THE STATE OF FITNESS: WHERE IS GAMBIT HEADING IN 2025?

Uncharted Waters

Folks, it’s an interesting time to be a CrossFit gym - or a gym that’s proximal to CrossFit even! I say this for various reasons, but mostly because the landscape is ever-changing and CrossFit is still relatively new and - dare I say - still an underdog. I can’t say I know what the future holds for the brand, or how it will ultimately stack up against the likes of Hyrox, F45, etc. 

What I can tell you is where my ship is heading…

Fitness for the Long Term

Class-based fitness, or micro gyms aren’t as simple as selling access to use the space and equipment, and certainly not as simple as a business selling a product. Our gyms sell services and experiences. So some thought always need to be given to the goal and mission of those services. 

In the early years of our gym, our programming was mostly dictated by our mission to compete at the CrossFit Games and CrossFit’s concept of “infinite scalability” AKA “program for the best, and scale for the rest”. We wrote an effective program for our competitive athletes, that was well-rounded - hitting all 10 components of fitness - and used heavy parts to program our weightlifting classes, main workouts to program daily classes, etc. 

Fast forward 15 years, and the competitive landscape has changed a lot! Today, there is no “Regional” to attend and qualify for the Games, and the challenge of qualifying for even that level of competition is totally out of reach for all but the top 5% (estimated) of athletes. 

Gambit’s Mission

So while the core tenets of CrossFit still form the foundation of our program at Gambit, our end goal has shifted away from ultimate performance toward ultimate fitness. Greg Glassman was quoted as saying “the needs of the Olympic athlete and the senior citizen vary by degree, and not by type”. Meaning we all need strength, flexibility, balance, etc. 

At the end of the day we don’t really know where CrossFit is heading. We don’t know what new fitness discipline or sport may arise. What we do know is our mission at Gambit is to build humans into healthier, longer-living, functionally strong people through effective programming and world-class coaching.