Your Competing Days Are Not Over: Welcome to The Garage Games Masters Tour!

At some point you probably stopped thinking of yourself as an athlete. Competing looked like something kids, college teams and pros did, not something still on the table for you. It's on the table.

Regional CrossFit-style competitions have been around for twenty years, and one of them just landed in your backyard: Saturday, November 7th.

They don't run like an endurance race or a hybrid event, no single grinding continuous effort. It's a handful of individual workouts with recovery time between them, which turns out to be most of the fun. You get to watch other people compete and cheer them on. Camp out under your pop-up tent between events, snacking, rehydrating and catching up with friends. Then go test skills you're not going to run into anywhere else. Scaled options exist at every level, and age brackets run all the way up to 75+.

Competing can help give more motivation and direction to your training, and getting outside of your comfort zone and stepping into the arena has a way of making you feel alive in a way few other experiences can!

Somewhere between registering and standing in the athlete area on November 7th, you're going to get nervous and briefly question your life choices. Good. That means you're officially out of your comfort zone. The butterflies are normal. You'll be fine.

This post is your cheat sheet: three workouts, what each one involves, and a video for every movement you'll see in the comp, so you show up already knowing what a good rep looks like (your judge will thank you).

The Day Itself

You sign up for an age bracket based on your age, not your fitness level, then choose Rx or Scaled within it. Rx is the heaviest, most skilled version of the movements. Scaled is built for beginners and anyone who doesn't have every Rx movement ready for competition yet. The exact numbers for your bracket live on the Masters Tour event site.

Every workout gets posted at Rx first, the prescribed weights and heights, listed separately for men and women. That's not the bar you need to clear, it's just how the workout is written. Scaled changes by age group and by division, sometimes just the weight, sometimes the whole movement, so pull up the standards for your specific bracket before you decide a workout is out of reach. Half the people who read "9 Thrusters" and assume they're out end up finding a scaled version well within reach.

At check-in you get a shirt, a swag bag and your scorecard for the first event. After that, swing by the check-in table 15-20 minutes before each remaining event to grab that event's card. The competition floor is indoors. Vendor and pop-up tents are out in the parking lot on asphalt, so bring a chair and a mat or rug to stretch on between events. Buckhorn Truck will be on-site for lunch, and there's music and more vendors on the way as we get closer. First-timers make up a good chunk of this field. You won't be the only one.

One thing worth doing before November 7th: set up the training program on PushPress. It walks you through competition prep, and creating the account signs your waiver at the same time, which you need anyway.

The Three Workouts

Event 1: 10-Minute AMRAP

• 15/12 Calorie Row
• 12 Burpees Over Bar
• 9 Thrusters (weight climbs every round you complete)

As many rounds as you can get in 10 minutes.

The part people miss: gymnastics grips are not allowed in this one, you have to change your own weights, and collars go on before every single lift, including after every weight change. Small thing, easy no-rep if you forget it.

Event 2: Two Parts, One Continuous Clock

Part A — 5 rounds for time, 6-minute cap:

• 10 Toes-to-Bar
• 10 Box Jump Overs

Then a mandatory 1-minute rest. You cannot touch, load or adjust your barbell during it.

Part B — 4 minutes, starting at the 7:00 mark:

• Establish one heavy Clean, as many attempts as you can fit in
• Muscle, power, squat or split, however you get the bar to your shoulders is fair game
• Elbows need to clear in front of the bar before the lift counts
• Score is your single heaviest good lift

Event 3: The Chipper

For time, 15-minute cap, one movement fully finished before you move to the next:

• 40/30 calorie Assault Bike
• 40 Wall Balls
• 30/20 cal bike
• 30 Kettlebell Swings
• 20/15 cal bike
• 20 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
• 10/8 cal bike
• 10 Wall Walks
• 200 Double-Unders

Every bike on our floor is an Assault, so you don't need to think about the Assault-vs-Echo calorie math the rulebook covers, you'll just be riding what you already train on.

Older brackets lift less weight in this one, and several of the movements change too. Chest-to-Bar becomes a regular Pull-Up, the American Kettlebell Swing becomes a Russian Swing, Wall Walks shrink to Partial Wall Walks or swap out for Ring Rows or Inchworms and Double-Unders become Single-Unders. Find your bracket's exact lineup on the event site and cross-check it against the standards below.

Every Movement, With Someone Showing You How

Your judge is watching for these exact standards. A no-rep means the judge didn't count that rep because it didn't meet the standard, chin not quite clearing the bar on a pull-up or jumping pull-up is a classic one. When that happens, you owe another rep. You don't move on to the next movement, the bike in Event 3, for example, until you've hit the full count, no-reps excluded. Watch these ahead of time. A slightly slower rep the judge can clearly count beats a fast one that gets no-repped, that effort doesn't move you any closer to the finish, it just costs you the energy.

AbMat Sit-Up — Start on your back, feet anchored, hands touching the floor overhead. Rep counts when both hands touch your feet at the top. Miss either end and it's a no-rep.
Watch it: The AbMat Sit-Up (CrossFit.com)

Box Jump Over — Two-foot takeoff, both feet land on top of the box (or you clear the whole thing in one jump), then you step down on the other side. Jumping down off the box doesn't count.
Watch it: The Box Jump (CrossFit.com)

Box Step-Over — Same idea, no jump. Both feet touch the top of the box, you step down the other side. No jumping onto or off the box, no full hip extension required at the top.
Watch it: Box Step-Over demonstration

Burpee Over Bar — Chest and thighs touch the floor, you stand up with no hands on the ground, then a two-foot jump clears the barbell. Stepping over it doesn't count here.
Watch it: The Burpee (CrossFit.com)

Burpee Step Over Bar — Identical burpee, but you're allowed to step or jump over the bar instead of clearing it in the air. This is the scaled/masters version of the one above.
Watch it: The Burpee (CrossFit.com)

Calorie Bike — Monitor gets reset to zero before you start, you ride until it reads your prescribed number, and you stay seated until it clearly shows that number.
Watch it: Assault bike technique and tips

Calorie Row — Seated, hands off the handle until "go," monitor reset to zero, row to your number.
Watch it: Rowing Technique Tips (CrossFit.com)

Chest-to-Bar Pull-Up — Arms fully extended at the bottom, chest clearly touches the bar at or below your collarbone at the top. Strict, kipping and butterfly are all legal.
Watch it: The Kipping Chest-to-Bar Pull-Up (CrossFit.com)

Clean — Bar starts on the ground, finishes racked on your shoulders with elbows in front of the bar, hips and knees fully extended before the bar settles into the rack. No hang cleans.
Watch it: What Is a Clean? (CrossFit.com)

Double-Under — The rope passes under your feet twice in a single jump, two full rope revolutions, land on both feet together.
Watch it: The Double-Under (CrossFit.com)

Hanging Knee Raises — Start hanging with arms extended, heels come back behind the bar, and your knees have to rise above your hip crease to count.
Watch it: Hanging Knee Raise, proper form

Inchworm — Hands walk out to a taped line on the floor, then walk back to your feet, full standing extension to finish the rep.
Watch it: How to do the Inchworm

Jumping Pull-Up — Full arm extension at the bottom, use your legs to help your chin clear the bar at the top.
Watch it: Jumping Pull-up Demo (CrossFit.com)

Kettlebell Swing, American — Bell travels overhead in one continuous motion, hips fully open, arms straight, ears visible in front of your arms at the top.
Watch it: American Kettlebell Swing with Jeff Martone (CrossFit.com)

Kettlebell Swing, Russian — Same swing, bell only needs to reach shoulder height, and your arms don't need to lock out overhead.
Watch it: The Kettlebell Swing (CrossFit.com)

Pull-Up — Arms fully extended to start, chin clears the bar to finish. Any style works.
Watch it: Kipping Pull-Up (CrossFit.com)

Ring Row — Feet on the line, arms fully extended, leaned back, pull your chest to the rings.
Watch it: The Ring Row (CrossFit.com)

Single-Under — Regular jump rope. One pass under your feet per jump.
Watch it: From Single-Unders to Double-Unders (CrossFit.com)

Thruster — Front squat straight into an overhead press in one motion. Hip crease has to clearly pass below your knee at the bottom, and arms, hips and knees fully lock out at the top with the bar over the middle of your body.
Watch it: Thruster (CrossFit.com)

Toes-to-Bar — Start from a dead hang, both feet touch the bar at the same time, between your hands.
Watch it: The Kipping Toes-to-Bar (CrossFit.com)

Wall Ball — Squat below parallel, throw the ball so the center of it hits above the marked line on the wall. Letting it drop and catching the bounce doesn't count.
Watch it: The Wall-Ball Shot (CrossFit.com)

Wall Walk — Start lying on the ground, walk your feet up the wall and your hands back toward it until they hit the top tape line, then walk back down under control until your hands are back on the starting line.
Watch it: The Wall Walk (CrossFit.com)

Partial Wall Walk — Same movement, shorter climb. You're touching a nearer line at the top instead of going all the way up.
Watch it: The Wall Walk (CrossFit.com)

Then Comes the Rush

Finishing your first competition is its own kind of high. You'll feel ten feet tall and bulletproof, because you just proved to yourself you're capable of a lot more than you thought. Take the time afterward to rehash it with the competitors you just met and the friends you talked into signing up alongside you. Wear your athlete shirt with pride, and carry a little extra swagger back into your regular training.

P.S. If you love this one or can't make it, don't miss our annual fundraising comp: Lift Heavy. Pet Dogs. in Spring 2027!

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