How to Approach The CrossFit Open
Written by Conquer Athlete Coach Jason Leydon, CSCS
The CrossFit Open has a funny way of turning “I’m pretty fit” into a question mark. Not because you suddenly forgot how to train, but because the Open doesn’t reward vibes, it rewards preparation. It exposes the seams in your engine, your pacing, your movement efficiency, and your ability to manage stress when the clock is loud and the reps are unforgiving. The athletes who perform well aren’t magically more gifted in March. They’re simply the ones whose training has been building toward that moment with intention.
As you approach the 2026 Open, your program should get brutally honest and strategically simple. You need to maintain strength without burying your nervous system, keep power “touched” weekly, and sharpen the skills that actually show up under fatigue: cyclical breathing control, transitions, and repeatable mechanics in common Open patterns (thrusters, toes-to-bar, pull-ups, burpees, rowing, dumbbell cycling). Conditioning should shift from random suffering to targeted exposures, threshold work to raise your floor, controlled glycolytic intervals to improve repeatability, and short, high-output efforts to keep you dangerous when the workout turns into a sprint. You also need planned deloads and recovery practices that match your life stress, not the fantasy version of it.
The hard part isn’t knowing what matters. It’s applying it to you. That’s why one-on-one coaching is the best route. A coach doesn’t just hand you a program, they manage the variables you’re too close to see: volume, intensity, exercise selection, skill priorities, and fatigue. They identify your bottleneck, build the plan around it, and keep you from chasing what you’re already good at. They make sure you peak with confidence instead of showing up hoping your fitness survives the test.
The Open isn’t a three-week event. It’s the reveal at the end of a long story. Write a better story, on purpose.
Explore our Conquer Athlete Individual Design Coaching Program HERE if you’re ready to level-up this season.
