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whether he’s on 60 Minutes, lecturing at Harvard, or meeting with politicans. “Can we all agree something’s GREG wrong with the health system?” he GLASSMAN asks. The doctors lean in, sucked COFOUNDER, CROSSFIT // FOR FIRST into the Glassman vortex. “Show of DISRUPTING THE FITNESS INDUSTRY hands.” Every doc reaches skyward. AND NOW TAKING ON THE “You’ve seen things about health that HEALTH-CARE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. are essential and true, and when your lying eyes are at odds with your medi- cal training, you need to rethink your education,” he explains, methodically is—they’re all just numbers and data pacing with a mild limp, the result of sets, equations you can solve with a childhood polio and bone-breaking lot of sweat; a few knock-down, drag- dismounts as a high school and college outs; and big, disruptive ideas. gymnast. “That’s why I’m here.” “Here” is CrossFit Holy Land: “the 20,000 Ranch” in Aromas, the site in 2007 of “There are at least 20,000 of you train- the first CrossFit Games, a weekend ing in CrossFit boxes,” says Glass- when 400-plus stupid-fit people do man, addressing 40 doctors inside stupid-hard workouts to determine an 8,000-square-foot barn nestled in the fittest humans on earth. Glass- GregG Glassman is a numbers guy. For central California’s farm country. It’s Glassman, below, man invited the doctors here to indoc- that he thanks his father, a rocket a diverse group—a neurologist from has seen Cross- trinate them with a CrossFit MDL1 Fit grow rapidly scientist for Hughes Aircraft who Boston, a trauma surgeon from San since 2001. course, a certification reserved for was “always up my ass about science, Francisco, an orthopedic surgeon There are now M.D.’s. There’s a 400-doctor waiting data, and what science is and isn’t,” from Jackson, Mississippi. Glassman more CrossFit list for future courses. boxes than says Glassman, 62. Fitness, fatness, is wearing jeans, graphic T-shirt, and Across more than 20,000 hours of Wendy’s and Taco fraudulence, and what a stupendous backwards camouflage hat—that Bell restaurants medical school, physicians receive mess the American health system California-casual getup he rocks combined. about 25 hours of lecture on nutrition. Courtesy CrossFit Inc.

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As for exercise? LOL. What really digs at Glassman is that docs do, however, spend semesters on pharmacology. “The CDC estimates chronic dis- eases [and mental-health conditions] account for 86 percent of health-care “F**k injuries. You think spending and 70 percent of deaths,” he says. “If people would just get off the couch and off the processed carbs, we got to 15,000 boxes by 40 percent of those deaths could be hurting everyone? avoided.” Enter CrossFit Health, Glassman’s shotgun blast at America’s obesity cri- sis: It’s a steady stream of these MDL1 “Fuck injuries. You think we got to pullups, back squats, bench press, and courses, which will create a network of 15,000 boxes by hurting everyone?” bike sprints,” he says. The method was CrossFit-friendly doctors who might “No, not me,” the orthopedist says. fast and loud. It monopolized equip- prefer to prevent and fix couch-and- “I’m asking for other doctors. . . .” ment. Its followers breathed heavy and carb-induced lifestyle diseases by “Yeah, I get that,” says Glassman. sweat hard. But it worked, and soon sending you to a box instead of a phar- “But see, we gotta unfuck the doctors people were bailing on other trainers macy or a surgeon. It’s the brand’s ” first.” The most controversial man to work with Coach Greg. And because attempt to huddle the overweight, dia- in fitness is at it again, picking fights he rarely meets a confrontation that betic masses. On Instagram, CrossFit with the establishment. doesn’t tickle him, “I got thrown out posts fewer images of jacked 20-some- of a lot of gyms,” he says. things doing reps to infinity and more 21–15–9 After moving to Santa Cruz and shots of what CrossFit does for people An hour before Glassman’s speech, the getting fired from the last gym in you might see at Walmart: a diabetic M.D.’s did an eight-minute workout town, Glassman, with his then-wife, woman doing her first box jump, an of 20 medicine-ball cleans and situps Lauren Jenai, opened his own spot 80-year-old lifting a dumbbell from done AMRAP-style: as many rounds in 2001: CrossFit, a catchy name for the floor, a daily flow of before-and- as possible. Each doc was equally a storage unit filled with equipment after weight-loss shots. gassed afterwards. Fast, hard, short like climbing ropes, bicycles, row- CrossFit Health is about increas- workouts like this started it all. ing machines, and barbells. He then ing the number of CrossFit boxes, In the ’70s, Glassman, a high school started posting his far-out workouts creating access for all. It’s also about gymnast and avid cyclist despite of the day (WODs) to CrossFit.com. fighting the establishment: lawsuits his polio, began developing a radical “It was like a SETI experiment where against fitness organizations trying to physical practice in his parents’ San scientists send a signal of the number bring down the brand as well as junk- Fernando Valley garage. With a Sears pi, 3.14159265, out into the universe,” food companies that fund nutrition weight set and a doorframe pullup he says. “If you hear back, it means science. Hell, it may eventually be a bar, “I did 21 front squats to overhead there’s intelligent life out there. We health-care association and insur- presses followed by 21 pullups. Then I heard back.” Glassman’s rule: Inten- ance package for the 4 million Cross- immediately did 15, then 9,” Glassman sity and results are directly propor- Fitters. It is seemingly many things, says. “In just three minutes, I had that tional. He says this isn’t masochism all of which are evolving organically, nasty, vomitus feeling you have after for masochism’s sake. “It’s physics.” exactly how Glassman likes. “It would a competitive gymnastics routine. I His equation: You’re fitter when you be a mistake to engineer this from the couldn’t get that from bodybuilding. can do equal or more work faster. top down,” he says. I’ll never forget that lesson.” Which A doctor interjects, “What do we say was this: Doing basic human move- 2.1 per 1,000 if our patients have seen the Games ments at a high intensity will get you Soon a couple of guys in Seattle who and say ‘That’s not for me’?” really, really fit. The descending-rep followed Glassman’s online WODs “Invite them to the gym,” says scheme ensured that he could main- asked if they could open a CrossFit Glassman. “For each athlete who’s tain intensity throughout. affiliate. “I said, ‘What the fuck’s an gone to the Games, we have 15 peo- Glassman, who says he was the affiliate?’ ” Glassman says. “They said ple who’ve used CrossFit to lose 100 “Albert Einstein of recess,” dropped ‘We’re going to use your name and do pounds or cure their diabetes.” out of college and pursued his passion what you’re doing.’ So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll “What about concerns that they’ll for movement. He started training charge you $500 and then I’ll waive get injured?” asks an orthopedist. clients in Los Angeles’s gyms, which your fee.’ And that’s what we did.” That i-word pulls the trigger. favored bodybuilding: muscle-iso- By 2005, the brand had a small but “Jesus, as a vast discipline, you ortho- lating exercises, typically using rabid online following and the number pedists can’t get enough of football machines on (insert the body part) of CrossFit gyms had jumped from 15 and running, but somehow CrossFit days. “I’d have clients at Gold’s Gym to 50. The method proved especially is the boogeyman,” Glassman says. do things like five-minute rounds of popular among police, firefighters,

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soldiers, MMA fighters, professional manufactured hit piece(s)” engi- Glassman coach- reduce the load, drop the reps, or swap athletes, and other “overachievers.” neered to injure CrossFit’s business. ing a CrossFit in a similar but less technical exercise. seminar in the CrossFit hit 500 affiliates by 2009, The claims at first seemed conspira- mid-2000s; the boxes now drawing a wider crowd torial, but the evidence revealed the Tia-Clair Toomey 10 who loved the camaraderie, hard truth: CrossFit won the suit, the study and Mat Fraser What’s fit? For powerlifters it’s pick- workouts, and ensuing results—with was retracted for shoddy science, its compete in ing up heavy stuff. For runners it’s the CrossFit each new CrossFitter becoming a author and editor stepped down, and Games in 2018. quickly covering ground. For Glass- walking, talking billboard who’d love the judge accused the NSCA of perjury man, fitness revolves around the skills to tell you anything and everything and concealing evidence. humans have needed to hunt and about their CrossFit workout, CrossFit Given CrossFit’s popularity and the gather for 2 million years. He iden- friends, and CrossFit diet. injury question, there’s been no short- tified ten in The CrossFit Journal in With the manic intensity and age of additional study on the topic. 2002: endurance, strength, stamina, people pushing beyond their limits Most of the research suggests that flexibility, power, speed, coordina- came concerns of injury. CrossFit’s CrossFit is not more dangerous than tion, agility, balance, and accuracy. embrace of unofficial mascots like other strength-based training and Glassman’s back-to-the-future fitness Pukie the Clown and Uncle Rhabdo safer than many endurance sports, meant being ready for anything. (which, if you know Glassman, are like running. Researchers in the UK He condensed his thinking in more provocative than prescriptive) found that CrossFit results in roughly his 100-word definition of fitness: fed the hype. These peaked in 2013 2.1 injuries per 1,000 training hours. “Practice and train major lifts: dead- when Ohio State University research- The figure for recreational running is lift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and ers released a highly publicized study eight; for novice runners, 18. snatch. Similarly, master the basics in the scientific publication of the “CrossFit for competition has a dif- of gymnastics: pullups, dips, rope National Strength and Conditioning ferent goal than CrossFit for general climb, pushups, situps, presses to Association—a governing body of fit- fitness,” says Doug Kechijian, P.T., a handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, ness—that “call(ed) into question the New York City–based trainer. In com- and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc., risk-benefit ratio” of CrossFit, which petition, you go all out with fixed exer- hard and fast. Five or six days per the authors labeled “extreme.” cises and weights. CrossFit for general week. Mix these elements in as many Glassman’s team investigated fitness scales workouts to your ability. combinations and patterns as creativ- and discovered “fraudulent data” in For example, if the workout calls for a ity will allow. Routine is the enemy. the story. They sued the NSCA and handful of 95-pound barbell snatches Keep workouts short and intense.

accused it of producing “unscientific and your form is shaky, you might Regularly learn and play new sports.” Courtesy CrossFit Inc. (people competing)

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grew the Ranch and moved to L. A.’s toward her hands; she leans in, keep- StubHub Center, and eventually to ing her hands tight into her shoulders, in Madison, then presses. Her body slowly rises Wisconsin. The Games are open to all above the rings. CrossFitters, with qualifiers held over Might as well have been the savior six months and the 400 top athletes rising once more. The docs lose their going to the five-day finals. shit, yelling, clapping, and whistling. Mat Fraser, three-time winner of Nearly half of Americans report the CrossFit Games, can deadlift 520, feeling lonely, according to research run a mile in 5:20, and row a marathon from Cigna. Scientists at Brigham in 2:48:36. Alone, these feats are not Young discovered that lonely people world-class. But their convergence were 26 percent more likely to die is freaky, the human equivalent of a across seven years, making social iso- sedan that can tow a tank, compete lation as bad for you as obesity. in a drag race, and get 60 miles to the Picture a traditional gym. Everyone gallon. “The Games athletes are doing has earbuds in, avoids eye contact, and things that no one thought was possi- scrolls through their phone between ble ten years ago,” says Chris Spealler, sets. Now picture a CrossFit box. who has competed in seven Games. It’s the scene with the doctors times The event is a hothouse for fitness 15,000. A group of 10, 15, up to 50 peo- creativity, and Dave Castro, a retired ple exercise together. They encourage Navy SEAL and CrossFit’s Games each other through the same workout, LEGENDARY manager, is its Picasso. He devises personal bests are posted on a white- OBJECTS physical tests inspired by art, math- board, no earbuds in or cell phones NO. 41 ematics, psychology, and sports, out. “CrossFit moved strength train- among other disciplines. He recently ing from an isolated experience to a set rep schemes based on the Fibonacci communal one,” says Casper ter Kuile, sequence, a series of integers seen in a researcher at the Harvard Divinity complex mathematics and the threads School who has studied CrossFit. The varied, intense training that make the fabric of the universe: Yes, that holds you accountable appeals to first responders. “Cross- the forming of pinecones, storms, to show up and work hard, says ter Fit absolutely contributes to building galaxies—and merciless workouts. A Kuile. But he’s more concerned with better military units,” says Virginia recent hit includes that row marathon. the deeper impact. “In a time of congressman and retired Navy SEAL THE “I wanted something that tested them increased isolation and declining tra- Scott Taylor. “People improve their LIVESTRONG mentally . . . doing the same difficult ditional religious congregations, our strength, endurance, flexibility, WRISTBAND thing for hours,” says Castro. research found that CrossFit boxes are movement—and can do more things It marked the There are now thousands of differ- places where people can find meaning that carry over to the job.” moment when ent WODs, the most famous of which and belonging,” he says. “The commu- Beyond escaping boredom, these raising aware- are Glassman’s “girls”—Fran, Cindy, nity helps each other work towards ness moved diverse external stimuli fill your fit- beyond the rib- and Diane—benchmark workouts he self-transformation.” ness gaps and lead to more beneficial bon and became says he developed to measure prog- internal adaptations, says Kechijian. a style state- ress: “Any workout that leaves you 1:2 A long endurance session, for exam- ment. Every- flat on your back, staring up at the sky, Half of Americans have at least one one—movie ple, expands the chambers of your stars, politicians, wondering what the hell happened chronic disease, and more than a mil- heart, while all-out weight intervals your mom—wore deserves a girl’s name.” lion people die unnecessarily each increase the strength of its contrac- one in 2004. year from the maladies. tions. The combination helps you bet- 26% “All this mess is rooted in exces- ter fend off heart disease. During a training session, the doctors sive carb intake and a lack of move- circle a set of gymnastics rings hang- ment. It’s sugar,” says Glassman, 520 and 5:20 ing from the barn’s 20-foot ceiling. diving down the rabbit hole, a place Just beyond the barn rises a steep, One grabs the rings and hangs. She he frequents. He began developing grassy cow-and-turkey-populated hill quickly pulls herself up, bringing her his nutrition ideas in the ’90s while bisected by a dirt four-wheeler trail. body in toward the rings, begins to working at a Gold’s Gym in Venice

/Getty Images (Livestrong bracelet) It’s the Hamburger Hill of the Cross- press, then stalls and plummets back alongside a trainer who “was getting Fit world. Many an early CrossFit to a hang. She’s attempting her first people skinny inordinately fast,” he Games tasked athletes with repeat- muscleup, a technical gymnastic exer- says. “One day she pulled me aside and

The Denver Post edly running up, down, and around it. cise that combines a pullup and dip. told me she was having clients restrict Athletes would then head to the barn Someone offers a form tip: “Bring their carbohydrates.” From there he area for Olympic lifts. your elbows and hands in close to your met Barry Sears, Ph.D., a former MIT

Craig F. Walker/ Craig F. The event in just a few years out- torso.” Attempt two: Her chest rises researcher and creator of the Zone

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Diet. These encounters gave rise to consciousness is equal parts erudite, CrossFit’s suggested 40/30/30 split of poetic, and conspiratorial.“These macronutrients among carbs, fat, and scientific organizations are funded protein. The paleo thing? It caught fire by soda proxies,” he says. “Their cam- when Robb Wolf, a nutrition scientist, paigns to produce junk science are began talking about the diet in early successful to the extent that they can CrossFit nutrition seminars. impact the margins and create fear Go ahead, exercise as hard as you around thinking outside the establish- can. If you stuff your face like an unsu- ment.” Turns out Big Soda may have pervised eight-year-old, “you only been Glassman’s nemesis all along. have one oar in the water,” says Glass- During Glassman’s legal fight with man. “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts the NSCA, his team discovered that and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no the association’s research was funded sugar. Keep to levels that will support partly by the soda industry. More exercise but not body fat.” That’s the digging revealed other health orga- rest of “Fitness in 100 Words.” nizations cashing Big Soda’s checks. It’s sound nutrition advice. Most Scientists at Boston University con- research suggests that carbohy- firmed 96 of them, and other research drates—especially from whole-food shows that studies funded exclusively sources—aren’t inherently fattening. by food and drink companies are And nutritionists generally agree four to eight times as likely to find that added sugar is a scourge. The results positive to the funder. In one eating plan is reinforced in boxes and case, for example, Coca-Cola secretly is approachable for any diet novice. bankrolled the now-disbanded “Most diabetic patients usually eat Global Energy Balance Network, a JAMIE way too many processed carbohy- university-based nonprofit whose drates, especially sugar,” says Tom basic message was that what you eat OLIVER Siskron IV, M.D., a Louisiana-based doesn’t matter so long as you exercise CHEF // FOR physician who also comanages Cross- enough—junk science. Drinking one CHALLENGING WORLD Fit Medicus One. Glassman’s frame- or two sugar-sweetened beverages a GOVERNMENTS—AND work eliminates the garbage and day, for example, is associated with US—TO IMPROVE NUTRITION ACROSS directs people into nutrient-dense, a 26 percent increase in risk of type THE PLANET. natural, filling foods. “Some of my 2 diabetes, say Harvard researchers. patients have been able to get off dia- “It was the Big Soda stuff that com- betes and blood-pressure medicine pelled Greg to start CrossFit Health,” following the advice,” says Dr. Siskron. says Pat Sherwood, a former Navy Research shows that exercise and SEAL who works for CrossFit. “But if eliminating processed carbohydrates someone can take it on, it’s that guy. from your diet can reverse diabetes— Greg likes to fight, and he never, ever the key is adhering to the program. backs down.” Glassman sees science CrossFit’s simple eating plan, scale- sponsored by pop as akin to Big Tobac- able fun workouts, and built-in com- co’s paying for bad research to cast munity may make it that much easier. doubt on the harms of smoking. He regularly calls out publicly the names 8x of researchers who have accepted soda “Ay, ay, ay, ay. Canta y no llores.” A dollars and is lobbying to strengthen There’s a moment in the first minuteT of Jamie Oliver’s first mariachi tenor backed by a tradi- conflict-of-interest guidelines at the tional Guadalajaran band belts lyrics CDC and the National Institutes of cooking show, The Naked Chef, into the salty evening air. The seminar Health. He backed a failed California when the then-24-year-old predicts his future. “I kind of get is over, and a backyard gathering at bill to add warning labels to soda, but bored of doing the same thing Glassman’s home overlooking Mon- he’s continuing that fight. all the time,” Oliver says. It was terey Bay is lit. There are doctors of all “The real, less sexy story of CrossFit 1999, and he was talking about specialties, CrossFit execs and Games is the unseen epidemiological revolu- how to change up the flavors athletes, Special Forces operators, sci- tion that has millions of CrossFitters of roast leg of lamb (rub it with entists, a drooly 150-pound mastiff, taking a pass on chronic disease,” says a mixture of sage, rosemary, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice). and, yeah, the mariachi band. Glassman. “If you eat too much sugar That line, however, hinted at Glassman pivots from group to and you can’t squat, pick up things what was to come: Twenty-one group, attracting attention. He is in off the ground, throw, jump, run, and cookbooks. One hundred conversation like a pit bull on a pork climb, then you’re broken. And we forty-seven TV appearances.

chop. His eyes gloss and his laser of want to fix you.” —MICHAEL EASTER A YouTube channel with 3.9 Simon Emmett/Trunk Archive

108 November 2018 / MEN’S HEALTH