From humble roots in Santa Cruz, California, CrossFit has become a national (and now international) phenomenon, with not only the viral spread of about 13,000 CrossFit boxes across the country, but dozens of blogs dedicated to the movement, an army of loyal fans and even television games. in the style of the Olympic Games.
At the same time, medicine has to undergo a seismic transition from focusing solely on the fight against disease to a completely new task of creating and preventing health. This new assignment requires a different set of skills, and here are my top four things that medicine can extract from CrossFit about creating health.
The community is powerful and scalable.
CrossFit comes in a group format that not only allows one teacher to train many people at the same time, but also harness the power of the group to provide peer support, support and accountability.
To gain access to these three powerful forces in medicine, more and more doctors are using the format of group visits for chronic diseases, especially those caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. New models are needed to empower behavior change, and, if done correctly, they do not need to cost much.
Lean equipment can remain low.
Why is it called CrossFit “box” and not the CrossFit gym? »The answer lies in the amount of overhead required to run each type of object. When you think of the "gym", you probably think of tons of equipment and services, classes, employees and a huge floor plan. Looks like a hospital, right? In the fight against disease requires a lot of equipment, technology and "things" for sick people to die.
A crossfit box is usually just a warehouse with very little equipment. By saving overheads, it is exponentially easier for new franchises to create an object and start training people. Creating health does not need a lot of "things." One of the trends we see in space is the concept of “microtrassing”, a low-paying practice that may have just been led by one doctor with a health coach or nurse, replacing the need for office staff with online booking technology and the need for the team to pay for insurance using new models such as Direct Primary Care or membership.
Look at some of the most progressive clinics, such as Parsley Health in New York. Created in the cooperative WeWork space, it combines low overhead, direct primary care and human-centered design technology for a completely new medical experience at low cost.
Creating systems easily reproduces fuel.
In the CrossFit world, there is WOD or “Workout of the Day”, where, in any case, all classes in all CrossFit boxes can perform the same workout, guided by headquarters.
Interest in integrative medicine was manifested in the creation of health, including such methods as clinical nutrition and mindfulness meditation. However, one of the drawbacks of training masses of doctors or other suppliers in these methods was that it is not always clear which of these methods should be used, in which patient in what order.
One of the main advantages of functional medicine, as a sub-section of integrative medicine, is that it does not have a reproducible system that facilitates repetition in different clinics, the “Matrix of functional medicine” at its center, as a way to prioritize care in difficult cases.
Health culture must begin from within.
In addition to the four walls of the box, CrossFit is a culture of health. At CrossFit, which I visited last summer, there were “extracurricular activities” such as picnics and lessons, and the food was always much healthier than your average July 4th was coming together. Crossfit and paleo movements are associated with the hips, encouraging less inflammatory products and more community support.
In order to become a force for creating health, clinics and hospitals will have to play a role in creating or strengthening a health culture, and this will have to start from the doctors themselves.
New health creation centers are necessary places where the community can work together to achieve and maintain health. It’s probably in your head that it’s like a hospital, but it could be a lot more like a CrossFit box.
