How did one old unfit man be a
billionaire selling an idea called Cross Fit? We know that there are gyms all
over America but we are more overweight than ever before. Greg Glassman is the
creator of the idea Cross Fit that is becoming the new addiction. Can you be
addicted to being fit or to a sport? The people who are involved with Cross Fit
look that way and they look damn good physically. It is a unpredictable workout
program that is raw and very serious and business is booming. In just 15 years,
Greg has created the largest gym chain in history and turned fitness into a
spectator sport. Yes instead of just looking at your muscles in the mirror at
the gym, there are places for the public to stare at them too and why not? You
worked hard for that tight body.
Last summer the finals of the
Cross Fit Games were broadcast on ESPN. 45,000 people showed up to watch
contestants heave, jump and lift until a champion was named. They will call him
the fittest man in history. Before Cross Fit became a competition, Greg formed
it as a way to workout. He says it can transform anyone at any age. He says he
can make you become your genetic potential. The limping unfit old man created a
work- out program that includes lifting weights, calisthenics [cs1] [cs2] and
gymnastics. The classes take place in what Cross Fitters call a box. It is a
stripped down place with just the equipment needed. It all made Greg a college
dropout a multi-millionaire.
This guy did not invent weight
lifting, calisthenics or gymnastics but he says he invented that doing lateral
raises and doing weight curls while eating pretzels is dumb. He says that for
decades gym owners have ignored the importance of diet and are
all too happy to watch the members of their gym fall into a trance on the treadmill.
He believes the fitness industry is
wrong. There has to be more than just going home a bit tired and sweaty. His
classes usually don’t take more than an hour and athletes compete against each
other and the clock. To keep their energy up they suggest keeping up a paleo
diet that consists of meat and vegetables. Greg says that Cross Fit is creating
a new super breed of human.
The focus is not on big muscles
but very fit bodies from squatting and movement weather you are 25 or 75 years
old. Greg had Polio as a child and did gymnastics in order to gain strength. In
high school a gymnastic fall left him with a permanent limp. He became a
personal trainer and began developing his loud and disruptive workouts that gym
owners didn’t like. He opened his own gym in 2001 and now there are 12,000
Cross Fit Boxes around the world. His company is private but is estimated to be
worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Greg Glassman owns 100% of it. He has no
board men or room or directors and says he never had a business plan. He
recently found himself at Harvard Business School where he spoke and boasted
that he is the fastest large growing chain on earth.
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