Is the CrossFit Trend Over?

For a while, everybody and their mother was rambling on about WODs, Metcon, their favorite CrossFit boxes and some woman named Fran. Fran’s not a nice old lady baking apple pies or even a vamped-up nanny from Flushing. Nope. Fran is an intimidating high-intensity interval training workout disguised in the complicated lingo of CrossFit.

CrossFit seemed to take the fitness community by storm. And to see the impressive strength, condition and bodies of dedicated CrossFitters, it’s no surprise why. Gyms, called boxes, started popping up all over the place and everyone from hardcore fitness enthusiasts to complete workout newbies was trying their hand at the complicated, compound movements that makes CrossFit so effective.

But even the Roman Empire succumbed to its own frailty and crumbled. Could it be that the beloved CrossFit is next on the list of fitness fads to fade away? Perhaps. The potential for serious injury has been cited as a major concern that’s driving people away from their workout of the day and back to the safer, slower movements of traditional lifting. Some think it’s simply the next Thighmaster, a fickle trend to come and go from the landscape of the fitness industry.

While there’s no predicting the future, it’s time to take a look at CrossFit, what it is and why you could be seeing those CrossFit gyms that sprouted like wild flowers closing left and right in your neighborhood.

What Exactly IS CrossFit?

CrossFit, to the outsider, can seem like an hour-long barrage of barbells, grunting and lots and lots of sweat. Ok, so that’s pretty accurate, but CrossFit is a lot more than that. According to CrossFit.com, a CrossFit workout is “constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity.” The workouts, developed over years by CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman, focus on functional movements that are meant to transfer to your life beyond the gym.

CrossFit workouts are structured around a WOD, or workout of the day. Each gym creates its own, and, according to BodyBuilding.com, the WOD is highlighted throughout the whole class, targeting specific body parts and working on different aspects of fitness throughout. To keep it interesting, classes often have CrossFitters compete against each other using scoring and ranking systems as motivation.

That’s part of what makes CrossFit unique, though. It’s the culture. People who are into CrossFit are really into CrossFit. That’s because of the community that forms around CrossFit gyms. CrossFit is done in a group class, according to How Stuff Works, and are clearly focused on a philosophy revolving around high-intensity interval training, or HIIT. The culture goes beyond the walls of the gym and impacts devotees diets, too, with many going Paleo.

CrossFit plays on the competitive nature of physicality, often attracting former athletes and those who thrive on competition and teamwork. “Harnessing the natural camaraderie, competition and fun of sport or game yields an intensity that cannot be matched by other means,” reads the CrossFit website.

CrossFit’s Rise To Popularity

Because of its competitive nature and intense community, CrossFit’s popularity has blown up. It seems like everyone has tried a WOD these days. CrossFit, for awhile at least, was the hot new workout trend that everyone was aching to try.

“By the numbers,” said CNBC in a 2016 article, “CrossFit is possibly the biggest fitness trend in the world.” According to the article, CrossFit has 13,000 gyms in more than 120 countries throughout the world. This eclipses its rival gym, Planet Fitness, with just 1,124 locations. And people are obsessed. There are roughly 4 million CrossFit devotees worldwide.

Time Magazine found three powerful reasons that CrossFit became popular so quickly with so many people. First and foremost is the results. Yes, CrossFit produces some of the most impressive bodies in the business. HIIT workouts are effective. The article references a study that found that 20 minutes of high-intensity interval training burned the same number of calories and nine times the fat as 45 minutes at a moderate intensity on a stationary bike.

The second reason CrossFit soared in popularity is the community factor. The adherence and dedication to CrossFit’s crazy workouts encourages social relationships. “Doing something physically intense and difficult binds a group of people,” the Time article says. “Military trainers have known this for thousands of years. But CrossFit is the first modern-day phenomenon that allows Jo-Anne from human resources to feel something like the fierce kinship of the Marines.” Community gets them hooked and community keeps them coming back.

The third and final reason, according to Time, is the “ritual sacrifice of human energy.” When our hunter-gatherer ancestors sacrificed an animal to their gods, according to classics scholar David Sansone, they were also sacrificing their own energy that it took to hunt those animals. CrossFit is the modern interpretation of this ancient ritual. It might sound far-fetched, but it could explain CrossFitters’ religious devotion to the sport.

CrossFit’s Potential Decline

CrossFit’s popularity has boomed for certain, but may be coming to an end. The exercise method has some serious drawbacks, and critics are quick to point them out. The primary concern is safety. A video by Tiger Fitness published by the Atlantic calls CrossFit a “recipe for injury.”

In a WOD, you’re pushed to complete as many reps of an exercise as possible. When you get tired and your form gets sloppy, the video said, it can lead to injury or overuse. “You can’t have a constituency when you keep hurting them all.” The video also criticizes the short training process for CrossFit trainers and gym (or box, as it’s called in the CrossFit world) owners. Tiger Fitness claims that when you reduce the time it takes to become certified to lead a WOD, you “dumb down” the certification training process. This makes expansion easier and the cost of entry into the business lower.

“CrossFit is right up there with jazzercise,” one of the men in the video claims. “Jazzercise was CrossFit.” He’s not wrong. Jazzercise, Sweatin’ to the Oldies, Bowflex, Tae Bo and Zumba have all seen their meteoric rise and plummet in popularity. Some suspect CrossFit is next.

“High-intensity interval training is the result of a lot of these infomercials,” Walter Thompson, author of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2015, told NPR. “I think that in five years, we’re not going to be talking about [it].” Why? It goes right back to the potential for injury, using the same argument as the Tiger Fitness video.

If you’re a devoted CrossFitter, take care of yourself and be safety conscious when you’re running through your WODs. The rest of the fitness world it watching to see the fate of the sport and whether or not CrossFit will stand the test of time. What to do you think? Reach out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to let us know.