CrossFit HQ’s New Movement Oversight Program
I wanted to share something important—and a little surprising—that came up last month.
I was recently selected by CrossFit HQ to be part of a small group of long-time affiliate owners, both current and some past, tasked with giving feedback on several upcoming initiatives planned for rollout this spring.
There are six of us on the panel, each with 15+ years of affiliate experience, and our job is to provide insight from the trenches before anything gets pushed out to the full community.
Most of the ideas being discussed were pretty solid… but one in particular caught me off guard. It just seems like another way for CrossFit, Inc. to charge more fees to Affiliate owners.
It’s called the Movement Quality Oversight Program, and while the intention is to encourage better form and virtuosity across all affiliates, the method is… well, let’s just say it raised a few eyebrows.
Here’s the basic outline:
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- Starting this spring, CrossFit HQ plans to begin reviewing movement quality across affiliates using either existing security footage or requiring gyms to submit recorded class videos on a scheduled basis.
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- Any instances of “poor movement” like shallow squats, incomplete range of motion, rounded deadlifts, etc. would trigger what they’re calling Poor Movement Penalties (PMPs).
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- These PMPs fees are expected to be between $10 and $20 per occurence, and would be assessed to the affiliate, not the athlete. One concern raised by several of us was this: if these fees become frequent or significant, gym owners may be forced to pass the costs on to the members responsible.
That’s a tough position to be in, especially for gyms like ours that pride themselves on coaching people to move better, not just faster.
To be clear, nothing is official yet. This program is still in the development phase, and HQ is (at least for now) open to feedback. I’m doing my best to make sure our voice is heard and that any version of this policy actually supports coaches and athletes rather than penalizes them.
One final note… there was also brief mention of a separate penalty being considered called the Rep Shaver Tax, meant to discourage athletes from “accidentally miscounting reps” or “cheating” during workouts. (Yes, really.)
That one, you’ll be happy to hear, was unanimously opposed by every single affiliate owner in the room.
I’ll keep you posted as things develop, but in the meantime… it might be a good idea to squat a little deeper this week. Just in case someone’s watching.
– Bill
