What’s Up Greg Glassman’s Sleeve? (Opinion)

New Year’s day I walked into the Las Vegas airport and opened my laptop to see a new CrossFit.com website that stood in stark contrast to anything we’ve seen from HQ in a long time.

Elements like “At Home”, “Health” and “Battles” lined the new site and reminded me of Glassman’s “fitness on the front lines” mentality.

With that new launch we’re seeing something for the first time: functional fitness at its most basic level, elderly athletes demonstrating movements like getting up off the ground — a burpee — and standing up out of a squat.

Is it sexy? Not even close. But to Glassman, it’s necessary, and it’s the way forward.

Here’s the reason why I’m bringing it up.

The Internet — as it invariably does — had a field day commenting about these videos, making jokes, and unfortunately missing the point of it all.

Karen Elliott articulated it far better than I could when she responded to some of these disparaging remarks:

“I personally am so proud to be part of CrossFit who are showing videos of how these movements CAN be scaled to basic. Trust me there are many people who CANNOT get up and out of a chair without using their hands, and even then struggle. May I politely suggest that before leaving unkind comments, watch your own elderly relatives and see if there is any strength exercise you could show and help them develop based on these videos.”

When Glassman and I first spoke about the changes to the CrossFit Games last August, it was always presented under the lens of realigning CrossFit Inc. with their core principles. It may sound cute, but getting people “off the carbs and off the couch” is exactly what they’re doing and it shows, and I, for one, am glad to see it unfolding.

Justin LoFranco
Editor-in-Chief