Improving Health From the Clinic to the Affiliate

Mike Giardina sits down with Simon Bachofner at the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games. Bachofner is a nurse practitioner, a 10-year CrossFit athlete, and a five-year CrossFit affiliate owner. As a member of the audience at the CrossFit Health Panel on “Bridging the Gap Between Fitness and Healthcare,” Bachofner posed a lot of great questions to the panel, and after learning Bachofner is also a healthcare professional, Giardina decided to continue the conversation.

Bachofner describes what he does at his affiliate as metabolic surgery — meaning he uses movement and nutrition to improve the metabolic health of his members. He does this, he says, by increasing athletes’ intensity levels over time.

Bachofner’s affiliate — Hub City CrossFit — is unique. There are many healthcare professionals in the gym, he explains. Bachofner provides healthcare professionals a discount because he knows if he can get them in the gym and provide them the CrossFit experience, then they will be the best representatives of the methodology in their practice. Imagine going to your doctor and they have a CrossFit shirt on. That might be all that is necessary to motivate a patient to take charge of their health and get into the affiliate.

When wearing his nurse-practitioner hat, Bachofner utilizes an unorthodox model called “direct primary care.” This is an all-encompassing membership model in which the patient has 24-hour access to their provider along with longer appointment times. Bachofner explains how this allows him to dig deeper into movement, nutrition, and other lifestyle factors with his patients. It also forces the patient to put some skin in the game, he adds, and be more accountable for their own health.

Bachofner was excited about the new CrossFit Level 1 Certificate Course for Healthcare Professionals (HCP-L1) and how it is now open to all healthcare professionals. Education can provide healthcare professionals with critical information — allowing for more in-depth conversations with patients. The end goal is to get them in the affiliate, Bachofner explains, because that is where the magic happens.