Over the next few weeks, we’re rolling out something different: a special CrossFit Podcast collaboration with the CrossFit Medical Society. Why? Because the CFMS isn’t sitting quietly on the sidelines. They are in the fight to cure chronic disease and put affiliates in the driver’s seat as the true health homes of their communities. This is a grassroots health revolution, and everyone should be paying attention. The mission is simple: empower affiliates, coaches, and members with real tools to reclaim their health and step out of the sickness economy. No quick fixes. Just CrossFit.
In this episode, Dr. Tom McCoy and Jenn Pishko, founders of the CrossFit Medical Society, join host Jocelyn Rylee to break down how affiliates can become the front line of community-based health care.
Recorded live at the 2025 CrossFit Owners and Coaches Conference and the 2025 CrossFit Games, the conversation digs into physician burnout, the launch of CommunityCare, and why the affiliate model is poised to be the future of preventative health.
Topics Covered
- Burnout rates in primary care and why doctors are leaving medicine
- How CrossFit affiliates can act as community health hubs
- Launch of the CrossFit Medical Society and its goals
- CommunityCare: a new model challenging U.S. health insurance
- Biomarkers, bone density, and measures of health in CrossFit
- Building trust between affiliates, coaches, and members
- Shifting from “sick care” to true preventative health
Resources Mentioned
Community Highlight
Bobby Peters is the assistant superintendent of a rural California school district. He’s also an L2 trainer, a garage gym guy, and the founder of CrossFit Sierra Pacific, a nonprofit affiliate based in a public high school.⠀
It started small. A few local P.E. teachers got their L1s. Then came a weight-room renovation, a CrossFit course for students, and a 5 a.m. class open to any staff who wanted to move before the school day.
But Bobby didn’t stop there.
He helped launch a CrossFit program inside a juvenile incarceration facility. The setup is simple — bikes, sandbags, bodyweight movements — but the impact is massive.
“These kids didn’t talk to each other at first,” Bobby says. “Now they cheer each other on. They fist bump. They give feedback. It’s completely different.
”Bobby’s building confidence, leadership, and the possibility of a different path. His vision is clear: help these kids earn their L1s and reenter the world with something real.
He’s also pushing to get CrossFit recognized as a state-approved high school fitness curriculum — and he’s laying the groundwork to make it happen.
Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.
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