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  • 📊 Early Open Numbers Are In — Here's What We’re Seeing

📊 Early Open Numbers Are In — Here's What We’re Seeing

January 29th, 2026

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • 📊 With four weeks to 26.1, Open registration is surging toward 300,000 or more, putting record prize money on the table in 2026.

  • 📉 Client churn is the silent killer of gyms — and most owners are overlooking the single metric that could change everything.

  • 🇺🇸 The first in-person Semifinal of 2026 is coming in hot with six total CrossFit Games spots on the line. The Mayhem Classic roster is already taking shape.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
❝

You can’t grow what you can’t track.”

Dan Uyemura, PushPress founder, on client check-ins, a quiet “north star metric.”
CROSSFIT OPEN

2026 CrossFit Open Report: 4 Weeks to 26.1

Credit: Victor Freitas

We are now just one month away from the 2026 CrossFit Open. Three (as yet) unknown workouts will be taken on by thousands of CrossFitters worldwide from February 26 through March 16.  

Remind me: From 2011, the Open's inaugural year, through 2018, the number of registrants climbed steadily from 26,000 to 416,000. 

  • Each year through 2017, we saw a percentage increase of at least 10%, and from 2017 to 2018, it was just under that, at 9.7%.

Numbers dipped by 14% in 2019 and then again by 33% in the 2020 Open, which was technically held in the fall of 2019. 

By 2021, registration had rebounded to roughly 263,000, a 10% increase from 2020. Participation continued to climb until 2024, when roughly 344,000 athletes took part, a 6% increase from 2023. 

  • The 2025 Open registration was the lowest in 10 years; it was also the second time in the Open’s history that such a drastic decrease occurred. Registration totaled approximately 234,000 people, down more than 100,000 from 2024.

The 2026 Numbers So Far 

As he does every year, Mike Halpin of Known & Knowable has been closely tracking Open registrations, analyzing patterns, and projecting final outcomes.

  • Continue reading for the full 2026 registration breakdown, so far.

The Workout Journal for The Relentless

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SPEED READS

🚨🚨 The CrossFit Open is Coming: The 2026 CrossFit Open will take place February 26-March 16, so get signed up now!

🧠🏃‍♂️ Variety Beats Repetition for Longevity: A new study shows that mixing up your exercise routine — combining strength, cardio, mobility, and varied movement patterns — is better for long-term health and performance than sticking to the same workouts over and over, helping reduce injury risk and keep the body adaptable as you age. Of course, CrossFitters already know this.

🏟️🔥 HYROX Phoenix: The third Major of the 2025/26 season is coming in hot. From January 29–February 1, HYROX heads to State Farm Stadium in Phoenix, AZ, bringing high-stakes competition, ranking points, and qualification momentum for athletes chasing spots at the HYROX World Championships in Stockholm this June. How to watch and all the other details you need are here.

🔥⚙️ Burpees, But Smarter: This deep-dive from CrossFit coach Monroe Miller breaks down every burpee variation — from bodyweight to bar-facing to muscle-ups — showing how footwork, pacing, and “burpee gears” can slash fatigue, control heart rate, and help you move faster and cleaner deep into CrossFit workouts. Watch here.

ICYMI: The first 15 World Fitness Project 2026 pro card athletes have been announced. (Rx article)

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

The “North Star” Metric Gym Owners Overlook at Their Own Risk

Credit: @2020.fit / Instagram

You’re a gym owner with about 120 members. You typically add eight or nine new members a month and lose seven or eight. 

  • Not bad, right? That means you’re losing only five to six percent of your members a month. That’s normal, right?

It might be “normal,” but this level of churn is a problem for any gym owner. 

Harshly put, client churn is the “silent killer,” as PushPress founder Dan Uyemura explained.

COMPETITIONS

2026 Mayhem Classic Roster Takes Shape

Credit: Jonathan Ortega

While it feels like the 2025 CrossFit season just ended, the 2026 competitions are right around the corner. 

  • The Open kicks off in less than a month, Wodapalooza is two weeks after that, and the first In-Person Semifinal, the Mayhem Classic, is a month later. 

Rich Froning’s Mayhem Classic will be held once again in Cookeville, TN, April 17-19, and will be the first of 10 live events sending Individual Division athletes to the CrossFit Games (there are two additional in-person events for age-group athletes only). 

In 2025, two men and two women qualified for the competition, but this year, another slot has been added, so the entire men’s and women’s event podium will be packing their bags for San Jose, CA, in July.

HIGHLIGHTS

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