In February 2024, CrossFit affiliate owners, coaches, and healthcare professionals came together for the CrossFit for Health Summit, presented by GORUCK. CrossFit thought leaders led panel discussions on fitness, performance, and the hard work of health, while renowned experts shared cutting-edge research on longevity, chronic disease, mental health, and community — and CrossFit’s powerful role in it all.
Ben Roberts watched as one of the most consistent members at his gym began to gain weight and lose fitness.
Although the young woman came to class five times a week, she had a sugar problem, she told Roberts one day. Four to five sodas a daily, three sugar packets per coffee.
Later that day, an Instagram post promoting the 2024 CrossFit for Health Summit appeared on Roberts’ feed. It was shared by Summit emcee Karen Thomson, whose handle — @sugarfreerevolution — caught Roberts’ eye. He registered to attend, then sent the link to his athlete.
“I’m gonna go see this lady,” he told her. “And I’m gonna bring back something for you.”
Roberts, 52, is lean and well-muscled. He looks exactly as you might expect a CrossFit affiliate owner and Level 2 Trainer to appear. But he hasn’t always been fit.
Despite an active background and four years’ service in the U.S. Air Force, by 35, Roberts weighed 304 pounds — 48% of which was fat — and was prediabetic and “lethargic.”
“I was a sales rep, and I closed with Krispy Kremes and Bojangles biscuits,” he said.
After learning he was prediabetic, Roberts began to educate himself about Type 2 diabetes.
“I saw a video about losing toes, I freaked out … and I radically changed,” he said.
Roberts changed his diet and joined a boot-camp program, eventually opening his own fitness studio. After finding and falling in love with CrossFit in 2012, Roberts became a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and coached at a local affiliate and abroad in Saudi Arabia before opening Tobacco Road CrossFit in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2021.
Ben Roberts during the CrossFit for Health Summit workout at CrossFit Central Downtown I Photo by Tyson Oldroyd
In the early years of his CrossFit journey, Roberts was focused on the usual shiny objects of training: adding more weight to the bar. Getting muscle-ups. The score on the whiteboard.
Now, “as I’m aging, I’m seeing more important things,” he said. “You see people coming for rehabilitation, to fight off chronic illness, for quality of life.”
Important things like the 72-year-old woman at his affiliate who trains so if she falls, she can get back up. Or his sister — who has primary lateral sclerosis, a motor neuron disease — who started CrossFit in a wheelchair and now walks without it.
It’s about “quality of life, longevity,” Roberts said.
That’s why he came to the Summit.
“To get information; to share what I learned here,” Roberts said.
Learnings like the connections between physical disorders like diabetes and cardiovascular disease and mental disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disease. Or how to begin bridging the gap between fitness professionals and physicians. Or how to navigate the challenges of guiding clients toward health in the midst of chaotic, stressful lives.
And the education doesn’t stop there. Later this year, Roberts hopes to pass the Certified CrossFit Trainer Exam and become a CrossFit Level 3 Trainer.
“To be able to convince someone to (train) intensely and inspire others to do it, that’s the hard part because I gotta learn your personality — when to back off, when to press, when to ask the right questions — all these people have that,” Roberts said, gesturing to the cluster of CrossFit Seminar Staff trainers on hand for the workout.
And to get that “that” — the kind of expertise, experience, and wisdom that changes lives — you gotta keep learning.
“My calling is to help people,” Roberts said. “So … this is the year I’m dedicating to further educate myself to give back.”
About the Author
Brittney Saline is Senior Writer and Editor for CrossFit, LLC. Previously, she was a writer and editor for the CrossFit Journal. She’s been sharing powerful stories from and for the CrossFit community since 2012, covering topics ranging from problems with healthcare and Big Pharma to CrossFit’s potential for reversing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease to discourses on femininity and musculature. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her pug, Leo. Got a story to share? Email Brittney here.
Chronicles From the CrossFit for Health Summit: Knowledge Is Power