Every new year, as the CrossFit Open draws closer, some athletes hesitate about signing up. The 2026 Open, presented by Air National Guard, is a commitment to perform three grueling workouts and share with the world exactly where our fitness level is right now. It’s not unreasonable to feel the butterflies and ask ourselves, “Do I really want to do this?”
Fortunately, the benefits of the Open match the challenge. Here are nine great reasons to sign up and compete in the Open.
- Fitness Data: The Open is a great opportunity to collect data on your work capacity. If this is your first time competing in the Open, you set a baseline for your current capabilities. As you continue competing each year, you can track your progress year over year and compare yourself with peers worldwide. This information is a critical piece of your complete health and fitness picture, along with tracking your health markers.
- Programming Direction: The Open ruthlessly reveals your weaknesses. While it may not be pleasant at the time, this information is valuable and will help guide your focus in the coming year. There is no better way to improve your fitness than to identify your weaknesses and methodically eliminate them. The Open is a great tool for helping with this.
- The Challenge: The nerves or butterflies (let’s call it excitement) you feel right before every Open workout are very real! You know the workout will be hard; you know you need to push to deliver your best effort, and there’s always the chance you may fall short with everyone watching. The Open definitely pulls us out of our comfort zone — and that’s a good thing! It adds spice to life and makes many of life’s other challenges seem easy by comparison. Regularly challenging ourselves is important for physical and mental health, confidence, and self-esteem. Compete in the Open, and these rewards can change your life!
- Family Spirit: The Open is a time when your gym can rally around an event, compete and suffer together, cheer each other on, and then tell stories about it for years to come. The Open is one of the best ways to strengthen the bonds of friendship built in the gym. Fitness can be FUN!
- Pride: The Open is tough. Pushing through the workouts is a hard, daunting task. When you put yourself through a test like this, you feel immense pride in participating, giving your best effort, and coming out on the other side. Showing up and facing your fears can be extremely rewarding.
- Motivating: The Open provides the “juice” of competition many of us may not have felt since we played sports when we were younger. Competing against ourselves and others makes us feel vibrant and alive. Step onto the floor and capture these moments!
- Performance: The competitive atmosphere of the Open often supercharges performance. Not only is this event a great way to see how you perform under pressure, but that pressure often brings out the best in all of us. It’s not uncommon to hit new records or perform a movement you’ve never done before in the heat of competition.
- Role Model: The Open provides all of us the opportunity to be role models for our friends and family. When you do the Open workouts, they see you walk the walk. They also see that it’s OK to struggle or fail. The important thing is to show up and give your best effort.
- Training Accountability: Coming off the holidays, the looming Open and the desire to do well provide a solid reason to not miss workouts and to dial in your nutrition through January and February. So while many others are giving up on New Year’s resolutions after a couple of weeks, you’re setting yourself up for a great year by being even more consistent and committed because of the Open.
Hopefully, some or all of these points will resonate if you’re on the fence about participating in this year’s Open. Trust us, take the leap and sign up. No one has ever regretted their decision to compete in the Open. To the contrary, most get hooked, and it becomes an event they look forward to every year. Good luck, and I’ll see you on the leaderboard.
About the Author
Stephane Rochet is a Senior Content Writer for CrossFit. He has worked as a Flowmaster on the CrossFit Seminar Staff and has over 15 years of experience as a collegiate/tactical strength and conditioning coach. He is a Certified CrossFit Trainer (CF-L3) and enjoys training athletes in his garage gym.