WODS and Wisdom — Advice From 10-Year+ Affiliate Owners

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• Today, we drop the first in a multi-part series highlighting longtime CrossFit affiliate owners (10-plus years) and the advice they wish they had at the outset.

• EC Synkowski explains why lifting and resistance training is crucial for women as they age, especially into their 40s and 50s.

• Greg Glassman once wrote that “men will die for points,” but the leaderboard may be losing favor at some CrossFit gyms. We talked to gym owners across North America about the role of daily, in-box competition in their communities.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Training is more important than competing. Competing is fun and a great challenge for those who want to pursue it, but the day-to-day vibe in the gym should cater to longevity in training rather than making it about the leaderboard.” - Mike Corcoran, co-owner of CrossFit Mill Street in Vienna, VA, on the vibe at his affiliate.

AFFILIATE COMMUNITY

WODs and Wisdom Series Part 1: 10-Year Affiliate Owners On What They Wish They Knew at the Start and How They Pivoted

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a multi-part series highlighting longtime CrossFit gym owners, their experiences over the past decade or more, and some advice they wish they had at the start. 

They say hindsight is 20/20, especially in a business. 

• And if that business is a gym, that phenomenon is even more drastic. 

During my time living in Southern California, I have seen many CrossFit gyms come and go. Some say this area was the sport’s hotbed in its early years as it meandered down the coast from Aromas. 

In my conversations with gym owners for this series, many highlighted mistakes they made early on in their management journeys. Interestingly, though, the mistakes they pointed to dealt less with the machines and weights that filled the space and more with the humans and the relationships built there.

The Community

CrossFit is about community, and not understanding this fact at the outset was a primary cause of many owners’ regrets.

Marco Tan, the owner of CrossFit Overdrive in Richmond, BC, put it simply: 

• “I wish I had known that this is a people- and relationship-based business more than a ‘fitness program,’” he said.

Dealing with both members and staff poses an especially hard challenge when opening a gym. There are so many different personalities, stakeholders, and individual interests to deal with, and people’s goals in the industry often change. 

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SPEED READS

🎖️❤️ Chad 1000X: On November 11, 2024, join the CrossFit community, Rogue Fitness, and The Step Up Foundation in support of “Chad 1000X.” Take on the challenge to bring awareness to the causes and prevention of veteran suicide.

• Learn more and register today.

🏋️ 📺 Rogue Invitational Iron Game Premium: Iron Game Premium is back for the 2024 Rogue Invitational!

• In addition to the Iron Game Tailgate Stream, which features guest commentary from some of the most knowledgeable experts in CrossFit and Strongman, Rogue will introduce an all-new VR Control Room. This will give subscribers the best views in the arena with multiple camera angles and customizable live feeds. Learn more and get subscribed now.

📚🤓 Good Read: Laura Horvath, 2023 CrossFit Games Women’s champ, was featured in an article and photoshoot in the online culinary magazine Blooming Grape last week. Check it out now to learn more about the champ’s balanced approach to eating and finding joy in life.

📺👂Hear Their Stories: CrossFit’s new video series, Hear Their Stories, brings viewers into the heart of the CrossFit community. Episode six focuses on Brock Yost, Owner of CrossFit Triple River in Three Rivers, MI, and 2024 Teenage CrossFit Games Director. Watch now.

ICYMI: CrossFit officially launched its “CrossFit Training” YouTube channel with a live conversation between the heart and soul of the community, Nicole Carroll, and L4 Coach Denise Thomas.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Lifting Through Change: Navigating Fitness in Your 40s and 50s

Women entering their 40s and 50s often feel like menopause is a fitness game-changer. But here's the truth: your training needs don’t change with age. 

• Strength training and cardio workouts (or something like CrossFit) are best for reaching general weight, health, and fitness goals. This is true whether you are 30 or 50. 

Many find they need to change their fitness routine, like adding resistance training, however, simply because they weren’t doing it previously. 

• I answered a few listener questions on this topic for a recent episode of the Consistency Project podcast. 

Here’s a bit of what I told them.

The Consistency Factor

A significant factor in maintaining one’s fitness is consistency. 

It’s consistency in both going multiple times a week and in the effort. You need to challenge yourself in each session to drive results. 

• This doesn’t mean every day needs to be 100 percent, but most sessions should be difficult for the best results. And this is no different for women in menopause. 

INDUSTRY

The Leaderboard – Source of Anxiety or Value Add for Your Community?

In the early days, CrossFit.com was not much more than a leaderboard. 

• A “Workout of the Day” was posted every morning, and people were asked to post their scores in the comments.

The leaderboard gained momentum as more people discovered CrossFit. By 2007, founder Greg Glassman decided to host the first in-person CrossFit Competition — the inaugural CrossFit Games — at Dave Castro’s family ranch in Aromas, CA.

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It was ultimately a chance for people who had been posting scores on CrossFit.com each day to see how legitimate both they and the other dot-com posters really were.

The Evolution of the Leaderboard

As more and more CrossFit affiliates opened in the United States and around the world, the leaderboard continued to play a significant role in CrossFit.

• In the early days, it was usually just an in-house whiteboard where people posted their scores after each class, but eventually, like everything else, it moved online.

First, it was Beyond The Whiteboard, which started in 2007. Today, there are endless apps where gyms house their own internal leaderboard each day. 

At its heart, a leaderboard is not just a way for people to see how they stack up against one another — it also makes it easier to monitor progress.

• From an affiliate owner’s perspective, it’s a good thing when people are monitoring progress, as fitness results have long been linked with greater client retention. 

HIGHLIGHTS

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.

• 💕 Happy anniversary to Rory and Angela McKernan.

• Congratulations to Luke Parker, who casually ran a marathon in training last weekend.

• Happy 10-year affiliate anniversary to CrossFit Maherit Rio in Madrid, Spain.

• 🙌 Great work to Tonya and Yvonne, coaches at FirePower CrossFit in Milton, ON, Canada, on their "burpee challenge.” They host this event each year to raise money for their local women's shelter, Halton Women's Place (HWP). With their fundraising this year, they have officially surpassed $20,000 raised for HWP since they began in 2020.