When I Am CrossFit opened three years ago, it was one of two affiliates in the Miami area, and owner Mike Osuna recounts having to convince people that they weren’t going to die and they could actually do this type of workout.
These days, the box sees up to 70 people in a class, and there are more than 20 boxes in the area.
“The dynamic has completely changed. It’s not that ‘What is CrossFit?’ anymore. It’s ‘How do I sign up?’” Osuna says.
He adds: “Now the dynamic that the Miami community has is, ‘OK, which box do I go to?’”
I Am CrossFit doesn’t use a sign-in system but ensures coaches are available to keep the athlete-trainer ratio around 10:1, and Osuna says the programming reflects the challenges of huge classes. Identifying athletes who need scaling is also important, and coaches work hard to make sure everyone is assigned the right loads and movements in very short order.
As for the larger Miami community, Osuna says it’s the competition between the many boxes that drives him to run the best facility he can.
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Additional reading: Back to the Beginning by Craig Hysell, published July 25, 2012.