Why I’m dumping CrossFit

It all started with a Zoom call.

But first, a little about me. My name is Mike Young. I’m a sport scientist, educator, and performance coach. I own a sport performance and fitness business named Athletic Lab and I have worked or consulted for several of the top professional teams around the world. I have also owned a CrossFit affiliate for 10 years. I have a vested interest in seeing the brand and organization of CrossFit succeeding. This is why it was a difficult decision to disassociate from the organization. I will not plan to renew our affiliate license. This decision will almost certainly come at a cost to my business but I no longer wish to associate with a company and CEO who are tone deaf and insensitive to our current national crises and so willing to inflame racial divisions.

I started my business 11 years ago with the objective of offering a ‘game changing and life changing’ training experience for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. When we first opened, I ran a class that I called “Performance Fitness.” Many members suggested it was similar enough to CrossFit that we should just become a CrossFit affiliate and officially call it CrossFit to benefit from the association and added exposure. I knew what CrossFit was and I had even done it myself a couple times as far back as 2002. A couple months later, I earned my CrossFit Level 1 certification, opened a CrossFit affiliate within Athletic Lab, and the class formerly known as Performance Fitness morphed into our version of the global phenomenon known as CrossFit.

Many of my peers working in high performance sport hate CrossFit. They’re surprised that I would own a CrossFit. The most common complaints are injuries due to dumb programming and exercise selection. While there’s some truth to this, I never saw the issue as that black or white.

We’ve been a CrossFit affiliate for about 10 years. We have among the most educated and credentialed coaching staffs in the country and many of them carry CrossFit certifications. I’ve done my fair share of CrossFit WODs over the years and I’ve enjoyed watching the CrossFit Games and marveling at what the top competitors can do.

I point all this out because unlike many of my peers in strength and conditioning, I’m not a CrossFit hater. In fact, I’ve always seen CrossFit as a welcome fitness option for a country that has an increasing fitness and health crisis. I think we need MORE fitness outlets rather than less. I think CrossFit brought functional fitness to the masses and that is a GREAT thing. In addition, the business model of CrossFit allowed me the freedom to offer a safe and effective version in which I could eliminate the aforementioned dumb stuff. Most importantly, it brought millions of people into the world of fitness who had never trained before.

So, when I was invited to a Zoom call yesterday with Greg Glassman, the founder and CEO of CrossFit, I jumped at the chance. I squeezed the meeting into a busy Saturday for the opportunity to ‘meet’ a guy that had started what has been called the biggest fitness movement ever. It’s not every day that you get to chat with the CEO of a major company who had made such an impact on an industry.

I’ve known of Greg Glassman for a long time. He’s clearly smart and charismatic. He’s also well known for being brusk and blunt. While this is quite a bit different to myself, it never bothered me that much because I had the freedom to run my affiliate how I wanted. Also, I thought this Zoom call was to talk about the state of CrossFit ‘boxes’ during the global pandemic and a chance to speak to a guy who is by any regard a game changer.

While the call started out being about gym closures, it quickly went off track. There were about 15 people on the Zoom call. I knew a couple of names from the CrossFit HQ staff, but the others were just like me….affiliate owners from around the country. The first 30 minutes or so involved some blustery talk from Glassman about COVID-19 and how it originated from a lab in China, how New York had botched their response, how businesses should’ve never been forced closed, etc. I had half expected this, so it wasn’t at all alarming. Most of what was said was a matter of his opinion, bordering on conspiracy theory rather than full out conspiracy or misinformation. Then, there was a rant about how science and the entire peer review process as most people know it is worthless. Even as a published researcher, this still didn’t really offend me or catch me off guard as I’d listened to him speak similarly in the past and he makes some valid points.

However, when an affiliate owner from Minneapolis was given the chance to speak, the call took a turn. She asked Glassman to speak about CrossFit’s stance on the current racial tensions in the country and the Black Lives Matter movement. CrossFit had been notably silent on the topic. Greg’s opening response was, “I do not mourn George Floyd.” He actually repeated that exact line several times. He also denied any notion that racism might exist in some police forces and he seemed to downplay racism at all. The discussion got increasingly contentious. Greg was self-righteous and confident. The affiliate owner from Minneapolis was well-spoken and defended herself well. Apparently, her facility was mere blocks from where Floyd was killed and her community was still reeling.

I sat watching, amazed at what was being said. Even though this was a private Zoom meeting, the things Glassman was saying were among the most inappropriate statements a CEO of a multi-national, multi-million dollar company could possibly say in a time of national unrest over racial injustice. While Glassman was not outright racist (in so much as he did not use the “N” word or say that Floyd deserved to die), the most gracious description I can give is that he was tone deaf, insensitive, and in denial. Out of an abundance of caution I have chosen not to repeat everything Glassman said for fear of even slightly misrepresenting a company that is known to be litigious. That said, I am certain my retelling is a very cautious and conservative report of the inappropriateness of Glassman’s position. I know that the call was being recorded by CrossFit HQ, so if they feel I am misrepresenting their position, I would encourage them to share the unedited recording publicly. Similarly, I know that there were at least several others on the call who were uncomfortable and can verify my account.

I ended up having to leave the Zoom call for another meeting, so I’m not exactly sure how the conversation concluded. I had hoped that Glassman would have at least conceded that institutional racism does exist and that there are people who are hurting right now. But just hours after the call ended, Greg posted something on his twitter feed that at best, is inappropriate and inflammatory. I also found this email from Glassman to another affiliate owner about the Black Lives Matter movement that was incredibly unprofessional and insensitive. While I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt after the call, he actually seemed to be doubling down on the things he was saying privately.

Just to be clear, I am not a snowflake. I don’t get offended easily. I’m quite irreverent myself. I’m very open to political debate. I never take myself too seriously. I am a HUGE supporter of police officers and know that 99+% are great people who do the right thing. My town is regularly recognized as one of the safest in America and our police force is almost wholly responsible for that. I helped write the physical training police manual for our state and both educated and trained my town’s SWAT equivalent force — many of whom I call friends. I have personally never met a bad cop. I do not in any way support looting or violent protest. I do think all lives matter. The only reason I bring these points up is to counter those who might use them as a means of discrediting me through counterarguments and distractions.

But I’m also a remixed version of Tiger Woods who looks mostly white. I grew up in a low-income, majority black neighborhood just a couple blocks from public housing. I’ve heard stories of profiling and brutality long before it became a thing in white consciousness. My family and friends look like a microcosm of the world’s population. I’ve covertly heard racist remarks my whole life from people of all ethnicities who didn’t know my ‘hidden’ racial identity. They assumed that because I ‘look white’ or I was ‘white enough’ and I am well educated that they knew ‘what I am.’ I bring this up because it provides context when I say I’m not easily offended and makes my reaction to the call all the more powerful.

I’ve always said that in the business world, you vote with your wallet. I’m well known amongst my friends for not supporting companies who lack corporate or social responsibility. So for this reason, I will not be renewing our affiliate. If being silent against injustice is the same as being complicit, financially supporting it might as well be a full blown endorsement. While I will continue to believe in the CrossFit method as an effective means for general fitness, I cannot continue to support an individual or an organization that is so brazenly insensitive and inflammatory at a time of such national crises.