Since Crossfit as a sport is very young, many of the athletes at the top today were previously focused on other sports and then transitioned into Crossfit as it grew.

This means that almost all competitors walked into the sport already having a high level of fitness but in different areas than each other. Thats why you can see a new member walk in and lift heavy weights with ease but tank on cardio while other new members are the opposite.

I thought it would be interesting to see just which sports would be the most transferrable to Crossfit. Each have their strengths and weaknesses, but if the prize money for The Crossfit Games suddenly gave 1st place $1,000,000 which sports athletes would have the best shot at winning it?

Most transferable = Shortest time to be competitive.

Least transferable = Longest time to be competitive.

Now for the list.

BEST SPORTS FOR CROSSFIT SUCCESS

#1 RUGBY

Rugby players would be the quickest to adapt to Crossfit style training and competitions as they do a lot of similar training programs already.

Rugby players are quite proficient in a couple of the olympic lifts such as the power clean and squat clean as they train them often for rate of force development. They would however have to take some time to learn the more technical lifts such as the snatch and the split jerk which could prolong time to elite Crossfit status.

Rugby players are very strong in the power lifts such as the bench press, deadlift, squat, and strict press, meaning they already have quite a reserve of maximum strength as well as a strong posterior chain and upper body strength that even most top Crossfit athletes simply don’t have at that level.

Besides the strength aspect of Rugby it is also extremely aerobic as matches last 80 minutes played in two 40 minute non-stop halves. These 40 minute halves do not have plays like football, it is a continuous 40 minutes of play and that requires high levels of aerobic fitness. This aerobic fitness would benefit practically every Crossfit workout imaginable and especially in workouts over 20 minutes.

Along with weightlifting and aerobic capacity they also have phenomenal anaerobic capacity that would help them do well in short and intense workouts in the sub 5-6 minute range such as Fran or Diane. Their anaerobic capacity has been built because it is required to explode into short duration sprints on the field in order to score.

The biggest obstacles rugby players would have coming into Crossfit is their body mass and lack of flexibility.

Aside from a few shorter players almost all male rugby athletes are over 200 pounds and that is on the low end, and although that is not that heavy it is heavy for Crossfit where most athletes are shorter and under 200 pounds. This extra body mass is a disadvantage in all workouts that don’t require heavy weights to be lifted, especially gymnastics. It is going to be much more difficult for a 220 pound man and a 185 pound woman to do muscle ups and handstand walks than it will be for a lighter athlete.

Lack of flexibility is another point of concern as rugby does not require much of it besides hamstring flexibility. This could cause problems for many movements that require a lot of mobility such as overhead movements.

ADVANTAGES: Strength, aerobic & anaerobic capacity

DISADVANTAGES: Weight, flexibility, gymnastics

#2 OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING

Olympic weightlifting athletes follow closely behind rugby players as they have a lot of advantages walking into Crossfit and what they do lack can be gained quickly.

The #1 problem facing the majority of Crossfit Games dreamers today is a lack of strength, primarily in the olympic lifts. Olympic lifters don’t have this problem. They will walk into the sport already possessing all of the strength that they would need to be competitive. They don’t have to spend any time working on acquiring strength like everyone else as they already have more than they need.

Along with maximum strength they also have phenomenal mobility and move very efficiently since that is required to lift the most weight. If an olympic lifter walked into your Crossfit gym you likely wouldn’t have to teach them anything about mobility, bar paths, full extension, etc. as they have learned that for years already. This would prove to be beneficial in competition as they will not waste energy with inefficient movement patterns.

At the 2018 Crossfit Games over 80% of the events involved a barbell, giving olympic lifters a great advantage.

Core strength is needed for practically everything in Crossfit and olympic lifters have the strongest cores around. When you are under a heavy barbell often as they are you can have absolutely no leakage of stability throughout the lift or you will fail that lift. Because it is so important olympic lifters spend a lot of time with core accessory work to ensure that they have an internal weight belt that protects them.

Unlike rugby players, olympic weightlifters are not all that heavy as their goal is to be as light as possible while still lifting as much as possible. Since most weight classes are not over 200 pounds olympic weightlifters would not have to worry so much about their body mass slowing them down.

The obvious disadvantage for oly lifters entering the sport of Crossfit would be their complete lack of endurance. They train year-round to increase their snatch and clean and jerk which take only 0ne and five seconds to complete the lift. This leaves everything over 5 seconds a weakness for them.

Their endurance would have to be built from nothing, but the great thing about that is that it takes a lot less time to gain endurance than it does to gain strength. An olympic lifter can acquire pretty decent endurance in a matter of a couple of months especially since they don’t need to worry about strength training, while someone looking to acquire absolute strength will have a longer journey.

Gymnastics would be difficult to learn as it would be every sport besides actual gymnastics. Their bodies are strong enough to do the movement which helps tremendously, but they would still need technique assistance for a while.

ADVANTAGES: Strength, mobility, efficiency, core

DISADVANTAGES: Endurance, gymnastics

#3 FOOTBALL

Athletes from these 3 sports all have a common theme that make them useful in Crossfit: strength. In the offseason football players spend a majority of their time training on strength and that includes the power and squat clean, squats, and deadlifts, all of which are used in Crossfit.

Just like rugby players football players have great strength but they aren’t familiar with the snatch or clean and jerk or have the mobility that goes along with them. Learning those lifts would take some time of course, but not nearly as long as someone that has very little strength at all like an endurance athlete.

It is true that football players don’t have great aerobic capacity but what they do have is great anaerobic capacity. Because plays in football last only a few seconds followed by 20-30 second rests football is the perfect form of interval training for anaerobic capacity with 1:10 work-to-rest periods. Although they would have to drastically increase their aerobic endurance they probably could perform well in short Crossfit workouts rather quickly after joining.

Strongman events such as sled pushes/pulls and yokes would give a huge advantage to football players as sleds are on the favorite training tools of strength and conditioning coaches for field athletes. There are however not many strongman events that show up in Crossfit competition.

Disadvantages of football include gymnastics of course, lack of mobility, body mass for certain positions, and aerobic capacity for events longer than a minute or so.

ADVANTAGES: Strength, anaerobic capacity, strongman movements

DISADVANTAGES: aerobic capacity, gymnastics, body mass, lack of mobility

If you have any sports that you think should be included in this list please leave a comment on this post on the Heatonminded Facebook page.

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