The movement founded by Greg Glassman grew into an empire, helping popularize the masculinity aesthetic embraced by Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr

Comparative machismo is hardly new, but when Donald Trump publicly admired Senator Jon Husted’s backside earlier this month, later telling advisers it made the since-defeated Ohio incumbent more “interesting” to voters, the senator leaned into the compliment, saying it gave him extra motivation to “get down to the gym”.

Would that odd exchange have taken place without CrossFit, the fitness empire founded by college dropout and gymnast Greg Glassman in the 1990s that grew to 15,000 gyms across 160 countries before he was drawn into public controversy at the height of #MeToo and the social justice movement in 2020?

Owners of pilates and yoga studios in the US got political and encouraged their followers to vote on social media

Your local pilates instructors only want you to do two things: breathe through your side-planks and vote.

In the days leading up to the US midterm elections, a wave of posts from fitness and wellness accounts blanketed Instagram, eschewing their typical messaging around the importance of strengthening your core in favor of the importance of exercising your civic duty. Owners of pilates and yoga studios and instructors across the US posted reels and pictures on platforms like Instagram encouraging their followers and clients to vote. Engagement varied depending on their following: posts reaped anywhere from 70 to more than 10,000 likes.