There are a bunch of CrossFit people on YouTube with channels varying flavour substance and value.
Each is different with its own merits, but some off more than others. This article will tell you which ones are best to follow and why.
Free awesome content and the best ones – what more would you want?!
They are in no particular order. Each one is great in its own way and this post will help you decide which ones you might find interesting.
1. Buttery Bros
OK, starting off with these 2 Crossfit G’s wearing funny hats and dungarees, makes for great watching. It’s packed full of banter, comedy and hideous workouts.
Heber Cannon and Marston Sawyers, aka The Buttery Bros, are both filmmakers and just plain buttery dudes!
Buttery Bros Website
Ex-CrossFit Inc employees
So, what are they going to do after being sacked by CrossFit?
It is well known that these two used to work for CrossfitHQ back in the Greg Glassman days.
During a massive overhaul of staff, including the media division, these two dudes got the chop.
It might have been the best thing that ever happened to them, given all the fun they have now.
They started their own channel, their own brand and created their own following in their own right.
Working hard pays off
Mat Fraser noted in one of his videos about how hard these 2 work, often seeing them working all night editing videos and making content to post the next day.
Despite having significant day strains on their WHOOP watches, they never seem to run out of energy. It’s probably because they live on Reign Body Fuel!
Well-made videos, very engaging, energising music, and covers CrossFit in a very balanced and informative manner.
Well worth following them and subscribing to their channel.
2. Armen Hammer TV
More of a person talking on screen about topics pertinent to the day, Armen Hammer TV is an informative channel.
It’s possibly less engaging this some less fancy editing.
However, it makes for great listening when driving in the car on a long journey for instance.
Videocast
It’s almost akin to a podcast depending on the episode you’re watching. He covers interesting topics and also pinpoints athletes, often featuring them too.
This helps glean some insight into those athletes’ lives.
Like most CrossFit channels it contains a healthy portion of humour and silliness.
3. Team RICHEY
Hailing from the Midlands UK, this former bodybuilder – turned CrossFitter – turned Olympic weightlifter is a cross between Armen Hammer TV and Buttery Bros.
Topical and relevant
The videos are well-made and they contain trending memes and internet gags galore.
He can be funny at times, bit sometimes a little bit cringe. It features Craig and his other half Jasmine.
They cover topics very well and Craig knows what he’s talking about with regards to training.
Jas and him travel around (a lot), covering competitions, athlete training, friends, and the general Crossfit lifestyle.
CrossFit news is covered really well, and his insights are provided too, without too much sway.
Keeping up to date
The channel contains great reactive posts and videos to news in the community. He has a very balanced review delivery and is well known within the community.
Richey knows many athletes himself personally having spent much time in other gyms and working out with them.
Their brand is called HSTL Made and it sponsors a number of the lesser known (but still ridiculously good) Games athletes.
Transition to Oly lifting
Craig himself moved away from CrossFit, solely into Olympic weightlifting.
This change in training has seen his Snatch and Clean & Jerk numbers rise exponentially. Based on his Sinclair co-efficient, he is an extremely strong weightlifter.
The brand HSTL Made is very successful in the community. You will struggle to go to a CrossFit gym in most places and not see a sweaty HSTL Made T-shirt.
The channel is very easy to watch and it’s highly engaging. It’s difficult to not get jealous of Craig and Jas’s lifestyle!
4. CrossFit Mayhem
CrossFit Mayhem is a beast of a box in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Home to Rich Froning and his buddies, Mayhem has a huge global following on their training regime.
Online programming is done by many people all around the globe. The videos are pretty entertaining.
They are also really good for finding motivation or inspiration, as they will do workouts which are on level 10 of a hideous scale.
Undisputed
On the channel, there are some great videos including the very polished Mayhem Nation film called Undisputed.
Also amongst the videos are either worthwhile watches such as dominance, moving day, crossword games cinematic highlights, let the games begin, and back on top.
You can also find their Road to the Games series in there which are well made and very fun to watch.
If day-in-the-life of CrossFit is also your bag, look deeper into the archives of this channel and you’ll find some of those sorts of videos, too.
Athletes it features are the one and only Rich training, Dan Bailey, Hayley Adams, and (cousin) Darren, among the other usual mayhem athletes.
5. Froning and Friends
This is a podcast and it’s more of a listening and watching kind of channel.
Another great one for the car long journeys.
They can be a little bit stale at times if completely honest, but still makes for great listening for those who like athlete analysis.
The sound quality of a little bit hit and miss.
If you can get over that though, its a great watch (or listen).
Guest appearances
You can expect to find many of the top past and present athletes on the podcast. Athletes such as Dan Bailey, Josh Bridges and Tia-Clair Toomey.
Even Mat Fraser appears on an earlier episode…! Before they supposedly fell out.
6. CrossFit Games
This is a great channel. Always up-to-date, showing the latest competitive side of the sport.
Peak activity time: July and August of each year as the CrossFit Games season airs the final.
Spit and polish
The videos are well polished.
Since Greg Glassman’s swift exit, the media has been revitalised by new owner Eric Roza. And because of that, this channel has really flourished again putting out awesome content.
They do great teaser videos in the lead-up to big competitions such as the CrossFit games. Furthermore, they get out awesome highlight videos of the games after the events.
This channel is where you can watch the whole of the CrossFit games live every day (if you want to that is).
It is streamed all day on competition days. This can then be watched back in your own time as a previous live stream.
The CrossFit Games at your leisure
Obviously, not everyone has it on all day every day. So you can go back on the day before and scrub through the day is 12+ our live feed and watch the workouts you like to watch. Very useful.
Like much competitive individual sports on TV, they oftentimes hone in on the top athletes.
This can be met with frustration sometimes as we also like to watch other athletes on the field. But that’s live individual sporting events for you.
Open announcements
Another cool thing they do is the release of the CrossFit Open announcements.
These are elite athletes put together head-to-head on a competition floor.
They announce the workout for the world, and then you watch Athletes going at it in a gladiatorial fight to the death.
Highly interesting (if you’re a bit twisted).
These workouts being announced and performed are the ones you’ll be doing too if you’re signed up to the CrossFit Open.
For more information on that, check out this Best Gym Hacks article here.
7. CrossFit.com
Not to be confused with the channel ‘CrossFit games’. This channel here is Crossfit’s main channel.
It is great for hints, tips and hacks on how to be better at your hobby, passion, sport, or whatever it is for you.
Packed full of useful videos
It’s brimming with interesting short, medium and long videos, on subjects such as ketogenic nutrition, small business ownership, the definition of Crossfit, mastering movements, foundational movements, squat therapy, gymnastics courses, and many other interesting and engaging topics.
Videos galore
You can easily flick through the 6500 videos on the channel to find something to watch every single day of the week.
The channel is 11 years old, so with age comes maturity. It’s great to see the evolution of the early videos and where it is now in 2022.
Inside the life of…
There is much to be cleaned from many of the videos on the channel.
Also great is watching the inside lives of CrossFit athletes. A video from 10 years ago Annie Thorris makes me feel old. I remember watching that in awe back then.
This is before YouTube was massive and media such as this was sparse.
This is not only an interesting channel but also a very valuable resource for anyone into CrossFit.
8. Tia-Clair Toomey & Shane Orr
Another decent channel with almost a couple of hundred videos to its name.
This power couple are well known and extremely well respected in the industry.
Shane is a funny dude, very down-to-earth, self-deprecating and sometimes a bit dry, but mostly hilarious.
His superhero wife is 6x world champion, and now the most prolific CrossFit athlete there ever was in regards to individual competitor.
They are Australian but living in the US. Shane is a patient guy coaching Tia through her champion reign.
Fly on the wall
This channel is great to see inside the life of Tia Clair Toomey.
Who wouldn’t want to watch how someone so prolific can become so big and prolific behind closed doors?
They talk candidly and openly about topics in and around their life.
Much of the videos are based on competitive CrossFit, the CrossFit Open, and the CrossFit Games season. It heavily features season planning and competitions.
Get stuck in if you have time for an Aussie accent.
9. The Sevan Podcast
Is not for the fainthearted. Nor is it for humans under 18 years old.
Sevan is one is a foul-mouthed and pretty cress individual. However, his dry sense of humour appeals to many.
He was previously Head of Media at CrossFit Inc. so knows a thing or two.
He is not afraid to ask people difficult questions, explore difficult topics, or voice opinions in an unequivocal and very blunt way.
He is the kind of person that makes many people laugh by just being himself and has got that air of confidence about him.
He sounds like the kind of guy that if you’re in a room with him and he didn’t really know you, he will probably try to make you feel extremely uncomfortable by talking about your weird shoes, or his bowel movements first thing in the morning. That kind of guy.
Certainly, this podcast/YouTube channel it’s not for everyone.
He has some great guests on though and covers some noteworthy and current topics very well.
10. Dave Castro
Love him or hate him Dave Casto is one of the most important people that existed in the CrossFit sphere.
Temporary CEO and long-time director of the CrossFit games, he was moved away after Eric Roza took over.
Change for the good?
Some people this was a welcome change, for others it was a bad move.
His open announcements could often be a little bit cringe. He was known for being the big bad wolf and delivering horrific CrossFit workouts, in drip-fed or piecemeal format.
His social media has been divisive and controversial for many reasons, (such as guns and animals dead with him grinning at the side).
Not polished but real
In fairness, his channel is pretty amateur. Much like his Instagram page too.
On there you can see Castro filming himself on his phone, T-shirt off dripping with sweat after doing something pretty gnarly in his garage.
Nothing pretty, nothing pro…so that means nothing fake about it really. Pretty down is earth and interesting to watch.
His YouTube channel is of similar ilk and many people find it interesting. Worth checking out
11. Sporty Beth
This British self-confessed “plus-sized, average CrossFitter” covers topics similar to Team Richie.
Nowhere near as large of the following as Craig Richie, but she has just over 250 videos.
It’s kind of nice to get an ‘average review’ on certain topics which is often covered by Elites or more mainstream people.
Beth covers the competitive side as a plus-size athlete, which is really nice to see. And she’ll cover diet, eating, and how that dovetails into training.
Bethany was on a UK TV programme called SAS Who Dares Wins, so she’s not a stranger to the camera. This makes her quite natural in her Vlog, so her delivery is easy to watch.
It’s a refreshing channel and again is more opinion, experience and some fact fused together.
12. Talking Elite Fitness
CrossFit commentators Sean Woodland and Tommy Marquez run this channel with over 200 videos.
Both of them have very professional and fluid commentary techniques, and clearly are fountains of knowledge within the sport itself.
Guests on the show
They feature great top moments at CrossFit games events and cover interesting topics such as athlete Check-ins, and the easy-to-watch recaps of comp days.
Their opinion is well respected and well-founded, having been working in the industry and specifically on CrossFit media for many years.
Featuring Fitness with Friends…
Within the videos, they have a series called Fitness with Friends, where they call upon individual athletes for a chat.
Again, this makes for interesting viewing, if you like listening to day-in-the life conversations about your favourite athlete.
They are well-known faces in the brand and deliver excellent value videos on YouTube.
It’s well worth checking out this channel for thorough and easy to watch updates.
Summary
I hope you found this outline of 12 of the best CrossFit YouTube channels to follow helpful.
If you are new to the sport/community, or maybe 10 years in, these channels will something for everyone.
Check them out and get subscribing!
