CrossFit
CrossFit is a branded fitness regimen that involves constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. The method was developed by Greg Glassman, who founded CrossFit with Lauren Jenai in 2000, with CrossFit as its registered trademark. The company forms what has been described as the biggest fitness chain in the world, with around 10,000 affiliated gyms in over 150 countries as of 2025, about 40% of which are located in the United States.
CrossFit is promoted as both a physical exercise philosophy and a competitive fitness sport, incorporating elements from high-intensity interval training, Olympic weightlifting, plyometrics, powerlifting, gymnastics, kettlebell lifting, calisthenics, strongman, and other exercises. CrossFit presents its training program as one that can best prepare its trainees for any physical contingency, preparing them for what may be "unknown" and "unknowable". It is practiced by members in CrossFit-affiliated gyms, and by individuals who complete daily workouts.
Studies indicate that CrossFit can have positive effects on a number of physical fitness parameters and body composition, as well as on the mental state and social life of its participants. CrossFit, however, has been criticized for causing more injuries than other sporting activities such as weightlifting; although a review article in the Journal of Sports Rehabilitation found that "the risk of injury from participation in CrossFit is comparable to or lower than some common forms of exercise or strength training". Its health benefits and injury rates are determined to be similar to other exercise programs. There are also concerns that its methodology may cause exertional rhabdomyolysis, a possible life-threatening condition also found in other sports, resulting from a breakdown of muscle from extreme exertion.
History
CrossFit, meaning cross-discipline fitness, was first conceived as a company in 1996 as Cross-Fit. Greg Glassman, a former gymnast, created his first CrossFit-style workout when he was 16 by combining elements of gymnastics with weightlifting. The workout he created was called Fran that added thrusters to pull-ups. Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai incorporated CrossFit, Inc. in 2000. They opened a gym in Santa Cruz, California, in 2001 and posted their workouts on the Internet for their clients, and these workouts were then quickly adopted by individuals in the police, military, firefighting services. Those who used Glassman's internet postings expressed an interest in officially incorporating his workouts into their training regimen, and the first affiliated gym, CrossFit North in Seattle, Washington, was then formed in 2002. Glassman began to develop a curriculum to train and certify coaches and gym owners using his methodology. Coaches associated with CrossFit include Louie Simmons, John Welbourn, and Bob Harper.The number of CrossFit-affiliated gyms grew quickly: there were 13 gyms in 2005, 8,000 in 2013, and more than 13,000 in 2016. By 2018, there were around 15,500 CrossFit gyms in 162 countries. Its membership worldwide has been estimated to between two and five million. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of around 20% of its gyms, and disaffiliations due to the Glassman controversy in 2020 further reduced the number of paid affiliations to 9,400 by early 2021. The number recovered to around 12,500 including non-paying affiliates by early 2022, with strong growth observed in Europe, The number of paying affiliates was around 11,400 by 2024, however, an increase in affiliate fees in 2024 and the controversy surrounding the death of an athlete at the 2024 Games resulted in a drop in the number of affiliates to around 9,900 by early 2025.
Glassman obtained complete control over the company in 2012 after a divorce with Jenai. Jenai had tried to sell her 50% share in the company to an investment firm after the divorce settlement, which Glassman blocked and bought her share after raising a $16 million loan from Summit Partners.
On June 24, 2020, following the outcry [|after Glassman's comments] regarding the murder of George Floyd it was announced that he was selling the company to Eric Roza, former CEO of Datalogix, in partnership with investment firm Berkshire Partners. Roza assumed the role of CEO after the conclusion of the sale in July. In late November, CrossFit announced a building lease for its Boulder headquarters. At the end of 2020, CrossFit became an LLC. Roza stood down as CEO of CrossFit in February 2022 and Don Faul took over in August 2022.
Overview
Methodology
CrossFit is a strength, conditioning, and overall fitness program consisting mainly of a mix of aerobic exercises, calisthenics, and weightlifting. CrossFit describes its strength and conditioning program as "constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity across broad time and modal domains", and it aims to improve the overall fitness of its participants by increasing their work capacity in these domains. CrossFit believes there are ten components or domains in physical fitness: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy.CrossFit proposes nutrition to be the foundation of fitness, and on this foundation metabolic conditioning can improve cardiovascular efficiency, gymnastics can build an athlete's spatial awareness and body control, while weightlifting and throwing allow for better control of external objects, so that a general physical preparedness required for any sport can be achieved. Crossfit focuses on functional movements, movements it considers natural and essential with real-life application. It advocates training with high intensity, believing that such training can achieve the desired result quicker, that increasing weights when lifting can help build strength, while Increasing the repetitions of movements can improve stamina and endurance. It also believes that physical training should be varied regularly to achieve a general level of fitness, rather than only excelling in any single activity.
WODs
The workout in CrossFit is referred to as WOD for "Workout of the Day". Every WOD may be a mix of movements from one or more of the three different modalities: monostructural/metabolic conditioning, weightlifting, and gymnastics. Examples of movements from gymnastics include: pull-up, muscle-up, box-jump, lunge, handstand push-up, and rope-climb; examples from cardio/metcon include: running, cycling, double under, and rowing; and examples from weightlifting include deadlifts, back squat, snatch, clean and jerk, thrusters, dumbbell push press, wall ball, and kettlebell swing. A WOD can have a number of movements, and each movement is typically performed with a certain number of repetitions; for example, a WOD called Fran has two movements: thrusters and pull-ups, and each of these are performed 21 times, followed by further rounds of 15 and 9 repetitions. The duration and content of the WOD is not fixed and varied daily. WODs are often given specific names and some are considered benchmark WODs, for example, "Fran", "Grace", and "Helen" from "The Girls" workouts, A WOD called "Murph" from the "Heroes" workouts has become more widely known and is performed outside of CrossFit.If the WOD is performed as written, it is referred to "Rx'd". However, the intensity, volume, or movements of the WOD can be adjusted to suit the fitness level, experience, ability, physical limitations or time constraints of the participants, and this is called "scaling". In scaling, the number of repetitions, length of time, and weights may be reduced, and movements may be modified to be easier to perform while maintaining the same intended stimulus using similar movement patterns. Scaling allows people of all ages and experience to participate in the workout.
Some movements are specific to CrossFit; for example, in order to perform certain movements such as pull-up faster, "kipping" that relies on the momentum of the kip to move faster may be employed, although its use for these purposes is considered controversial to non-practitioners of CrossFit.
Gym classes
CrossFit-affiliated gyms, or "boxes", have considerable freedom in how their classes are organized, therefore there can be significant differences in their classes. In general, classes usually last an hour, and they typically include a warm-up, a WOD of 10–30 minutes, and a cool-down/stretching/recovery session. Some gyms also have a strength-focused movement prior to the WOD, or a skill development segment. CrossFit, however, encourages most athletes to prioritize intensity over supplemental strength training or additional programming. Performance on each WOD may be scored and/or ranked to encourage competition and to track individual progress. Some affiliates offer additional classes, such as Olympic weightlifting, that are not centered on a WOD. Many offer on-ramp or introductory courses for beginners to teach the fundamental movements of CrossFit. Some affiliates may also offer diet advice to their members following CrossFit's nutrition recommendations, adopting paleo, keto and/or zone diets, or counting macros.CrossFit gyms use equipment from multiple disciplines, including barbells, dumbbells, gymnastics rings, rope climbs, pull-up bars, jump ropes, kettlebells, medicine balls, plyo boxes, resistance bands, rowing machines, exercise bikes, SkiErg, and various mats. CrossFit is focused on "constantly varied high-intensity functional movement", drawing on categories and exercises such as calisthenics, Olympic-style weightlifting, powerlifting, strongman-type events, plyometrics, bodyweight exercises, indoor rowing, aerobic exercise, running, and swimming.
CrossFit has released a daily WOD for use by the general public since 2001. It also offers CrossFit Affiliate Programming that gives detailed class plan such as warm-up, workout, scaling options and other resources to its affiliated gyms since 2021. Individuals and affiliated gyms may also create their own programming based on CrossFit's general methodology, or programming from independent companies.
A 2014 statistical analysis showed that 50% of CrossFit participants were male and 50% were female.