🌴 Back to Cali: 2026 CrossFit Games Headed to San Jose

October 23rd, 2025

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • 🏟️ It’s official: The 2026 CrossFit Games return to California — July 24–26 at San Jose’s SAP Center,

  • 💡 Two questions. One mindset. Kelly Starrett’s framework for building a gym and a life.

  • 🌴 WZA Miami heats up early — the 2026 qualifiers wrapped, the top 10 men and women will punch tickets to Miami Beach, with more big invites (and video review) still to come.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
❝

The venue is great, the city is great, the local area is amazing.”

Dave Castro on the 2026 CrossFit Games, which will be held at the SAP Center in San Jose, CA.
CROSSFIT GAMES

The 2026 CrossFit Games Are Headed to San Jose, California

Credit: Shutterstock

On Wednesday, CrossFit HQ announced via The Sport of Fitness podcast that the 20th CrossFit Games will be held July 24-26 at the SAP Center in San Jose, CA.

More specifically, podcast host Chase Ingraham gave the floor to eight-time Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr to make the location announcement.

  • Regarding whether she will compete for her ninth title this summer, Toomey-Orr, who has been considering retirement lately, didn’t say.

About the SAP Center

The SAP Center is an indoor arena, home to the National Hockey League (NHL) team, the San Jose Sharks, and can hold nearly 18,000 spectators.

Toomey-Orr said she has been there before to watch the San Jose Sharks play and couldn’t be more excited about the venue.

  • “From an athlete’s point of view, it’s going to be so electric. We always thought the crowd in Madison was just crazy. But here it’s going to be amplified,” she said.

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SPEED READS

🧠🏋️‍♀️ CrossFit Mindset 101: In this new article from CrossFit, Stephane Rochet, CF-L3, breaks down the difference between exercising and training. The key? A mindset rooted in mechanics, consistency, and intensity — not just chasing sweat or scores.

🏠💪 New Home, New Gym: Emma Lawson documents the full transformation of her new one-car garage — from chaotic box pile to fully equipped Rogue setup. Smaller space, same grind.

🏋️‍♀️💬 Gyms = The New Social Clubs: According to new data from ABC Fitness, 57% of people join gyms for connection, not just conditioning. Check-ins are rising, Gen Z leads the charge, and the takeaway is clear — community is the real growth engine for fitness.

🏁🔥 HYROX Tickets Drop Soon: Centr HYROX Phoenix (Jan. 29—Feb. 1) and The Feed HYROX Las Vegas (Feb. 20—22) kick off the 2025/26 season — tickets go live Oct. 30 and Nov. 6. New this year: Flex Add-On refunds, personalized checkouts, race-day wristbands, and PRO-only Worlds qualifiers. Don’t miss your shot.

ICYMI: 🔥 CrossFit brings back “Forging Elite Fitness.” Longtime affiliate advocate John Wooley asks, “What’s behind the revival?”

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

How to Build a Sustainable Affiliate Without Sacrificing Your Life

Credit: @besthouroftheirday / Instagram

You're crushing it at your affiliate. Members are showing up, classes are full, and the whiteboard times continue to improve.

But you missed your kid's soccer game last week. Again.

Your spouse is asking when you'll actually be home for dinner. Your friends have stopped inviting you to things because the answer is always "I've got the 5:30 class."

Here's what nobody tells you when you open an affiliate: the thing you built to create freedom can become the prison that steals your life. 

  • And if you're not careful, you'll wake up one day realizing you've sacrificed everything that matters for a business that's supposed to enhance your life – not consume it.

POLL

🥗 What’s your post-WOD meal strategy?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Last week, we asked: 🏋️‍♀️ What’s your warm-up personality?

  • 🐢 Slow & deliberate — band work, mobility, and a full checklist. (52%)

  • 💨 Quick and dirty — two air squats and let’s lift. (23.5%)

  • 🗣️ Social butterfly — warming up means chatting between reps. (21.23%)

  • 😴 What warm-up? I go in cold and pray for the best. (2%)

  • Other (tell us your pre-WOD ritual in the comments) (1 vote)

We were pumped to see that 98% of you prefer some kind of warm-up and more than half of you devote real time to it!

COMPETITIONS

Ðukić, Mathew, Turner: Familiar Names Unofficially in Qualifying Position for 2026 Wodapalooza Miami

Credit: Lydia Stadtheower

Though it feels like 2025 Wodapalooza SoCal just finished, the Wodapalooza team is already busy preparing for its 14th annual event in Miami. 

  • This year, the competition has been moved from January to March, and the online qualifiers for individuals have just concluded. 

The details: The top ten men and women will compete as elites, along with invitees who will be announced closer to the event. Athletes finishing in 11th through 49th place will compete in the RX Division.

Over the past two weeks, the athletes took on five workouts, and true to Wodapalooza's tradition, the programming was one-of-a-kind.

  • Check out the current leaderboard here. (Note: the scores have yet to be reviewed and remain unofficial at the time of publication.)

After the jump — the standout workouts, big lifts, and who’s likely to hit the Miami floor.

HIGHLIGHTS

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.

  • 🏆Congratulations to Jen Muir and Ella Wilkinson who defended their title, winning the Proving Grounds competition in Scotland last weekend.

  • While there, Jen Muir hit a 107.5-kilo/237-pound clean complex. Well done, Jen!

  • 🔥Taking second place at Proving Grounds was 18-year-old Lucy McGonigle, who hit the biggest snatch complex of the weekend, at 82.5 kilos/181 pounds.

  • Congratulations to Morning Chalk Up’s Teaganne Finn, who, with her teammates from CrossFit Union Square, took first place in the RX Teams Division at Fight for the Fittest last weekend.

  • 🥇Congratulations to Colten Mertens and Paige Rodgers, who won Crash Crucible last weekend.