GREG GLASSMAN, “THE DON” OF CROSSFIT

The similarities between CrossFit founder Greg Glassman and the fictional Godfather Vito “Don” Corleone are striking: both men were self-educated and worked their way through the ranks of a cutthroat industry; both have felt betrayed by formerly trusted associates; both display an unshakeable demeanor of authority and self-assurance. And to be a little more superficial in our comparisons, both men are in a flirtatious relationship with baldness. Outwardly, this is where the similarities end: while Corleone sports expensive and exquisitely tailored suits and spit-polished shoes, Glassman’s typical attire is a nondescript t-shirt and jeans. Corleone speaks in a low, muffled rasp and avoids profanity and slang; if Glassman were a movie, he’d be rated R for language. But the key similarity between Glassman and Corleone must surely be this: both men have a distinct talent for setting up situations in which people feel lucky to escape alive. In the Godfather movie, Corleone’s devotees believed that life was good if they made it through the day and only got their knees broken or their teeth knocked out. In Glassman’s kingdom of CrossFit, thousands sing his praises for giving them a way to combine the most diverse and punishing workouts, like climbing rope, Olympic lifting, and running up and down the bleachers, into a rocket-launch recipe for pain and gain.

Corleone’s earnest start in business was as a young clerk in a New York grocery store. Glassman’s humble beginnings were as a gymnastics coach at the tender age of 18. He later worked as a personal trainer in California, prescribing efficient, intense workouts for busy celebrities who wanted serious results.

Things got even more serious when Glassman began working with police officers and was hired in 1995 to train the Santa Cruz police force. In the same year, leveraging the success he was having with dynamic, intense combinations of exercises that usually weren’t offered in the same workout, such as heavy lifting and sprinting, Glassman opened his first CrossFit box (although the business wouldn’t be incorporated until 2000).

In 2002, CrossFit Journal was launched and still exists today as a way to reinforce the community aspect of the sport, while providing information and motivation. In its first two years of publication, Glassman wrote every article himself. In 2005, the affiliate program was started with 18 participating facilities and by 2012, the number of affiliates has mushroomed to over 3400, with additional programs including CrossFit Kids and charitable projects like CrossFit for Hope, to benefit medical research for children.

“If you find the notion of falling off the rings and breaking your neck so foreign to you, then we don’t want you in our ranks.”

Today, you can still access plenty of free workout information and exercise demos on the CrossFit site (www. CrossFit.com). Pretty impressive, when you consider that Don Corleone’s charitable tendencies were mostly restricted to his family members, or buying Senate seats, and the exact number of his affiliates remains a well-guarded business secret.

Similar to the assassination attempt on Don Corleone, Glassman has also taken some hits over the years – but for his outspokenness. Critics shudder at his penchant for making brash claims, such as his infamous 2006 declaration that CrossFit’s brand of therapy for injuries was called “STFU,” or his insistence that “if you find the notion of falling off the rings and breaking your neck so foreign to you, then we don’t want you in our ranks.”

Unlike Corleone who was feared by many, Glassman is loved by his legion of followers. There is evidence of this at last year’s CrossFit Games where commendatori Glassman was given a standing ovation from an enthusiastic crowd of supporters.

Whether you’re a critic or a fan of either Corleone or Glassman, you’d have to acknowledge that each man, in his way, shoots straight from the hip and has contributed to changing American culture forever. Maybe that’s why his now-famous line could have been spoken by either of them in reference to their business:

“It can kill you. I’ve always been completely honest about that.” Greg Glassman.