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-by Coach Justin “Mertz” Mehrtens, CF-L3
This is the time of year that gives me great enthusiasm as a CrossFit athlete and coach. To understand why it brings me and others so much joy is to understand what the CrossFit Open is and the “why” behind this once-a-year event.
First off, what is The Open?
The CrossFit Open, on the surface, is the beginning leg of the road to the CrossFit Games that ultimately crowns the fittest man, woman, team, master athlete, teen, & adaptive athletes on the earth. To be crowned means they all started by competing in the Open. It is three weeks long with an announcement of each workout on Thursday starting Feb 26, March 5, & March 12.
The road to the Games
The road to the Games goes like this- The Open -> The Quarterfinals -> The Semi-finals -> The Games which will be held in San Jose, Ca from July 24-26. We call this the Games season. Is this important for us to help understand the Open and why we want to do it as an every-day athlete? No. Most of us will only do the Open and a few of us will be happy to make it to the Quarterfinals. After that, we have the opportunity to become fans of the sport of CrossFit cheering the other competitors on as they proceed forward to the Games. If you are new to CrossFit, I can highlight a few names like Tia-Clair Toomey who has dominated & won a record breaking 8 CrossFit Games and only missed one because of pregnancy. Some other female stars to look for is the fiery Danielle Brandon and young stars like Lucy Cambell & Olivia Kerstetter. On the men’s side there is a mix of guys that are steadily going after each other to win every year. Jayson Hopper won last year by narrow margins against other past winners like James Sprague, Jeffery Adler, & Justin Medieros.
My personal favorites to watch are the Iron Hog- Colten Mertens who was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease and stands at 5’4” is strong as a bull and is basically a monkey on the bars. My favorite fun loving, no quit female in Rebecca Fuselier who weighs in at 120-ish pounds with one of the most iconic moments in CrossFit Games history in 2022 having to carry a 150# husafell stone 200 meters up the Austin, Texas Capitol steps. Ironically, she came in last, but with the crowd cheering her on she finished and gave everyone something to remember. I still get goose bumps when I watch the video. I love cheering for the under dogs!
Why should the Open matter to you?
What makes the sport of CrossFit so special is the culture that is developed from within the thousands of CrossFit gyms around the globe. The culture of community in support of each other. You can see and feel it with each & every class you take. The cheering of not just the person that posts the best score but also the ones that comes in last pushing themselves to finish. This phenomenon is truly on stage during the Open. If you have never attended or signed up for the Open before you only get a piece of it when the WoD is over as we celebrate with our classmates with high fives & knuckles.
Let me set the stage for you. This year’s first Open workout will be posted on Thursday Feb 26 at 2pm our time. At that time, CrossFit will have a live feed, usually within a CrossFit Affiliate, announcing the workout. After the announcement, they will live feed some of those same CrossFit Games athletes going head-to-head after they just learned the workout themselves. This is the first instance you can cheer them on and be amazed at what they can do. It also unlocks a little bit of strategy for yourself before you give it your best shot. The coolest thing though is watching the community that surrounds them cheering and clapping giving the event and the athletes an amazing amount of energy. That’s what it’s all about! And now we get to bring that energy to our own gym when we participate the next day.
Most gyms, like X7 CrossFit, hold our own event called Friday Night Lights. Beginning at 4pm on the Friday after the announcement, we will have wave times. Basically, you sign up for a time slot decided by us to perform the workout. There is no class setting. You must warm-up on your own before the time you signed up for so get there at least 15mins beforehand. We will have a warm-up written on the whiteboard for you to go through so you can be ready to go at the start of the wave time. If you need help with that, ask a coach. The number of wave slots depends on the movements & timeframe of the workout.
Each athlete will have a judge. The judge’s role is to make sure you are completing the movement standards and counting your reps. If you do not complete the standard of that movement, we will no rep you and you try again. This can be frustrating for most and as is for myself, but the standard is the standard. Don’t get upset, move on & try again.
Once the workout is over the judge will hand you the judge’s card for you to sign along with them. Why is this important? It’s important because it’s a statement of understanding that you completed the workout & verified by the judge as an agreement not just on the results of the workout but the understanding that this is a competition. Personally, as a judge, my favorite thing is handing the clipboard to the athlete laying devastated on the ground and watching them sign their names under heavy breath and shaky hands!
What you hopefully will notice above all is your fellow X7ers cheering you on throughout the workout and congratulating you after your finish. That is the essence of the Open. The support system of CrossFit is built around the comradery of each and every one of us lifting each other up. This should be on full display during the Open.
What if I can’t come to Friday Night Lights?
If you normally work out during the day, that’s ok! We will still have classes at 5:15am, 6:30am, 9am, & noon. This will be structured coach led classes with everyone in the class doing the Open workout. If you signed up for the Open, the coach will judge you just like if you were at FNL (Friday Nite Lights). This is also an invitation that if you did do the workout during the day, please come to FNL to cheer and support everyone there. It’s up to you and the rest of us to help generate that amazing, supportive culture that bleeds purple & silver.
What are Intramurals?
Now that I set the stage up for the experience of The Open, let’s get into another event within the Open that X7 conducts. The Open Intramurals. This is a team event that centers around the Open as a participation and results-based competition. We will have two teams, Team Star Wars vs Team Marvel. I personally will set the teams based on randomization and giving an effort to balance both teams.
The point system has a few components that you can easily do to provide your team with points. 1 point for each of these completed- theme dress up, FNL participation (even if you show up to cheer your fellow X7ers on), submitting your score to CrossFit, and finally if you PR a movement or weight. Points will also be given for placement in each week’s workout. The top 3 of each category will get points from 1st place getting 3, 2nd place getting 2, and 3rd place getting 1 point. Categories are overall male & female and also all the Masters divisions (ages 35+) for each week.
After each week, the teams will have an updated tally and after the final week a team is crowned winner & receives bragging rights. It’s just a fun little twist to the Open that sparks a competitive bond with each other. After all, being competitive can help you become more fit! This should be a huge component in your “why” to do the Open.
One of the biggest, if not THE biggest, advantage in participating in the Open is because each and every year you see hard data on your fitness level & watch it go up. Being ranked with 300,000+ people is essentially a huge population size test on how you can see your fitness level go up each year as opposed to just seeing your basic numbers within your gym software going up. I still remember being enamored seeing the amount of people I jumped from my first year to my second year.
As you can see, The Open is more than a competition to get to the Games. It’s all about you and your community. It should be a no-brainer for anyone of any fitness level to sign up. Even if you are new to CrossFit! In fact, it’s probably more important to sign up as a newbie so you can see exactly where you started and see the huge increases from year to year.
Ok, I’m IN! How do I sign up?
How do you sign up? Go to crossfit.com and register.
Cost? $20.00
It’s that simple!
- Tune into the Open Announcement on crossfit.com Thursdays at 2pm.
- Come in on Fridays to perform the workout.
- Participate in FNL Feb 27, March 6, & March 13
If you can’t make it on Friday, don’t fret! You have until Monday at 7pm to submit a score. Contact any coach so we can make arrangements to get your workout judged over the weekend.
Links-
Registration
https://games.crossfit.com/open/registration
CrossFit’s Why Should I Sign Up?
https://games.crossfit.com/article/what-crossfit-open-and-why-should-i-sign
Rebecca Fuselier The Capitol Story- https://www.boxrox.com/rebecca-fuselier-the-capitol-2022-crossfit-games/
Colten Mertens Autoimmune Disease to the CrossFit Games Story-
Tia Clair-Toomey Orr 8 time games champ story-
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/fitness/a65589681/tia-clair-toomey-2025-crossfit-games
CrossFit Games Men’s Field Story-
https://barbend.com/news/2025-crossfit-games-mens-preview
CrossFit Games Women’s Field Story-
https://barbend.com/news/2025-crossfit-games-women-division-preview
Danielle Brandon how fitness helped her coming from a horrible childhood-
https://www.the-independent.com/health-and-fitness/danielle-brandon-workout-b2714699.html
