This year marks the 20th anniversary of the inception of CrossFit! The number of people following CrossFit programmes in the UK has steadily grown over the past 10 years, when CrossFit Leyland opened in 2012 there were approximately FIFTY CrossFit boxes in the UK, whereas today there are over FIVE HUNDRED. What started out as training brainstorming session in Greg’ Glassman’s garage amongst friends, has blossomed into a robust training methodology, a notorious brand around the world and for many, a central pillar in their lives.
In the early days, when CrossFit boxes were scarce, the focus of keen followers was very much on the novel training methodology that deviated away from the traditional body building training, or alternative ‘cardio’ training, that the general population completed in mainstream gyms around the world. This new wave of functional training, combining; weightlifting, gymnastics and conditioning, within the same workouts, put the conventional training methods used by the general population to the test. During this time, a lot of people relied on home / garage gyms to participate in CrossFit, which gave it an ‘underground’ reputation amongst the fitness industry. Fast forward several years, as the notoriety of CrossFit grew, so too did the number of boxes, mainly in the USA to start with, before the rest of the world followed. With the rise of ‘micro-gyms’ and fitness communities, CrossFit became so much more than just a training methodology. The garage / home gyms became a minority. Why? Because isolation sucks! The most disciplined of us will train anywhere, anytime, with any equipment / no equipment, alone, whatever it takes, as long as we get the job done. But the majority of us? The majority of us need more than that, we need accountability, we need social interaction, we need coaching, we need re-assurance, we need someone to care. Is it any wonder that mainstream ‘globo-gyms’ (who are missing all of these things) have sky high attrition rates? Or that prior to lockdown, most people had a collection of home gym equipment gathering dust in the garage?
