don’t cram in complicated moves for the sake of it. Instead, they deliver the intended stimulus with a minimum of fuss. 

That’s exactly what this workout from elite coach Michele Letendre does. Letendre trains five-time CrossFit Games podium athlete Pat Vellner and 2023’s Fittest Women On Earth Laura Horvath, and Letendre made six appearances at the CrossFit Games herself. In other words, she knows a thing or two about hard work and effective training.

In her Instagram Reel sharing this workout, Letendre says this type of session helped Vellner fine-tune his pacing strategies and “improve his power endurance”.

Letendre has taken the 21-15-9 rep format—a standard CrossFit Workout—and combined it with a longer EMOM to create an 18-minute conditioning workout.

You have six minutes to complete 21 calories on an exercise bike and 21 kettlebell goblet squats, another 15 calories on the bike and 15 goblet squats, then a final nine calories and reps of each. Rest for any time remaining on the timer, then repeat two more times for a total of three rounds.

According to Letendre, you should aim to complete the sequence in four to five minutes, giving you enough time to get your breath back and go again, but advises you to take a bit longer to complete the first round.

“You have to be willing to sacrifice rest time in the first interval to set yourself up for the next two,” Letendre wrote on Instagram. “High intensity is the goal, but not maximal intensity. Keep some in the tank and give it everything you’ve got on the last one.”

You can use any exercise bike as long as it counts calories on its monitor. Letendre opts for a Concept2 BikeErg in the Reel, while the version of this workout shared on CrossFit.com prescribes the Rogue Echo Bike (an air bike). 

The suggested kettlebell weight is 32kg for men and 24kg for women, but don’t hesitate to scale the workout to your ability with a lighter kettlebell.

“When I wrote this one I wasn’t sure it was doable, but with some scaling, I actually managed it,” Letendre wrote.

You can also adjust the rep scheme to 18-15-9 or 12-9-6.

When I asked professional CrossFit athlete Aimee Cringle for a bodyweight workout to challenge Coach readers, I didn’t think she would reach for something quite this wicked. 

Fresh off a 225lb bench press PB, the 24-year-old and Built For Athletes ambassador said just three words: death by burpees.

It’s a brilliantly simple challenge and unlike some CrossFit workouts, it’s accessible to all fitness and skill levels. 

Death by burpees is an EMOM workout. EMOM stands for every minute on the minute. Start a running clock and do one burpee in the first minute. Do two burpees in the second minute, followed by three in the third, and so on, until you can’t complete the target number of burpees within the minute. 

This can feel like a strange workout because it’s not especially taxing at first. It might even seem a bit boring. Cringle says you can start on three, four or five burpees, if you want to skip to the good bit.

“People will think it’s easy on round seven, but just you wait,” says Cringle. “Anything following a ‘death by’ format is just horrible. I think by round 12 it will get a bit spicy, maybe even before then.”

Burpee Form Video Demonstration

Aimee Cringle’s Workout Tips

Knowing what’s in store for anyone who attempts this workout, I asked Cringle if she had any words of wisdom which Coach readers could help them as they approached the latter stages. 

After a moment’s pause, Cringle answered: “Dig deep. When you get to the rounds where you have about 10 seconds of rest at the end of the minute, just try to control your breathing, because once the minutes start rolling on and you just have to keep doing non-stop burpees, it’s horrible. But once it does get hard it’s probably not going to last much longer.”

In true CrossFit style, she also suggests doing it as part of a group. There’s comfort in company, after all.

If you’re looking for a score to beat, Cringle recalls finishing somewhere around the 24th minute when she tackled this challenge a few years ago. However, this was doing burpees-over-bar, a popular CrossFit upgrade that sees you jump over a loaded barbell between each rep. 

“If you had access to something you could jump over, you could make it harder by doing burpees-over-bar,” she suggests. But unless you too are a professional athlete, I highly doubt you’ll want to make this test any more difficult.

Mat Fraser has won the CrossFit Games five times, dominating the sport from 2016 to 2020 and finishing with close to double the points of his nearest rival in his final year. 

So, when Fraser speaks, the CrossFit community listens. And when he sets a fitness challenge via his programming brand, HWPO Training, you can bet your bottom dollar most of them are going to give it a go. 

You should try it too. Here’s how.

How To Do Mat Fraser’s Fitness Challenge

Seven-minute AMRAP of:

• Burpee x 7
• Push-up x 7
• Unweighted squat x 7

AMRAP stands for as many reps/rounds as possible. Set a timer for seven minutes then do as many rounds of burpees, push-ups and unweighted squats as you can in that time.

The number of rounds, as well as the reps of any incomplete rounds, is your score. 

Complete the workout and you might get more than a solid sweat and a pair of heaving lungs.

“To celebrate the hard workers around the world and the launch of HWPO annual program pricing, we’re giving away a free year of memberships every day for seven days [between November 20 and November 26],” says Fraser. 

“Complete this workout, post it on social [Instagram], tag @hwpotraining, and we’ll pick one winner each day who showed up and took on the challenge.”

Your post can be a video, picture, screenshot or just your score—there’s not going to be any need for Spielberg-esque filming or an in-person judge.

HWPO Training has several programs available. These include HWPO Flagship for those looking to improve for CrossFit competition, HWPO60 for people who are pressed for time but still want a challenging training session, and HWPO Sweat which delivers 45-minute bootcamp style workouts with minimal equipment. 

I followed the HWPO Flagship track last year and was impressed by its no-nonsense approach to training.

While it did include the type of fancy movements and killer WODs (workouts of the day) associated with CrossFit, the bedrock of the program was straight strength and cardio-boosting protocols.

I improved my engine with weekly rowing intervals and Fraser’s signature 40-minute EMOM workouts. My leg strength was also sent skywards thanks to a 12-week back squat cycle. 

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, you can try this seven-minute workout for a bitesize taste of things to come, or sign-up to HWPO Training for a 14-day trial.

You can’t watch the CrossFit Games without being impressed by the competitors’ physical prowess. It’s a standard of strength and all-round fitness very few will ever attain—but that doesn’t mean CrossFit has nothing to offer you and me.

In fact, the training method and the sport are designed to suit all ages and abilities. For instance, the annual CrossFit Open includes easier options for every workout so everyone can take part whatever their experience or what equipment they have available.

Case in point: Jen Muir, WIT Fitness athlete and the UK’s Fittest Woman of 2023, who only started CrossFit training during the COVID-19 lockdowns; and Jen Muir’s mother.

Muir had experience in competitive swimming, triathlon and powerlifting which gave her a headstart on the strength and endurance fronts, but she still had to learn most of the movements from scratch, beginning in her garage before joining her local CrossFit gym (known as a box).

Muir’s mother had a different starting point. “My mum is 57 and, honestly, had never done any exercise in her life,” says Muir. “It just wasn’t for her. She’d never done sports, she had a really high-stress job and it was never a priority in her life. 

“Now she’s retired she sees it as a priority, so she joined a CrossFit box in February and she goes three times a week—she absolutely loves it.

“There are so many movements that she can’t do and won’t ever do, but everything is scaled and adapted, so there’s always a different option.

“It’s such a good training style and the methodology behind it is so good that it’s genuinely for everyone. A class is only an hour long, but you’re getting your strength work, conditioning work and accessories in. You’re in and out within an hour and you’ve achieved so much in that time—I think it’s brilliant.”

With this set of experiences to draw on, we asked Muir for more advice and tips for CrossFit beginners.

CrossFit For Beginners Workout

If you’re a gym regular who wants to get a sense of what’s in store, Muir recommends this CrossFit workout, which made an impression on her.

“In powerlifting, nothing goes overhead, so it’s all legs and bench press,” Muir says. “Then I remember trying one of the CrossFit workouts called DT.” She pulls a face that makes it clear this was a shock to the system. The moral of the story is, even if you’re an accomplished powerlifter, CrossFit will find a way to challenge you.

DT

Five rounds for time:

1. Deadlift x12
2. Hang power clean x9
3. Push jerk x6

“For time” is a common workout format where you need to complete it as quickly as possible, but it’s essential you don’t cheat on your form—CrossFit abides by strict movement standards. The exercise names above are linked to CrossFit’s official form demonstrations on YouTube.

The listed weight for this workout is a 155lb/70kg barbell for men and a 105lb/50kg barbell for women, but of course you should adjust the weight and even the equipment to match your level. Using dumbbells, for instance, dials down the difficulty significantly.

“You can do DT with just a barbell, with dumbbells, kettlebells—you can do any kind of variation. It’s a good one because you can do it with minimal equipment but it’s a tough workout.”

If you’re completely new to exercise, or returning after a long lay-off, try this beginner CrossFit workout instead. It’s a scaled-down, low-impact version of CrossFit Open workout 23.1.  

One of the things I love about CrossFit is that, even though I’m far from being the fittest person at my gym, I can still attempt a challenge set by a former holder of the title Fittest Man On Earth.

This 20-minute CrossFit workout comes from the mind of 2015 Games champion Ben Smith, and it’s so simple you can do it pretty much anywhere. The workout was posted to CrossFit.com as part of Smith’s two-week stint as a guest programmer. 

To do the workout, set a timer for 20 minutes. Run as far as you can during the odd minutes (for the avoidance of doubt, you begin on minute one), then, during the even minutes, perform 15 unweighted squats and rest for the remainder of the minute. Your score is the total distance accumulated during the 10 minutes of running.

“The goal is to match your distance each minute,” writes Smith in his post on Instagram. “You can mark a 1 min run from your house, and do 5 trips back and forth trying to work on pacing as the workout picks up!”

I didn’t listen to this advice and opted for a hilly one-kilometer park loop instead, which wound up being a mistake. 

My Score

It’s customary after completing a CrossFit.com workout to head to the comments below and share your score. Strava logged my score as 2.6km, or a little more than 1.6 miles. 

I was able to stick to Smith’s recommendation of “aiming to get at least 30 seconds of rest after each set of squats”, although I fell short of matching or beating the distance I ran each round. 

Everything started well. I hit 270m on the run, got through the squats and still had 30 seconds to catch my breath. The second, third and even fourth rounds didn’t feel too shabby either. Then things started to go downhill.

My quads began to tire from the squats and the next segment of my park loop included an unforgiving incline. The minute of running that followed was way short of the 250m average I’d set and the burning in my lungs had me questioning why I hadn’t picked darts or pool as my sport of choice.

So, my top tip: do this workout somewhere flat. 

While I was able to keep my rest times to at least 30 seconds, this breather felt shorter and shorter each round. By the final minute of running I was putting in what felt like a max-effort sprint. After the last set of 15 squats I collapsed spread-eagled on the grass, gasping for air and drawing funny looks from passersby. As the CrossFit crowd might say, “I’d had a good time.”

Smith’s stint as a guest programmer on CrossFit.com came after cameos from CrossFit Games competition director Adrian Bozman and general manager of sport Dave Castro, and it’s been my favorite.

I found the sport after watching the 2015 Fittest On Earth documentary on Netflix, in which Smith stars. Trying a cardio CrossFit workout from an athlete I’ve admired for some time added an extra incentive to push myself, and this challenge cleverly balanced accessibility with a lung-busting challenge. Smith wrote in his post that the workout is all about “doing the common uncommonly well”. 

I could be accused of tailoring my CrossFit training to focus on impressive gymnastic skills like muscle-ups and handstand walking, but simplicity should always have a place if you want to build the strength, skill and fitness needed for CrossFit. It doesn’t get much simpler than running and squatting!

We all know what it’s like to go through the motions in the gym. That’s where a bit of healthy competition comes in handy, motivating you to raise your game and train with more intensity.  

This engine-building CrossFit workout from podium-topping WIT Fitness athlete Joshua Al-chamaa, part of the 2023 CrossFit Games Invictus team, will harness your competitive streak. Get ready to be pitted against your most well-matched opponent: yourself.

In a three-minute window, you’ll power through a preset number of calories on an air bike before tackling 15 burpees over a rowing machine. In any remaining time, you’ll hop aboard the rower and try to rack up as many calories as possible. That’ll be your score. 

Once the clock hits zero, rest for two minutes then repeat this sequence. Your goal? To beat your previous calorie score on the rower. Continue this until you’ve finished five rounds to complete the workout.

“This workout is one of my favorites,” says Al-shamaa. “It’s great for burning calories, but also for when you want to take a break from strength training, focusing instead on getting your heart rate up and getting a sweat on.”

“Five sets is an easy number to be overwhelmed with, especially if you peak on the first one,” says Al-chamaa. “The goal is to push hard but keep your breathing controlled. You want to be able to give maximum effort without over-spiking your heart rate.”

Cardio CrossFit Workout

Complete the following in three minutes:

• 20 or 16 calories (choose based on your fitness level) on the air bike 
• 15 burpees over rowing machine
• Max calories on the rowing machine

Rest for two minutes then repeat for five rounds in total.

There are more teenagers in the world than ever before (about 1.2 billion, according to the World Health Organization), and Lucy McGonigle is the fittest of them all. 

The 17-year-old Irish Wit Fitness athlete took the top spot in the girls 16-17 division at the 2023 CrossFit Games for the second year running. Not only boasting an engine most of us could only dream of, but her one-rep max snatch of 76kg is also a testament to her impressive technical ability.

So we were delighted to get our hands on one of McGonigle’s favorite workouts. We expected an intense metcon with minimal rest and a race against the clock. Instead, you’ll tackle five exercises in straight sets.

“This workout is one of my favorites—it kicks all my muscles into gear and has plenty of variety,” says McGonigle. 

If you’re new to CrossFit, straight sets is a great way to master some of the sport’s staple movements such as wall balls, box jumps and double-unders. 

Or, if you’re already a seasoned box-goer, you can use this workout format to attack each set with renewed focus and intensity. Take the opportunity to hone your technique by chasing quality reps as well as strength and endurance gains.

You can also be more ambitious with the weights you use—because, if you’re an experienced CrossFitter, who doesn’t love a heavy power clean?

1 Power clean

Sets 5 Reps 3 Rest 60sec

McGonigle says: “Maintain a strong grip on the barbell throughout and keep it close to your body during the lift. Explosively extend your hips and shrug your shoulders to generate power in the clean.”

2 Box jump

Sets 4 Reps 10 Rest 60sec  

McGonigle says: “Choose a box height that challenges you but still allows for safe landings. Use your arms to assist in generating upward momentum during the jump, and land softly with your knees slightly bent to absorb the impact.”

3 Kettlebell swing

Sets 3 Reps 15 Rest 60sec  

McGonigle says: “Hinge at your hips to initiate the swing, keeping your back flat and your chest up.”

4 Wall ball

Sets 4 Reps 12 Rest 60sec  

McGonigle says: “Make sure you squat deeply then explosively stand up while throwing the medicine ball against the wall. Catch the ball in a squat position as it falls back down towards you. The catch should transition smoothly into your next rep.”

5 Double-under (or single-under)

Sets 5 Reps 50 (100 single)  Rest 60sec  

McGonigle says: “Use your wrists, not your whole arm, to rotate the jump rope. Stay light on your feet and maintain a consistent rhythm. Focus on timing to successfully clear the rope twice with each jump.” 

Dreaming up “unknown and unknowable” tasks to test the fittest people on Earth at the CrossFit Games is a unique challenge and one that has fallen to the sport’s competition director Adrian Bozman for the last two years. 

If you want a taste of these CrossFit workouts for yourself, you have three options. You could train for years to qualify for the CrossFit Games, or painstakingly recreate the Games workouts in your own box; but if the first two solutions sound a tad arduous, you could simply visit CrossFit.com every day for the next two weeks. 

From September 11 to 25, Bozman will be programming new CrossFit workouts of the day (or WODs) on the company’s online hub. 

Boz, as he’s affectionately known, joined CrossFit’s training staff in 2007, so he boasts a depth of experience with this training method that’s hard to match.

In his first two years of programming the CrossFit Games, he revealed a penchant for challenging athletes with high-skill movements and new gymnastic elements such as double-under cross-overs and pull-overs. Can we expect to see some similar tests on CrossFit.com over the next 14 days? 

Perhaps, but not on Bozman’s first day on the job. To start, he stuck to traditional CrossFit, instructing people to do a “hero workout of your choice” and post their scores in the comments. 

Hero workouts are designed as a tribute to a first responder or member of the military who has died in the line of duty. Murph is among the best-known and most difficult, featuring a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats and another one-mile run, all in a 20lb weighted vest. 

Bozman’s post-Games stint on CrossFit.com comes after Dave Castro, former director of the CrossFit Games, programmed a fortnight’s worth of workouts from August 14 to 29 for all to try. 

If you’re looking for a quick conditioning workout, give his session from August 23 a go. It is simply five rounds of 20 box jumps and 25 kettlebell swings, completed as quickly as possible. To do it as prescribed, men should use a 24kg kettlebell and a 24in box, and women should use a 16kg kettlebell and a 20in box. 

If you want to try a home CrossFit workout before joining a box, or you’re just looking to cut down the amount of time you spend traveling to and from the gym, the good news is that there are plenty of options to choose from.

That may come as a surprise if you’ve ever seen snippets of the CrossFit Games on social media, where professional athletes flit between barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, cardio machines and umpteen other pieces of equipment during most workouts. 

But a big part of the appeal of this training style is the variety on offer, and there are plenty of tests that require only straightforward home gym equipment. Just ask UK’s Fittest Woman 2023 and WIT Fitness athlete Jen Muir, who started CrossFit training during lockdown from her garage. 

“You can definitely start at home,” Muir tells Coach. “When I was doing it in my garage during lockdown I would just Google ‘CrossFit workouts at home’, and then you would get one you could try.”

She’s shared two of her favorites from those early days, which started her on a remarkably fast journey to becoming a CrossFit Games semi-finalist aged just 23. You’ll need a pull-up bar (or other piece of equipment to swap in a pull exercise). If you’re equipment-deprived, try one of these bodyweight CrossFit workouts.

Two Home CrossFit Workouts To Try

Baseline

For time:

• 500m row or run
• 40 unweighted squats
• 30 sit-ups
• 20 push-ups (or kneeling push-ups)
• 10 pull-ups (or another pulling movement, like a ring row or bent-over row) 

Muir says this is “one of the best ones she did” when she first started CrossFit training, providing a quick test of fitness.

“I didn’t have a rowing machine so I just ran the distance,” she says. “And if you can’t do pull-ups or you don’t have a pull-up bar at home, you can do any pulling movement like a bent-over row, or if you have gymnastic rings you can do ring rows.” 

Cindy

• 5 pull-ups
• 10 push-ups
• 15 unweighted squats

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

Again, you can swap the pull-ups in this workout for fairly heavy bent-over rows. Pick a weight that poses a similar challenge to a pull-up. 

This is a clever test of your engine and muscular endurance, condensing the push/pull/legs split into a three-move workout.

Can You Do CrossFit At Home?

“You can definitely do a big chunk of CrossFit at home,” says Muir, who has a background in swimming, triathlon and powerlifting. 

“When we went into the second lockdown, I was like ‘Right, there’s nothing I can do about the gymnastic movements, I don’t have any gymnastic equipment or a pull-up bar. I’m just going to use this time to learn Olympic weightlifting, then that’s one thing ticked off.’

“So that’s exactly what I did. I had a barbell and plates, and I just learned the weightlifting in my garage.”

This also applies if you want to focus on other specific elements of fitness that will boost your performance in a CrossFit workout. If you want to improve your agility, bodyweight plyometric exercises can be handy, while speed and stamina will both benefit from something as simple as various forms of running. 

But if you want to sample all this training method has to offer (and don’t have the mother of all home gyms) then you’re going to need to join your local box. Here, you will have access to equipment such as pull-up bars, rigs, wall ball targets, climbing ropes, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells and bumper plates galore. Plus, standard cardio conditioning equipment such as air bikes, rowing machines, BikeErgs and SkiErgs.

You’re also unlikely to have access to a coach at home, which is another reason why Muir suggests joining a box if you’re looking to start regular CrossFit training.  

“I think that speeds the learning process up a lot—having a coach or even just someone more knowledgeable to help, rather than trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together yourself,” she says.

It’s true that CrossFit requires lots of equipment, with many WODs involving barbells, kettlebells and pull-up bars. But the basis of CrossFit is functional strength and fitness, and an effective CrossFit workout is possible with nothing more than a dumbbell.

In fact, Jennifer Muir, a WIT athlete who was crowned the Fittest Woman In The UK this year, says that one of the best tests of cardio fitness and strength is CrossFit Open workout 17.1, which uses dumbbells. 

CrossFit Open 17.1 Dumbbell Workout

Time cap: 20 minutes

For Time: 

• 10 dumbbell snatches 
• 15 burpee box jump overs 
• 20 dumbbell snatches
• 15 burpee box jump overs 
• 30 dumbbell snatches
• 15 burpee box jump overs 
• 40 dumbbell snatches
• 15 burpee box jump overs 
• 50 dumbbell snatches 
• 15 burpee box jump overs

“With its 20-minute time cap, this workout is a battle not just against the clock, but against self-doubt and mental endurance. Pushing through each rep and each minute makes this workout ultra satisfying," says Muir.

“Even though this is a race against time, don’t give everything you have all at once. Keep a bit in reserve then really empty the tank in the final few minutes,” says Muir.

The time cap makes it a great lunch-break workout, or you can add it to the end of a strength session as a finisher. 

The dumbbell snatch is an excellent full-body exercise. Start with the dumbbell on the floor, squatting down to hold onto it, then explosively driving through your legs and your hips to bring it overhead, extending your arm at the top of the movement.

"When doing the dumbbell snatches, make sure you bend your knees slightly to reduce the distance the dumbbell travels while alternating the snatches, reducing the risk of injury," says Muir.

The other move in this workout is the burpee box jump over, which involves doing a burpee, jumping onto the box, then jumping and stepping off or repeating the move. If you don’t have access to a box, simply do conventional burpees instead. Or, if you really want to challenge yourself, try a Devil’s Press, which involves doing a burpee with a dumbbell in each hand, followed by a snatch with the two dumbbells.

The RX dumbbell weights for this workout for top-level competitors are 50lb (22kg) for men and 35lb (16kg) for women. Only attempt this weight if you have experience completing dumbbell snatches at this weight. If not, go for the scaled weights, which are 35lb (16kg) for men and 20lb (9kg) for women. 

If you enjoyed this workout, take a look at another of Muir’s favorite sessions, CrossFit Open 22.2, which pairs deadlifts with burpees.

CrossFit is a costly hobby, and the shoe addiction that can come with it isn’t cheap either. A fresh set of NoBulls, Nanos, Metcons, R.A.Ds or TYRs will easily cost $130 (£100) or more.

Fortunately, there’s a new shoe in town. The Puma Fuse 2.0 impressed me during my month of rigorous testing and is easily good enough to make our round-up of the best CrossFit shoes.

Puma has form in undercutting the competition—just look at the Puma Velocity Nitro 2, which we named our best-value running shoe. 

I first wore the Puma Fuse 2.0 X WIT edition to tackle a CrossFit workout set by Puma athlete Chandler Smith, and was immediately impressed. The shoe was comfortable out of the box, with the wide forefoot and thin, breathable upper providing a natural, pliable fit. 

Despite the lower price, all the hallmarks of a top CrossFit shoe are here. There’s a TPU buffer on the heel for handstand push-ups and raised rubber around the midfoot for robustness against rope climbs. Admittedly, the Fuse 2.0 didn’t feel as stable around the heel during Olympic lifts as my favorite TYR CXT-1 shoe does, but if you want a solid CrossFit shoe at an affordable price this is my top pick.

Puma Fuse 2.0: Price And Availability

Released last August to coincide with the 2022 CrossFit Games, the Puma Fuse 2.0 had a launch price of $100 in the US and £90 in the UK (special editions like the Fuse 2.0 Murph cost a little more). However, on other retailers’ sites you can usually find better deals. I found it for $60 in the US, while one UK site was selling it for £26. In my opinion, it’s worth looking out for anything under $80/£70. 

How I Tested This Shoe

I’ve trained in the Puma Fuse 2.0 (and nothing else) for the last month: six days a week, two hours a day. The shoe has had to deal with a blend of Olympic lifts, ever-varied metcons, gymnastic drills and hypertrophy training.

Design And Fit

The design of the first Fuse shoe split opinion. This second version is likely to do the same, though I think Puma has made improvements, notably swapping the busy upper for a simpler, more streamlined look. 

The WIT pair I tested had additional gold detailing and the phrase “training obsessed” around the heel tab, which I liked, although with the white aesthetic I had a hard time keeping the shoes looking clean. But these superficial factors are secondary to how it performed. 

The first thing I noticed about the Fuse 2.0 was how comfortable it felt. The upper is light, flexible and breathable, the midfoot feels secure but not restricted, and the lightly padded tongue gives it a plush feel. 

These features put me in mind of the natural feel of my Reebok Nano 6, as did the 4mm drop and the wide forefoot of the outsole (something I appreciated when spreading my toes for balance during big lifts and burpees). It wasn’t as stable around the heel when I was lifting heavy as pricier rivals like the Inov-8 F-Lite G 300s, and my feet didn’t feel as locked in as they were in the TYR CXT-1s, but the overall workout experience was enjoyable (particularly for lively metcons).

One concern was that the lining around the heel wore away. That may in part be down to my foot shape and how I tight I laced up. They’re still usable, but it’s more wear and tear than I’d expect after a month of heavy use.

Is the Puma Fuse 2.0 Good For HIIT?

This is where the Puma Fuse 2.0 is in its element. The shoe felt light and springy, letting me bounce between burpees, box jumps and double-unders without a second thought for my footwear. 

This is the ultimate compliment in a HIIT workout. The last thing you want is to be worried about rubbing or niggly discomforts as you grind your way through a testing session. 

There was enough cushioning and support to keep my knees happy, with no unwanted rubbing or pressure in my feet, and the shape of the shoe didn’t feel unwieldy. 

Is The Puma Fuse 2.0 Good For Resistance Training?

The Puma Fuse 2.0 is a solid option for resistance training, although there are better CrossFit shoes if slinging tin is your primary focus. The outsole traces the foot, offering a wide forefoot for stability, and the 4mm drop is standard among functional fitness footwear. 

Despite what Puma describes as a “redesigned heel clip for stability and support”, I would have liked more stability around the heel during Olympic lifts. There was also compression of the midsole stack when squatting and attempting deadlifts at heavier weights. The difference isn’t huge, but is noticeable. The Fuse 2.0 felt like it wouldn’t hold me back when lifting, but the 9mm drop and heel support of the TYR CXT-1 felt like it was giving me an advantage as I tried to land a snatch PR.

Is The Puma Fuse 2.0 Good For Running?

Anyone who frequently runs more than a mile (1.6km) or so should be wearing a shoe that’s fit for purpose. Take a look at our round-up of the best budget running shoes if you need a new pair. 

CrossFit shoes should be able to see you through mid-WOD intervals of up to 1km in comfort, and the Puma Fuse 2.0 does that with minimal fuss. There’s enough support in the midsole to take some stress away from your joints, and the comfortable fit means it barely feels like you’re wearing the shoe at all. 

There was a little bit of movement around the heel for me at first, but I found once I’d played around with and tightened the laces this wasn’t a problem. 

Is The Puma Fuse 2.0 Worth It?

In my month of testing, the Puma Fuse 2.0 proved to be a good all-rounder, excelling in fast-paced settings like metcons, HIIT workouts and circuits, as well as seeing me through short running intervals and regular lifting sessions.

Its comfort is the biggest selling point. I even kept them on for dog walks and odd jobs around town long after my workout had finished (this might explain why I struggled to keep them white). 

It’s not the best CrossFit shoe, but it’s not far from the top tier occupied by TYR, R.A.D and Nike. It’s also a lot cheaper than all three of them. Despite some wear and ripping around the lining of the heel after a month of solid use, I still think this is the shoe for you if you’re after a solid training option for a steal.

If you’re just starting to explore the world of CrossFit, or spotted the elite of the elite at the CrossFit Games on your social feed recently, you’d be forgiven for feeling somewhat intimidated. Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics skills and grueling metcon workouts are tough enough on their own, never mind combined in one back-to-back workout.  

But getting better at CrossFit means getting fitter, stronger and faster—and often leaner—when well coached. It doesn’t have to mean spending hours in the gym every day, either. In fact, simple workouts form the foundations of the sport, according to Ben Bergeron, the man widely considered the best CrossFit coach of all time.

Bergeron has spent 15 years coaching elite athletes for the CrossFit Games, with 253 total athlete visits to the Games, including 10 champions. He’s also the founder of CompTrain, a training and workout programming app designed to help everyday athletes access the training methods of the elite. 

In his view, CrossFit is the pinnacle of “concurrent training”, which involves working across the fitness spectrum in unison. That means combining strength training with weights, building capacity through bodyweight movements, and challenging your cardiovascular fitness simultaneously.

These principles can be distilled into one of Bergeron’s favorite workouts, which he curiously calls “Mind Eraser” and has kindly shared with Coach. This CrossFit workout challenges all three of the above components. “The barbell cleans build strength, the bodyweight burpees build capacity, and the 200m sprints build endurance,” he says.

Whether you’re new to CrossFit or a seasoned pro, this session will drill a fundamental set of skills and will be one that you can try to repeat and beat time after time knowing it’s earned Bergeron’s exalted seal of approval. 

How To Do Ben Bergeron’s Mind Eraser Workout

Ben Bergeron’s Mind Eraser workout requires a barbell, some weight plates and ample space to complete the burpees and 200m sprints. You can use a treadmill but, given the stop-start nature of each round, you’ll probably lose time getting the machine up to full speed each set—although that won’t be an issue if your gym has a curved, self-powered treadmill. 

The beauty of this WOD, Bergeron says, is that because each movement doesn’t directly interfere with the other and requires only a handful of reps each round, you can really push hard. It will also allow you to train at your threshold pace, the minimum intensity required to improve physical fitness while avoiding overtraining.

“Twenty minutes is long for a continuous effort, but not so long that you would need to drop into a lower intensity level, such as your heart rate zone two or three [between 60-80% of your max heart rate],” Bergeron explains. “This should feel like a hard effort throughout, working in zones four and five [80-100%].” 

What’s a good score? Bergeron says he expects most athletes to complete around seven to eight rounds within the 20-minute time cap, racking up between 49 and 56 cleans and burpees all in. “Between 40-60 reps is the sweet spot I like to aim for in most workouts,” he says.

For experienced athletes, the prescribed weight for the cleans is 135lb (61kg) for men and 95lb (43kg) for women. However, those weights can be scaled down to suit your experience level as required.

“Choose a weight that allows you to do most of the rounds unbroken,” says Bergeron. Lastly, remember this is an AMRAP workout, meaning the aim is to complete as many rounds as possible. Bergeron says anywhere between six and 12 rounds is good, but don’t compare yourself with others. Focus on your own workout and set a score you can try to beat next time. 

Complete as many rounds as possible of the following in 20 minutes.

1 Power clean

Reps 7 RX weight 135 lb/95 lb

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, then push your hips back and bend your knees to grasp the barbell with an overhand grip, palms facing you, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Sit back into your heels and lift your chest to face forwards, keeping your back flat. Engage your core, take a deep breath in, then press through your feet to lift the barbell off the floor, keeping it close to your shins and your shoulders over the bar. 

Continue lifting until the bar passes your knees, then drive your hips forward to generate power to help pull the bar toward your chest. As you straighten, lift your heels or slightly jump off the floor to generate extra power. With the weight at its highest point, quickly drop under the bar to “catch” it at chest height, moving your arms into the front rack position with elbows facing forward. 

Once stable, straighten your legs to full extension, then carefully reverse the movement to bring the bar safely back to the floor. Complete that full rep in a fluid action, always with snap on the way up and control on the way down. 

2 Burpee

Reps 7

From a standing position, drop into a squat and place your hands on the floor just in front of your feet. Jump or step your feet back while keeping your arms extended to assume a straight-arm plank position (the top of a push-up). Bend your elbows to bring your chest to the floor, then push up to straighten your arms. Step or jump your feet forward so they’re by your hands again. Drive up through the heels of your feet to jump while clapping your hands overhead. Land with soft knees and continue into the next rep. 

3 Run

Distance 200m

As soon as the final burpee is completed, head off on your run. Focus on controlling your breathing after the intensity of the cleans and burpees. “Ideally the run should be a 100m sprint out and back from your barbell, but a shorter course, loop or treadmill could be used too,” says Bergeron.

The World’s Strongest Man and the Fittest Man On Earth walk into a gym. Not the start of a joke but the set-up for a YouTube video from CrossFit champ Justin Medeiros.

He joined forces with 2023 World’s Strongest Man winner Mitchell Hooper for a session as part of Medeiros’ preparations for the CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin, this month, where he was bidding to clinch his third successive title. 

Cooper gave Medeiros a crash course in using the log—a strongman staple that, as the name suggests, resembles a log and has to be picked up from the floor and then pressed overhead. 

Medeiros subsequently incorporated the 155lb strongman log into a CrossFit-style workout. Three rounds for time of:

• 10 log clean and jerks
• 50ft handstand walks
• 30 GHD sit-ups
• 25 calories on a Rogue Echo Bike

Not to be outdone, Canada’s first ever World Strongest Man champion joined in—with some understandable modifications given his 6ft 4in (1.93m), 320lb (145kg) frame. In place of the handstand walks, Hooper completed a 50ft bear crawl, and halved the number of GHD sit-ups each round. 

There’s some cross-over between the two sports of strongman and CrossFit, but the duo still dealt with each other’s discipline impressively well. 

In the video, Medeiros can be seen throwing some significant weight overhead on the log, while Hooper flies through the metcon workout despite describing it as being comparable to “six strongman events in a row”. 

“I think I got some favorable modifications, but it’s tough, very tough,” he added.

Hooper was soon back in his comfort zone though, rounding off the session with a series of overhead presses with a twist. Instead of loading the jammer arm attachment with plates, Medeiros and his two training partners (fellow Games veteran Ellie Turner and 17-year-old Trista Smith) hopped on.

Justin Medeiros’ CrossFit Games Training

The strongman-themed training was all part of Medeiros’ work to prepare for the CrossFit Games, an annual competition designed to crown the fittest man and woman on earth. 

The event is famed for throwing “the unknown and unknowable” at its competitors, with many tests revealed to contenders only moments before they have to face them.  

Previous years have seen athletes contend with pegboards, free-standing handstand push-ups and double-under cross-overs with no prior warning, which is why so many competitors keep their training varied in the run-up to the event. 

This goes some way to explaining Medeiros’ efforts to learn how to lift the log. After all, last year another strongman training staple made an appearance at the Games in the shape of a sandbag-to-shoulder event where athletes built to a one-rep max. 

However, Medeiros also continues his classic CrossFit training alongside these experimental sessions. 

Earlier in the video, he’s seen tackling the CrossFit hero WOD Hotshots 19. This workout involves six rounds for time of 30 unweighted squats, 19 power cleans (at 135lb for men and 95lb for women), seven strict pull-ups and a 400m run. 

Medeiros also adds that, before that workout, the session involved “gymnastic skill work, and then a little workout, some front squats, then some more gymnastic skill”. 

This all sounds exhausting, and far beyond the capabilities of your average gym or box-goer. But it’s all in a (very tiring) day’s work for a two-time CrossFit Games champ. 

Looking for a new CrossFit challenge? Well, thanks to a new series of fitness tests, launched to coincide with the 2023 CrossFit games, you can work your whole body, log your score in the app, and dine out on those bragging rights. 

It’s free to take part too, so all you need is a pair of CrossFit shoes and a box membership—although some of the running tests don’t even need that. 'But isn’t that just the CrossFit Open?' I hear you ask. 

There are a lot of similarities, but instead of three weekly workouts to be completed within a weekend, this new event provides 12 benchmark tests that can be done anytime, anywhere, by anyone instead. 

This includes everything from one-rep max lifts and running events to classic CrossFit workouts, including everyone's favorite lung burner, Fran, and you can do as many or as few of the tests as you like.  

The 12 benchmark tests are:

• Barbell Squat One-Rep Max
• Clean And Jerk One-Rep Max
• Deadlift One-Rep Max
• Fight Gone Bad
• Filthy 50
• Fran
• Grace
• Helen
• L1 Benchmark
• Max Set Of Pull-Ups 
• 5K Run
• Snatch One-Rep Max
• 400m Sprint 

Once you've stopped sweating and your heart rate steadies, open up the CrossFit Games app, tap the Progress tab at the bottom, and input your results to find your place on the scoreboard, which includes first-time box-goers and Games-level athletes. 

Some of these workouts, including Helen and the 5K run, will even be fixtures at the CrossFit games, so you'll be able to see how your performance stacks up against some of the top CrossFitters in the world. 

Admittedly, you won't be in for the six-figure Games prize money, but you do score bragging rights, and that's always been enough for me. Plus, it's a good way to keep tabs on your progress since your first 21-15-9 couplet, not knowing the horrors that awaited you. 

Download: CrossFit Games for Android | iPhone

The first confirmed event of the 2023 CrossFit Games will see the sport return to its roots with a benchmark test: the Helen CrossFit workout. 

One of the sport’s famed (and feared) “girls workouts”, Helen challenges athletes to complete three rounds of running, American kettlebell swings and pull-ups as quickly as possible. 

However, elite athletes might not tackle these exact movements in Madison this summer. A statement from CrossFit reads “all individual, age-group and adaptive athletes will do a version of the benchmark workout, Helen, at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games”. 

To help you put your fitness to the test like the pros, we’ve spoken to CrossFit coach and UK’s fittest woman 2022 Lucy Campbell for some top tips on tackling this workout. 

Scroll down to find out how to slash seconds off your time, as well as Campbell’s predictions on how CrossFit could change this workout to challenge the crème de la crème of the functional fitness world.

How To Do The Helen CrossFit WOD

Perform three rounds for time of:

• 400m run
• 21 American kettlebell swings  (53lb/24kg for men, 35lb/16kg for women) 
• 12 pull-ups

Helen CrossFit WOD Scaling Options

This is a fast-paced workout, so if one or more of the moves are seriously slowing you down then you might consider making some changes. Luckily, Campbell has plenty of options to adjust this test accordingly. 

“If we’re looking at preserving the stimulus, it’s all about scaling your most challenging movement. So for a lot of people that would be the pull-ups,” says Campbell. 

Experienced athletes will use kipping pull-ups or butterfly pull-ups to perform all 12 unbroken, but if you’re not familiar with these movements Campbell suggests swapping them for something like ring rows or banded pull-ups. 

“You can obviously do strict pull-ups too, although to keep the stimulus you would probably look at reducing the reps because you wouldn’t want them to slow you down too much over the course of the three rounds. 

“But you wouldn’t want fewer than eight reps because you still want some grip element in there, going from the kettlebell swings into the pull-ups.”

Campbell says you can choose lighter kettlebells too, if you can’t perform 21 nonstop swings at the prescribed RX weight.

“If you are someone who really struggles with running then take the run distance down to something you can hold a good pace for,” she adds.

“For most people the run is going to offer an element of recovery. But we don’t want it to be so slow or so long that it takes away the intended stimulus, which is a fairly fast cardiovascular-dominant workout.”

How To Get A Faster Time

We’ve all been there on a three-round workout: You come out the gate like you’ve been shot out of a cannon before falling off the pace and crawling across the finish line. 

That’s why Campbell says the secret to a good Helen time is strategic pacing. 

“I think the mistake a lot of people make is pushing when it feels great, which is usually in the first round, and then suffering the consequences because they can’t hold that pace for the rest of it. 

“If you run a bit too fast on the first couple of rounds then, even though you should be able to do the moves unbroken, you just don’t have the cardiovascular capacity left because you’ve just pushed a little bit too hard.”

To counter this, Campbell advises starting conservatively and then attempting to increase your pace as you progress through the workout. 

“In my head I would always think about trying to build the pace through the runs. The likelihood is, even if you’re trying to build the pace, you’ll probably end up staying at the same speed. It’s just the effort level to keep that pace gets harder. 

“But having that mentality of trying to improve your split time for each round means it forces you to hold back a little bit when you feel good. Then, because you’re trying to push more at the end, you won’t slow down as much as you normally would if you reversed that and pushed too hard at the start.”

She also recommends having a “potentially harsh” conversation with yourself about your fitness and capabilities before you start.

This not only applies to pacing the workout, but also breaking up the American kettlebell swings and pull-ups.

“If you’re someone who doesn’t necessarily have three rounds of 12 unbroken pull-ups, with the grip fatigue and the cardiovascular fatigue of this workout, then break the sets up before you need to break them up,” says Campbell.

“That usually means the rest periods you take between the sets will be shorter. It might be that you don’t need to break the first round, but you still do two lots of six or a seven and a five, and do the same in the second round with a short break.

“That just keeps that last set faster, rather than there being long breaks between three sets.”

What Is A Good Time For The Helen CrossFit WOD?

I put this to Campbell, who quickly went into math mode. “Twenty-one swings, let’s say two seconds per rep, so 42 seconds there, then for the 400m run let’s say 90 seconds at the slowest…” she began. 

“I think that’s a nine-minute workout, or sub-nine-minutes for real elites. Add on a couple of minutes for intermediates, so sub-12, let’s say, then maybe sub-15 minutes for beginners.”

However, she reiterates that the intended stimulus of this workout is a fast, cardiovascular-dominant circuit that tests your grip strength.

“I think, regardless of your ability level, if you’re scaling it properly it should probably be around the 10- to 12-minute mark.”

What Version Of Helen Will CrossFit Games Athletes Face?

CrossFit Games athletes will face “a version of” Helen at the 2023 event, but what does that mean?

The only time a version of Helen has shown up at the Games before is in 2010. It stuck to the same movements and structure, and the third round looked identical. However, the reps and distances were doubled in the second round, and tripled in the first. 

There was a 22-minute time -cap, and once they had finished that element, athletes had 90 seconds to establish a one-rep max shoulder-to-overhead lift—moving a barbell from a front rack position to overhead using a strict press, push press or jerk. 

CrossFit could repeat this test to measure the progress of the sport since 2010, since being “measurable” is one of the key principles behind the CrossFit method, after all. Or a whole new twist could await the athletes. 

“Part of me hopes they will change the kettlebell movement to a double kettlebell hang snatch or something like that, with a slightly clearer movement standard,” says Campbell. This will make for easier judging, because American kettlebell swing form can vary widely.

“They could also increase the weight on the kettlebell, but I don’t really want to see kettlebell swings.”

She suggests the pull-ups could be upgraded for trickier variations such as chest-to-bar pull-ups or muscle-ups “like they did at the 2022 Games with the Jackie Pro event” (which Campbell won, though she fails to mention this). 

“I do think they’ll try to increase the complexity because I don’t think the workout on its own is a big enough differentiator for Games athletes,” she says. “It would basically just become a running workout, because everything else would be done unbroken and pretty quickly. 

“They already have a 5km run in there [the second event to be announced for the 2023 Games is a 5km cross-country run] so I would hope that’s not the case.”

A two-move workout doesn’t sound too bad. A two-move CrossFit workout is a different beast entirely (naming no names, Fran). 

It’s no surprise, then, that when we asked the UK’s fittest woman Jen Muir for her favorite workout, she answered with a spicy couplet sure to test the mettle of even seasoned athletes. 

Muir plumped for CrossFit Open workout 22.2, which challenges you to complete alternating sets of deadlifts and barbell-facing burpees. 

As a bonus, all you need is a barbell and weight plates, so you can give it a go in most gyms. 

“I’m much better in a workout I can settle into and use my endurance background,” Muir tells Coach.

“The deadlift weight [225lb/102.5kg for men and 155lb/70kg for women] is comfortable enough for me to go unbroken without feeling too taxed, so I can hold a good pace on the burpees.”

Comfortable isn’t the word I’d choose, but I’m not my country’s fittest person. 

How To Do CrossFit Open Workout 22.2 

Start by performing one deadlift and one bar-facing burpee, followed by two reps of each, then three reps, and so on until you hit 10 reps. From there, work your way back to one—you have 10 minutes to make it through as many reps as possible. 

The deadlift weight may be comfortable for Muir, but for the rest of us, it’s far from easy. 

The standards for this workout dictate that RX (top-level) competitors should complete it with the barbell loaded to 225lb (102.5kg) for men and 155lb (70kg) for women. If you want to try a scaled version of the workout, knock those weights down to 135lb (60kg) and 95lb (42.5kg).

My Experiences With CrossFit Open Workout 22.2

Like thousands of people around the world, I first tackled this workout during the 2022 Open, hitting 114 total reps in 10 minutes (good for 77,041st in the world) before collapsing in a heap on the floor. 

As luck would have it, my coach programmed the exact same workout the morning before I wrote this. 

Open workouts are designed to be a test of fitness. Tests, by definition, are hard, and this workout was no different, but the most dastardly thing about it is that it lulls you into a false sense of security.

I cruised through the first five rounds in two minutes and fooled myself into thinking that was a quarter of the workout done, but that’s the evil genius of an ascending ladder format. 

I had done a quarter of the rounds, but only 30 of a total of 200 possible reps.

The burpees felt fine: flop down, get up, jump, repeat. They weren’t done at a blistering pace, by any means, but I was able to keep moving at a consistent pace. 

It was the deadlifts that were my downfall. My legs, core and back all began to blow up, despite breaking them into two short sets after the fifth round. 

By round eight, 100kg felt like 140kg and a steady stream of sweat was trickling off the end of my nose. But I pressed on, trying to maintain good form and move efficiently. 

I finished the round of 10 with a little over a minute to go, but the breaks between my sets of deadlifts had gradually grown longer. One final push took me to the end of my second round of nine, or 118 reps, as the timer sounded. 

TYR began as a swimsuit brand but it has been getting increasingly involved in CrossFit, having recently added Patrick Vellner, Annie Thorisdottir and Noah Ohlsen to its roster of athletes. 

Despite the backing of those big names, I was unsure about TYR’s first training shoe, the TYR CXT-1. The white-and-gum colorway made it look too much like a tennis shoe, and I couldn’t imagine it would coax me away from my collection of Nanos, NoBulls and Nike Metcons.

How wrong I was. 

I’ve been testing a sleek black-and-gum pair for three months and haven’t trained in anything else. That’s longer than the standard CrossFit shoe review period at Coach, but what can I say? I’m a fan. 

It wasn’t love at first lift. It took a while to break in and the rubber guard at the front of the shoe was initially unforgiving on my toes during box jumps and lunges, but once this teething phase was complete the shoe felt fantastic.

The midsole foam was comfortable for short mid-WOD sprints, while the stability platform around the heel was a star performer during cleans, jerks and snatches. 

TYR CXT-1 Unisex Trainer: Price And Availability

The TYR CXT-1 was released in mid-2022 and is available on the TYR website for $129.99 in the US and £112.75 in the UK, with limited-edition colorways up to $159.99/£139.91. It’s also available from other retailers, such as WIT Fitness in the UK and Rogue Fitness in the US. It’s still new enough for the price not to have fallen. 

How I Tested This Shoe

I’ve worn the CXT-1 for three months, using it for every training session in that time, aside from a few longer runs. My weekly routine involves five 90-minute sessions consisting of at least one strength or weightlifting piece, occasional gymnastic practice and a metcon, finishing with a collection of accessory movements to strengthen specific muscle groups. I also have an active recovery session on one of my rest days, which could be anything from a longer, less intense EMOM to a mid-pace run.

Design And Fit

The brand has a torrent of fun, fresh colorways to suit most gym-goers, from my understated black-and-gum sneakers to the eye-catching edition for Wodapalooza, one of the biggest annual events in the CrossFit calendar.

The rubber side gripper, mesh upper and ridged heel tab are stand-out features that grew on me the more I wore the shoes. And they’re not just for show. The heel tab allows the shoes to glide on walls during handstand push-ups, the rubber side gripper helps with rope climbs, and the breathable mesh upper kept my feet cool during particularly gruesome metcons. 

The true-to-size shoes fitted my narrow UK size 10 feet well, locking them into place with no unwanted movement during runs or explosive plyometric exercises, like burpees and box jumps (something I experienced with the Inov-8 F-Lite G 300). Slipping them on took some wiggling because the heel was so snug. I liked this secure fit, but would advise anyone with wider feet to try them on before they buy if possible.

None of these features is my favorite thing about the shoe, though. That honor goes to the “patent pending stability platform”. There’s limited information available about this tech, but the combination of a solid heel and a wide, grippy outsole offered impressive stability during the big three and Olympic lifts (particularly for a narrower shoe).

Is the TYR CXT-1 Good For HIIT?

For fast-paced sessions and HIIT workouts this shoe is up there with my NoBull Trainer, even if the latter is still better for lifting and running. It’s slightly heavier than that rival (about 12oz/350g compared with 10.5oz/300g, on my scales) but I didn’t notice much of a difference during workouts; the secure fit and slim profile meant they still felt nimble. The outsole offered great grip, so I didn’t have to worry about slipping during fast workouts. 

The midsole is responsive, allowing for great power transfer through the ground during moves like burpee box jumps. If you want to go easier on your knees with more cushioning, the Nano X3 with its Lift and Run chassis may be more your bag, though for a firm and fast feel I got on well with the CXT-1. 

Is The TYR CXT-1 Good For Resistance Training?

Whether you’re hitting a hypertrophy training squat session at a commercial gym or limbering up for cleans and snatches in your local box, the TYR CXT-1 will excel if if there’s a barbell involved. This is largely down to what I think is its biggest selling point: its stability. Despite offering a secure fit for my narrower feet, the wider rubber outsole and sturdy heel construction provided a strong foundation for lifting heavy. 

There was no compression of the midsole or unwanted movement of the foot during back squats, front squats or deadlifts, and I felt confident dropping under snatches and cleans. It offers what TYR describes as an “anatomical toe box” too, allowing me to spread my feet and boost my balance. 

The shoe also has a 9mm drop—high for CrossFit shoes which tend to fall between 4mm and 7mm. This may help taller lifters or those with limited ankle mobility to get into good positions at the bottom of a squat. 

Is The TYR CXT-1 Good For Running?

For a CrossFit shoe, the TYR CXT-1 is good for running. However, the standard disclaimer applies: use a purpose-built running shoe if you’re tackling anything above 2km.

For WODs with running intervals of 200m to 1km, this shoe kept my feet in good nick. While it’s never going to give you the cushioned ride of an everyday running shoe, I found the firm, responsive Surge NRG foam midsole to be comfortable, and I was able to hit the prescribed distances without worrying about what was on my feet. This topped my experiences with the NoBull Trainer and older Nike Metcons (namely, the 5 and earlier). 

Is The TYR CXT-1 Worth It?

There were signs of wear and tear after three months of use, with the material around the heel of the left shoe wearing away and some scuffs on the midsole foam. But the mesh remained unscathed. 

It’s not the cheapest, but the combination of stability and great grip means TYR CXT-1 holds a strong claim to being the best CrossFit shoe on the market, duking it out with the R.A.D. One, as well as the latest iterations of the Nanos and Metcons.

CrossFit athlete Chandler Smith has biceps like bowling balls and does burpees so fast he’s practically a blur. Simply put, he’s incredibly fit. 

So when I was offered the chance to try a CrossFit workout set led by the man himself, there was no way I could refuse. 

I joined about 50 other gym-goers and athletes at the WIT Fitness x Puma event in London to mark the launch of the Puma Fuse 2. 

Beforehand, I thought I might fare OK in the workout. I train at my local box most days and like to think I’ve attained the status of “intermediate CrossFitter”. That was not what I thought once the dust had settled.

Before tackling Smith’s challenge, first up was a 15-minute AMRAP workout (as many reps as possible) courtesy of Joshua Al-chamaa, a UK athlete who finished on the podium at the 2022 CrossFit Games as part of Team Invictus. 

As part of a team of three, we tackled a sequence of 30 toes-to-bar, 30 dumbbell clean and jerks, and 30 dumbbell squats. In a you-go-I-go format, one team member worked while another rested and the third racked up calories on a Concept 2 RowErg.

With my grip and shoulders suitably fried, I headed outside for Smith’s session.

Chandler Smith’s Workout

Smith had set another 15-minute AMRAP—performed solo this time—of 24 unweighted squats, 24 push-ups, 24 lunges and a 400m run.

It sounded simple, and it was, but as I found out when training with top-tier CrossFit athletes, diabolical workouts are built on simplicity. 

A pre-workout pep talk from Smith involved some form cues and a warning not to cheat on form. He was looking for proper depth on the squats, chests to the floor on the push-ups and control during the lunges. With a mortifying no-rep a distinct possibility, I took this advice to heart. 

I kept to a steady rhythm for the first round of bodyweight exercises and started feeling good. The effects from the previous metcon seemed to be wearing off, so I began to push the pace. With the lunges done, I set off on the run. 

This was where my world came crashing down. The cocktail of high-volume bodyweight exercises, mixed with the dumbbell squats and the clean and jerks from the workout before, had taken its toll on my quads. My thighs felt like lead. 

From the second round onward my legs were on fire. Fortunately, with colleagues, fellow journos and dedicated CrossFitters tackling the workout alongside me, my competitive spirit kicked in. 

“If I can just cycle my squats faster than the person to my left… All I need to do is start my run before the guy in front… Keep the push-ups unbroken and you can make up some ground on everyone else.”

With this approach the time flew by, and before I knew it Smith was yelling, “Three, two, one, TIIIIME!”

Three rounds and 72 reps was my final score. I finished my last lunge just as the clock hit zero. Over to you. 

I’ve been guilty of yelling “FASTER!” at elite athletes on TV while slouched on my couch in a mayonnaise-stained T-shirt. Now, however, I might think twice before dealing out any unsolicited advice. 

The reason for this? I had the chance to train under the watchful eyes of some of the world’s top CrossFitters, and it was no joke. 

I walked into Gold’s Gym in Berlin to be met with a fearsome sight; Reign Total Body Fuel-sponsored athletes Emma McQuaid, Emma Tall, Aniol Ekai and Moritz Fiebig (who is affectionately/intimidatingly referred to as “The German Steel”). 

Among them they boasted arms thicker than my legs, topographical abs and several places at the CrossFit Games—the sport’s Super Bowl—earned at the European semi-final qualifying event the previous weekend. 

The athletes set me and a group of willing gym-goers a simple 20-minute partner AMRAP (as many rounds as possible), each contributing a staple CrossFit exercise to a four-move circuit. 

• Emma McQuaid: 20-calorie row split between two people
• Aniol Ekai: 20 wall balls split between two people
• Moritz Fiebig: 20 synchronized dumbbell snatches
• Emma Tall: 20 burpees over person split between two people—one person holds a plank while the other person completes burpees and jumps over them between reps.

Before you try it yourself, give yourself a head start by taking on board what I learned doing it under the watchful eye of the pros.

1. Sweat The Small Stuff

I’m a member of a CrossFit box and train six times a week, although I’ll be the first to admit I have more enthusiasm than ability. Still, I have a few local competitions under my belt and like to think I’m OK at “the sport of fitness”. 

But one of the things that immediately set these Games-level athletes apart from your average class-goer was their attention to detail. 

“Show me how you row,” McQuaid said, inviting an attendee to jump on a Concept2 RowErg in front of the class. The woman hopped into the hot seat and did a good job, but McQuaid had notes. 

Play with the foot plate until you find a setting that feels comfortable and allows you to reach into the catch without being inhibited by your ankle mobility. Remember to keep the chain flat and drive with your legs first, then pull with your arms. Finally, adjust the damper settings to find one that allows you to pull big numbers.

“We want to make it as easy as possible,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how high the damper is if you can’t pull it.”

The other athletes were just as surgical with their movements. Tall, ranked Europe’s fourth fittest woman going into the Games, advised finding a rhythm during burpees and making every movement count, especially as you tire—every unnecessary shuffle is a waste of time.

Fiebig stressed that the power for a dumbbell snatch should come from the lower body: “Your arms are tiny compared to your legs.”

Spanish athlete Ekai zeroed in on the details of wall balls. 

“Stand an arm’s length away from the wall. Don’t wait for the ball to come back down with your arms in the air or they will get tired during larger sets. Take them down to your sides to recover.”

If any one of these tips saves you one second, or spares your muscles from any extra fatigue, it could be the difference between first and second.

2. Don’t Stop Moving

To most people, a 20-minute metcon might sound like a bit of a slog. To CrossFit athletes, it’s par for the course. 

As we reached the end, my partner and I broke up the snatches into two sets. Suddenly, I felt a considerable shadow loom over my left shoulder.

Then came Ekai’s commanding voice. “Come on, keep going, don’t stop.”

I looked at my partner. He looked at the 22.5kg dumbbells at our feet, then back at me. Each with a resigned look in our eyes, we reached down and saw off our set of 20. 

Ekai was right. We could do it. It shows the mindset of athletes at the top of their game is different from ours. They’re used to reaching, and pushing beyond, their limits, and as a result they know when to hit the gas and when to pull back. 

For the rest of us, our minds often tell us to stop when things become uncomfortable, but well before our limits.

3. Don’t Confuse Simple With Easy 

The movements in this workout will be familiar to anyone who’s stepped into a CrossFit box. There’s nothing too heavy (just a standard dumbbell snatch at 22.5kg for men and 15kg for women) and no high-skill gymnastic moves like muscle-ups or legless rope climbs.

Yet by the end my muscles ached, I was drenched in sweat and my chest was heaving as my body put in an urgent order for oxygen. 

“How did you find the class?” a friendly Fiebig asked after the workout. My monosyllabic response came between heavy breaths. “Good. Hard.”

“Ah, yes,” he said with a smile. “It’s often the simple movements that get you, because you have to keep moving.”

I know they’re not for everyone, but I like a vacation workout. I feel under less time pressure than in my regular pre-work sweat sessions, and they never fail to improve my mood. But every time I search for kit-free CrossFit workouts to tackle al fresco, I’m recommended WODs like Mary, Annie and Cindy.

While these are technically bodyweight workouts—you won’t need to lift weights in any of the movements—they still require some sort of gear like a skipping rope or pull-up bar, neither of which tend to make it into luggage. 

To solve this recurrent conundrum I recruited the help of CrossFit athlete Lucy Campbell, who secured the title of UK’s fittest woman in 2022 following her 16th-placed finish and two event wins at last year’s CrossFit Games. 

Read on to find four no-equipment CrossFit workouts you can tackle any time, anywhere—just don’t confuse equipment-free with easy. 

1. AMRAP 20

Exercises

• Burpee: Reps 5
• Push-up: Reps 10
• Unweighted squat: Reps 15

How To Do This Workout

Start a 20-minute timer, then perform five burpees, 10 push-ups and 15 unweighted squats, resting as little as possible between movements. Repeat this sequence, completing as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. 

Campbell says: The key to this workout is pacing. Remember, you’re going to be working for 20 minutes so you don’t want to come out hot and burn out early. Instead, try to go at a pace that allows you to keep moving steadily for the full duration without too much rest. 

The push-ups are likely to accumulate the most muscular fatigue so break these up into two or three sets from the start, then try to maintain that rep scheme from start to finish. If you can’t yet perform a full push-up, or the volume is too much for you, then either do them on your knees or with your hands on an elevated surface, such as a chair.

2. 21-15-9

Exercises

• Handstand push-up: Reps 21, 15, 9
• Triceps dip: Reps 21, 15, 9
• Push-up: Reps 21, 15, 9

How To Do This Workout

While the last workout will test your muscular endurance, this session puts your pushing power and strength on trial. Following the 21-15-9 format, you’ll tackle 21 reps of each exercise in the first round, followed by a round of 15 reps and a final round of nine reps. 

You will need a wall to support your back for the handstand push-up and a chair or bench for the dips, but since neither are pieces of equipment you need to carry in your luggage, we’ve allowed them.

Aim to complete all moves “for quality”, focusing on your form and muscle activation rather than rushing to get the workout done as fast as possible. 

Campbell says: This is a very upper-body-dominant workout with a lot of pushing. It’s very important that you don’t rush through the movements and don’t let your form deteriorate, so break up the rep scheme into smaller sets to make it more manageable. 

If you can’t do handstand push-ups, perform a pike push-up [where your hands and feet are on the floor, your legs and back are straight, and your hips are raised to place more emphasis on your shoulders] instead.

You can make the dips more challenging by elevating your feet, or easier by bending your knees with your feet flat on the floor to offer more support.

3. Five Rounds For Time

Exercises

• Walking lunge: Reps 40
• Mountain climber: Reps 30
• Unweighted squat: Reps 20
• Burpee: Reps 10

How To Do This Workout

This workout is a race against the clock. It’s also heavily leg-based, so make sure you warm up your wheels before stepping on the gas. 

Start a stopwatch then perform 40 walking lunges, 30 mountain climbers, 20 air squats and 10 burpees. As soon as you finish the last burpee, stop the clock and note down your time. After this, rest for two minutes and then do it all over again. 

Intensity is the name of the game here, so aim to finish each round as quickly as possible, slashing seconds off your times from previous rounds as you progress through the workout.  

Campbell says: The aim of this workout is to complete each round as quickly as possible, with minimal rest within the round. Try to keep the intensity high, aiming to complete the reps of each movement without a pause.

If getting down to and then up off the floor in the burpees really slows the pace down for you,  keep the intensity up by performing the movement without the chest-to-floor element. 

4. Mini Murph

Exercises

• Run: 1 mile
• Push-up: Reps 100
• Sit-up: Reps 100
• Run: 1 mile

How To Do This Workout

The hero WOD Murph is one of the best-known CrossFit workouts there is, with thousands of people completing it each Memorial Day to in honor of members of the military who have lost their lives, including Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael P Murphy, who the workout is named after. 

The full version involves 300 unweighted squats, 200 push-ups and 100 pull-ups, sandwiched between two one-mile runs, with the option of taking things to the next level by adding a weighted vest.

Campbell’s version is shorter, but don’t let the “mini” moniker fool you—this will still put your fitness on trial. 

You can partition the push-ups and sit-ups however you want, so you could break them into 10 alternating sets of 10 reps, or 20 rounds of five reps to make the workload more manageable. 

Campbell says: Again, it’s crucial to pace yourself here. Remember you have to complete all four tasks, so don’t empty the tank early on! 

Taking on 100 push-ups is no small task, so break them up early on and stay a few reps from failure throughout. Don’t forget to time yourself so that you can try to beat your time when you repeat the workout.