[Bonus] 2026 CrossFit Open Recap

I go over my 2026 CrossFit Open experience as someone who’s been doing CrossFit for 14 years.

Main topics covered:

• Where CrossFit fits into my current fitness goals
• Recap of Week 1
• Recap of Week 2
• Recap of Week 3

Continue the conversation:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.coach.kelseydpt
Monthly Newsletter: https://www.anteaterptp.com/newsletter
Episode topic requests: email podcast@anteaterptp.com 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Candid Conversations with Dr. Kelsey. I'm Dr. Kelsey Cheng Sing, physical therapist and owner of Anteater Physical Therapy and Performance. This bonus episode is a race or competition recap where I go over my experience and break down key takeaways from the event. Now let's get into today's conversation. So today I'm going to recap my 2026 CrossFit Open Experience. So it's just gonna be a little less structured than usual. So for some context, I've been doing CrossFit since 2012. So about 14-ish years. But this is my 12th uh CrossFit open um because I did skip last uh yeah, last year because I was pretty freshly postpartum, so I didn't really want to um pressure myself too much because I knew if I was going to sign up, then I was probably going to go um push myself harder than I should. And I believe it was 20 um 2015 maybe um 2015 or 2016, I didn't sign up because at the time I was like, well, we're doing the um it's kind of like the age old, like, well, we're doing the exercises and or the workouts anyway at the gym. So, you know, what's the point of signing up? Um, but I did kind of have some FOMO, obviously, since every single year since then, um, except for last year, obviously, um, I've signed up. Um, it's just to kind of see where you're at on the leaderboard, is kind of where I got the FOMO from. Um also kind of comparing yourself to other people in the gym. Um, but it was mostly just to see where I was at, where my fitness was at, stacked up um to the rest of the world, I guess. And so I honestly debated signing up this year as well because I have been focusing a little bit more on other things. So obviously I had um, I think two weeks, yeah, two weeks before the the open started this year, I did the my high racks race. So the couple months leading up to that, I was still kind of doing CrossFit, but most but like not working too much on um the more advanced CrossFit skills and not lifting as heavy. And before that, I um had been focusing on triathlon training and and even kind of like right after the open. So currently I'm um focusing on triathlon training. So CrossFit has kind of been a little less of a priority for me in the last um in the last year or so, and so that's why I wasn't sure if I wanted to sign up for the open, but um the only reason that I did, to be honest, was uh one of my friends um had actually broken her leg um and so a few months ago, and so she now she's clear to kind of start going back to exercise, and she signed up, so I'm like, okay, well, if she signed up, then I guess I'll sign up. Um so I was kind of peer pressured to sign up, but anyway, um, but yeah, so I signed up for the open this year. Um going into it, I mean I didn't really have any expectations, so um, and I feel like that helped to make me the most relaxed I've ever been about this open. Like I wasn't super stressed out because um I feel like even though even I mean for sure, I know I'm not gonna make it to like quarterfinals or semifinals, like I already know that. Um, especially since I haven't really been focusing on CrossFit. Um, but I feel like even in the past, like I had pressure to kind of do well just to um maybe it's like some of that competitiveness as well with some other members in the gym. Um but or like old members of my old or members at my old gyms that I used to go to, but I feel like recently, especially because I'm like now focusing on other things, I had less pressure about that. Um, and I already kind of know who at the gym it um will probably do better than me, which I mean was kind of true before, but but you always hope, like you're always like, oh well, maybe like this workouts more in my wheelhouse, so maybe I'll beat them type of thing. So um, but yeah, I was way less stressed out or I had less pressure or I had put less pressure on myself this year. Um, although I was doing a lot better than I thought I would after the second week. Um, so I was like, oh, you know, what if I accidentally make it to uh quarterfinals even though I wasn't actually trying, but no, yeah, the the third workout was not in my wheelhouse at all. So so that crushed that thought. But um the downside I feel like is that by the time we got to the third week, I was a little apathetic. And um, I'll go over a little bit what I mean by that um when I get to the breakdown of the workouts and my performance. So, but overall this year a lot less relaxed. Um definitely still super sore though. Um, but um on you know, honestly, I feel like I could have pushed myself a little bit more. Like I like I feel like I didn't push my um like that's kind of another downside of being more relaxed, is I feel like I didn't push myself as much as I would have normally, but in the end, um, you know, I still had fun for the most part. Um was able to hang out with people at the gym and um do the workouts. So so yeah. So I'm gonna break down each of the workouts, uh, what my score was and kind of my thought process um during the workouts. Um, so week one, the workout was uh uh four-time uh 20 wall wall shots, and the wall balls were uh 14 pound with a 14-pound ball for women. So I'm just gonna go over the workouts um for the women individuals. Um so after the 20 wall balls, then you have 18 box jumpovers and then 30 wall balls, 18 box jumpovers, 40 wall balls, and then 18 box stepovers holding the ball, and then 66 wall balls, and then going back down. So 18 uh mid-ball box stepovers, then 40 wall balls, 18 box uh jumpovers, 30 wall balls, uh 18 box jumpovers, and 20 wall balls. So there was a 12-minute time cap, and I think even among the games athletes, like very, very few people even finished the workout. Um, and so the majority of people were gonna get stuck uh like around halfway, so during the 66 uh wall balls. Um, and that's where I kind um that's where I finished. So I got 192 reps. Um, so about I think that's 48 wall balls into the 66 uh wall wall shots. Yeah, so 48 wall balls um into the 66 wall wall shots. So I had been hoping to um make it to the box step overs on the way down, so get through the 66 wall balls. Um so initially when this workout was announced, I was like, oh great, oh great, because like I said, I had just done the high rocks race two weeks before, and I was like, well, we did wall balls for that, but then I remembered, oh wait, the wall balls for high rocks are like 8.8 pounds or whatever. So even during training, like I just use a 10-pound ball, and so for the crossfit workout, it's 14 pounds. Um, but the day of like the that muscle memory and stuff of using a 14-pound ball was still there, like it it wasn't too big of a difference. Um, I mean, obviously it was noticeably heavier, but it wasn't like, oh no, this is gonna be super heavy. Um, the only thing I didn't take into account was how sore my legs were gonna be. So that week, like the Tuesday um of that same week, um, there had the programmed workout what had been rowing and back squats, and my legs were so sore from that, and even I was like, okay, hopefully by Friday they'll be less sore, but they were still so stiff by Friday. And um, and I know like it sounds like I'm blaming it, but like normally uh box jumpovers are in my wheelhouse, I'm pretty tall, um, and I'm able to kind of get a good rhythm. So especially because you don't have to like stand up all the way, so I'm able to kind of get into a good rhythm and jump and then like step down on the other side. But even um in the first round, like my legs were already super stiff, like and I had to I wasn't able to do them unbroken, like I had to take a few breaks of just kind of standing there and to shake out my legs. So I know that the workout from Tuesday definitely affected me on Friday, but I mean it's annoying because like I said, my goal had been to go past the 66 wall balls, but at the same time I was like, eh, whatever, like um, I'm not gonna repeat this workout again. Um, so something I didn't mention before is um after I think like 20 after 2017 maybe or 2016, um I had a rule of never repeating any CrossFit open workouts. Um, because uh whatever year that was, I had repeated a workout and um I think I repeated two workouts that year. I don't know, it kind of muddles together, but um, there was one workout where it had two different scores. So you it was like the burpee over dumbbell and like a dumbbell thruster workout where you had to um yeah, I think it was that one. And then once you complete that, or something like that, and then once you complete that, you had to, that was kind of your buy-in, but when you completed that, it was also like your score one, and after you completed that buy-in, then you were able to do like a max uh clean. And um when I did that workout, I barely had enough time to do a clean, so um, and I had severely underestimated um how tired I would be. So the weight had been for the clean, like I could have gone heavier. So to try to increase my score, I was like, oh, I'll do it again, and then I'll do a heavier weight. Well, unfortunately, my first part score was slower, but then I was able to do the heavier weight, and so but you couldn't separate the scores, you had to like submit them as a unit, and so then I then I had to kind of like see, okay, which one would help me? But yeah, so that was dumb. And then I think there was another workout that I repeated that um to try to beat someone at the gym, but same thing. I think I think I beat my own score at least, but I still it was by you know, only by a few seconds or maybe a minute or something, but it still didn't beat the person I was trying to beat, so I was like, this was also dumb. So ever since then, I was like, my rule has been to never repeat a workout. The exception is if it the workout is like really short. So there was um, yeah, two years ago, I think, two or three years ago, there was a workout with wall walks and snatches. Um and for that one, I did beat my score by quite a lot. I was able to get a lot more snatches in um because I was a little bit faster on the wall walks, so but it was like six minutes, so um, so yeah, so that's kind of my spiel on repeating workouts, especially again. I'm not trying to get to quarterfinals or whatever. So like it's to me it's not really worth it to repeat workouts, um, especially since like they take a lot out of me. Um mostly because uh nowadays I'm not used to the volume of uh the workouts because I'm not doing crossfed as often. So but anyway, yeah, I knew I was not gonna repeat this workout and I didn't repeat any of the workouts. Um, but yeah. So still, I mean for even though I didn't reach my goal, I was still like happy with where I was. Um but again, I feel like I could have gone I I feel like I could have met my goal if my legs hadn't been so stiff and sore. Um but I it's hard to say if I could have pushed harder or not because like my legs were just not happening, not having it. So um, so yeah, that was week one, not too bad. Um should have been in my wheelhouse with the wall balls and the and the wall walls or sorry, with the wall balls and the bonk jumpovers and stepovers, but um it is what it is. So week two. So the workout for that week um so the workout for week two was started out with an 80-foot dumbbell overhead walking lunge. So you're gonna be using a 35-pound dumbbell um for all the weighted movements. Um, and then after the walking lunge, 20 alternating dumbbell snatches, then 20 pull-ups, and then back to an 80-foot uh dumbbell overhead walking lunge, and then 20 alternating dumbbell snatches, and then 20 chest to bar pull-ups, and then back to the lunge and then the snatches, and then ending with 20 muscle ups. So this one had a 15-minute time cap. And um for this week actually, I debated whether I wanted to do scaled instead. Um because I knew, I mean, for sure I'm not even if I get to the muscle ups, I don't have I'm not I wasn't close before, and especially now that I don't really um I haven't been focusing on CrossFit, definitely not close now. Um during the warm-up, um I because I wasn't again, I haven't really been doing as much um pull-ups and stuff. I usually if they show up in the workout, I've been opting for like a banded strict pull-up. Um, so it took a little bit, but eventually my shoulders and my lats kind of warmed up, so that helped. And um I also wasn't sure about the weight because I've also been like scaling uh weights during workouts, but 35 pounds wasn't too bad. Um as an aside, like I remember when dumbbells were first introduced into the open, like 35 pounds seemed so heavy back then, and it's so crazy that even now, even though I haven't really been using 35 pound dumbbells um during normal workouts, like it's it was so much more doable then than like I don't know how many years ago this was now. I mean this was before 2018, so um but yeah, it's really crazy how much my uh baseline strength has improved. Um even though I don't do CrossFit as much, but anyway, um yeah, so I debated if I wanted to do scaled or RX, and then um one of the coaches kind of um encouraged me to stay with RX because I could do everything and like it wasn't like I oh except for the muscle ups, like but it wasn't like I couldn't do a lot, like um it was just it was gonna be challenging, and so I f and and I'm glad I did RX because I feel like it was terrible, like I at the end I was just like rolling around, but um, but I'm glad I did RX. I feel like if I had done scaled and I hadn't finished the entire workout, I would have been angry. Um, because yeah, if I'm gonna do scaled, like because everything's doable, especially scaled would have been pretty relatively easy. So if I hadn't finished the workout, I would have been pretty mad at myself and I probably would have tried to repeat it. So I would have broken my own rule. So um, but yeah, initially the trusted bar pull-ups, I was like, ah, a little iffy, but then again, um, like I mentioned, my shoulders and lats warmed up, so those were okay. Um so this workout wasn't too terrible. My um I was hoping to at least get through the to at least get to the muscle-ups, so go through the lunges and then the the third round of lunges and dumbbell snatches. Um I don't know if the bottleneck was the pull-ups or the chest to bar pull-ups. I knew chest to bar pull-ups, like I'm only gonna be able to do one at a time. I have never been able to like string them together. Um, but I feel like even with the pull-ups, like I didn't get a really good rhythm. Like I was able like I forgot even what sets that I did. Um, and then I ended up having to like break them down. And I I think I even ended up having to do singles like towards the end of the 20 pull-ups. And then chest to bar pull-ups. I don't know, I think it's like either the jumping or just like the kipping motion because like you know, it uses your abs. I got a little a little nauseous, I think. So so yeah, I think I just didn't do the chest to bar pull-ups as quickly as I would have wanted. Um, and I think I had to break up the snatches as well. Because, like I mentioned, 35 still pounds is still doable, but it's not something I'm necessarily used to. So um I think if I was in like more of my quote unquote prime, um, I probably would have either been able to do the 20 unbroken or at least do 10 and 10. Um actually, I think I did only break it up once. I don't even remember anymore. Maybe I broke it up twice, but um, so yeah, there's like you know, those little things where like you know, the the breaks kind of add up. So my score was 91 reps, so I did make it through the chest bar pull-ups, um, but I was only able to go three lengths, so uh 60 feet for the dumbbell overhead walking lunge. Um, and actually, um on like I think I had like 10 seconds left um before the time cap, and then like I um I was like, I think I can do one more length, like 20 more feet, um, because it was four lengths, and then each length like of 20 feet, and each length was one rep. And so that was the fastest lunge um length that I did for the whole workout, and then because I think I I had like two lunges left, and there was like two or three seconds left, and I was like, I better make it because I started it. Um, but yeah, I I got the last one in a nick of time, so um, but yeah, again, didn't necessarily meet my goal, but still happy with how far I went, especially because I wasn't sure how my chest two bar pull-ups would be. Um, but yeah, they ended up being pretty good for again not super not working on them too much. So yeah, pretty happy with my performance. Okay, so week three. So this is when everything fell apart. Uh um, okay, so okay, so week three, the workout was essentially like three sections. I'm gonna describe it as with increasing weight. So each section had two rounds of 12 burpees over the bar, 12 cleans, and then 12 burpees over the bar again, and then 12 thrusters. But then in each section the weight increased. So the first section um was like two rounds with 65 with a 65 pound bar, and then the next one was two rounds with 75 pound bar, and then the last one was uh two rounds with an 85 pound bar. So um I get a 16-minute time cap. And again, the elites um I think not a lot of games athletes finished this if either, if I remember correctly. Um and so I think for for normal people, like the goal was to try to reach the third section or at least finish the first two sections. Um my goal, my goal was even less. Like I was like, okay, if I do like okay, first of all, I didn't even want to do this workout because uh, like I mentioned in the beginning, after the first two workouts, the first two weeks, um, even though I didn't Do as well as I wanted to. Like, I was still behind some of the other, like, um, some other ladies at the gym. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see that I think I was in the like close to the 70th percentile or something. So I was like, oh, like if I do really well in the third week, maybe I'll might squeak in to like the 85th percentile. Um, I don't know, that sounds crazy to think about it now, but but I don't know. I was in my head, I was like, ah, maybe I have a chance. Um so I was like, okay, before this workout was announced, I was like thinking, you know, what haven't they um done yet for movements? We know that they're gonna do some sort of thruster because every year there's thrusters, but also every year there's always like double unders, except for this year. Um, so I was like, okay, if there's double under if there's double unders, there those are in my wheelhouse, and I usually do very well because a lot of people who are stronger than me don't have double unders. So I was like, okay, maybe there'll be double unders, and then so then I can do super well, and maybe I'll make it to quarterfinals on accident. But then this workout was announced, and burpees not super in my wheelhouse. Although burpees over the bar, not too bad because again, you don't have to stand up all the way. Um but I feel like I can usually have like a steady rhythm with burpees over the bar. Even with normal burpees, I can I can usually kind of get through them. I'm slow, but I can get through them. But thrusters, especially with a barbell, I they kill me. Like, I don't know why dumbbell thrusters seem so much easier for me. Um, just the barbell thrusters are just I don't know. I just struggle so much with them. I do not like them. Yeah, so when I saw this, I was like, I do not want to do this at all. And um, so my goal was to obviously get through the first section, so the two rounds with the 65 pound bar. I knew that would be doable. Um, and especially so it's so for me, like even 65 pounds, so that's usually kind of the um the standard quote unquote for to for doing thrusters for reps um for RX women. So and then so anything heavier than that is considered more of like a heavier barbell for thrusters. Um and so I knew for sure 85 would I would be only doing one at a time if I if I even reached that point. And 70 so 65 is already like you know iffy for reps. Um and 75 like I knew I'd probably only I would probably only be able to do a couple reps of um thrusters at a time, uh depending on how tired I was by then. So my goal had been to yeah, to get through the first section and then at least one round of the second section. So like in total rounds, like you know, halfway, try to get three rounds out of the six. Um but man during the whole workout, like during the whole 16 minutes, I was just like, I don't want to be doing this, I don't want to do and I mean in the past when we've had workouts, open workouts with um thrusters, and and there have definitely been workouts with both burpees and thrusters, but like even though I hated them, like I'm just like, oh I gotta get through it, gotta get through it, like tried as hard as I can, but no, this one I was just like the whole time, like there was no pep talk, like at least because um one of the coaches was judging me, like at least she was kind of giving me a pep talk, like she was like, Oh, you know, you can do it, but like in my own head, I was just like, I don't want to do this, I don't like this. This workout sucks. Um, and yeah, I I got 128 reps, so I didn't even get to the 75 pound thruster. Um, so 128 reps was just eight burpees in after the cleans in the first round of that second section. So so I completed the first section and then I did 12 burpees over the bar, and then the 12 cleans, which were easy at 75 pounds, and then eight burpees. So I I don't know if I like unconsciously was just like, I don't want to do any more thrusters. Um, but yeah, so I was just like I hated this workout the whole time. Um and my strategy was to like step up. So I think I did, or I actually stepped down and stepped back up for the burpees. Um I don't know if that hurt me actually. That was a um um the my judge, so my coach, one of the coaches, did mention or did um recommend stepping for the burpees. So maybe stepping up, I'm not sure. I don't remember, but like so I did step down and back up. Um, and I have been having some issues with my right hip um with hip flexion, so um bringing my you know knee up. So that did bother it. So I don't know if I would have been better off just jumping back and stepping up um during those eight burpees because it was like I don't know like how many seconds less than a minute or something. I did like um try to go a little bit faster for those last burpees, so I did jump back and step up, and so I feel like I probably would have been fine if I'd done that for the whole workout, but I don't know. Either way, I didn't care. I didn't care anymore. Um, I feel like this was the first time um that I was just like, I don't want to do this workout, like I could have just skipped this whole workout, um, but I still had a little bit of pride. I was like, okay, I'll do the workout. But um, but yeah, so that is a I feel like that's a consequence or one of the downsides of having not having any pressure or like not having any expectations for this open is that like for this last one I just checked out and I was like, I'm not even gonna try because I hate this workout. I hated it on paper, I hated it when I was doing it. Um, but yeah, so that was um that was the third workout, and then that was the open. So yeah, I went down later board after this one. Um so I think I ended up finishing like in the 54th percentile. Um let me I guess I should have written this down on my notes. Uh 59th percentile. Okay, better than 54th. But yeah, I did, I went down a little bit, so finished 59th percentile in the world. Um, I think it was like a little bit higher for North America or North America West. Is that are we still um I don't know that that that shows you how much I'm following CrossFit nowadays. Um but yeah, not too bad. I feel like it's above 50. Not too bad for not really focusing on CrossFit for the last year. Um, so I would say I'm pretty happy with my performance. Um and like I guess there were some things that I could have done better, um, like pushed harder maybe, but at the same time, like um for what I've been doing over the last year, what I've been focusing on, like again, I feel like I did, you know, pretty good. Um considering I've been focusing more on like swim bike run, um, and then mostly running, because again, for high rocks with running and then um just more endurance, I guess. Um, and less like trying to move heavier weights or heavier load. And so my fitness in that regard, so my cardio has definitely been really good. Endurance has been good, but it's just the moving loads under fatigue or heavier loads under fatigue. Um, you know, it definitely has taken a hit. Um, I'm definitely uh not as fit in that regard as I was uh I would say three years ago, because two years ago when I did the open, I was pregnant. So so that was another story. Like I wish I mean I guess I can sort of do a recap on that, but um in the future, I don't know. If you want me to do a recap on that, let me know. You can email me. But um but yeah, I felt like I wanted to throw up the whole time two years ago, but three years ago, um, I feel like or actually I was at my best. I was at like um like higher, like almost close to 80th percentile for uh 2019. So that was my first year of PT school when I had a lot more time to work out. Um, but yeah, compared to that, obviously I'm less fit, but overall, like if I'm looking at different parameters, I feel like I feel like I'm in I'm the same fitness level, it's just you know, some areas are better than they were before, and some areas are a little worse than they were before. So yeah. So that was my recap of this year's open. Um, that's kind of it. I don't really have anything else to say about it. So hope you enjoyed this recap, this bonus episode, and I will see you in the next conversation.