Best Crossfit Programming in 2023? (Full Review)

Choosing the right elite CrossFit program will likely be the difference between an athlete qualifying for the CrossFit Games or remaining on the low levels of competition.

Over the past couple of years many new programs have sprung up, all with their roster of proven athletes. This post is designed to provide information on each one in order to determine which is best.

We will be looking at coaches, top athletes, and of course results.

Since there are dozens of programs available, we will only be reviewing the top 5, which have proven themselves to produce the best results including:

HWPO by Mat Fraser
Mayhem Athlete by Rich Froning
PRVN by Tia-Clair Toomey and Shane Orr
Underdogs Athletics by Justin Cotler
Brute Strength by Matt Torres

Best CrossFit Programming

HWPO

Mat Fraser with Mallory O’brien (2nd place at 2022 CrossFit Games)

HWPO is personally programmed and coached by 5x CrossFit Games champion Mat Fraser along with Olympic weightlifting strength work that is designed in assistance with Aimee Anaya-Everett who has coached professional olympic weightlifters for 15 years.

For athletes that are looking to compete at the highest level of CrossFit and make the CrossFit Games, HWPO has a program called “HWPO Pro” which has a closed number of athletes and fitness requirements to join such as:

Having placed top 300 in Quarterfinals
Ability to train 2x/day for 3-4 hours each session
245/155 snatch
275/185 clean and jerk
365/250+ back squat
10+ unbroken ring muscle ups
etc.

This is the personalized programming that the top athletes in the world are following under Fraser’s supervision, including 2x CrossFit Games champion Justin Medeiros and 2022 2nd place finisher Mallory O’brien.

Current athletes following HWPO that qualified for the 2023 CrossFit Games include:

Katrin Davidsdottir
Jayson Hopper
Samuel Kwant
Amanda Barnhart
Cole Greashaber
Christine Kolenbrander
Jake Douglas

For athletes that haven’t yet reached the fitness levels required by HWPO Pro, there is the HWPO Flagship program, which is designed for athletes that are looking to make it to Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and beyond, but are not yet fit enough for the Pro program.

Mayhem Athlete

Mayhem Athlete is another program designed by a former CrossFit Games champion, 4x champ Rich Froning.

Mayhem Athlete also happens to be one of the first competitive CrossFit programs and one of the most followed programs by affiliate gyms.

When we look at the number of elite Games athletes following Mayhem, they once again come in at the top.

Current athletes following Mayhem that qualified for the 2023 CrossFit Games include:

Lazar Djukic
Roman Khrennikov
Baylee Rayl
Luke Parker
Morteza Sedaqat
Uldis Upenieks
Victoria Campos
Alex Vigneault
Paige Powers
Samuel Cournoyer

They also had dozens of other athletes at Semifinals that follow Mayhem, but were unable to qualify for the Games.

Just like HWPO, Mayhem Athlete has various programs available including:

Mayhem Compete
Burgener Strength
Aerobic Capacity
What’s Rich Doing? (Rich Froning’s personal program)
many more.

PRVN

PRVN is designed and coached by Shane Orr, the husband of 6x CrossFit Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey, the same man who has programmed for Tia throughout her championships.

PRVN has 3 main competitive tracks under the “PRVN Compete” program:

LEVEL 3: Semifinals and Games athletes
LEVEL 2: Aspiring Semifinals athletes
LEVEL 1: CrossFit Open or local competitions

Following this program, 5 athletes qualified for the 2023 CrossFit Games:

Olivia Kerstetter
Will Moorad
Nick Mathew
Sydney Wells
Kaylyn Ribeiro

BRUTE STRENGTH

Although Brute Strength is not as well known as the other programs listed above, they currently are represented by multiple athletes who will very likely finish in the top 10 at the 2023 Games.

Just like with all of the other programs, Brute Strength has multiple coaches for each part of an athlete’s development (strength, engine, gymnastics, etc.) and personalized online programming for athletes who aren’t able to train on site with the team.

Their 2023 CrossFit Games athletes include:

Danielle Brandon (2nd at NA East)
Emma Cary (1st at NA East)
Dallin Pepper
James Sprague
Feerozeh Saghafi

UnderDogs Athletics

UnderDogs Athletics may not have the same depth of lineup of athletes at the 2023 Games, but one of their athletes Alex Gazan did end up winning the North America West Semifinal, while also getting Bronislaw Olenkowicz back to the Games for the first time in 4 years.

Justin Cotler is the creator and head programmer over at Underdog and all of his athletes praise his ability to strategize perfectly for competitions.

Another great thing about Underdog is that the elite program is only $49/month, but does require that you train at least 3 hours per day. Once you make the CrossFit Games you get a 1-on-1 coach.

Underdogs athletes at the 2023 CrossFit Games include:

Alex Gazan
Bronislaw Olenkowicz
Bayley Martin
Shahed Budebs

Final Thoughts

Any of these programs will no doubt be effective for an athlete that has been primarily training and programming on their own, and choosing the right program for you will depend on multiple factors including:

your current fitness level
desired coach/team of coaches
type of programming
cost