Tag: Jocelyn Rylee Page 1 of 2

Kelly Starrett with text CROSSFIT IS THE PATH TO LONGEVITY thumbnail

The World Is Finally Ready for Us: Kelly Starrett on CrossFit’s Potential

By

On January 12, 2026

In The CrossFit Podcast

Dr. Kelly Starrett joins the CrossFit Podcast to look back on the early days of CrossFit and ahead to what the next 20 years can become. From finding CrossFit through a grainy GIF in the early 2000s to opening one of the first affiliates in the world, Starrett reflects on the ideas that shaped the methodology and the lessons learned through decades of coaching athletes, Olympians, and everyday people.

This conversation explores durability over time, why pain is not a failure but a request for change, and how movement quality, range of motion, and basic strength set the foundation for performance at every age.

Starrett and host Jocelyn Rylee dig into the future of CrossFit, from longevity and conditioning to the irreplaceable value of affiliates as places built around coaching and community. This episode is an honest look at what CrossFit has always been about and what it can become if we apply what we have learned.

Topics Covered

  • The early days of CrossFit and the original affiliate culture
  • Mobility, durability, and reframing pain in training
  • Why youth athletes need movement literacy before specialization
  • Training for sport versus training only for fitness
  • The future of CrossFit and longevity-focused strength and conditioning

Resources Mentioned

Community Highlight

Kristin Savage grew up around autoimmune disease. By age 5, she was dealing with joint inflammation, and years later, she was formally diagnosed with lupus.

She found CrossFit in 2012 and later trained and coached at CrossFit Gambit, where she was mentored by Kelly Jackson. Kristin earned her Level 1 and Level 2 Trainer credentials and now has aspirations to pursue her Level 4.

After a severe flare-up forced her to reassess how she trained, Kristin shifted her focus to nutrition, recovery, and scaled training — learning to work in rhythm with her body instead of against it. Within a year, she qualified for Desert City.

Today, Kristin coaches CrossFit in Las Vegas and spends much of her energy helping others navigate training and chronic illness — sharing what she’s learned through experience.

Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Jocelyn Rylee and Stephane Rochet with text Anti-Dogma and the spirit of n=1 thumbnail

What You Have Wrong About CrossFit’s Recommendations

By

On January 5, 2026

In The CrossFit Podcast

CrossFit was born from curiosity, trial and error, and the willingness to test ideas in real time. In this conversation, host Jocelyn Rylee and senior content writer Stephane Rochet revisit the roots of that culture and explore why self-experimentation remains one of the most powerful tools for improving performance, health, and well-being.

They reflect on the early days of nutrition inside CrossFit, the experiments that shaped their own training, and why results-driven thinking cuts through dogma. From zone ratios to carb backloading, fasting, fruit fasts, and the realities of changing needs across life stages, this episode highlights how paying attention, tracking outcomes, and staying open-minded can reshape your relationship with food and training.

Topics Covered

  • The origins of self experimentation within CrossFit culture
  • How to define “what’s working” in training and nutrition
  • Lessons learned from decades of nutrition experiments
  • Adjusting habits across changing life stages
  • Building life skills around food, tracking, and personal agency

Resources Mentioned

Community Highlight
Amy and Jim Gay have been part of CrossFit Adaptation for over a decade. Last year, they became the gym’s new owners and quickly faced a challenge.

Located just outside D.C., many members were hit hard by recent federal job cuts. One by one, people were getting laid off and preparing to cancel their memberships.

Amy and Jim didn’t flinch. They told them, “Just keep coming in.”Then a coach had an idea: start a sponsorship program.

Now, members with the means can chip in — either once or monthly — to cover membership costs for others going through tough times. The response has been huge. When things got hard, the community didn’t shrink. It stepped up.

Amy and Jim’s advice to other affiliate owners? Don’t treat your gym like a normal business. The real magic is in the details — staying close, listening, and showing up.

Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Jocelyn Rylee and Dan Uyemura with Text He's Seen Inside 5,000 CrossFit Gyms and the CrossFit Medical Society Logo

[CFMS SERIES] AI, Community, and the Future of CrossFit Affiliates with Dan Uyemura

By

On December 29, 2025

In The CrossFit Podcast

This marks the tenth and final episode of a special CrossFit Podcast collaboration with the CrossFit Medical Society. 

Dan Uyemura, founder and CEO of PushPress, has a rare vantage point: data from thousands of CrossFit affiliates around the world. In this conversation, he breaks down what separates thriving gyms from struggling ones, why engagement matters more than marketing, and how technology can amplify, not replace, the human experience at the heart of CrossFit.

From the “golden rule” for new members to the psychology behind retention, Dan and host Jocelyn Rylee dig into how affiliate owners can build stronger communities, smarter systems, and more sustainable businesses.

TOPICS INCLUDED

  • The data behind retention: what predicts whether members stay
  • The connection between engagement, referrals, and sales
  • How to onboard new members without making them feel stupid
  • Using technology (and AI) to support, not replace, community

Community Highlight

The FDNY Barbell Club doesn’t just fight fires. They train like their lives depend on it.

Founded in 2019 by firefighter Rick Roman, the department’s official CrossFit team blends competition, camaraderie, and accountability inside a firehouse gym outfitted with ropes, rowers, and barbells.

They push through classic CrossFit workouts, monthly throwdowns, and competitions from local events to the World Police and Fire Games, where Roman and his teammates recently landed on the podium.

For them, every rep has a deeper purpose: staying ready. In full gear, firefighters carry 60 to 130 lb into life-or-death situations, and CrossFit builds the strength, stamina, and grit they need when the alarm bell rings.

“You want to do it right, do it hard, and make sure everyone goes home.”

Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Image of Jocelyn Rylee, Maggie Mullen, and Denise Thomas with text HOLIDAY SPECIAL and snowflakes in the background

Behind the Scenes of the CrossFit Podcast in 2025

By

On December 22, 2025

In The CrossFit Podcast

The CrossFit Podcast team is pulling back the curtain for this special episode. Get a look behind the scenes at what it took to restart the CrossFit Podcast, what we learned the hard way, and the top moments of the show in 2025. 

Spend a little bit of your holiday season with us — Denise Thomas, Jocelyn Rylee, and Maggie Mullen. We hope this episode brings you some holiday cheer, ideas for what to binge next, and a bit of perspective on what matters most.

From all of us to you and your family — both CrossFit and nuclear — happy holidays, and please tell us how 12 Days of Christmas (or whatever WOD you’re hitting) goes. 

Topics Covered

  • Why CrossFit brought the podcast back and what changed in 2025.
  • The turning point episode: Has CrossFit Lost Its Soul With James Hobart.
  • Why we do this podcast – the most meaningful moments.
  • Top five episodes worth revisiting from 2025. 

Episodes Mentioned

Resources Mentioned

Community Highlight

CrossFit PolFed RAC exists because one officer, Pierre De Pelsemaeker-Godart, kept sharing something he cared about.

In 2010, when his team in the Brussels Federal Judicial Police moved into an unfinished government building, Pierre had just discovered CrossFit. With no gym, no equipment, and no dedicated space, he organized workouts wherever he could—outside in the park, inside the office, and eventually in an empty underground concrete room.

Pierre led his colleagues in building a training space from scratch using pallets, cardboard, and bodyweight movements. More officers joined because the workouts were simple, consistent, and open to anyone.

By 2014, a small sports room became their home base. They pooled money for second-hand equipment, competed in the CrossFit Open, and officially founded the nonprofit CrossFit PolFed RAC.

Years later, the affiliate is still active, serving dozens of members, because one person believed training together could change his workplace — and did the work to make it real.

Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com].

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Jocelyn Rylee and Matteo Pozzati with Text Fitness is Health not a Luxury and the CrossFit Medical Society logo thumbnail

[CFMS SERIES] The Decline of Health in Italy and How to Stop It

By

On December 8, 2025

In The CrossFit Podcast

This marks the ninth episode of a special CrossFit Podcast collaboration with the CrossFit Medical Society. 

Italy once held one of the lowest obesity rates in the developed world, but that’s changing fast. CrossFit Country Manager and longtime affiliate owner Matteo Pozzati joins the show to talk about the cultural shift in Italy, the rise of chronic disease, and how CrossFit is stepping in to rebuild true health from the ground up.

Matteo shares his journey from coaching in Venice to teaching hospital workers how to move safely, leading Italy’s affiliate community, and fighting to preserve CrossFit’s identity amid the noise of mainstream fitness.

He and host Jocelyn Rylee discuss why elite coaching matters, how education is the bridge to better health, and what it’ll take to connect CrossFit affiliates and healthcare systems worldwide.

Topics Covered

  • The decline of the Mediterranean diet and rise of chronic disease in Italy
  • Bringing CrossFit methodology into hospitals and health care education
  • Building bridges between affiliates and medical professionals
  • Preserving CrossFit’s identity and elite coaching standards
  • Nutrition, culture, and the return to traditional food practices
  • The global challenge of connecting CrossFit to health systems

Community Highlight

For nearly two decades, Erin Richter has been fighting for health on the front lines — and refusing to give up.

She opened CrossFit Old School in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 2008, staying there, as she put it, “because this was the area that needed it the most.”

Today, her affiliate serves kids as young as 3 and adults in their 80s. She partners with addiction recovery centers, supports people with disabilities, and helps those told they’d never squat again find their strength.

She’s built nonprofits, raised thousands for local causes, and worked with the state to bring CrossFit into public schools.

Erin doesn’t chase PRs or the spotlight, just impact. In a city dubbed the “Obesity Capital of the U.S.,” she’s quietly changing lives every day.

Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com].

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Jocelyn Rylee and Maggie Mullen with text Fat Shaming or Body Positivity?! and the CrossFit Medical Society logo thumbnail

Rethinking Body Image and Nutrition in CrossFit

By

On December 1, 2025

In The CrossFit Podcast

This marks the eighth episode of a special CrossFit Podcast collaboration with the CrossFit Medical Society. 

CrossFit Podcast producer Maggie Mullen steps out from backstage for a raw, unfiltered conversation about body image, nutrition, and the culture of CrossFit. From her early days as a competitor and fueling to perform, to finding balance, Maggie opens up about food neurosis, body dysmorphia, and an alternative view of diet culture.

This episode digs into the tension between discipline and obsession, aesthetics and health, and what it really means to chase your best self inside the gym and out.

TOPICS INCLUDED

  • How CrossFit reshaped Maggie’s relationship with food and body image
  • Body positivity vs. fat shaming — and finding a “third way”
  • The role of CrossFit in building self-awareness and resilience
  • CrossFit as moving meditation and mental health therapy

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Community Highlight

Duncan Seawell is a clinical psychologist and the president of Forging Youth Resilience (FYR), a nonprofit helping gyms open their doors to kids who otherwise couldn’t access CrossFit.

He launched a Steve’s Club chapter in Denver in 2015 and helped shape FYR into what it is today: a network of 20 active clubs reaching thousands of youth, from foster care to incarceration to kids just trying to find their place.

FYR partners with schools, gyms, and foster homes to deliver trauma-informed CrossFit, covering coaching, transportation, and nutrition. But its heart is FYR Camp, a week-long mountain retreat where kids train, hike, and sit in nightly circles to share their stories.

“It’s sort of a group therapy light context,” Duncan says. “One kid says, ‘I’ve been through this,’ and another says, ‘Me too.’ The power of that connection is amazing.”

As Duncan puts it: “Kids are growing unhealthier in all kinds of ways — physical, mental, metabolic. The solution is prevention. Our job is to make sure no kid is kept out of a gym because of money.”

Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com].

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Dr. Nick and Jocelyn Rylee images with text "DO YOU PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH?" thumbnail

Health Advice From The Fittest Doc

By

On November 24, 2025

In The CrossFit Podcast

Dr. Nick (aka The Fittest Doc) joins Jocelyn Rylee to unpack how CrossFit shaped his approach to medicine. They dig into lifestyle versus pharmaceuticals, the role of identity in lasting change, and why doctors need to prioritize their own health.

Topics Covered

  • How CrossFit reshaped Dr. Nick’s discipline and medical practice
  • Lifestyle-first vs. pharma-first approaches to chronic disease
  • Performance as a predictor of future health
  • Building credibility: Should doctors practice what they preach?
  • The role of affiliates in bridging healthcare and community

Resources Mentioned

Community Highlight

The Phoenix is built on one idea: recovery is stronger in community.

Since 2006, they’ve reached nearly a million people impacted by substance use and mental health challenges — and CrossFit has become their most popular program. More than 100,000 people have found sobriety and support through Phoenix CrossFit classes, with 83% staying sober beyond the three-month mark.

We spoke with Gavin Young, a Phoenix leader and longtime CrossFit athlete in recovery, who shared how daily progress in training — one more rep, one more pound, one more second — becomes a cornerstone in rebuilding lives.

From Boston to Denver to Philadelphia, The Phoenix is proving what’s possible when fitness meets recovery: a resilient community built on hope, accountability, and shared struggle — one workout at a time.


Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Jocelyn Rylee and Dave Durante with text WHERE CROSSFIT AND THE OLYMPICS COLLIDE and the CrossFit MEdical Society logo podcast thumbnail

[CFMS SERIES] Dave Durante on Life After the Olympics (EP. 053)

By

On November 17, 2025

In The CrossFit Podcast

This marks the seventh episode of a special CrossFit Podcast collaboration with the CrossFit Medical Society. 

Olympian and Power Monkey Fitness co-founder Dave Durante joins the CrossFit Podcast to talk about the transition from elite competition to lifelong fitness. After representing the U.S. in gymnastics at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Dave discovered CrossFit, and it changed his life.

He shares how CrossFit helped him stay healthy and strong beyond his competitive years, the story behind Power Monkey Camp, and why gymnastics remains one of the best foundations for athleticism at any age.

TOPICS INCLUDED

  • Life after elite sport: finding purpose and health beyond competition
  • How CrossFit reignited Dave’s passion for training
  • The creation and evolution of Power Monkey Camp
  • Building bridges between gymnastics and CrossFit
  • The importance of play, curiosity, and community in adult fitness
  • Why gymnastics is the ultimate foundation for all sports

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Community Highlight

After two decades studying cancer genetics, Dr. Jennifer Beebe-Dimmer wanted to give patients something they could act on today. That’s how the CAPABLE program was born, a free, 12-week, CrossFit-based intervention for cancer survivors.

Coached by Level 1 trainers, participants train three times a week and complete pre- and post-testing for strength, conditioning, and biomarkers. Since 2019, more than 275 people have gone through the program, most of whom had never done anything like it before.

The results speak for themselves: significant improvements in quality of life, body composition, sleep, and A1C, with cognitive function up next.

Beebe-Dimmer calls CrossFit the “secret sauce,” not just for the workouts, but for the coaching and community that keep people coming back.“

When I look back at my career, this will be the most meaningful thing I’ve done.”

Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com] or complete our survey here.

Join us LIVE every Thursday at 10 a.m. If you love this podcast, please drop us a rating and review, and share it with everyone you love.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Nicole Carroll, Denise Thomas, and Craig Howard with text FORGING ELITE FITNESS IS BACK LIVE PODCAST thumbnail

[LIVE] Understanding the Return to Forging Elite Fitness® (EP. 048)

By

On November 7, 2025

In The CrossFit Podcast

“Forging Elite Fitness®” has been part of the CrossFit brand since 2003. And now, it’s representing CrossFit front and center once again after a few years of lurking behind the scenes. But what does it really mean? And what doesn’t it mean? And why are we bringing it back? 

In this show, Denise Thomas is joined by Nicole Carroll, Craig Howard, and Jocelyn Rylee to unpack the phrase that debuted its revival tour this week in our new “Forging Elite Fitness” video and accompanying article. They’ll talk about where the misunderstanding often lies: Is it only about Games athletes? Is “elite” too aggressive? Or does it perfectly capture what CrossFit does for anyone who walks through the door, from grandparents to Games competitors?

Let us know what you think –> podcasts@crossfit.com

Follow us on YouTube to join us every Thursday at 10 am PT.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Jocelyn Rylee, Josh Plosker, and Zia Rohrbaugh with CrossFIt Medical Society logo and the words THE NEXT REVOLUTION

[CFMS SERIES] The Healthcare Revolution Starts in The Affiliate (EP. 047)

By

On October 27, 2025

In The CrossFit Podcast

This marks the sixth episode of a special CrossFit Podcast collaboration with the CrossFit Medical Society. 

CrossFit affiliates are the force transforming how the healthcare system operates.

Zia Rohrbaugh of CrossFit Counter Culture and Josh Plosker of Invictus Boston have turned their gyms into full-service “health homes,” offering blood panels, IV therapy, and access to Community Care health plans — all built around CrossFit’s foundational principles.

In this conversation, Jocelyn Rylee explores how affiliates bring these systems to life, how members save money through HSA and FSA programs, and what it means for the future of CrossFit and community-based healthcare.

TOPICS INCLUDED

  • How affiliates are transforming into “health homes”
  • Partnering with the CrossFit Medical Society
  • Offering blood panels, IV therapy, and telemedicine in gyms
  • How Community Care provides affordable health coverage
  • Using HSA/FSA and TrueMed to make CrossFit memberships tax-free
  • The future of CrossFit as a global healthcare model

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Community Highlight

In 2011, Jaeho Woo discovered CrossFit as a college athlete in Seoul. What started as training for basketball became a lifelong passion — one that eventually took him to the most remote place on Earth.

After serving in the Korean military and coaching CrossFit, Jaeho opened an affiliate in Seoul — then shipped 500 lb of equipment to Antarctica to found the first CrossFit affiliate on the continent.

For 10 months, he’s coached his 18-person crew in a tiny gym surrounded by glaciers. When the endless dark set in and isolation hit hard, Jaeho kept showing up — knocking on doors, reminding his teammates: When you train together, you feel better, and you’re never alone.

As he prepares to leave Antarctica, Jaeho’s message is simple: Isolation is real. Resilience comes from connection. Wherever you are, don’t go it alone.

Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.

Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com] or complete our survey here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Page 1 of 2

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén