[CFMS SERIES] AI, Community, and the Future of CrossFit Affiliates with Dan Uyemura
The CrossFit Podcast
CrossFit LLC
4.3 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2025
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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]
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Every month I see some gym owner like, I've got to move my rig and like 50,000 pounds of weights. And my entire community came and helped me and we did it in like six hours. And they had fun too. Yeah, and then it turns like, let's just make it a workout, you know? And like there's very basic common tenants that are not hard to do. Take no talents, take no special skills that I think if you just focus on them, you can change the trajectory of your gym. |
| 0:21.6 | I have a golden rule which is just like... |
| 0:23.6 | The game is rigged and not in your favor. |
| 0:32.6 | You've been sold the idea that health insurance has your back, |
| 0:35.6 | but you're not a person to them. |
| 0:38.3 | You're a number, a stat. |
| 0:40.3 | It was never about your health. |
| 0:42.3 | It's about their profit margins. |
| 0:44.3 | But there's another way. |
| 0:45.3 | It's community care. |
| 0:46.3 | A healthcare system powered by the same values |
| 0:49.3 | that may crossfit more than just a workout. |
| 0:51.3 | A community that helps each other, covers each other, |
| 0:53.3 | and rises together |
| 0:55.1 | through sickness and life's most unexpected challenges. It's time to rethink health care |
| 0:59.7 | to stop relying on the system that's failed us. They sell sick care. We power health. |
| 1:05.1 | Community care. For more information, visit crossfitmedicalsociety.com. |
| 1:10.1 | Dan, the question that came up was with all the data you have access to you through push press, what percentage of people are signing in for a class compared to how many people are actually logging their score? Oh, I didn't get that data. I don't have that in front of me. Okay. Yeah, I mean, the problem with it is, is like as we were talking about earlier, It is a cultural thing. So there are some gyms who just don't do it at all. And there are some gyms where we see it to be very heavy. |
| 1:33.3 | And I will say this, like from the data that we do see, the gyms with higher engagement, |
| 1:38.0 | and that includes workout tracking, posting on social feeds, like commenting, fist bumping, |
| 1:44.0 | stuff like that, those members are |
| 1:46.0 | much more likely to have engagement with each other, which is obvious. |
... |
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