CrossFit Origins: An Interview With Fast Company Magazine

At the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games, CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman sat down with Fast Company Magazine to talk about CrossFit.

In this segment, Coach discusses his inspiration for CrossFit. Coming from competitive gymnastics, Glassman developed a training regimen unlike that of his fellow athletes.

“I had discovered as a kid, young in my early teens, that I could with dumbbell and barbells get stronger than any other gymnast I knew,” he says. “That was an epic moment for me.”

Coach went on to develop a “generalized capacity” that made him “a jack of all trades and master of none,” much to the chagrin of his father.

“Why can’t we be pretty damn good at everything, especially for doing everything?” Coach asks.

Once he started training, his business grew naturally. The impetus to switch from private one-on-one training to classes came as a necessity in order to include more clients in his workday. By discounting the group rate, Glassman added more people to a timeslot and made more money while at the same time improving his clients’ training with group dynamics.

The best of his clients became the next generation of trainers, and his business grew further as his clients brought in new clients.

7min 59sec

Additional reading: What Is CrossFit? by Greg Glassman, published March 1, 2004.