Prior to the current training model that CrossFit affiliates use, people had two basic choices for training outside their home. The more common approach was a membership to a standard “globo” gym, typically costing about $20 to $30 per month. The other, less common approach was a personal trainer costing about $60 to $75 per one-hour session, with an obligation of 8 to 10 sessions per month ($500 to $600/month).
Personal training was obviously superior: someone else designed the workouts for maximal results, the athlete had someone to be accountable to, someone watched their mechanics, and someone answered their questions. Most people went the route of the standard gym membership because of cost.
Year after year, data analysis shows that roughly 80–85% of people with standard gym memberships do not go to the gym; they are subsidizing the small minority who do. (It is expensive to run a gym, and owners of the typical gym are counting on people not showing up.) According to a report in the Washington Post on January 5, 2016, once the average gym membership expense and attendance rates are taken into account, the average trip to the standard gym costs $17 per visit.
Our data shows that our members come to the gym an average of 9 times per month, and on average pay a little less than $90 for their membership. (Some pay more, some pay less, depending on their chosen plan.) That means they pay an average of less than $10 per one-hour class — and the more often a member comes, the less expensive it is per class.
Let's Put $10 an Hour in Perspective
- A next-to-top-tier automated car wash: $11 for 10 minutes — that's $66 per hour.
- Dinner for two with a glass of wine each, plus gratuity: about $100 for 90 minutes — $33.33 per hour, per person.
- A Big Mac value meal at $5.99, gobbled down in 15 minutes — $23.96 per hour.
- A registered dietician: $100 to $125 per hour.
- A massage therapist: $75 per hour. A chiropractor: $75 for a 15-minute appointment — $300 per hour.
- The average barber: about $50 per hour. The daily $5 coffee adds up fast, too.
I think you're getting the point.
We Deliver Value for Your Money
At CrossFit Benedictus, what we do works. Numerous members tell us they no longer need medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, or depression. Others tell us they spend less on their membership than they used to spend on the chiropractor they now rarely need to see. Their memberships pay for themselves.
Every class has a coach-led warm-up, coaching instruction, and coaching supervision to ensure quality movement and safety, plus the benefit of training in a group that makes us work harder and achieve more than we could on our own. You will improve in all ten arenas of fitness — agility, balance, coordination, strength, stamina, flexibility, accuracy, power, speed, and cardio-respiratory endurance — and you will have fun while doing it. All for less than $10 per hour.