The CrossFit Revolution Empowered by Social Media

By Greg Lee – Email | Twitter | Articles

Gregory Lee played rugby at the University of California – Santa Barbara, earning a degree in Political Science. Currently, he is a CrossFit certified strength and conditioning coach who specializes in training contact sport athletes. He also volunteers his time as an assistant head coach for the Peninsula Green Rugby Club in Palo Alto, CA. A life long 49ers fan, he is predicting a Super Bowl victory in 2013.

Many articles about CrossFit start out the same way by describing a few sweaty athletes doing a haberdashery of weird exercises in a dark garage or random warehouse. That opening salvo has become something of a cliché of late, but just a few years ago it was an absolute truth.

In recent years CrossFit has come out of the woods, so to speak, and is skyrocketing in popularity. It has shaken off its cult status and entered the mainstream fitness world right next to spinning classes, P-90X, birkram yoga, and so on. If you need evidence just tune into ESPN this summer as they air the “CrossFit Games” for the second time or flip on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” and see trainer Bob Harper incorporate CrossFit programming on the show’s contestants.

All the exercises associated with CrossFit have been around forever and no movement here is particularly innovative. What sets it apart from other fitness routines is its “open source programming” which encourages affiliate owners, athletes, and trainers to create their own version of CrossFit. That is to say the majority of affiliates do not take its day-to-day cues from CrossFit HQ but are free to create their own routines. The encouragement of active participation in programming WODs (workout of the day) is what makes this so appealing to the amateur and elite athlete alike. CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman, described his role as “the caboose, not the locomotive” in a recent article for CrossFit’s online publication, the CrossFit Journal.

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The mass appeal that comes from an “open source” fitness program is what hooks athletes on CrossFit but until recently there was very little in the way of advertising or media. The driving force behind CrossFit’s recent expansion has been its utilization of social media. Owner and head trainer of Prometheus CrossFit, Troy Obrero, recognizes the impact social media has on CrossFit’s rise. He points out that “CrossFit’s early adoption of the easy-to-replicate blog format made it easy for everyone” and “[CrossFit] [has] grown as social media has grown.” Since the beginning CrossFit HQ has used a simple blog format for its affiliates to mimic. It relied heavily on YouTube for exercise demos and as a source to spread new programming ideas. Recently CrossFit has begun to take advantage of Twitter as a tool to spread the word about their brand. Reebok’s Twitter handle has over 50,000 followers and The CrossFit Games has over 30,000 followers. There are also sub-CrossFits like @CrossFitFootball and @CrossFitEndurance that each has thousands of their own followers.

CrossFit’s meteoric rise in popularity has been fun to watch especially if you’re an active participant. However this sudden burst, thanks to social media, has left a few affiliate owners somewhat apprehensive about whether this is progress or not. Obrero points out that “growth doesn’t equate to quality” and it remains to be seen whether social media is just inflating a trend or helping establish something more permanent. For now, CrossFit has hit the mainstream: Reebok has released a line of CrossFit apparel and has a commercial starring all-world athlete Chad Ochocinco!

Have you noticed an increase in CrossFit marketing?