📖 What 2026 CrossFit Games Season Rulebook Reveals

December 11th, 2025

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • 🤓 Key takeaways from the 2026 CrossFit Games rulebook.

  • 💸 Thinking about buying a gym? Don’t start with the price — start with protecting yourself.

  • 👟 Fitness industry heavyweights, R.A.D® and Rogue, team up for a limited-edition training shoe release.

CROSSFIT GAMES

2026 CrossFit Season Rulebook Released — Here’s What You Should Know

Credit: Scott Freymond

The 2026 CrossFit Games Season Rulebook has just been released. For this upcoming season, there are some significant changes athletes and Open participants need to know as preparations gear up for a busy season ahead.

Remind me: This year’s rulebook is being released slightly earlier than last year's. As shown below, this season’s release aligns more with 2022-2024, coming before the new calendar year begins.

Here’s a list of when CrossFit HQ has dropped its rulebook in recent history:

  • 2026 Season: December 10, 2025

  • 2025 Season: January 10, 2025

  • 2024 Season: December 21, 2023

  • 2023 Season: November 15, 2022

  • 2022 Season: December 28, 2021

What’s New in 2026?

No two CrossFit Games seasons are the same, as we often see major and/or minor changes to each stage of competition. 

Continue reading for some key takeaways that are worth digging into.

SPEED READS

🔥👟 First Look at PUMA’s New HYROX Super-Shoe: PUMA’s new Deviate Elite HYROX Edition blends marathon-race tech with hybrid-fitness durability — giving athletes a lighter, faster, more responsive option built specifically for compromised running. It’s not available until February, but check it out now.

🏋️‍♂️⏳ CrossFit for Life: CrossFit’s Stephane Rochet breaks down how squats, deadlifts, presses, and pull-ups remain essential across every decade — and why aging athletes don’t need new movements, just smarter scaling. The message: keep moving, adjust the dose, and let functional training future-proof your strength, mobility, and independence.

🏋️‍♂️🔧 Inside the Fittest Man on Earth’s New Rogue Home Gym: In the final episode of the three-part build series, Jayson Hopper’s “Hop Shop” goes from construction zone to fully outfitted training sanctuary — complete with a Rogue rig, cable tower, machines, storage, and every accessory an elite season demands.

🌍💊 WHO Weighs In on GLP-1s: The World Health Organization now conditionally endorses GLP-1 weight-loss drugs for obesity treatment, but emphasizes they must be paired with long-term lifestyle change — not used as a quick shortcut. The guidance signals a significant shift in global obesity care while warning that access, cost, and long-term support remain the biggest hurdles ahead.

ICYMI: 🏆 Lucy McGonigle and Chandler Smith take the top spots as the inaugural ATHX Indy season wraps in Birmingham, UK.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

The $50K Question – How to Structure a Gym Deal That Protects You

Credit: @besthouroftheirday / Instagram

In our previous article in this series, we discussed why 80% of gym acquisitions succeed while most startups fail. Now, let's focus on how to actually close a deal without risking too much.

The chance to buy a gym arises, and you feel excited. It could be your current gym or the one nearby. You might have been considering ownership for years, and now this seems like the perfect moment.

So you ask about the price, shake hands, and figure out the details later.

That's how most gym purchases happen. And that's how most buyers get burned.

In our recent chat with Dan Uyemura, founder of PushPress, we broke down the buyer's playbook – the process sophisticated operators use to close deals without getting screwed.

  • The difference between a smart acquisition and an expensive mistake comes down to doing the work before you commit, not after.

POLL

❄️🍪 What is your December nutrition strategy?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Last week, we asked: 😵‍💫 End-of-Year Motivation Check — You’re currently:

  • 🏋️ Training like the Open is tomorrow. (40%)

  • 😄 Just here for the socializing and chalk dust. (25%)

  • 😤 Showing up just to hit one more PR before the year ends. (13%)

  • 🥱 Doing the bare minimum until January. (12%)

  • 🙃 In full “deload month” denial. (10%)

INDUSTRY

R.A.D® and Rogue Release Limited Edition Shoe

Credit: R.A.D®

On Tuesday, the shoe and apparel brand R.A.D® and equipment giant Rogue Fitness announced they have formed a partnership and will release a limited edition collection of R.A.D®’s training gear.

The details: The collection features two co-branded versions of the R.A.D® ONE V2, in Rogue’s signature red and black, with the Rogue logo.

  • The shoes will be available here and here for USD$150 starting on December 11 at 8 a.m. PST.

Continue reading for the story behind R.A.D®’s rise and how this collab came to be.

HIGHLIGHTS

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

  • 🎂Happy birthday to Joamir Terrero.

  • Watch Harry Lightfoot snatch 130 kilos/286 pounds for a set of two.

  • 🚒Well done to firefighters Darren Placid and Carl Burton, who completed the London HYROX in full gear to raise money for charity.

  • Watch this muscle-up complex from 59-year-old Kevin from CrossFit Invictus Seattle.

  • 🔥Watch 2024’s Fittest Teen on Earth, Pablo Tronchon, touch-and-go three snatches at 100 kilos/220 pounds.