The What, Why, and How of Creating and Running a CrossFit Seniors Program

Many CrossFit gyms around the world host programs that are tailored to older athletes. Oftentimes, when we talk about masters athletes, we’re referring to people ages 40 and older. Specific programs that are distinct from regular programming and geared for athletes ages 55 and older are often called by a variety of names, i.e., seniors, legends, or vitality, to name a few.

Senior athletes make up a growing segment of the CrossFit community, and in this article we’ll share information on leading a program for older athletes in your affiliate. We hope you find this information useful should you decide to create or revive a program like this in your  community. For the purposes of this article, I’ll refer to the program as the “Seniors Program,” the name we use at my gym, Outlier CrossFit.

What Is a Seniors Program?

A Seniors Program is a CrossFit class that’s tailored to the older population, commonly people 55 and older, but you can be flexible with the age cutoff. It’s typically around this age when we begin noticing the need for more movement modifications on a regular basis, and we may want to provide a more tailored program for that population in our gym.

The key to remember is that a Seniors Program only differs by degree, not by kind. Our older population needs CrossFit as much as the younger population — possibly even more so they can avoid decrepitude. A Senior Program is also a very friendly introduction to CrossFit for an older athlete who might be intimidated by regular group classes.

The goal of a Seniors Program is to create an inclusive environment where a coach can pay close attention to all the individual athletes and make adjustments relative to their physical and psychological tolerances. We want to meet these athletes where they are and make them glad they showed up each and every time.

If done correctly, the great thing about a Seniors Program is that for those who move into that group from regular classes, it won’t look too different. The movements will be the same. The loading will be lighter at times and the reps might be fewer, but the athletes are still doing CrossFit and they’ll still experience amazing results.

What Do You Need to Start a Seniors Program?

Ideally, you will have the following four ingredients before launching your program:

1. Coaches who have deep knowledge of scaling. In our Seniors Program, it’s not unusual to have eight to 10 athletes in class who all have different ailments and injuries. This means you have to be ready to make adjustments and modifications for each individual. We always strive to preserve the movement function so everyone is doing the same general workout, but we should always be ready to modify and be flexible with our scaling options.
2. Patience. Managing a group of athletes with very diverse needs can feel like a lot, but taking the time to listen, understand, and to push them to the limit of their capacity will be the difference between them showing up or giving up.
3. Coaches who know how far is just right. Usually, I don’t recommend putting new coaches with seniors. Most don’t have the knowledge about scaling or enough experience with athletes to know how far they can push someone. Additionally, it is important to find a coach who is excited and motivated to work with this age demographic, and who will value improvement in the gym as it applies to the impact on daily living.

1. Care. This may go without saying, but you’re better off not having a Seniors Program than having one taught by a coach who’s not interested in coaching seniors or learning everything they can about aging athletes. Your members will feel a lack of care and interest and no program will succeed if there isn’t a great and committed coach at the helm.

Why Should I Consider Starting a Seniors Program at My Gym?

If I haven’t convinced you already, here are seven great reasons to start a Seniors Program:

1. Make a difference with this special population. We all have a relative who’s getting up there in age who can benefit from CrossFit. Most of our parents/relatives are probably sick and tired of hearing us talk about CrossFit anyway. They see us doing all kinds of crazy stuff and never think they can do anything like it. You can show them they can!
2. The chance to build mental fortitude in your athletes. CrossFit will expose new clients to movements they may never have tried before and didn’t think they were capable of doing. Especially later in life, we tend to be afraid to try things that are out of our comfort zone. CrossFit creates a safe environment where movements are introduced with scaling in mind relative to the individual’s physical tolerances. When they get their first pull-up, jump-rope skill, or snatch, that moment is priceless because you can see how great it is when they do something they didn’t think was possible.
3. Help reverse chronic disease. If an athlete isn’t exercising regularly and then starts doing CrossFit consistently and adhering to our nutrition recommendations, you have set them on the path of reversing or minimizing chronic disease.
4. Longevity. We all want to live longer, but we especially want to do so if we can thrive. What’s the point of living until you’re 90 if you can’t enjoy every moment? CrossFit gives our seniors an insurance against decrepitude.
5. Community within a community. Providing people in your community with a reason to show up, a way to work out, and a way to connect with others is more powerful than you’ll ever know. People who are socially connected receive more emotional support, are more likely to pursue healthy behaviors (inside and outside the gym), experience better physical and mental health, manage stress and change better, bounce back from physical setbacks more quickly, have more opportunities to help others, and more. The community aspect alone is reason enough.
6. A chance to influence the younger generation. “If senior so-and-so can do it, so can I.” That’s the attitude we hope everyone sees and adopts. We can make CrossFit possible for anyone who walks through our doors. Without doing much marketing, our Seniors Program has grown primarily through word of mouth. If my parents can do it, I can do it!
7. Injury mitigation. Not only do functional movements serve as great injury prevention, they also serve as fantastic movements to drive rehabilitation after an injury. For the seniors population, something like a fall can drive apprehension and a decrease in day-to-day movement, which over time leads to a loss of functionality. Performing functional movements in a class, increasing strength through these patterns, and learning how to do them well decreases the chance for injury in their everyday lives. Additionally, injuries are rehabilitated in the class setting giving individuals the confidence to keep using their bodies as they age.

How Do I Start?

How you start your program will depend on your gym, your current members, and how much reach you have into your local community. Oftentimes, these programs get off the ground through word-of-mouth marketing. Once you get a group committed to each other and to doing CrossFit, the program runs itself. Here are a few simple steps you can take to get things going:

1. Take a poll at the end of each class on a certain day. While at the whiteboard, ask your athletes: How many of you would be interested in or know someone who might be interested in a CrossFit class specifically for seniors? You could give them a general age break of 55 or over, but know that this can be flexible. Take note of how many hands go up and record the tally on the whiteboard to make it visible to the entire gym. If after a few days of asking the question, you sense enough interest to want to keep going, move to Step 2.
2. Send out an email to all of your members letting them know that you’re hosting an informational meeting for anyone interested in learning more about CrossFit for seniors. Invite them to RSVP and to forward it to their moms, dads, grandparents, bosses, and anyone else they think would be interested. Suggest that your current members attend the session with the interested person to answer any additional questions they may have and show them around the gym.
3. Host the informational session where you can talk about CrossFit, the benefits of it, and what a Seniors Program is all about. Have them sign a guest log with their name and email and have them first indicate if they want to do it and next vote for their favorite time slot. You aren’t going to please everyone, but it’s a good idea to get a sense for what works best for people.
4. Once you decide to move forward, start off with two days a week and see how it goes. Some gyms do it twice a week, some do it five. As your program grows, you can add additional days to the week.

We launched our Seniors Program during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. We initially held class online on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m., which was the best time for our members. In July 2020, we switched to in-person classes and held those for about six months until we added a third day. About six months ago, we added a fourth day, and we’re still going strong.

One of the big perks we experienced in getting the program off the ground was having a motivated member who turned into an avid recruiter. She brought a lot of her friends into the program and they’re sticking around!

This has been one of the most satisfying programs I’ve ever run. If you take a moment to watch this video, you’ll see why.

About the Author

Nuno Costa, a CrossFit Certified Level 3 Trainer (CF-L3), has been a member of CrossFit’s Seminar Staff since the beginning of 2012 and has coached Level 1 and Level 2 Seminars all over the world. He also coached the CrossFit Endurance Seminars for over five years, traveling the world to train other coaches on proper running technique, endurance training, nutrition, injury prevention, and program design. Nuno was a NCAA Division 1 Track and Field athlete at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, competing in the 200-m and 400-m sprints, and he has quite a few triathlon finishes to his name, too. Nuno competed in the CrossFit Games Affiliate Cup from 2009 to 2018 including being part of the winning team in 2014. He also took fourth place at the 2019 Games and sixth place at the 2021 Games in the Masters Men 40-44 Division. If you’re ever in San Diego, be sure to drop in on one of his classes.