How to taper for the CrossFit Open

What the research says

A 2007 meta-analysis pooling 27 studies found that a taper preserving training intensity while reducing volume yields a pooled effect size of 0.59 — about a 3% improvement in competition performance. In a sport decided by seconds and reps, that 3% is the gap between first and fifth.

The strongest taper protocols cut volume by 41–60% over roughly two weeks, hold intensity, and progressively (rather than abruptly) taper down. A survey of elite CrossFit athletes found 98.6% taper before competition, cutting volume an average of 41.2% over the final ~5 days — so the "train harder right up to comp day" instinct is a minority of 1.4%.

Mechanistically, fitness and fatigue decay at different rates (the Banister fitness-fatigue model). A taper lets the faster-decaying fatigue fall away while slower-decaying fitness is largely retained — performance peaks in the gap between the two curves.

How Dawg & Rabbit Fitness applies it

When you set a competition date, the program schedules a volume-cut, intensity-preserved taper into the realization block ahead of it, and uses your training-load metrics (CTL/ATL/TSB) to confirm form is rising into the event rather than guessing. You see the taper on your calendar and the citation behind it.

Related: polarized 80/20 training · ACWR and injury risk · CrossFit pacing strategy