Breaking Down Three Years of Quarterfinals Programming

Photo credit: @crossfitgames

The third year of Individual Quarterfinals have wrapped up and the Worldwide Rankings have been updated for the both male and female divisions. As we get ready to move into the Semifinals stage of the season, we’re looking back and breaking down the movements and formats that have been programmed in the past three years of Individual Quarterfinals.

1. Most popular movements: Five movements have appeared in all three years of the individual quarterfinals.

• GHD sit-ups
  Rope climbs
  Rowing
  Burpee box jump overs
  Handstand push-up variations

2. Weightlifting: Looking at the big picture, a barbell has been programmed in seven of the 15 total Quarterfinals workouts. Dumbbells have appeared in three workouts and a medicine ball has appeared twice in three years.

• Front squats
  Deadlifts
  Snatch
  Clean and Jerk
  Clean
  Bench Press
  Overhead squats
  Dumbbells hang power clean
  Dumbbells shoulder-to-overhead
  Dumbbell lunge variation
  Dumbbell snatches
  Wall balls

3. Gymnastics: Two workouts have consisted of all gymnastics movements (Test 2 in 2021 and Test 2 in 2022). Besides Test 4 in 2023, every other workout that has programmed a gymnastics movement has paired it with a loaded implement. The takeaways? The potent combination of bodyweight movements and lifting is at the core of CrossFit programming.

• Handstand push-up variation
  GHD sit-ups
  Rope climbs
  Burpee box jump over
  Ring muscle ups
  Single-leg squats
  Chest-to-bar pull-ups
  Bar muscle ups
  Handstand walks
  V-oops

4. Monostructural: The most commonly programmed cardio movement is rowing, appearing in all three years. The double under crossover made a big splash at the 2023 CrossFit Games and the new jump rope variation was edited and written into this year’s Quarterfinals as a single under crossover.

• Rowing
  Double unders
  crossovers
  Shuttle runs

5. Formats: For simplicity, I’ve lumped ascending and descending rep scheme workouts into the chippers category. The big takeaway is that only three of the 15 workouts that have been programmed for the Quarterfinals are followed by a repeated rep scheme for rounds. It’s also worth noting that this year Adrian Bozman introduced AMRAP’s to the Quarterfinals in two out of the five workouts.

• Chipper: 8
  Rounds for time: 3
  AMRAP: 2
  Max lifts: 2

The bottom line: Quarterfinals have served as an extra stage for more advanced athletes to showcase their fitness and play with higher skill movements since its introduction in 2021. The past three years have provided basic data that helps to identify common trends for this stage in the CrossFit Games qualification process .

There may not be a cookie-cutter template, but the repeated programming of movements and formats can help steer training to be more prepared and successful in future years for athletes who may be on the bubble of qualifying for Semifinals. For the everyday CrossFitter, you can use this information to identify what higher level skills and strength levels to work towards if you have hopes of becoming a Quarterfinals athlete in the future.