Don't Buy Ads: Grow Your CrossFit Box

Why CrossFit?

Every week, thanks to the 321GoProject, I'm fortunate enough to chat with 3 or 4 new CrossFit Affiliates.

 First, we talk about high-level goals: where do you want to GO in life? Who do you want to BE? What's most important to you: is it time? Money? A sense of purpose?

Then, a pivotal question: why are you choosing THIS method - a CrossFit gym - to satisfy those goals? It's a rhetorical question, of course. I already know that owning a CrossFit gym can satisfy any of those three, and others. I just want to hear the answer.

Invariably, I get a speech from the heart about how CrossFit has changed THEIR lives; how they want to share that change, joy, and benefit with others; how they're empowered to take some risks in the pursuit of that delivery. I hear, most days, a great story about discovery, inspiration, and self-actualization. Most often, they're opening a CrossFit Affiliate because they believe it's the right thing to do. And they're not wrong.

Then we look at their site. We click on, "What's CrossFit?" and we see a message about work capacity. We read about 'functional' training across broad time and modal domains. We see the "What Is Fitness?" link, right where it's supposed to be. Logical arguments for doing CrossFit? Check.

Nowhere is their story.

Write your story. Put it up. Help us to know you.

 

My Speech To The Graduates, 2012

18 years ago, I started studying exercise at University. 

14 years ago, I graduated with a degree.

13 years and 364 days ago, I thought I had all the answers. I dangerously believed that I "knew enough."

13 years and six months ago, I got my first client. When I sat down to write The Perfect Training Program, I stopped feeling as if I were wearing a laurel wreath. I got scared: what was I doing?

That's when I started learning.

No one asked me, but just in case this drips through to you: you've just begun. You have foundational knowledge - we're letting you drive a car on city streets. You should be writing articles, and trying things on your friends. You probably shouldn't be writing angry emails to editors of local newspapers who dared to publish a story on "the latest weight-loss craze" (the subject of mine was caffeine pills.)

You will never know 'enough.' Do not be satisfied. Answers that were once correct will not remain that way forever; answers that are 'wrong' today may someday be the best course of action. No teacher has all the answers; sometimes the answers will change; most of the questions haven't yet been asked.

Your work has just begun.

Singularity

This is Alexei Sidorovitch Medveyev.

He's one of the greatest weightlifting coaches of all time, pioneering huge advances in periodization, biomechanics, and force development. His USSR teams dominated weightlifting from 1970-1974.

A totalitarian approach to managing athletes has its obvious drawbacks. It can also teach us much, even 40 years later. Medveyev could control when his athletes slept, and for how long; when they ate, and what; what they lifted, and when. Under his guidance, the Soviet Weightlifting program experimented with colour; sound; and even smell, marching their athletes through different types of forest after their workouts and measuring relative recovery to the 10th power (spoiler alert: Siberian Fir is best.)

You can read more about these 'best practices' in Managing The Training of Weightlifters (bottom right.) Worth the cover price just for the short paragraph on steroid usage recommendations for women.

Medveyev also experimented with coaching methods. Concerned with far more than just load, bar speed, and reps, Medveyev measured the effects of voice quality; instruction quantity; and total practice time. Prilepin's Table was developed during this period.  Other ideas were tried, measured, and discarded.

One of Medveyev's guiding principles: never give an athlete more than 
one instruction or correction in a training session.  Yes, they may need to raise their chin; they may need to stand taller; they may need to lift their hips more. All of those may be true, but only one may be corrected at a time. One instruction was useful; two instructions handicapped the athlete, splitting their attention. 

When a cue was mastered, the next was given. Information would be prioritized based on relevance, or timing. Do the same with your new contacts: on their first visit, they need to hear that CrossFit is novel, or different, or challenging, or fun, or Sport. 

As teachers, Coaches, and experts trying to deliver their message, we should remember this: one point at a time.

• Chin up.
• CrossFit is fun.
• Gluten causes gut problems.
• Widen your grip.
• Novelty helps you stick with it.
• Hips up a bit.
• Bring your friends.
• Greg Glassman.
• Babies are great squatters.
• Poke your chin through.
• No mirrors.
• Pull your shoulders down and back.
• Protein supplements usually have a lot of sugar.
• CrossFit is like Personal Training.

One point, one message, per contact. That's it. 

ResearchLite

This is the Age of Opinion. This blog is my opinion, sometimes supported by the opinions of others. Opinion is different from information.

Information suggests irrefutability. Information means supporting data and no reasonable counter argument.

Twelve years ago, MORA devices (Mandibular Orthopedic Repositioning Appliances) hit the market; one of the leading proponents was the Edge Tech company. I was skeptical; scientists performing double-blind studies, published in peer-reviewed Journals, showed no improved performance in athletes using MORA mouthguards.

I wrote a piece for HockeyZone.ca at the time on mandibular strength research (in hindsight, I wish I'd called it, "MORA - The Research Bites." Much funnier.) You can read it below, from September 13, 2003:

Download MORA

As often happens in the fitness industry, a bad product or scheme is simply warehoused for a decade and re-"introduced" when the hype has gone. MORA devices are back, pushed by companies like UnderArmour (who bought up BiteTech) and supported by "research."

QuackWatch has a good summary of the 2012 MouthGuards-make-you-stronger claims:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/ak.html

MedLine also has an interesting study to share: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22272945

A few weeks ago, a Harvard study on red meat consumption suggested that 'all red meat is bad for you." The study failed to show causation, but merely demonstrated correlation. Some of the better responses were from WeightyMatters.ca and, of course, Mark's Daily Apple. A good discussion of "Why People Don't Want to Read What They Don't Want To Hear" is here. 

Correlation occurs when two things seem to always happen together; causation is when one causes the other. For instance, whenever it rains in Sault Ste. Marie, people are carrying umbrellas. The two are correlated. Does that mean umbrella-carrying is the cause of rainfall in Sault Ste. Marie?

While using 'research' to prop up medical and fitness claims is nothing new, the industry ITSELF is prone to swings and spirals. Trends recur with annoying regularity. 

Upcoming (recurring) trend predictions for the next 2 years:

Nutrition - the pendulum will swing back toward high-carb. It's barely swung the other way, it seems, but the quick adoption of all fats as "healthy" by some will likely fuel the fear of higher-fat diets again. Driven by the need to sell "new" books, the nutrition world will never be able to settle on one recipe for success. Instead, the pendulum tends to pivot on a controversial issue - like dietary fat - and swings back and forth between "it's poison" and "it's good." As you approach one end of the spectrum, you can expect a recoil in the other direction.

Movement - bouncing up and down. Where mini-trampolines enjoyed a short (approximately 30 minutes) craze in the late 1990s, new bouncy-shoes make use of all the inline skates that didn't sell in 1998:

What's next....vibrating platforms for weight loss? A 'healthy' cigarette that delivers vitamins or filters "toxins" from the air? Motorized exercise bikes?

Socks treated with silver to reduce smell?

All of the claims in this article have "research" to back them up. Most studies have been purchased by the producer of the equipment; the others have built equipment based on overextrapolation of small-study results.

There's a buyer born every minute, as the saying goes...or maybe that's not quite right.

 

 

The Adaptive Niche

Thank you. 

Yesterday, after posting about Adaptive Athletes and their desire for competition, novelty, and challenge, I received several emails asking, "How do I get started?"

I've also been fortunate enough to connect with a few Affiliates who HAVE started. This post will serve merely as a conduit between the willing and the enabled.

We've been lucky enough to host several athletes requiring slight modifications to the workouts to participate - notably those with MS and brain injury, but also including others on crutches, in wheelchairs, and with different numbers of limbs.

Our coaches threw together a quick list of some modifications we use, and I've attached it as a Google Doc in hopes of attracting ideas from DBA readers.

Good sources for information include No Excuses CrossFit, home of the legendary Kyle Maynard, and CrossFit Walter Reed, which coaches MANY Adaptive CrossFitters. 

Above all else, don't be a 'caretaker.' My favourite quote from CFWR was on Monday's WOD blog:

"Scaling for box jumps should be any height off the ground, even if it’s one inch. Jump on something."

When all else fails, ask the athlete what they think; they'll find a way. They're good at it.

Download Seated substitutions

Niches

In 2009, there wasn't a "Masters" division at the Games. 

In 2010, they were a bit of an afterthought, away from the 'main show' in the arena across the street.

Last year, the Masters area was JAMMED for nearly every event at every age category. Masters were given the same treatment from Reebok as everyone else, and Johnny Mac's crew ran an exciting, professional-level event.

In 2012, Masters-only events are cropping up in most Regions to keep mature athletes in a 'ready state' before the Games. Their numbers still don't necessitate a Regionals playoff, but we're getting closer.

Niche: CrossFit Masters specialization.

In 2010, there wasn't a "Youth" division at the Games.

In 2011, the CrossFit Kids event was well-planned, but never hyped, and attendance was disappointing (to me, at least, as I watched from the sidelines.) 

In 2012, we had 14-year-olds in the Open. Still in its infancy as a sport, CrossFit doesn't yet attract the attention of parents who aren't themselves CrossFitters; that means travel for competitions hasn't yet flourished. Within three years, these competitions will feature athletes from all over the world, not just the Southeast.

Niche: CrossFit Kids Events.

The competitions are easy to set up: contact area high schools and middle schools, divide ages along the same calendar as high school sports, share expectations with coaches, and put up a prize. The novelty of CrossFit, for these  young athletes, will require less creative programming: just have them climb ropes and carry logs, if you like. It's all new to them!

Have we used the Games to support our entire offering? Is every potential client served by a competitive outlet; a measuring device for worldwide comparison; an objective scale for progress? Not yet.

The Paralympics (and Special Olympics) are massive worldwide organizations with millions of followers, and thousands of athletes. Several projects in the CrossFit world are providing training and challenges for Adaptive Athletes, but there doesn't yet exist a comprehensive 'championship' for those who require WOD modification, or 'MODWOD.'

 Likewise, in the early stages of CrossFit's move toward 'cognitive fitness,' there doesn't seem to be a cognitive challenge, daily COGWOD, or event on the horizon....yet. By incorporating CrossFit into cognitive processing, rehabilitation, and in-school curriculum, we're making forward progress in this area with Ignite. As our ranks swell, so will follow the brain trust.

Niche: Cognitive Fitness. Enrichment Through Exercise.

Though many of us don't miss our MobilityWOD broadcasts, few therapists are incorporating CrossFit INTO the rehabilitation process. The #1 obstacle in a rehab setting is adherence: boring leg extensions and stretchy tubing makes for patients who resent their therapies. It's equally understandable AND preventable: novelty alone makes rehabilitation much more enjoyable for the injured client.

Niche: Rehabilitation.

These are coming. Two years from now, you'll look back and remember when the CrossFit Games was small, took place on a single weekend, and was only televised on ESPN2. Get in front of the train.

Competing with 'Free'

As I wrote yesterday, there are many different ways to deliver your service that don't revolve around the "1-month unlimited" model. You may not be interested...but your competitors (Globos and McGyms) certainly are.

1) In Ontario, teenagers can attend GoodLife Fitness for 'free' in the summer. The service is attractive to parents, who can't spend the time monitoring their child's comings and goings. At least if they're at the gym, they can't be.....finish the sentence. Right?

This is a prime setup for service sales, however. For me, I wouldn't want my teen running amok in a new weight room; I'd get her some personal training sessions. It ain't free anymore!

2) As fitness becomes more commoditized - with tracking apps, 'personal training software,' GPS-enabled shoes, and calorie counters - we'll see a split between access (free) and attention (highly-priced.) Some gyms have very minimal monthly rates - $15 per month - but high signup fees that discourage changing gyms. "I don't want to cancel by Pump membership...I'm only paying $15 per month!"....yes, $15 per month. Every month. For life. These gyms are dependent on new clients signing up to maintain cash flow. When that stops....

"Information wants to be free..." is the rallying cry of pro-access groups like WikiLeaks. It's a quote, taken out of context, by Stewart Brand. This was the original:

"On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other."

Your opportunity lies in the split. Charging for one-on-one attention, or attention within a small group, is your key. Don't like the one-on-one model for total time spent?Fine...do CrossFit, but make sure every member has personal time with a coach every month to review goals and make recommendations.

Offer specialty groups for people who want to work on specific elements. Offer premium Attention services, like Personal Training, even if you don't want to do it YOURSELF - through subcontracted coaches. Spend TIME with people - something that's hard to do in a simple class-based model. Build relationships with clients, not groups. Demonstrate the gap between 'free' and 'expert,' and offer both. Celebrate the gap; widen the gap.

You are in a unique position to help people: by publishing quality free content, and then offering personalized solutions.

CrossFit For Free

When choosing your membership rates, you have two options:

1. Monthly unlimited
2. 2x/week unlimited.

Right?

As the fitness industry becomes commoditized, and gym access moves closer to free, some Affiliates are looking for another way. I offer these as examples of OTHER models, currently being used by CrossFit Affiliates successfully. Some are amazing; some are incomplete. Some are experimental. Some are risky. Some will provide a more enriching model than the one most Boxes are currently implementing; some will not.

3. The lower-priced 'base membership' with optional premium services.  Yes, you can run your CrossFit gym on a base gym membership, and charge per CrossFit class. In 2008, many Affiliates were following this model, and some of the older Boxes have reverted to this method. It's generally assumed that every member will seek coaching eventually, in some way, shape or form. The client paying the base membership fee may or may not cover the costs of running the Box, but they form the community of potential coaching clients, who pay a small premium for individual attention. Taken alone, the gym membership base may not support the gym on their own; the membership exists as a potential client pool for premium services.

4. Ad-supported content. Don't scoff. Just like newspapers and many other 'free' distribution models, ad-supported content is hitting the fitness industry hard. There are obvious examples in the CrossFit world: Reebok subsidizes the costs of some newer Affiliates for top-level Coaches; they can provide custom shirts with your logo (and theirs) for less than you'd pay elsewhere; supplement companies are quick to cut the owners a deal in return for promotion.

Some gyms take it to another level, selling ad space on the walls above the televisions. This sounds crooked, but can be done tastefully, with ads that are relevant to your target audience and make life easier. Google's argument is that the ads it sells are a boon to its clientele, because they're relevant to the reader's interests and simplify the search process. If a local chiropractor, whose son was in your CrossFit Kids program, offered you $100 per year to post his name and phone number on your wall, would you object? These revenues are substituted for membership fees, which can then be decreased to achieve the same net revenue.

5. Externally-funded /supported services. These can mean a government subsidy for providing the service, a break on rent from a landlord who sees potential crossover revenue, or a breakeven 'side' business that will provide clientele for a larger one (a CrossFit Box attached to a chiropractor's office.) Sometimes, these are done out of love: "I don't care if I make any money at this, I just want to give people the gift of health."

At the other end of the spectrum, non-CrossFit Affiliates are trying to manipulate the system. Some gyms, providing a base membership fee, will begin to provide free CrossFit knock-offs - Cross-TRX, anyone? - to their members. "I already do CrossFit at MY gym....." will become your obstacle in the next 3 years. As I wrote last week, our challenge has gone from, "What's CrossFit?" to, "I already do that, but my gym calls it something else."

6. 90/10 - 90% of clients pay for the 10% who can't. There exist at least three Affiliates, to my knowledge, where underprivileged youth attend for free, and their membership is covered by a portion of fees from others.

In one sub-example, youth are provided the opportunity to pay for their own membership through the design and print of t-shirts for members and nonmembers alike. In another, members' fees cover a given amount of 'scholarships' for kids who can't afford to pay.

There are others, of course. Some operate their Box at a loss, and make up the difference doing expert courses and coaching, maintaining their gym as a 'home base' from with to practice and publish. This is more common than you'd think, and here's why: would you buy a book on powerlifting from someone who didn't run a powerlifting gym? Would you buy a Reverse Hyperextension from him? Would you buy a prowler from someone who had never trained an athlete? A runner who didn't train other runners? A physiotherapist without a clinic? When the majority of their revenue comes from outside their immediate circle, it doesn't matter how the gym makes money; it's enough that the gym exists, even as an expense within the overall business model.

I have spoken with clients of the 321GoProject who operate under each of these models, and my own Affiliate uses one of the above (not the large-fee monthly "CrossFit Standard.")

Some gyms, of course, do very well with the monthly fee. If you're looking for something different, though, the world is your oyster. There's more than one way to run this show, and if you're within a market saturated by other gyms, you can help clients by offering something different.

How to choose? Do what you believe is best for the client. As a result of our Ignite research, we believe very strongly in the value of practice - play, if you will - and so offer Open Gym for MANY hours, every day. You may prefer to cast your shadow of influence over a client every time they visit your Box. 

Mimetic Desire

Desire is not a straight line. 

Rene Girard, an anthropological philosopher, puts forward the notion that all of your desires are borrowed from other people. You want this because they want this, or they have it already. 

Girard posits the model of desire as a triangle, not a straight line:

                                                       OBJECT

                    SUBJECT                                                    MODEL

We desire something - an object, a characteristic, an attribute - because we see that others have it, and their possession reinforces the idea that the object is desirable. In this triangle, the Model is the current possessor of the habit or object.

Consider a woman, 40 years old, who visits your Box for the first time today. Her name is Mary. When she's searching your location on Google, does Mary desire to do a pullup? No; it's not yet in her realm of known possibilities. She doesn't care about pullups because she's never seen one done by a woman, perhaps. Mary just wants to lose 20 pounds.

When she's standing at your front desk, Mary still doesn't want to do a pullup. She wants to survive without "sweating too much" or committing another social faux pas. Her goal in session #1 isn't to make friends or experience "the community": it's to survive with ego intact. She doesn't want to embarrass herself.

And then...she sees Julianne hitting five beautiful kipping pullups in a row. Julianne is 40. Julianne has abs. Julianne puts chalk on her hands, and swings her legs like so, and can actually pull her chin above the bar in midair. Wow.

CrossFit thrives at providing behavioural Models, and providing clear paths to mimickry. Not only can we show you Julianne, but we can map you out the ways to BE Julianne.

Successful businesses in all industries do this well: here's Julianne. She likes this purse. You want the same purse? Here's how to get it.

Interestingly, Girard takes the step further, suggesting that when the model and the subject become equals - when Mary can finally link 5 kipping pullups - they become rivals. They compete for acquisition of the object - they start to compare each other's max pullup numbers. As the rivalry grows, the value of the object increases. This, too, is where CrossFit shines: by offering the competitive element, clients can move up through the hierarchy of desire without changing their mode of pursuit (in this case, gyms.) 

How does this affect you? Simple: pack the gym with models of behaviour. If you have to do it for free, at first, do it for free. Take one from Skip Chase's book, and invite every waiter and hairdresser in town - models who are constantly in front of people, chatting - and have them do CrossFit for three months. The biggest risk is inviting a new person into an empty gym: devoid of models, they have nothing on which to base their desire for CrossFit.

(You don't have to say, "You can come free!" Instead, give them a coupon for 3 free months. That way your rate is unaffected, and you're giving away a coupon, not a freebie. Small difference in fact, big difference in the psychology of your other members.)

Assimilation

Astronomers predict that a comet, named 2011 AG5, could hit earth in 2040 and 2047.

It will have five chances to strike the Earth; if it misses on one pass, the gravitational pull could possibly push the comet into a 'keyhole' that leads straight back at us.Though the threat is small,and shouldn't cause any great panic, it IS real, let's examine the multinational options available:

1. uh...We have no plan.

We don't even have the first considerations for devising a plan: if the threat is real, who should be in charge - NASA? The military? Russia? China? Mark Zuckerburg? Who should develop the super beam technology, or the warheads, or....? Who should defend the technology? Who should pay for it? 

When a real threat faces our species, we hope that our small feudal States can band together and face the the challenge collectively. However, territorial grudges and long-standing historical line-toeing will likely bind the hands of all with opposable thumbs. Old wars, though rendered irrelevant by the larger threat to all, will still likely hamstring our ability to get our acts together in time. Heck, it's almost too late NOW....if the threat is real. The danger is no longer the hurtling rock, but our ability to move forward to meet its advance as a comprehensive entity.

There's a tendency among CrossFit owners, old and new, to consider other CrossFit Boxes to be 'the competition.' When asked, "how many others are in your area?" they answer with the number of other Affiliates...not the number of GloboGyms, those orchards ripe with low-hanging fruit.

Meanwhile, the Globos are marshaling their own resources. They didn't get to the top by killing off all new fitness ideas, but by absorbing them. Rather than compete with climbing gyms, they add walls of brightly-coloured rock behind the treadmills. Rather than compete with Billy Blanks, they ran 'cardio kickboxing' classes on Saturday mornings. Rather than beat Muscle Beach,they adopted Arthur Jones' miraculous machines. They thrive by adopting the more extreme ideas, removing the sharp edges, and making them palatable to cardio Queens and pec-deck princes alike.

These are the "expert predictions" of Goodlife Fitness - by Personal Trainers they've positioned as 'industry experts' - for Hot Fitness Trends in 2012 . While they're trying to draw a straight line between TRX training and CrossFit - and clearly don't have their head around the counterculture element yet -  it's obvious that CrossFit is on their radar screens. They're working on it. They can't say, "CrossFit"....but they've stopped decrying its "risks." When they stop berating you, it's because they're setting up shop next door. When they stop talking about your poisoned water, it's because they're building a bottling plant.

This is a clip of CrossFit owners X and X talking about the importance of rest and sleep on Canada's national news show ("The National") on Friday night. What the clip doesn't include is the interview afterward, where a rep from GoodLife (our largest national chain of Globos) talks about 'giving their members what they want' and incorporating CrossFit-like "classes" in their gyms - for free to their members.

So far, these attempts have come off as half-baked....but "The Biggest Loser" is showing them how to incorporate CrossFit into their Planet Fitness world. I love watching Trainer Bob doing snatch pulls from boxes in the parking lot,and so do others. The audience determines the offering....what MayBell wants, MayBell gets. And soon, MayBell is going to want knee socks and board shorts.

BigGlobo is going to give her that opportunity. She may just be doing Body Pump with 5lbs foam-packed 'barbells' in the parking lot of McFitness....but she'll think she's doing CrossFit.

This is the next challenge. This is our Near-Earth Object. No longer the tooth-smashing 'us against them,' but the appearance of sameness. They're going to try to assimilate CrossFit into their model.

Time to decide what we're REALLY about. Time to change the focus from, "We're Crazy" to "We're The Experts." Time to work together, and build inter-box Community.  Time to grow up, and form a Nation whose borders are distinguished by more than the tattooed guards.