It should be spelled Cro$$Fit

A topic that I almost never see covered either by Cross Fit devotees or haters is its high cost. To give some perspective up front, consider these numbers (San Francisco bias built in)

Planet Fitness                       $15/month (admittedly with little eye candy)
Crunch Membership            $60/month  (and lots of wacky classes)
LA Sports Club                   $150/month with access to every known exercise equipment invented
CrossFit                               $250-$300/month for all you can eat unlimited access to the "Box"

CrossFit Boxes don't exactly include massive amounts of equipment either so there is no wide open options to what you can do when you get there. They take the bare bones approach of kettle bells, pullups bars, squat racks and ropes. I am a bog fan of the spartan life so I actually think this is cool but this spartan approach comes at a cost.

I understand the argument - you are paying for this intense instruction which helps you master basic lifts like clean and jerk, front squats and kipping (hate the kip - can't kip) without getting severely injured. These instructors need to get paid and the gyms need to recoup their high rents in pricey neighborhoods where all the yuppie CrossFitters live. But it's not like the cost drops after you have mastered the skills.

CrossFit paints itself as this all inclusive community but at $2,500/year, this is a pretty elitist price structure. Many of my friends (such as Mike and his aforementioned junk pile) overcome this by building their own boxes in the garages or basements, but this requires quite the investment and kind of dilutes the whole community aspect to CrossFit.

As for me, I am using the same weight set (old school cement/plastic weights) I bought when I was a junior in college, plus squat rack and extra weights for $200, and the $25 IronGym pullup bar - the world's greatest invention. 29 years, $450.

Off to test calf with a 7 miler.