Inside “The Glass Box:” A New Look at CrossFit’s First 25 Years
In 2001, Greg Glassman, a fitness trainer in California, posted a workout on a new website, CrossFit.com.
It was free for anyone with an internet connection. The workout was called “Fast and Heavy,” and it was as follows:
- 21 dumbbell thrusters
- Run 1/4 mile (400m)
- 18 dumbbell thrusters
- Run 1/4 mile (400m)
- 15 dumbbell thrusters
- Run 1/4 mile (400m)
There was no prescribed weight for the thrusters, but notes encouraged athletes to use a heavy weight and complete the workout as fast as possible.
This post was the first building block of a new training program. Now, 25 years later, CrossFit has become one of the world’s most popular (and polarizing) training methodologies and a global phenomenon.
In his new book, The Glass Box, author and New York Times reporter Calum Marsh takes readers through that 25-year history, beginning with CrossFit’s inception and early days in Santa Cruz.
- “On a bright blue background in crisp white text, the (CrossFit) website would list its official workout of the day, the idea being that clients who were on holiday or traveling for work could still access the programming on the road,” Marsh wrote.
“Updating the site became a regular hobby for Glassman,” he continued, “even though at the time he had no real sense of who, if anyone, was actually on the other side of the screen.”
Marsh follows CrossFit’s rapid explosion in popularity and its influence over the world of training and fitness.
A pivotal moment for the sport was the inception of the CrossFit Open, which began with a brief exchange between Glassman and Justin Bergh, then the CrossFit Games’ General Manager.
- “In late 2010, Glassman held a rare meeting about the Games with his top staff, hoping to better understand what they were spending,” Marsh recounted.
At a certain point, Glassman leaned over to Bergh.
- “‘What do you think about running an online competition?’ He asked. ‘People could do it all over the world. It scales better and then it de-pressurizes this whole thing with the smaller competitions – we wouldn’t have to run the first stage,’” Glassman said.
Marsh noted that Bergh was in immediately and told Glassman he thought it was brilliant. The first CrossFit Open took place just months later, in March 2011.
The Major Players
To complete the book, Marsh spent years interviewing some of the most influential figures in the growth of the CrossFit brand.
Marsh shares quotes, anecdotes, and insights from Glassman’s ex-wife, Lauren Jenai; Reebok’s former head of Sports Marketing, Chad Wittman; CrossFit’s former CEO, Jeffrey Cain; and many, many others.
One of the main characters in the book is new CrossFit CEO Bruce Edwards, who served as the company’s COO from 2013 to 2019. Those who worked with him at the time reflect on what he brought to HQ during those years and the changes he initiated.
Readers learn about one of the major turning points in the sport of CrossFit – the mass firings at HQ in 2018, after that year’s Games, with recollections from CrossFit media members Tommy Marquez and Heber Canon.
- “It was surreal,’ Marquez said, looking back. ‘Two months ago we’d been on cloud nine, and now everything had collapsed. We felt deceived. We’d been told our jobs were safe, that there were no layoffs coming.’ The media crew was reduced to a skeleton crew overnight,” Marsh wrote.
Marsh also spoke to Glassman for the book, a process that took four years to initiate and required much persistence on Marsh’s part.
- “On Sunday, May 3, 2025,” Marsh wrote, “I received my first message from Greg Glassman. It was an email…. He signed off with one cryptic but alluring sentence: ‘I don’t quite trust you,’ he wrote, ‘but fear no truths.’”
This marked the start of a regular correspondence between the two, including phone calls, emails, and in-person conversations.
The Evolution of the CrossFit Games
Readers are transported back to the first iterations of the CrossFit Games, those grassroots years held at the Castro family ranch in Aromas, CA.
Marsh outlines the evolution and growth of the Games over the season as the event balloons in size, popularity, and prestige, moving to Carson, CA, Madison, WI, and then Fort Worth, TX.
Marsh described the challenges the team faced in producing an event of that scale, the problems it posed, and the strain it placed on relationships at HQ – predominantly between Glassman and the Director of the Games, Dave Castro.
A full chapter is dedicated to the 2024 edition, held in Fort Worth, Texas, and to the death of Lazar Ðukić.
- To recount the tragic weekend, Marsh spoke with Ðukić’s fellow competitors, coaches, and eyewitnesses who were on the shore the day Ðukić drowned.
Marsh also offers an inside look at the hours that followed and the meeting led by Castro and attended by the Games competitors, as they learned that the 2024 Games would continue.
The Bottom Line
Regardless of one’s relationship with the sport, the methodology, the individuals, or the community, The Glass Box should be part of every CrossFitter’s library.
It is an exceptionally thorough and well-researched piece of history, spanning the entirety of CrossFit’s existence and offering insights from individuals who influenced the sport’s growth (and intermittent decline) over the years.
The book will be released on October 27, but is available for pre-order here and here now.
