The CrossFit Open 2020: Everything You Need To Know

The 2020 CrossFit Open is right around the corner

If you haven’t signed up for the CrossFit Open yet, you can do that here. 

Here is where we will cover the CrossFit Open 20.1 Workout announcement - so make sure to bookmark this page.

This upcoming Open is different from past years, as it kicks off the new tradition of our annual Open Season now being in October instead of February. It’s also unique in that this will most likely be the only time in CrossFit history that we see two Opens in one year. 

Why? 

Here’s a quick summary to the 2020 CrossFit Open & Games changes that are now officially in effect… 

2020 Open: October Dates and More

• The 2020 Open will kick off on Thursday, October 10th, at 5:00pm PT. The Open is still 5 weeks long.
• Like in years past, workout scores must be submitted by the following Monday, 5 pm PT.
• Here is where you can keep an eye on the 2020 CrossFit Open leaderboard.
• The top male and female from every country with a CrossFit affiliate received an invitation to the Games.
• The top 20 male and females worldwide finishers in the CrossFit Open will earn spots to the 2020 CrossFit Games.
• Age Group Online Qualifiers will kick off on Thursday, March 12th (2020) and athletes will have until Monday, March 16th to submit their scores.
• Sanctionals have replaced Regionals, head here to check out the full 2020 Sanctional schedule.
• The CrossFit Games 2020 will be once again help next summer - dates have not been announced yet.

Like most things in life, the Open and CrossFit Games 2020 season is constantly evolving... and we continue to get updates. The Morning Chalk Up also has a great summary of the full 2020 CrossFit Games Rulebook, covering some of the smaller details surrounding this upcoming season.

Interested in 2020 Open predictions and how some of the Games athletes are expected to do? This article from RunRepeat covers 2020 Open predictions for the top male competitors, top female competitors, and National Champions from their countries. 

2020 CrossFit Open: Movements To Expect

We all know that nothing is for sure when it comes to Dave Castro and his programming.

Yet we can’t look past the fact that there are consistent trends and particular movements that show their face every single Open. In fact, over 9 years and 46 workouts, we have seen 23 different movements - 5 which have been repeated each Open season, including this past February.

The idea behind their popularity in the Open programming is that they are some of the most simple movements to judge.

(Why do you think we haven’t seen pistols yet?)

Don’t believe me? 

Here’s a graphic of every single CrossFit Open movement that we’ve seen:

The chart is self explanatory, but here’s a quick breakdown…

The top 5 rows that are highlighted in red are the movements that have shown up in every single CrossFit Open so far. Those are:

Double Unders, Toes to Bar, Chest to Bar Pull-ups, Thrusters, and a Muscle Up variation. 

Do you have all those movements fine-tuned and ready to rock? Or do you still have some holes in your game? What about those middle-tiered movements in the yellow? I’d pretty confidently say that rowing will show up once again this year since it’s been programmed for the past six Opens… have you been working on the movement?

Last note on movements to expect - if you’ve been working on one of these movements for a while now, and don’t seem to make any progress - keep in mind that we have a bunch of 8-week courses that give you the exact programming you need to fast track your progress. 

CrossFit Open 2020: Trendspotting

Let’s take a quick look at movement trends that we’ve seen more recently, across the past few years.

• Calorie Row: I mentioned calorie row above, and that’s because it has 67% attendance rate - it’s been programmed the past SIX years running. Don’t tell me you already forgot that seemingly harmless yet cruel wall ball and rowing combo from 19.1 already? Rowing is going to be the cardio of choice - unless of course, the assault bike decides to make its first appearance…
• HSPU’s: These guys are also worth mentioning - don’t let their 56% appearance rate in the Open fool you. Similar to rowing, they’ve been programmed the past 5 years in a row, and this past February, they showed up as strict HSPU’s.

Will we see more strict gymnastics in the programming this year? Time will tell.

2020 Open: Test Your Fitness

Enough about the past… let’s talk about this October.

In general, playing the guessing game when it comes to the CrossFit Open is no different than gambling. There’s no way to know (unless you’re Castro’s BFF) what’s going to get thrown at us, and it’s not necessarily the best use or time and energy to sit around and freak out about it. But I’ll offer just a few more thoughts and predictions for the sake of playing along…

You’ll notice a few different dumbbell predictions in the above video. We’ve seen new dumbbell movements pop up for the past few years now, and I wouldn’t expect the 2020 Open to be any different.

Can’t get enough Open prep? Here’s a quick refresh of what we saw in the February 2019 Open:

• 19.1 (Open workout and strategy)
• 19.2  (Open workout and strategy)
• 19.3  (Open workout and strategy)
• 19.4  (Open workout and strategy)
• 19.5  (Open workout and strategy)

And here's a full length video of Coach Ben's 2020 Open predictions, movement demos, and more...

CrossFit Open 2020 - Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, the 2020 CrossFit Open is just about giving it your best, having fun with friends, and checking to see where your fitness is at. Don’t freak out when a workout is programmed that isn’t in your wheelhouse, or when we see strict ring muscle ups programmed and you still can’t even do a pull-up. That’s what scaling is for 🙂 

If you haven’t already, make sure that you’re signed up to receive our Open 2020 Strategy guides - we release them every single Friday morning during the Open, with the goal of sending them out by 6am EST. Typically our emails include several bonus tips and tricks, warm-up videos, all that fun stuff.