5 Reasons Entrepreneurs are Turning to CrossFit in Droves

by Jerry Lamigo

There has been a perfect storm brewing for quite some time now for aspiring and seasoned business owners, it’s called CrossFit. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you will in the near future. CrossFit is a fitness methodology created by former gymnast and coach Greg Glassman of CrossFit, Inc. in his small gym in Santa Cruz, California in 1995. From humble beginnings of a small business, it’s grown to a massive movement of functional fitness now with over 11,000 affiliated gyms worldwide.

 

 

Are You “Fit”? Fitness Defined

Remember Tae Bo, Aerobics, and You may be asking yourself, what makes CrossFit so different compared to other fitness “fads”, of the past? One differentiating factor is that Glassman is the first to define what “fitness” is and what it means to be “fit”. Is an Olympic-level long distance runner more fit than a sprinter? How about a bodybuilder? Triathletes are definitely fit right?? The point is, before CrossFit there was no real definition of what fitness was

In 2002, Glassman wrote the article “What is Fitness?” (http://bit.ly/1Ygjko2) and redefined fitness for the first time in measurable and meaningful terms. This created a ripple in the health and fitness industry and caused people to rethink their own fitness. Industry professionals from athletes, coaches, sports organizations and universities have shifted because of this movement towards fitness being more functional. In other words, fitness that can be used in your daily life. This was never the case before CrossFit.

Reason #1: CrossFitters Have Money

People who can afford a CrossFit membership, which ranges anywhere from $150 to upwards of $300 per month, can obviously afford gear, accessories, apparel,supplements and other types of products that basically support their love for the sport. They are actually less price sensitive than say people in other types of sports like say, MMA because that audience is usually educated with a college degree and typically working professionals between 25 to 35 years old. They’re young men and women that are in the workforce making money to support their fitness lifestyle.

Reason #2: People who CrossFit Are Extremely Passionate About Their Sport

People people join a CrossFit gym, they end up being part of circle of influence who work hard together, they conquer challenges together, they sweat and hit PR’s (Personal Records) together, and support each other when they fail or don’t necessarily reach their goals. So they’re passionate, they love the sport, they are enthusiastic about the sport, and it shows in the amount of people who are so active in hashtagging CrossFit in various social media channels.

For example, as of this post, if you search #CrossFit in Instagram you’ll see over 13.5 million posts. If you search #basketball, you have 10.4 million results. If you search on Google Trends, you’ll see the amount of people searching for CrossFit and CrossFit related things has risen incredibly in the past 6 years. This leads into reason #3…

Reason #3: CrossFit Has Seen Tremendous Growth

 

Right now there’s over 11,000 CrossFit affiliated gyms in the world. This all began in 1995 from a single garage gym in Santa Cruz, California. In 2012 there were just 6,000 CrossFit Affiliate gyms. The popularity of the sport of fitness,”Sport of fitness” has grown like wildfire and it shows in the amount of people that talk about CrossFit after seeing the CrossFit Games on ESPN. And they see what people are able to do with their bodies and are able to do incredible physical things, they are inspired by it.

Reason #4: CrossFit is Socially & Community Driven

Tying this back to Reason #2 (CrossFitters are extremely passionate about their sport), once someone gets into CrossFit, they become part of a socially dynamic community. This community of people who live a fitness lifestyle that is generally centered around regular workouts and eating relatively healthy (ie. Paleo style diet). They are surrounded and supported by people who do the same.

This is very different from the typical gym models of 24 Hour Fitness, Lifetime Fitness or LA Fitness. When you go to a CrossFit gym, you become part of a tribe. People who go to the same Cross Fit gym know each other’s names, they go through the same workouts together and they talk about it amongst their friends. They have their own shared lingo and they talk about how they did on their WOD, which stands for Workout Of the Day. They do workouts with names like “Fran”, “Cindy”, and “Murph”.

Reason #5: CrossFit Has Changed the Way People View Fitness

As I mentioned, “fitness” wasn’t clearly defined until Greg Glassman invented CrossFit. It  revolutionized the way many people now think of fitness. It’s different than other fitness fads and movements that caught fire and faded away because it’s done something unique. You can see evidence of this it in the way big box gyms like 24 Hour Fitness have started group functional fitness classes called Ignite. Equinox is now offering “Cross Fusion” as their own version of  functional fitness group classes. People are now asking those gyms “What is this CrossFit thing?”. People that are interested in CrossFit, but can’t necessarily afford it, go to the bigger box gyms and try to get a taste of CrossFit there.

So these are the five reasons that entrepreneurs are attracted to CrossFit. People in the CrossFit community spend a lot of money on their sport. CrossFit gym membership is not cheap and CrossFitters have the ability to pay the premium price. Individuals who CrossFit are passionate about their sport. They take CrossFitting home with them by eating healthier and changing their lifestyle to support CrossFitting. Functional Fitness is a growing movement that is  growing. More and more people are Googling it and learning about CrossFit. It’s not only an exercise program it is a community based lifestyle. You not only improve your body, but you do it with other like-minded people. CrossFit has revolutionized the way people look at the health and fitness industry, that is why entrepreneurs are attracted to CrossFit.