Don't Let the CrossFit Open Be a Stumbling Block (A Guide to Playing it Smart)
Chasing Excellence
Ben Bergeron & Patrick Cummings
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 February 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The 3 Big Questions We're Answering:
1. How can the CrossFit Open serve as a tool for assessing overall fitness in a way that is both enjoyable and beneficial for non-competitive athletes?
2. What are effective benchmarks and alternative methods for measuring fitness that prioritize long-term health and performance?
3. How do we balance the pursuit of fitness goals with the need to listen to our bodies and modify workouts to prevent injury and promote longevity?
👉🏼 Get the full Listener’s Guide here
===
❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club
👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start here!
===
👋 THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
🔗 Helix Sleep - Personalized sleep solution
🔗 the Defender - Icon of adventure on the road
🔗 Tailor Brands - Complete business builder
===
🤙 ABOUT US
📍 Ben Bergeron is a best-selling author, coach to 7 CrossFit Games champions, and founder of CompTrain. Find him on Instagram.
📍 Patrick Cummings is a long-time CrossFitter, writer, and podcaster. Find him on Instagram.
[[]---[]]
Chasing Excellence is an audience-supported project. To go deeper & to help us do even more, consider:
· Subscribing to our newsletter to get our free posts and upgrading to our Chase Club to receive exclusive content.
· Grabbing one of our books: Chasing Excellence, Unlocking Potential, or The ABCs of Being Happy & Healthy.
· Supporting one of our fantastic show sponsors.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We believe health is the foundation that unlocks freedom. |
| 0:07.2 | The freedom to live fully, to be an asset and not a burden, and to chase what truly matters. |
| 0:13.5 | Through daily practices and proven frameworks, we are here to help you build deep health, |
| 0:19.3 | find lasting peace, and live with your heart on fire. |
| 0:24.3 | Welcome to the chase. |
| 0:26.8 | Hello and welcome back to the show. Thank you so very much for tuning in this time around. |
| 0:32.4 | The week that we are publishing this episode, it also happens to be the week that the |
| 0:36.9 | CrossFit Open starts. |
| 0:38.8 | I was thinking about the CrossFit Open myself. |
| 0:41.0 | And I remembered a conversation that Ben and I had with Mr. Colesager. |
| 0:45.2 | We actually had it in 2024. |
| 0:47.8 | We actually did it after the CrossFit Open last year. |
| 0:50.5 | So I thought, well, maybe we do it before this time around. Maybe it's more |
| 0:56.4 | useful, uh, this conversation around the CrossFit Open before the CrossFit Open starts. |
| 1:00.1 | So we are actually in this episode. We are answering a listener question about whether the |
| 1:04.7 | CrossFit Open is a wonderful and useful test of our overall fitness. So we talk about that. |
| 1:09.5 | We talk about benchmarks. We talk about some of the |
| 1:11.6 | things to look out for. If you are going to be throwing yourself into the CrossFit Open this week |
| 1:16.6 | and the weeks that follow, I hope you enjoy. And so without any further ado, here is myself and Ben |
| 1:22.7 | and Mr. Colseger. Enjoy. This is a question from Mark. He says, how do you recommend non-crossfit |
| 1:28.9 | competitors, i.e. we train CrossFit, but not for the sport of CrossFit. View the CrossFit open. |
| 1:33.9 | Fun with friends versus your yearly fitness check-in versus something else. I always hear people say |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ben Bergeron & Patrick Cummings, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Ben Bergeron & Patrick Cummings and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

