'Fitter, Faster, Stronger, Better': Crossfit as a Reinventive Institution

In a world where health and fitness are upheld as values that we should all aspire to, we have witnessed the emergence of global, corporate ‘body projects’. One of these body projects is CrossFit – a fitness regime founded on a ‘belief’ in fitness. Its frontman, Greg Glassman, claims that CrossFit is designed to ‘best prepare trainees for any physical contingency – prepare them not only for the unknown but the unknowable’ (Glassman 2010). Careful scrutiny of the promotional culture and language of CrossFit reveals that it is not unlike the dogma of both mainstream and unconventional religions, including cults. The serious implications of cults are evident in the case of Jim Jones who successfully convinced more than 900 of his cult followers to take their own lives in order to avoid a range of implausible eventualities. This study examines the beliefs and motivations of CrossFit trainees and coaches and contrasts them with the views of avid gym-goers and fitness trainers who do not subscribe to the CrossFit regime. Findings suggest that elite fitness programmes, like CrossFit, constitute what Susie Scott calls ‘reinventive institutions’, which are aimed at finding and cultivating the ‘perfect self’. Using Scott’s notion of ‘performative regulation’, the paper highlights the parallels between CrossFit coaches and trainees and cult leaders and disciples. It argues that the gurus and devotees of the CrossFit regime, are caught in a contradiction between ‘forging elite fitness’ on the one hand, and establishing a CrossFit community on the other.