Every year, the CrossFit Games provide a reminder of just how unbelievably fit the world’s best athletes are. Over the course of a weekend, they’re asked to sprint, lift, climb, swim, carry, throw and endure their way through some of the toughest tests in sport. It’s a spectacle, and for most of us, one that’s entertaining to watch – from a safe distance.

But every now and then, a Games workout appears that’s refreshingly simple, and actually… doable.

The opening event of the 2026 CrossFit Games is just three movements: rowing, pull-ups and push jerks. That’s it. No heavy one-rep maxes. Just a pure – albeit brutally effective – combination of pushing, pulling and conditioning that will build a bigger, stronger upper body while testing your engine.

The rowing hammers your legs and lungs before you’ve even touched a weight. From there, the pull-ups pile serious volume into your lats, biceps and grip, while the push jerks challenge your shoulders, triceps and core, with your legs helping to drive every rep overhead. The result is a full-body workout that’s particularly effective for building muscle through your back and shoulders, improving upper-body endurance and developing explosive power through your lower body.

Don’t mistake simple for easy, though. This one starts out tough and just gets harder from there.

You’re going to have to work for this muscle.

The Workout

For Time:

• 1,000m row

Then 5 Rounds Of:

• 25 pull-ups
• 7 push jerks*

*The Games weight for men is 60kg, but scale to your ability

If 125 pull-ups seems a little on the steep side (ie. if you can’t do 10-15 reps fresh) scale the movement to band-assisted pull-ups or ring rows while keeping the overall structure the same.

Games athletes will be utilising kipping pull-ups to get through the work as quickly and efficiently as possible, but opt for strict if you want to modify the test for a full muscle-building effect.

Likewise, choose a push jerk weight that allows you to move smoothly through each set. You’ll still reap the same benefits while getting a taste of how the fittest on Earth kicked off their 2026 campaign.

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.

With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.    

As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.   

Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.   

 You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.