5 Factors to Consider Before Redoing a CrossFit Open Workout

The CrossFit Open is a series of 3 workouts over 3 weeks, designed to test your fitness and show you where you rank compared to others.

The workouts are hard, and generally speaking they are the type of workouts that you don’t want to do again.

The general philosophy is once and done.

That said, on Reddit forums and other places, once common question is whether, and when, to redo the workout.

In 2024, I did every Open workout twice. I’m a scaled athlete and I had no shot of advancing; I did it for personal reasons.

These workouts are hard on the body, and redoing them is not a decision I made lightly.

If you’re wondering whether you should redo a workout, it can help to get insight into someone else’s thought process.

Here are the things I consider when deciding whether to redo an Open workout.

General Factors

First, let’s discuss two general considerations.

(1) Will a Re-do Help You Advance?

The top 25% of athletes overall and by age group advance to the quarterfinals. If you’re on the cusp of that top 25%, it might make sense to redo a workout if you believe you can score better enough to make that cut-off.

Even if you’re within range, and the quarterfinals matter to you, you want to be honest with yourself about whether you can really do better than you did the first time.

(2) What Will Be the Impact on Your Body and Nervous System?

You’ve already lived through the pain of the workout once. How did your body feel after? How did the workout impact your nervous system and mindset?

The second time around, you know what’s coming. That cuts both ways. On one hand: you know what’s coming and so you can mentally prepare better. On the other hand, you know how bad it will be.

Here’s what I learned the year I did every workout twice: the second time is worse.

3 Factors to Consider if You’re Not Advancing to the Next Level

But what if you’re not in contention for advancing?

Then the reasons are more personal. You have to really want it for yourself. Not because you’re trying to prove something to the world, but because you know that you can do better and want to feel good about your performance.

That’s when these next points apply. Here are 3 reasons I consider redoing a workout.

(1) You Made a Tactical or Strategic Error

CrossFit Open workouts require strategy. And sometimes you get the strategy wrong — or you don’t follow your game plan.

You go out too hot, or not hot enough. You push too much on your sets. You don’t break up the reps in a smart way. You blow up to quickly or don’t get going quick enough.

You spend too long in transitions.

If you misplayed your strategy or didn’t have one in the first place, it might be worth a redo if you can reclaim some wasted time.

The only reason to redo the workout is if you believe you can do significantly better.

When I redid the first two workouts in 2024, I cleaned up transitions and performed significantly better.

(2) You Were Learning a Skill in the Workout

Open 24.3 was the first time I ever learned how to do jumping chest to bar pull-ups. It took me 23 tries in the first round to get 10 reps. After learning the skill, I redid that workout so I could put what I learned into practice.

This only makes sense to do if you know you can reliably get the skill. In that workout, this was the entry level gymnastics skill. I wouldn’t do this for the highest level gymnastics skill.

(3) You Want to Test Your Next Level

If you did the workout at the scaled level, another possible reason to redo the workout is to do it Rx and see how far you can get.

Maybe you know that you can do the movements at the Rx weights, even if it will be slower. The Open is that chance to see how you stack up against others in your age at that higher level. It might even show you a capacity you didn’t know you had.