3 reasons why CrossFit is perfect for entrepreneurs

This post is about CrossFit and Entrepreneurship and reflects my views on why I think it is the best sport for entrepreneurs… and pretty much everyone else too.

First things first: CrossFit is defined as “constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity”. By now you are wondering: What exactly does that mean? Imagine yourself doing exercises using your own body weight, barbells and guided by a coach. You are basically putting your limits to test alongside 10–15 other people, usually for less than 1 hour.

With no further ado these are the reasons why I think CrossFit is perfect for entrepreneurs:

1. Push yourself beyond your imagination — Do you think you know what it means to push yourself? Crossfit invites you to think again. I thought I knew what it meant to push myself… that was before before I joined CrossFit. I had already practiced and experienced sports and training for more than 10 years including handball, swimming, tennis and, of course, the gym. I quickly found out I had never really pushed myself until my first workout. Its quite a challenge! Much like business and every day life. The parallel with Entrepreneurship quickly became evident to me as both are constantly varied and performed at high intensity.

2. Massive return on investment — Would you like to feel great,be in shape and healthy? I bet you do. But what if that could happen in exchange for just 1 hour of your day for about 3–4 times a week? Crossfit can help: providing a return that simply cannot be matched by any other type of training in 1 hour. 1 hour is about 4% of your day. If you start doing CrossFit it will become the most productive hour of your day. I call it the Power hour. Because it makes me more productive and energised.

3. Community&Family — My box cultivates and fosters a very supportive community. You can’t help to build bonds with the people you train with. Its also great for networking. I have personally met really cool people (Jami Tikkanen, Matt Connolly and Bruno Salgueiro). Your next hire could well be the person training next to you.

For me these are the top 3 reasons. I can assure you there are plenty more which include: finding comfort in being uncomfortable, building mental fortitude and toughness. Would you agree these 3 are important to you? Its probably hard to find any entrepreneur who disagrees with that. An Entrepreneur must take exceptionally good care of its business, right? A good way to ensure that happens is to look after oneself; Crossfit helps accomplish that. Ultimately and if you do it consistently you will find it is a journey on pursuit of excellence, in all fields of life.

Crossfit´s moto is about “Forging Elite Fitness” and if I had to come up with a moto for Entrepreneurship´s I believe it would be something like: Forging Elite Businesses. And make no mistake: Crossfit is a business. And a very strong one generating around $4 billion in annual revenue, according to Forbes. Here are 2 reasons which help demonstrate its merits as a business and why I believe its founder is a great entrepreneur.

1. Coach Greg Glassman founded Crossfit, Inc. back in 2000. And according to his interview on 60 Minutes, “In just 15 years, the king of CrossFit has created the largest gym chain in history and turned fitness into a spectator sport.” Coach Glassman has claimed it to be the “fastest growing company in the world” and goes further when stating: “There is about 4 Million of us”. There are around “12.000 workout boxes around the world”. And this was back in May 2015.

2. How does Crossfit make money? CrossFit, Inc. licenses the CrossFit name to gyms for an annual fee and certifies trainers. Forbes has estimated its annual profit to be around $100 million. Business has been booming so fast that Harvard has considered it a Case Study: “The company is private and estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of $ and Greg Glassman owns 100% of it. The bottom line: its impressive in terms of growth and engagement from its users as much as it is unprecedented in the way its reshaping the fitness industry”.

CrossFit is to fitness what Uber is to transportation: an overall better and more effective and innovative solution that is shaking and reshaping an industry which was stagnant and had stopped in time.