Is CrossFit a trend or a fad?

In a recent conversation with a friend, he mentioned that he felt CrossFit was a trend.  As evidence to that, he pondered the ability of the boxes local to us to stay in business. I considered for a moment that maybe CrossFit is just a trend, a fad that will eventually die out.  Perplexed, I asked him to let me get back to him. I researched this, I found a number of articles, which asserted that CrossFit was a trend or fad, as evidence, most cited CrossFit’s lack of specialization and it’s injury rate. Many of the authors of the articles of course had never tried CrossFit; some provided reasoning for never having tried it, others asserted that witnessing such workouts or their experience in other fitness venues gave them standing to complain of CrossFit.  I found myself a rabid CrossFitter ready to defend against some of these allegations, and the idea that CrossFit is a “trend” or “fad”.

            Dictionary.com respectively defines the word meanings relevant to popular culture as follows:

Trend: to emerge as a popular trend; be currently popular: trending topics on the Internet; words that have trended this year.

Fad: a temporary fashion, notion, manner of conduct, etc., especially one followed enthusiastically by a group.

            Considering the definition of trend it is easy to see how CrossFit would be considered a trend. Over the past decade or thereabout, CrossFit has exploded. Boxes are popping up all over the country at record numbers and their memberships are expanding rapidly. People are seeing results and celebrating them within a community that is supportive and encouraging; to an outside observer, that might look like CrossFit being a fad as it is “enthusiastically supported by a group”.

            Looking at Google Maps, within a twenty-five mile radius, there are ten CrossFit gyms.  Given an expected membership of about 100 (plus or minus) members per box, these ten gyms are serving approximately 1000 persons. Considering that there are approximately three million people within the combined statistical area where I reside, that means that approximately 0.0002% of the local populous is being served. Certainly, opportunity exists to develop this market significantly.  However, amongst many considerations that must be made in marketing and developing the CrossFit brand, quality is likely the most important. This factor is the one I’d assert would distinguish that affiliates that are “fads” or “trends” and those that will stand the test of time.

            So what makes a quality “box”?  For that, let’s turn to the “CrossFit Training Guide”, a collection of articles from the “Journal” which outline the things that any coach or box owner should strive to incorporate in to their affiliate.  Within these foundational musings, the questions of “What is health?” and “What is fitness?” are answered; a quality box should be one that supports, in a holistic fashion, the health and fitness of its athletes. How does a quality CrossFit affiliate accomplish this?  CrossFit affiliates provide a venue, methodology (prescription) and coaching for workouts. 

For years, exercise physiologists have shown that working out with others improves our performance. Josh Bunch of Practice CrossFit (Troy, Ohio) recently wrote an article extoling the benefits that athletes can obtain in working out at an affiliate as opposed to working out in a garage gym. Within this article, Bunch states “…beyond that, the one thing that most garage CrossFitters cannot duplicate on their own, and arguably the most important CrossFit ingredient, is intensity”.  If you ask any CrossFitter what keeps them going, their answer will almost certainly contain reference to the community. If it doesn’t, what is their box doing wrong?

Methodology is important. A quality box provides workouts that not only work its athlete’s strengths, but their weaknesses as well.  Simply writing a warm up, workout and afterWOD on the board and telling your athletes to do it is not enough.  A good coach is actively assessing each athlete’s strengths and weaknesses and incorporating that in to their programming. If you’re not considering this in your programming you are failing your athletes. In considering your athletes weaknesses ask yourself “If Greg Glassman walked in to my box today and asked my athletes to do a movement, what would the movement that I least would want him to ask them to do?” and work that movement.  A quality affiliate’s methodology does not stop there; In order to get athletes the results they desire, we must also provide the athletes with the nutritional information that allows them to choose the right profile that will support their training.  This holistic approach distinguishes CrossFit affiliates from its competition.

Lets face it, from a financial standpoint, the globogym competitors can provide a venue and often a foundational methodology at a much cheaper cost.  The reason athletes choose CrossFit is because they want results and results come from proper training and coaching.  I’ve spent plenty of time in other facilities prior to this, most of the globogym variety.  In my experience, even when I’ve sprung for a personal trainer to assist me with developing a routine, I’ve been disappointed.  I’ve often gotten some younger lady or gentleman who had more interest in texting with their friends to figure out what bar they were going to than actually telling me if I was completing the full range of motion on a movement, or was risking injury to myself.  As I mentioned previously, many of the articles critical of CrossFit that I came across criticized the exposure to injury.  As part of coaching, this is something we’ve been told again and again that we must take seriously.  While we should encourage our athletes to increase their work capacity, we must do this within the bounds of safety.  In my Level 1 Certification class, we were instructed that this concept relates back to the Mechanics, Consistency and Intensity Charter.  In every athlete, and in every situation, we should be considering: Can this athlete perform today the mechanics of the prescribed movement consistently? If our athlete can, we as coaches can and should encourage them to apply intensity to these movements; if they cannot, we must scale or meter the intensity to an appropriate level for the athlete.  This should not only be taken in to account when an athlete is new, but should be a consideration when an athlete has not trained in sometime or when we suspect an athlete may be overtraining.

            It is my assertion that this trifecta of venue, methodology and coaching is what makes a quality box.  We must remember that quality is not a destination.  Sending 10 athletes to regionals or the games is a great measure that we are serving our athletes, but we must not assume that means that we have no room for improvement.

            With CrossFit’s increase in popularity, the demand for CrossFit affiliates is through the roof and many athletes are jumping to attention and opening affiliates. That does not always mean that these affiliates will be able to deliver upon this trifecta; and if they can’t, they will undoubtedly fail.  Those affiliates that fail will play in to the “fad” or “trend” of CrossFit, whereas those affiliates that deliver upon this trifecta will undoubtedly stand the test of time.  CrossFit, when done as prescribed works; this is a fact that we have empirical evidence of from medical professionals, fitness professionals and athletes.

"fad." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 11 Aug. 2013. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fad>.

"trend." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 11 Aug. 2013. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/trend>.

“CrossFit Level 1 Training Guide.” CrossFit, Inc. 14 Aug. 2013 <Crossfit.com http://journal.crossfit.com/2010/05/crossfit-level-1-training-guide.tpl>.

“Garage or Affiliate” Josh Bunch, Practice Crossfit 14 Aug. 2013 <gopractice.biz

    http://gopractice.biz/2013/08/garage-or-affiliate/>