Nuevas Tendencias en Crossfit: Indicadores de Rendimiento, Prevención de Lesiones y Estrategias de Recuperación

Abstract

There is scarce evidence on the relationship between physical and physiological capacities and performance in CrossFit. In addition, there is a controversy about the incidence of injuries in this sport. Finally, although numerous recovery methods have been proposed in other sports, it is not known whether these methods are effective in CrossFit. The aim of this thesis was to find the association between physical and physiological variables with CrossFit performance, as well as to determine the incidence of injuries in this sport, how a preventive exercise program affects this incidence, and to evaluate the effects of different recovery methods after a CrossFit session. This doctoral thesis consists of four scientific articles, two of them with an observational design and the other two with an experimental design. The studies were conducted at the Physiology Laboratory of the European University of Madrid and at the box of CrossFit Las Rozas. The results obtained in this thesis shows that higher levels of strength and power of both, upper and lower limbs are positively correlated to CrossFit performance. The rate of injuries in this sport was found to be low (0.04 per 1000 h), and the general injury prevention protocol was not shown to significantly reduce this rate. Finally, no differences were observed in recovery methods after a CrossFit session with different methods such as surface neuromuscular electrostimulation (NMES), active recovery (cycling) or total rest.