Sport of Fitness Podcast Breaks Down 2026 CrossFit Quarterfinals Workouts with Bozman

The workouts are out, Quarterfinals weekend is here, and Adrian Bozman spent time on the Sport of Fitness Podcast walking through exactly what's coming for the athletes who earned their way through the Open.

Chase Ingraham and Adrian Bozman covered the release of the workouts for the 2026 CrossFit Quarterfinals on the Sport of Fitness podcast, presented by Velites. The episode dropped March 23, three days before competition officially opened, giving qualifiers a weekend of prep time to study the programming before stepping into their affiliates.

The Quarterfinals were not part of the 2025 CrossFit Games season, but the organizers decided to bring them back for 2026. The top 25% of individual and age-group athletes worldwide from the Open advance to Quarterfinals. The 2026 Individual and Age-Group Quarterfinals run from Thursday, March 26, at 12 p.m. PT until Monday, March 30, at 12 p.m. PT. All scores must be submitted by 3:00 pm Eastern Time on Monday, March 30.

Four workouts make up the test. Workout 1 sets the tone with a palindrome structure: 10 shuttle runs (50 feet), 20 overhead squats at 115/80 lb, and 30 lateral burpees over the bar, followed by a one-minute rest, then the sequence runs back in reverse. The time cap is 12 minutes. That built-in rest is a trap as much as a gift; coming back into the burpees with tired shoulders after the OHS is where time gets lost.

Workout 2 pairs 80 dumbbell hang squat cleans at 50/35 lbs with 40 bar muscle-ups under a 15-minute cap. Eighty DB hang squat cleans is a grip and leg endurance tax before athletes even touch the bar. The jump to bar muscle-ups means anyone banking on the gymnastics to be a recovery is in for a rude surprise.

Workout 3 is where the programming gets creative with load. Three rounds of 50 double-unders and 10 deadlifts at 225/155 lb, then two rounds at 275/185 lb, then a final round at 315/225 lb, all within a 12-minute cap. The official CrossFit Games release confirms the deadlift weights as 225, 275, and 315 lb for men and 155, 185, and 225 lb for women. The double-unders stay fixed at 50 each round; the bar keeps getting heavier. Athletes who survive the first three rounds in good shape will find 315 lb either entirely manageable or a sudden wall, depending on how much they spent early.

Workout 4 is the closer and arguably the most demanding on paper: a 1,000-meter row, 30 clean and jerks at 135/95 lb, another 1,000-meter row, and 30 strict handstand push-ups, all under a 20-minute cap. The word "strict" on the HSPUs matters. No kipping. After two kilometers on the rower and 30 C&Js, athletes have to invert and press themselves overhead with zero help from their hips. That is a legitimate separator between Quarterfinals-level athletes and those on the bubble.

Unlike the CrossFit Open, athletes must complete each Quarterfinals workout inside a CrossFit affiliate in good standing and are not permitted to do workouts elsewhere and just submit a video. Additionally, each athlete must use a registered judge who has either passed the 2026 Judges Course or holds a current Advanced Judges Course certificate.

The top 2,000 men and women will advance to Semifinals, in-person events running April through June, plus an Online Semifinals as a last-chance qualifier. From there, the top athletes earn their spot at the 2026 CrossFit Games in San Jose, California, July 24-26 at the SAP Center.

Colten Mertens topped the men's Open leaderboard for the second year in a row, while Lucy Campbell had her best ever start to a season and ranked first among the women. Both now face a field that is roughly 75% smaller than the Open and four workouts designed to find out who actually belongs on a Semifinals floor.