Weight Management and Appearance Motivate Non-Competitive CrossFit Participants

Abstract

Exercise motives help explain initiation and adherence to exercise programs. As CrossFit (CF) has grown in popularity, the number of competitions has grown accordingly. CF aims to “forge a broad, general and inclusive fitness,” and some may do CF for fitness reasons rather than desiring competition. PURPOSE: To determine if motives for current CF participants differed between those who chose to compete or not at multiple levels. METHODS: Participants included 736 adults (age = 32.5 ± 8.1y, 52.7% male, BMI = 25.6 ± 3.9, 63.9% 1+ years CF experience) who completed an online survey. Over half (59.3%) completed CF workouts 4+ days/week. Participants indicated if they competed in any local competitions, the CF Open, CF Regionals, or CF Games. Participants completed the 51-item Exercise Motivation Inventory (EMI-2) with responses from 0-not at all true for me to 5-very true for me. The EMI-2 contained 14 sub-scales. One-way ANOVAs were used to examine differences between non-competitors and competitors of 1+ levels with SPSS 20. RESULTS: Non-competitors (G0) comprised 38.5% of the sample (n = 282); followed by those competing either in a local competition or the CF Open (G1; 26.1% n = 192); competing at two levels (G2; 26.6%, n = 196); competing at three levels (G3; 6.0%, n = 44); or competing at all four levels (G4; 2.8%, n = 21). Significant differences were found between groups for subscales Revitalization (p = .004), Enjoyment (p < .001), Challenge (p = .002), Social Recognition (p < .001), Affiliation (p < .001), Competition (p < .001), Weight Management (p < .001), Appearance (p = .005), and Strength & Endurance (p = .016). Tukey post hoc tests indicated G0 had significantly lower scores for Revitalization (vs G2, G3), Enjoyment (vs G2, G3), Challenge (vs G3), Social Recognition (vs G2, G3), Affiliation (vs G1-G3), and Competition (vs G1-G4). However, G0 had significantly higher scores for Weight Management (vs G2-G4) and Appearance (vs G4). No significant post hoc differences were found for Strength & Endurance. CONCLUSIONS: Although non-competitors had similar BMIs to the competitive groups (p = .60), they reported significantly greater motives for weight management and appearance. Understanding the different motives between groups can help CF trainers and coaches work with participants to initiate and sustain their CF exercise.