
CrossFit’s lucrative and simple business plan - doppp
http://qz.com/461063/crossfits-extremely-lucrative-business-plan-is-also-deceptively-simple/
======
timonv
Competetive olympic weightlifter here. Crossfit still gets a lot of hate, as
comments below show. That's undeserved. They create a lot of attention for
barbell training where there previously was none. That's fantastic. More
places for me to train, suddenly people understand you why its fun and there's
a whole market opening up of quality and affordable gear (iron too) that
previously wasn't even an option. There's crossfit boxes organizing WL
competitions with actual WL rules because they think its cooler. There's even
crossfit boxes with strongman and powerlifting equipment. Crossfit pulled
strength training out of its niche and is starting to overule the rediculous,
overcommercial rotten fitness industry as it is now. It's a new fitness
concept _with actual results_.

The main problem, as I see it, is that it's near trivial to get a Coach Level
1 certificate (my mom could do it). This results in a lot of bad coaching,
resulting in bad form, resulting in unneeded injuries. You could argue that an
easy certificate makes it easier to open up a box. Interesting trade off.

There are plenty of crossfit boxes, although I do not know if this is a
majority, that hire real weightlifting coaches.

I can't help but think that much of the hate crossfit gets is just some form
of resentment. Barbell training used to be unique, now it's getting more
popular, and people feel attacked on a personal level.

All that said, good coaching, especially with big weights, is very important.
It's a shame not every crossfit box owner thinks that way. Some of the
injuries are bad. [https://medium.com/@ericrobertson/crossfits-dirty-little-
sec...](https://medium.com/@ericrobertson/crossfits-dirty-little-
secret-97bcce70356d)

~~~
Thriptic
> They create a lot of attention for barbell training where there previously
> was none.

This. As a powerlifter I used to hate everything about crossfit, but now I
realize it's a great way to get people away from pseudo body building and into
the rack / onto the platform. I think a lot of people find technical lifts
like the squat or clean to be very intimidating, but crossfit helps people get
over this fear in a group environment. Once this has been accomplished and
someone gets comfortable, it's fairly easy to steer them towards olympic
lifting or powerlifting.

> More places for me to train, suddenly people understand you why its fun

It's so nice to now be able to travel and not have to worry about being stuck
in some crappy commercial gym where people yell at you for using chalk and
making noise while deadlifting.

~~~
xeromal
That is exactly what happened to me. I was an avid runner who joined a friend
in Crossfit. Ended up loving squats and got into powerlifting. I now workout
at an old 1000 year old powerlifting gym, but I never would be here without
crossfit.

------
kejaed
As others have said, the best thing CrossFit has done is introduce people to
the barbell, and more importantly, Mark Rippetoe. Rip was the barbell SME for
CrossFit in the early years and while they parted ways, a lot of CrossFitters
still find Rip when they want to get more serious about training strength.

He has literally written the textbook [1] on the 5 basic lifts giving a
complete anotomical and mechanical breakdown of each that I think the HN crowd
would appreciate, which at $10 for the kindle version is worth it at 10x the
price. His website [2] and YouTube channel also provide a large amount of free
resources for anyone interested in learning about barbell lifting.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006XJR5ZA](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006XJR5ZA)

[2] [http://startingstrength.com/](http://startingstrength.com/)

~~~
shiny
Rippetoe is all about gaining weight and putting on muscle. Probably not
practical for most people. I'd also be hesitant to teach yourself both how to
deadlift and squat - I hurt myself doing both after reading Rippetoe, despite
the detailed instructions.

Also, according to Nick Curson (coach of UFC Champion Rafael Dos Anjos) on the
Joe Rogan podcast, heavy slow weight lifting is counterproductive for most
sports [1] [2]

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmYFlvKloE&t=26m18s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmYFlvKloE&t=26m18s)

[2]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmYFlvKloE&t=43m23s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmYFlvKloE&t=43m23s)

~~~
kejaed
Rippetoe is all about being strong, because being strong is better than being
weak. For the average dude starting to lift, that will likely involve gaining
weight and adding muscle. This is, however, not the be all and end all of what
he is talking about.

Please take a look at Gus, a woman in her 90s who has recently started to
train at Rip's gym and has improved her quality of life such that she no
longer requires her walker.

[http://youtu.be/3585w9FmOGs](http://youtu.be/3585w9FmOGs)

It's hard to hurt yourself if you truly read the book, because if you start
with an empty bar and only add small amounts of weight using the proper form
(as the book instructs) it's tough to hurt yourself.

If anyone needs some help with barbell form you can drop into the forums where
coaches will gladly review a video for you, or if necessary find someone to
help you in person.

And before I fall down the rabbit hole of repeating Rip's gospel word for
word, what a coach says they do for an elite athlete has little bearing on the
general population. Elite athelets are genetic freaks that could be trained in
many ways and still achieve their results.

Lifting heavy is not going to slow you down or make you big, it's going to get
you strong. Training for strength and practicing your sport of choice will
just make you a stronger version of your previous self. If you train and eat
like a power lifter you are not going to be able to maintain your 3:30
marathon time, but if you add in properly programmed strength training for the
goals you are looking to achieve, it is petty hard to argue that being
stronger is worse than being weaker all other things being equal.

~~~
ectoplasm
> Rippetoe is all about being strong, because being strong is better than
> being weak.

Then again, too much strength competes with balance and flexibility.

~~~
JupiterMoon
Citation needed here.

~~~
kejaed
I don't get the down votes. If you have several hundred pounds on the bar, you
are by definition in balance.

If you can move through the full range of motion of the movement you are
flexible enough.

Being able to squat above your body weight is going to make you a more useful
human being than putting your leg behind your head.

~~~
ectoplasm
Hey, don't worry about down votes, it's only internet points.

I don't think strength is bad, but: you only have so many training hours and
you might want to spend some of them on balance or flexibility instead.
Further, it's possible to have such a volume of muscle that you cannot achieve
certain positions (e.g. trying to touch your elbows together leaves an 8 inch
gap). And it's also possible for your muscles to weigh so much that you can't
move as gracefully because equilibrium is harder to maintain. That's all I
meant. Ask any dancer, yogi, acrobat, gymnast, skier, martial artist, figure
skater, etc. Any discipline where you need strength, balance, and flexibility
in approximately equal measure, it's possible to overtrain or undertrain any
one of them.

------
sschueller
Cross-fit and its boxes is doing a lot of damage to the reputation of
traditional bar bell training by emphasizing weight and reps over form and
technique.

Many people are getting insured and have long term damage because of poor form
and techniques taught by Cross-fit. Even if this is done by box owners it is
up to cross-fit to manage their brand and not certify coaches that aren't
ready.

If you want to get in shape, spend the time an learn the proper techniques.
There are no short cuts, it takes years and you need to listen to your body.
Don't power through pain or it will catch up with you later.

~~~
jacques_chester
> _the reputation of traditional bar bell training_

There _was_ no reputation. Almost nobody knew what weightlifting was.

~~~
oldmanjay
Is this a serious common modern belief? Weightlifting was exceedingly popular
in my youth, which by millenial scale was ancient history but in actual real
terms was in living memory.

~~~
jacques_chester
When I started in 2007 there were perhaps three dozen registered weightlifters
in Western Australia (where I lived at the time).

There are now hundreds.

As a sport it's undergoing a second renaissance in the anglosphere. There's no
other obvious cause apart from millions of crossfitters taking it up.

~~~
dalke
The account name "oldmanjay" suggests to me that the "exceedingly popular in
my youth" refers to the first "renaissance in the anglosphere".

That is,
[http://www.awf.com.au/history/HallOfFame.aspx](http://www.awf.com.au/history/HallOfFame.aspx)
says that the 1970s were "“the golden years” of the sport" in Australia, and
there are many here who were youths in the 1970s.

So when you write "Almost nobody knew what weightlifting was", what population
were you considering? If it's predominately those in their 20s ("millenial
scale") then you should consider oldmanjay's comment as suggesting there's a
bias error in your 'almost nobody.'

While it's not all that indicative, Google ngrams gives an interesting
comparison between the use of 'weighlifting' in "British English" at
[https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=weightlifting&...](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=weightlifting&year_start=1920&year_end=2000&corpus=18&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cweightlifting%3B%2Cc0)
vs "American English" at
[https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=weightlifting&...](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=weightlifting&year_start=1920&year_end=2000&corpus=17&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cweightlifting%3B%2Cc0)
.

There's a clear drop in British English during the 1980s, which is what I
would expect from your first/second renaissance description, but it doesn't
exist in the US English chart. So another possibility is that oldmanjay comes
from the US.

Also, in attempting to verify your statement concerning the "perhaps three
dozen registered weightlifters in WA" I found the 2007 AWF report at
[http://www.awf.com.au/governance/docs/Annual%20Report%202007...](http://www.awf.com.au/governance/docs/Annual%20Report%202007%20with%20Finance%20Report.pdf)
.

Under "Number of Lifters in the Top 10 Male Rankings by State" are 58 from
Western Australia, and under "Number of Lifters in the Top 10 Female Rankings
by State" are 39 from Western Australia. This sounds like there were easily
more than three dozen registered weightlifters in WA. I didn't carefully check
to see if there were duplicate names, but a spot examination shows few
overlaps. And in any case, these are only the top 10 winners.

How do you know there were "perhaps three dozen registered weightlifters in
Western Australia" when the limited evidence I can find suggests there were
more than that?

~~~
jacques_chester
> _there are many here who were youths in the 1970s._

The 70s are definitely before my time.

Going on what I read from those who were adults in the 70s, it seems like the
golden era for the anglosphere was the 50s and 60s. By the 1970s the Russians
dominated the sport.

> _This sounds like there were easily more than three dozen registered
> weightlifters in WA._

There's a capitation table. 77 registered lifters (~six dozen, I was off by
2x) in the whole of WA in 2007. In 2008 it fell to 68. I can't find more
recent numbers, they seem to have stopped publishing the capitation table.

For what it's worth, I competed for five years, during which Crossfit exploded
in popularity. They have been a massive shot in the arm for strength sports.
It used to be that I'd say I was a weightlifter and people would ask me for
tips on bicep curls. Now I have a chance that someone will ask me about my
competition total.

~~~
dalke
Thanks for the explanation of the PDF. I've never heard of the term
'capitation table'.

That still leaves the possibility that there's a difference between
US/Commonwealth practices, that is, that you use 'anglosphere' where perhaps
'Commonwealth' is a more appropriate term?

For another US data point, the gym I went to in ~2005 had a stronger emphasis
on weight lifting.
[http://www.carlandsandras.com/](http://www.carlandsandras.com/) . It's "Under
the direction of Carl Miller, former United States National, Olympic, and
World Weightlifting Coach", and one of the men in the first salsa class I went
to, back in around 2000, was an amateur weightlifter.

Which means that I, like oldmanjay, find it hard to accept that 'Almost nobody
knew what weightlifting was' before 2007.

~~~
jacques_chester
Looks like we just had different experiences.

~~~
dalke
Well, yes. (I thought were were discussing possible sources of those
differences, rather than leaving it with a "just", but I also recognize that
at this point it's the sort of pointless research that easily distracts me.)

~~~
jacques_chester
No worries! Saturday is definitely the best day to discover that I left nits
unpicked.

------
shpx
Special training, community, certifications and needing a physical location
are all part of a very inelegant solution to a straight forward problem. The
whole thing (imo) is ridiculous racket.

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2oknZg-
EI8xZFVkemhWMWlkVDg...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2oknZg-
EI8xZFVkemhWMWlkVDg/edit) along with a playground (or a pull up bar and rings)
has been all I've ever needed.

~~~
copsarebastards
That's great for you, but let's be clear here: bodyweight training isn't going
to get you results as quickly as barbell training. I say this with no
malevolence: I do bodyweight training all the time. Bodyweight training is
perfect maintenance exercise when you're already in good shape because you can
do it anywhere with minimal equipment. But if you aren't in good shape, it's
going to take years to get the results from body weight training that you'd
get from barbell training in months.

Barbell training does require a physical location for obvious reasons. And
community might not be helpful for HN introverts, but most people are
extroverts.

Certifications are also a good idea for safety reasons: improper lifting is
dangerous. However, this is an area where Crossfit is plenty open to
criticism: I'm not sure what goes into getting a Crossfit certification, but
whatever it is it's just wrong.

------
smegel
CrossFit equipment tends to get wear and tear much faster than a regular gym.

I remember my box owners face wince with pain every time someone "dumped"
(dropped from height) a nice Olympic weightlifting bar to the ground. Those
things have moving parts and are expensive!

~~~
noelwelsh
Didn't read the whole article (too many clickthroughs) but I'm fairly familiar
with the Crossfit model.

The problem with any gym is scaling. You have limited floorspace = limited
number of members = limited revenue. To scale out it seems you need to open
more gyms, with high fixed cost for each new location---that is, high marginal
cost. This is the model most gym chains have taken.

The genius of the Crossfit business model is it scales without incurring high
marginal cost. It does this by using an affiliate model. Affiliates pay a fee
to be able to display the Crossfit branch and take on the risk and overhead of
the new location. This is basically what fast-food franchises do, and similar
to what companies like Uber are doing to achieve scale.

Now it is probably quite difficult to make good money as a Crossfit affiliate,
for all the reasons that gyms have difficulty scaling, but Crossfit HQ doesn't
have to care about that. There are always more young hopefuls to start a new
"box".

(O bars are designed to be dropped. I doubt that is a major issue.)

~~~
thaumasiotes
I don't understand how franchising is supposed to solve the problem of
"serving more customers means having to rent (or buy) more land". The
franchisee still needs just as much land to serve his customers; the fee you
can charge him has to take that into account. How does this make scaling any
cheaper?

~~~
girvo
It doesn't. It just makes it not your problem, that's all.

~~~
chii
so the franchise model is basically just another name for outsourcing your
marketing?

~~~
thaumasiotes
I thought the point of the franchise model was that your franchisees, instead
of you, keep any _surplus_ money that they generate, giving them much stronger
incentives to succeed under your brand. Compare:

1\. Local outpost of a chain store that doesn't franchise. The manager, like
everyone under him, is paid a salary, and whatever money is left over after
paying the store expenses goes back to corporate. This model is illustrated by
a scene from _The Sopranos_ (here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz0uEzRSWXw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz0uEzRSWXw)
) in which the manager of a Starbucks has to break it to the mafia that he
can't pay protection money because he doesn't have any discretionary funding.

2\. Local franchise. The owner has no salary. Instead, he keeps whatever money
is left over after paying the store expenses. This is likely to have several
different benefits: the owner may feel like putting in extra time at his
store. If the janitor has an emergency, maybe the McDonald's owner will clean
the bathrooms himself. Similarly, the owner may take a different view toward
cashiers dipping into the till than a salaried manager would. And the owner's
pricing decisions are much more informed, and therefore more likely to be
correct, than the pricing decisions corporate would make.

So with the distinction I describe, scaling your brand as a franchise rather
than a chain boils down to one difference: in a chain your store operators are
salaried and you keep all the extra money, whereas in a franchise _you_ are
salaried and your store operators keep the extra money (you might take a
percentage, or a flat fee up front, or some combination. I don't know). Paying
your store operators that much more under the franchise model means you can
expect them to do more difficult and demanding work. It's not all about
marketing.

