Modern WisdomThe Downfall Of CrossFit & The Future Of Fitness - Will Ahmed
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 2:20
CrossFit’s collapse: dysfunction, brand damage, and missed potential
Chris and Will unpack how CrossFit went from a grassroots movement to a brand battered by leadership scandals and poor execution. Will shares first-hand experience partnering with CrossFit and calls it the most dysfunctional partner Whoop has worked with.
- •CrossFit’s origins as a grassroots community and how far it scaled
- •Leadership controversies (e.g., BLM-era scandal) and operational breakdowns
- •Partner perspective: Whoop’s experience working with CrossFit
- •A strong brand/community still couldn’t offset mismanagement
- •The sense of a massive missed opportunity for fitness culture
- 2:20 – 4:34
Post-CrossFit landscape: Hyrox, boutique studios, and why communities win
They discuss how CrossFit’s decline created space for alternatives like Hyrox and other micro-communities, but also why these trends can’t be attributed to CrossFit alone. Accessibility, intimidation, and injury risk shape what scales in mass fitness.
- •Hyrox and hybrid training as a more accessible competitive format
- •Rise of micro-communities: Barry’s, Orangetheory, Pilates, etc.
- •Exercise is hard/lonely; community lowers friction
- •CrossFit’s intimidation factor and historically high injury rates
- •Fitness trends as cycles of novelty and social belonging
- 4:34 – 5:58
Fitness trend data from Whoop: pickleball, padel, and the global activity map
Will explains how Whoop’s tracking data reveals activity surges, especially racket sports like pickleball and padel. They explore how culture and geography shape which activities dominate in different countries.
- •Whoop as a ‘trend aggregator’ via activity growth rates
- •Pickleball surge in the US; padel’s international explosion
- •Padel described as a tennis/squash hybrid with glass courts
- •Country-by-country differences in popular activities
- •How data can surface unexpected cultural patterns
- 5:58 – 9:28
Sleep: the modern ‘steps’ metric—and why almost everyone is under-sleeping
Sleep becomes the centerpiece: Will shares striking stats about how few people get 7+ hours. They dig into why trackers reveal uncomfortable truths and how Whoop refined its sleep scoring beyond simple duration.
- •Only ~22% of Whoop users exceed 7 hours of sleep
- •Trackers expose the gap between time-in-bed and time-asleep
- •Sleep replaced step counts as the health metric people obsess over
- •Updated sleep framework: need vs. hours + consistency/efficiency/stress
- •Consistency as a key driver of performance and longevity
- 9:28 – 13:05
Social jet lag and global outliers: weekends, Riyadh bedtimes, and country quirks
They explore sleep regularity, weekend derailments, and how cultural habits change bedtimes worldwide. The conversation widens into other ‘outlier’ country metrics from Whoop’s global dataset.
- •‘Social jet lag’ from weekday/weekend schedule swings
- •Worst sleep nights tend to be Friday or Saturday (US)
- •Middle East outliers: very late average bedtimes in Doha/Riyadh
- •Cultural substitutions: caffeine/nicotine vs. alcohol effects
- •Other global quirks: alcohol (Ireland), sauna (Finland), cold plunge (Sweden)
- 13:05 – 16:49
Only-child psychology: self-focus, inward reflection, and early entrepreneurial fit
Will reflects on how being an only child shaped his confidence, introspection, and comfort around adults. They connect solitude and self-reflection to clarifying what you want—an edge for young founders.
- •Only children can become more self-directed/self-centered
- •Spending more time with adults builds comfort in adult rooms
- •Knowing what you want requires inward reflection
- •Young people often ask others what they should do instead of themselves
- •Solitude can cultivate self-awareness; meditation as a reinforcing practice
- 16:49 – 28:05
Overcoming self-doubt: separating identity from the company and maturing as a CEO
Will describes early years of pressure, uncertainty, and not knowing how to lead—despite conviction that Whoop should exist. He explains the shift from tying self-worth to company performance toward building personal stability to scale the business.
- •Conviction in the mission can outpace belief in yourself
- •Self-doubt doesn’t disappear entirely; it can be a stabilizer
- •Danger of merging ‘company results’ with ‘personal worth’
- •Founder growth as a prerequisite for company growth
- •Early stubbornness can help launch—but makes you hard to work with
- 28:05 – 34:36
Drive vs gratitude: mission, service, and avoiding ‘miserable success’
They analyze the treadmill of ambition—moving goalposts and chronic lack. Will argues that gratitude isn’t complacency and shares how orienting around service and mission makes success feel meaningful without killing drive.
- •Overachiever pattern: ideals guarantee feeling behind
- •Entrepreneurs misread gratitude as complacency
- •Drive (dopamine) vs gratitude (serotonin) as distinct systems
- •Service framing: focus on impact over valuation/revenue
- •Meaning from customer outcomes and team shared purpose
- 34:36 – 39:17
Leading through grief: suicide loss, emotional processing, and still showing up
Will recounts losing his best friend to suicide and the challenge of running a company while grieving. He shares coping instincts (numbing) versus the necessity of emotional release, and how delivering a eulogy became a major turning point in processing loss.
- •Initial grief response: going numb to function day-to-day
- •Importance of feeling and releasing emotion, not suppressing it
- •Support from an executive team and transparency at work
- •Eulogy as an intense, public, therapeutic act of processing
- •Grief expanding emotional range and deepening later appreciation
- 39:17 – 43:18
Finding what you truly want: boredom, recurring thoughts, and meditation practice
They return to Will’s framework: first discover what you want, then learn how to get it. Will emphasizes internal inquiry, noticing what you’re drawn to when your mind is quiet, and how phones eliminate the boredom that fuels self-dialogue.
- •Most people think they’re stuck ‘getting it’ but haven’t defined ‘it’
- •Internships and experiments help identify what you don’t want
- •Pay attention to thoughts in quiet moments (shower/cab)
- •Smartphones reduce boredom and drown out inner dialogue
- •Meditation/mindfulness as a skill for sitting with yourself
- 43:18 – 56:27
Getting what you want: state it, work consistently, embrace rejection, commit fully
Will lays out execution principles: publicly state your aim, work relentlessly, and treat consistency as a differentiator that ‘creates’ luck. They discuss fear of rejection, insulation strategies, and the necessity of commitment over hedging.
- •Declare what you want instead of being coy about it
- •Hard work + consistency as the real unfair advantage
- •Luck emerges from repeated exposure and showing up
- •Comfort with rejection vs fear of rejection; both must be trained
- •Commitment: stop keeping ‘safety lanes’ that prevent full effort
- 56:27 – 1:10:30
The romanticisation of failure: why success can teach more than collapse
They critique ‘failure porn’ and argue that many failures share the same causes, while meaningful successes contain unique ‘magic’ worth studying. Will gives the Whoop near-bankruptcy example: failing would’ve taught the wrong lesson compared to what ultimately made it work.
- •Failure content helps people start, but can be over-glorified
- •Startups often fail for repetitive, predictable reasons
- •Success can contain unique ‘special sauce’ that failure can’t reveal
- •Near-failure can mislead lessons (e.g., “be less ambitious”)
- •Reflection matters—taking meaning trains growth regardless of outcome
- 1:10:30 – 1:19:31
What the world’s best athletes reveal: intensity, experimentation, and hidden costs
Will shares patterns across elite performers (Ronaldo, Phelps, Mahomes, Rory): an unmistakable intensity and a willingness to experiment for edges. They emphasize the unseen sacrifices behind trophies and the ‘price’ of being someone admirable.
- •Elite athletes project a palpable intensity you can’t fake
- •Ronaldo as the most extreme example of drive ‘energy’
- •Greatness involves major trade-offs fans don’t see (time, pain, isolation)
- •Top performers experiment constantly for marginal gains
- •The ‘price of admiration’ framework: you can’t cherry-pick only outcomes
- 1:19:31 – 1:33:07
Over-optimisation traps: using wearables as tools, not taskmasters
They address health anxiety and data obsession—how metrics can become a prison. Will explains Whoop’s design philosophy (no screen, unobtrusive) and features that allow users (including Olympians) to hide recovery/sleep scores while still collecting data.
- •More data isn’t inherently bad; the issue is relationship to it
- •Whoop’s ‘disappear into the background’ hardware philosophy
- •Avoiding constant alerts; user-controlled vibrations/notifications
- •Feature: hide recovery/sleep scores (built for Olympians)
- •Reduce noise by checking trends less frequently or disconnecting
- 1:33:07 – 1:51:19
Routines and travel hacks: perfect mornings, sleep setup, jet lag, and hydrogen water
They compare ‘perfect morning’ routines and discuss why the day effectively starts the night before with sleep hygiene. Will shares travel strategies (fasting on planes, hydrogen water, no naps, immediate time-zone alignment) and they riff on sleep apnea experiments and optimization culture.
- •Will’s ideal morning: trainer workout, sauna/cold plunge, meditate, breakfast
- •New fatherhood: family time and newborn calm resembling meditation
- •Evening routine: blue blockers, warm shower, magnesium/melatonin, reading
- •Jet lag tactics: don’t eat on planes, drink hydrogen water, avoid naps, go to bed local time
- •Debate about optimization vs practicality; psychological component of jet lag
- 1:51:19 – 1:54:26
What’s next for Will and Whoop: new hardware, Healthspan, medical features, and IPO path
Will previews Whoop’s latest launches and where the company is heading, including healthspan tools and clinically oriented features. He frames the next chapter as continuing to improve daily while building toward the possibility of going public.
- •Launch of Whoop 5.0 and new hardware with longer battery life
- •Healthspan features: Whoop Age and guidance to ‘get younger’
- •Medically cleared heart screening features and blood pressure monitoring
- •Long arc: 13 years of building toward this tech roadmap
- •Future trajectory includes the challenge/opportunity of taking Whoop public
