New CEO at Crossfit. What's been going on?

stockshares

Apparently there have been problems at Crossfit and they have a new CEO.

Anyone know what happened?

Edit:
Found this
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/0610/1146507-crossfit-ceo-resigns/

atilladehun

There was a lot going on in the world at the time.

If felt bad for the thousands of small business owners around the world that he let down during a very though time.

Mars Bar

He tweeted some very insensitive things regarding the virus and George Floyd's murder. He showed his true colours and lots of people didn't like it and rightfully so.

Black Sheep

Andy Stumpf's "Cleared hot" podcast had an episode around the time of this that shed a lot of light on this whole thing for me. Stumpf worked at CrossFit HQ with Glassman for years, and he laid his cards on the table as to what he saw. Very interesting listening.

cloudatlas

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/20/style/greg-glassman-crossfit-sexism.html

NYT article.

edjkdkjdhjkd

Mars Bar wrote: »

He tweeted some very insensitive things regarding the virus and George Floyd's murder. He showed his true colours and lots of people didn't like it and rightfully so.

You mean he has shown he thinks logically and is not a sedated sheep who blind-fully believes what the Government/RTE say.


It's kind of hilarious that the Government and media have to try convince the general how "lethal " this pandemic is.

Black Sheep

cloudatlas wrote: »

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/20/style/greg-glassman-crossfit-sexism.html

NYT article.

Article is from June, before Glassman sold up and Eric Roza came in as the new CEO, that's probably worth mentioning.

I also can't help but feel slightly irked that the journalist has obviously based her story on listening to multiple podcasts, including Stumpf's, then quotes liberally from them, calling them 'interviews', but somewhat disingenuously not mentioning that they weren't interviews with her or the NYT (As far as I can tell, anyway).

Cill94

Black Sheep wrote: »

Article is from June, before Glassman sold up and Eric Roza came in as the new CEO, that's probably worth mentioning.

I also can't help but feel slightly irked that the journalist has obviously based her story on listening to multiple podcasts, including Stumpf's, then quotes liberally from them, calling them 'interviews', but somewhat disingenuously not mentioning that they weren't interviews with her or the NYT (As far as I can tell, anyway).

Welcome to journalism in 2020.

He is a prat though.

silverharp

If you have infinite time to listen podcasts, I remember finding this one interesting , it was with John Welbourn who was an NFL player who went on to work with Crossfit

https://humanperformanceoutliers.libsyn.com/episode-201-john-welbourn-10-year-nfl-veteran

Cill94

silverharp wrote: »

If you have infinite time to listen podcasts, I remember finding this one interesting , it was with John Welbourn who was an NFL player who went on to work with Crossfit

https://humanperformanceoutliers.libsyn.com/episode-201-john-welbourn-10-year-nfl-veteran

You can really feel the contempt for Glassman in his voice. Seems like most reputable coaches who've worked with them report similar things. HQ just can't admit that what they're selling is glorified circuit training. Instead they want to pretend it's strength and conditioning. Not much different to F45 or any group exercise class really.

Black Sheep

Yeah, it's not strength and conditioning for sports alright ... I always thought it made more sense for them to either say that it was GPP or else (as seems more common now) to say it's a sport in its own right. I don't actually think "the sport of fitness" was that unreasonable a tag for it, don't know if they still use that.

CrossFit was a different beast when it came along. I mean compared to what else was out there but also compared to what it is today. Would F45 and similar exist without CrossFit, or any of a thousand other hobbyist lifting type businesses / training approaches... I'm not sure.

Of course it was possible to do circuit training at a variety of other places, but in the early noughties there was no one else taking ordinary gym goers and introducing them to Olympic lifting, calisthenics, powerlifting movements, gymnastics and putting it all together. And actually trying to get them to do it technically correct, and with the equipment involved improving every year. There might have been a tiny minority of places who say they were doing it before CrossFit or at the same time, but I really think the credit has to go to Glassman and co. for blowing the doors off.

I remember watching Rippetoe videos on the squat, videos on correct push-up form, reading Glassman's manifesto for what a garage gym should include... That's not even getting into the diet stuff.. Popularising paleo, the zone etc. They really did get so much stuff out there, the good tends to get forgotten among all the controversies.

There were fitness classes around where you'd come in and put on a bib and leave in a pile of sweat after doing your sprints, push-ups and so on, but also none of them had what CrossFit had in terms of the use of online blogs and building community using that daily WOD. Half the craic was seeing the scores come in for the workouts, and the banter.

I stopped CrossFit before it developed into the monster it is today, but actually I'm pretty nostalgic for the early days. They got a lot right during the late 90s. Even the programming was a lot saner. A more limited repertoire of options, and not the crushing volume and intensity that seems the norm today. I always said if I were going to open a box (I had a few CF certifications in the noughties...) I would have called it CrossFit Year One or CrossFit Origin Story or something... And gone back to the 90s stuff.

Cill94

Black Sheep wrote: »

.

There are some great CrossFit gyms, but I think the issue is that a pretty big chasm has begun to develop between what the athletes and coaches do, and what HQ preaches. Most of the good gyms I see are really just using the CF brand awareness to get people in the door. The training itself doesn't resemble anything Dave Castro would cook up.

For sure, they did a lot to revive interest in barbell training and strength sports, so it's definitely not all bad. I think they've served their purpose and now a lot of their 'community' are migrating away from the company.

Black Sheep

Of course...

CrossFit programming is massively diverse, and probably has been for 15+ years. Most of it is poor though, IMO. Boxes offer clients all kinds of thing like community and nice fit-outs, but almost all of them come up short in the one thing that most people actually require a coach for.

As the community got bigger and bigger a problem became obvious whereby a lot of box owners had (and still have) little to no understanding of programming. You had people who never worked in the fitness industry and had no athletic backgrounds of any note doing a Level 1 and opening a CF box within a matter of months. There was a whole generation of CF coaches who never learned how to program at all, and still don't know how, and filled that gap with endless add-ons like doing mobility work or gymnastics progressions, anything to keep clients focused elsewhere.

I regret that simultaneous to the above, the Mainsite program also became rubbish. Suboptimal for competitors, but still hard enough that it was masochistic and counterproductive for most CFers.

The CrossFit business model everyone knows today bears little resemblance to the garage-focused approach of the early years, the latter was cheaper, better programmed and more fun.

Cill94

Black Sheep wrote: »

Yeah well said. Although the issue with poor coaching quality you outlined is the same across the fitness industry, not just crossfit. I think they just got a worse rap for it because of how popular it got. I’ve personally seen the worst and most dangerous coaching by far in regular gyms.

Mellor

Black Sheep wrote: »

I regret that simultaneous to the above, the Mainsite program also became rubbish. Suboptimal for competitors, but still hard enough that it was masochistic and counterproductive for most CFers.

The CrossFit business model everyone knows today bears little resemblance to the garage-focused approach of the early years, the latter was cheaper, better programmed and more fun.

I think this briefly sums up the issues with CF.
The CF method (“constantly varied, high-intensity functional movement") was held up by Glassman and HQ as being superior to other training. They pointed to the likes of Froning and Fraser as the fittest men on earth as evidence of the effectiveness of the CF method - except that those guys likely follow a training program that resembles nothing like CF programming.

HQ also pushed the idea of every box in the world following the same daily WODs. Which in itself has issues even perfectly programming, as different people will be at different stages all the time. But the stuff HW pushed out was a joke. Smart coaches ignore it, but the fact the suggested programming exists is a huge contributor to people with no experience other than a level 1 cert and start up cash opening a box.

The games and similar events were designed to crippling workouts for the elite. And somewhere HQ/Castro got the idea that training like that regularly was good way to get better at killing yourself on the big stage.

darthlogan

crossfit is the mens fitness of the workout world. It will be back, I suppose when everyone else is.

eastie17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/114553254#Comment_114553254

Dunno about that, where I go its 50 - 50 male female.

Regarding training Crossfit locations are like gyms, there are good ones and bad ones, its not magic. If you are one you perceive to be bad, or is bad and your not getting what you want from it then go somewhere else.