Why is glassman fat

If Glassman can take any credit for the rapid growth of the CrossFit empire, he says, it's that he has largely avoided making mistakes out of greed.

CrossFit has avoided putting its name on related consumer products, even when the product would potentially be attractive to CrossFit athletes. For example, Glassman sees wearable technology as largely a fad that will land products in the infamous kitchen "junk drawer. I am not looking for temporary relationships, ephemeral relationships. I am careful about brand dilution," he says.

CrossFit did partner with Reebok to make a specially designed sneaker to fund the CrossFit Games , a national fitness competition. Glassman says he needed a corporate partner to both attract a TV sponsorship, which he got with ESPN, and to make the competition financially viable. Otherwise, Glassman resists offers to put the CrossFit label on merchandise and associated gear. He has certainly sacrificed opportunities by maintaining his resistance to brand partnerships.

But the year old fitness nut and entrepreneur seems to believe he is called by a higher power, compelled to save fat, unhealthy people from themselves.

Too many associations with other brands would dilute the gospel. The man who created a way to measure that definition, every day.

I read or watch every piece of content the CrossFit Journal publishes. I participate, speculate and get nervous over every single CrossFit Open workout, although I will never be in in the. Although it took me almost 2 years of participating in the WODs of CrossFit to acknowledge and embrace that the foundation is actually nutrition, the process of recording and analyzing a variety of data points to determine trajectory enticed me from the start.

So, getting an invite to the OPEN announcement was nothing short of epic. As we entered the room for the announcement, Tyson Oldroyd noticed me and gave me a hug! Nothing like rubbing shoulders with CrossFit royalty! But after it was over, I saw a man in a backwards baseball cap and jeans make his way out, flanked by the regal Nicole Caroll- and my heart skipped a beat.

Or two. It was Greg Glassman. And despite the Starbucks-level ubiquity of CrossFit boxes and the titanic role the company has played in the functional-fitness boom of the 21st century, CrossFit needed to change—desperately. After 50 miles, Roza turned off Highway and onto a dirt road leading to a hilly acre ranch anchored by a warehouse filled with squat rigs, barbells, med balls, rowers, and more.

Ruling over this sprawl was Dave Castro, 43, the director of the Games, who is widely considered the architect of the CrossFit ethos. The two had been the equivalent of Jobs and Woz. Glassman the brilliant but mercurial big-idea guy, Castro the fastidious engineer and executor. And things at CrossFit were great. Then fine. But Castro knew that his beloved brand needed an overhaul. Its trajectory was plateauing, growing 11 percent from to , versus 60 percent from to It went from roughly half a million athletes in to about , and , in and , respectively and the Open finished months before the pandemic struck.

The pandemic was in full swing and a social-justice movement was sweeping across the country, and through it all, CrossFit had been silent. That makes you a really shitty person. Can you tell me why I should mourn for him? Reebok, Rogue Fitness, and many other companies quickly announced they would end their partnerships or relationships with CrossFit. Glassman stepped down as CEO on June 9.

Castro replaced him and immediately issued an open letter promising to fix HQ and create programs to effect positive change. Roza had actually first eyed buying CrossFit in , after getting hooked on the workouts and building a CrossFit box for employees at his tech firm. But the mistake of one rich guy led to an opportunity for another, and Roza had his shot. Immediately after the paperwork went through, Castro and Roza, who had never met in person, held a Zoom call streamed over YouTube Live to the CrossFit community.

Castro opened by acknowledging the recent turmoil before introducing Roza, noting that he owned an affiliate, CrossFit Sanitas in Boulder, and had been doing CrossFit for a decade. To save the brand, Roza believed it needed to evolve and be more like Roza himself: techy, corporate, progressive, and woke. Roza needed an ally. Someone to signal that the brand would, yeah, maybe be a bit more sensitive but would remain ruthless when it came to the training methodology.

We spent an hour rucking a trail that winds three miles through hills and gullies and were blurting sentences through heavy breaths as we climbed out of a ravine. Castro, who is a skinny-strong six feet tall, told me he tried CrossFit as an active-duty Navy SEAL in and immediately saw many benefits. I had an official role within seven months. CrossFit was always run like Burning Man. But it offered a strong value proposition to gym owners. By , CrossFit had affiliates. The annual Games set CrossFit apart from other fitness methods, attracting new members to boxes and giving CrossFitters a reason to train harder and test their fitness.

It also bred a sense of shared purpose—like a sweatier church. By , CrossFit had 3, boxes and 26, people competing in the Open. CrossFit was the fitness equivalent of Donald Trump, Duke basketball, or pineapple pizza. You either loved it or hated it. Glassman could not be reached for comment. By , there were 10, boxes and the money was flowing in.