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Is CrossFit Actually Dying? · Gym Business Coach Podcast

• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to the built-to-grow podcast delivering the knowledge in all things, fitness, business.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: We help jimrollers win, hear your hosts, ten lions, and Randy Axton.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: All right, welcome back to the built-to-grow podcast, Royals, ten lions joining studio by Randy Axton.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: What's up there?
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, good day, how are we doing?
• 0:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Good, got some chatter on the internet, the interwebs.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: is CrossFit Dynamo.
• 0:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to present this in a way that you're obviously going to know I'm not a CrossFit guy, but I could tell you I know business and I know the CrossFit model.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if I really want to brag and I was a CrossFit level one fitness coach, let me tell you about that story.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: But it's it's clear is day what's happening with CrossFit with the decline and it's a sinking ship that if you're a CrossFit owner,
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: you better get off the ship ASAP and we're going to give you some statistics here on the show to kind of tell you more about it but you know if we think about CrossFit if it's heyday it's not it it's not even a shell of what it used to be used to see people where CrossFit shirts and there was CrossFit you know meet up groups and CrossFit say I don't know where it was across it around here I mean looked in a while it's been a minute there's a handful that's laying on I think but
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: I couldn't even tell you where the last cross fit is, all the ones around here have closed.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: And probably around you as well, they've closed.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if I was opening a gym today, the crossover would be the last business model or business opportunity I would go into.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: But let's talk about it.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: So one of the best signs of growth or decay of a brand is to look at the keyword search criteria, like the search Google Trends, sorry, Google Trends.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're looking at the Google Trends of the word CrossFit searching for CrossFit in the search term long-tale short-tale and from its peak in the last 10 years, so 2015 was the peak of the search trends down 75%.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's huge.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: So you're after you're after you're now, if I had a lot of turmoil, they've sold, I think they're for sale again.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, they had that death recently in the last games.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: The, the, the affiliates are shrinking.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Something like what?
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: 42% down.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: see I had grabbed some data just so we can speak to it.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Billiards are down 36% since 2018 down to under under 10,000.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: CrossFit open registrations are down 44% since 2018.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: CrossFit open year over year over is 32% down since 2024 to 2025.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Of course, the affiliate fee went up 50% or so, just in 23 to 24, so you know, they're asking for more money and the I guess the business benefits are basically gone down 75% so the question becomes like what was the what is the benefit of of having a crossfit used to be.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: people would come into town or they knew the word cross fed or they were looking for that specific style of workout and they would come find you brand recognition right brand recognition and of course it's not it's a license it's not a franchise so it's like you just get to use their name the style of workout could be duplicated by any gym under the sun and it has been for years you know just a randomized competition
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: constantly varied, right?
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: That was the definition and any gym can do that.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: So what is the benefit of having or being across it?
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: It almost hurts you because it also has a negative connotation around it for injury and not, you know, not like specific to a person and all these things.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: All that aside, just throw all that away.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's all off the table.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm looking at,
• 4:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: the price point you're charging in the amount of members you need in the overhead expenses of running a business irrespective of the name.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you know, in the CrossFit world, it's a large group training model.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: Wad Bayes, if you will, and it's typically a lower price point.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: So large group.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Under 200 bucks, maybe it's slightly over.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: But let's just say 179 to 225 to 29 somewhere in there.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: This is what I've kind of always seen.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: Sure, there's some there more, but there's definitely some that are less.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you need several hundred members in some circumstances, just to be profitable.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: And to me, it's just not a sound business model
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think there's there's some other things to go into it to and I don't know if this is just like the law of averages or what we've seen with CrossFit facilities, but we talked about a couple of episodes.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm probably a month or two back, you know, choosing visibility is one of the seven habits for successful gyms, right CrossFit.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: across fits.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I should say boxes opened up everywhere.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of them were in industrial parks, roll-up doors, nowhere conditioning.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was a low cost to get the business started.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think that that was a big detriment to a lot of those businesses also.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: It didn't give them the legs and it didn't give them the opportunity to have substantial business where they sold something at a higher price point, individualized programming, things like that.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: within the business also, one thing I never understood was the coaching component.
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nearly, I don't even want to throw a number out, but it seems like it's the majority of CrossFit's I've spoken with.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're independent coaches.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Most of them are doing a session or two a week in trade class.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: For the classes, correct?
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: In trade for their membership at the gym.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know the the program was left to the coach to figure out and decide whatever they want to do for that class to watch.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, but at the end of the day, you know
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking kind of both, both camps because there's a lot of CrossFit style facilities that have de-branded that are still doing CrossFit workouts and CrossFit style workouts.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: But even at that, just because you took the name out of it, I don't think there's going to be enough to save the business.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: To your point, I think it's the model.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's the model, it's the price point, it's the visibility and the location, it's the amenities, it's the deliverable.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: and it's the hobbyist approach of the trainers or coaches that coach it like you said we we were working with a gym that had 15 part time coaches yeah and you know while on on one side it's like man I got all these coaches I can choose from they backfully each other they would come in and do one class or two class a week and there was no there was no staff buying into the whole mission of the business it was just
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: They were checking a box or punching and punching out doing the work and going home.
• 7:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: They weren't even there were no team meetings and you know, it's like, eh, it's just not the model.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's not the model that we believe in.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know if there's any way to fix that other than changing the model.
• 7:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I would agree.
• 7:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think about that to other businesses, you know, if a Starbucks had 15 part-time employees only and had no team meetings, no training, none of that type of stuff.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: How consistent is your cup of coffee going to be?
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to be the product that you know the business can create.
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: If they had the structure, the SOPs, the processes in place, and the buy-in from the employees.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: To me, it's just, it's, it's five a.m.
• 8:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's so much risk, so much.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like the easiest way of doing it without any of the control.
• 8:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as a business owner, I mean, it's the exact opposite of what we preach when it comes to the brand-owning
• 8:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know the deliverable, the quality of the service being able to charge the superior price because you're delivering a superior product.
• 8:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the statistics don't lie.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, this is where pulling those off of uh reputable sites and in Google trends and stutch, and it's just like, okay, well, the writings on the wall and so you have a choice, right?
• 8:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, whether or not you're a cross fit brand did like licensee or you're a cross fit style large group training or just a large group training model.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the writings on the wall, the client, the members, the community, whatever, they're looking for something else.
• 9:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: They're looking for something that's convenient on their way home, not in the back of a office complex, but they're looking for something that's more quality and more specific to them.
• 9:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if we really talk about it, the peak of the, let's just say 2013 to 15 was the peak, all those clients that were at the peak are 12 years older now.
• 9:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: maybe they were in their 30s now in their mid 40s and it's like they may not want to get their ass handed to them every single time, tear their hands up and, you know, this whole badge of honor of injuring yourself is just like so ridiculous.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: It just doesn't speak to like the, I guess, the general population.
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: You're looking at a fraction of those fire breathers that are, you know, ex-athletes and sure they're some.
• 9:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: But I'd rather have even less pain more than having a whole bunch of these fire breathers that are in there, you know, pay a 179 a month and come in as much as they want and tear in your place.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I was just a different mindset in the model.
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now, we believe, obviously in the scalable semi-private training model, like that's just what we do, what we believe in, that's what we coach to.
• 10:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: And there's still time, Jim owners, there's time for you to switch your model at a bare minimum layer in semi-private.
• 10:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: The way that we teach it is just like this higher price point more structured, more strengthened conditioning based if we really want it to get in the weeds.
• 10:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: At a higher price, about 400 bucks a month and you know what would 20 extra clients do for you, you know, 10 extra grant a month.
• 10:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's, you know, 120,000 a year.
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Could be half of what you're doing now, just in with 20 clients.
• 10:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: Chase around 150 these clients for 20 grand a month.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: You can have 20 clients, but in 10, right?
• 10:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: And it's just a whole another kind of way.
• 10:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a shift of, it's a mindset shift.
• 10:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Can you deliver a high value, best in class, strength and conditioning session, in a semi-private training session, customized program, stream coaching, form,
• 11:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: you know, weights that are not just baseline 95 pounds for women 135 for men, you know, we're doing, you're doing 235, Mr. Johnson, and you're doing 90, you know, 90 pounds on the goblet, whatever, right?
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like it's specific to the client and not just a wild style, because in the grand scheme,
• 11:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: of all things that I believe the customer values, it's the customized programming that carries the most weight.
• 11:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: Then it's the coaching of that session in the caring of the coach on top of everything else.
• 11:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: On top of the equipment itself.
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, on top of even the, I guess the physical plant, even above that, it's the custom program.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's for me personally and I'm going to get coach specifically to this.
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 12:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's where the value is and CrossFit does none of it.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: correct?
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think you nailed it too because it probably if we looked at the data and compared to group training outside across it, but just general group training and other facilities and things like that, I bet the trends are somewhat similar to because they do lack that individualized component.
• 12:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, you walk into a orange theory or I'm at 45, maybe some of those other things and there's still group training where it's today's workout and then maybe it's reps and sets is the modification or the weight.
• 12:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
• 12:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: But at the same time, there's no prescribed to you as the individual.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that and not only that, but the workouts from one to the next.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's no, there's no plan, right?
• 12:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's no reason, and that's the thing we always question Jim owners on is like, when you go to the gym, how do you train?
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you believe in getting yourself a result?
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is that what you're bringing to your business?
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'd really question that in the CrossFit and the group training gyms.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: If the owners are doing, if they are a product of their own product, versus... Yeah, probably the younger ones are, as they get older, they're going to start moving away.
• 13:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, if they came from athletics, they probably aren't.
• 13:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you think about, I don't know if anybody's listen, it's been a college athlete that you didn't do anything like CrossFit.
• 13:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you're, you know, in getting to professional sports, they don't do anything like CrossFit either.
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: So if this is the elite strength and conditioning for elite athletes on the training field, like, and then you could probably the CrossFit purist are like, well, they're training for a specific sport.
• 13:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're training for life and randomization and jumping over a fence and running away from a dog, right?
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: And picking up your kid and running away from the fire, like, okay, I'm sure the football team could probably do the same thing, maybe maybe, no, I don't know, maybe not, maybe you can, but the point of the message is it's like,
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: if professional athletes train this way over here and it looks nothing like cross is it really the best for strength and conditioning because that's essentially what it is right and does it does a mom of four one a throw a fast ball 98 miles a minute no but she she wants to be stronger and conditioned right
• 14:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: in a linear, safe way with custom programming that's specific to her and her need or need or move the quality.
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 14:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so that's just the argument.
• 14:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: The negative connotation around the brand itself is a reason to move on.
• 14:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: But the business model itself is the really icing on the cake.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's like the
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: whatever.
• 14:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: The straw, the breaks the candle bow, all the acting point.
• 14:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's like all the reasons, like all those other reasons you could stick it out, but like really is the model really sustainable.
• 14:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if you look at the global numbers, especially coming from, you know, the, the, the, the two brain does a really good job of creating this like a state of the union kind of a dress and the numbers are.
• 15:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: Dismal 25,000 dollars a month is the average and it's just like Jim owners making 30 40,000 a year.
• 15:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's just Just like what what's the point like what's the point go get a job.
• 15:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know go work somewhere else and do that for fun if you want to but if that's your only
• 15:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's your only source of income for your family to provide.
• 15:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if it's enough and today is just no better ways.
• 15:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's the thing.
• 15:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's much better way.
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Unfortunately, there's way better ways.
• 15:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: So hopefully that kind of just gets you thinking.
• 15:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you're across fit or even a large group training gym,
• 15:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: you know the ranks on the wall there's better ways we got our semi-private training whole methodology programming or everything's all built like what we do in our coaching program springboard if you have any interest in that we'll put the link in the show note gym businesscoach.com we're gonna find some of that information i welcome you to to a conversation have a chat be happy to share anything with you if questions are but hopefully this you know just just
• 16:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: Hopefully that helps you guys.
• 16:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's it for this episode.
• 16:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Keep changing your lives.
• 16:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: See you in the next show.
• 16:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: All right.
• 16:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for listening to another episode of The Built Girl Podcast.
• 16:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you want more help growing your business, join our free Facebook group, profit accelerator, helping training gyms grow to $30,000 a month and beyond.
• 16:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: We'd love to see you there.
• 16:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: Go check out the show notes for the link and keep building something great and we'll see in the next episode.