Comparison of CrossFit Barbara and classic resistance trainings for the protection of strength performance during off-season in kickboxers
Authors: Gençoğlu Cebrail , Şen İlhan 
Published: December 2020

BACKGROUND:

The inability of athletes to train or the decrease in the intensity and frequency of training may cause athletes to lose performance. Particularly in view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining strength outside the normal framework provides an advantage to athletes for the next competitions.

OBJECTIVE:

To compare the CrossFit Barbara which can be applied easily at home during the off-season or some situations such as the epidemic limitation to classic resistance training methods used to maintain the strength performance of national kickboxers.

METHODS:

Forty-three national kickboxers, CrossFit (CF, [Formula: see text] 22), and resistance training (RT, [Formula: see text] 21), participated in this study. While CF performed 20 pull-ups, 30 push-ups, 40 sit-ups, and 50 squat exercises, RT performed bench press, lat pull down, leg press, biceps curl, and triceps extension exercises twice per week for six weeks. Before and after the six weeks, the following variables were measured; body mass (BM) and body fat percentage (FP), VO[Formula: see text], bench press (BP), squat (SQ), leg strength (LS), hand grip strength (HGS), pull-up, push-up and counter movement jump (CMJ).

RESULTS:

BP ([Formula: see text] 0.001, [Formula: see text] 41.125, [Formula: see text] 0.501), SQ ([Formula: see text] 0.001, [Formula: see text] 26.604, [Formula: see text] 0.394), LS ([Formula: see text] 0.001, [Formula: see text] 15.234, [Formula: see text] 0.271), push-up ([Formula: see text] 0.001, [Formula: see text] 31.978, [Formula: see text] 0.438) and pull-up ([Formula: see text] 0.001, [Formula: see text] 24.410, [Formula: see text] 0.373) values changed significantly in group-time interaction between CF and RT groups, while there was no significant difference for the BM ([Formula: see text] 0.198, [Formula: see text] 1.715, [Formula: see text] 0.040), Fat ([Formula: see text] 0.265, [Formula: see text] 1.279, [Formula: see text] 0.030), HGS ([Formula: see text] 0.665, [Formula: see text] 0.190, [Formula: see text] 0.005, CMJ ([Formula: see text] 0.054, [Formula: see text] 3.946, [Formula: see text] 0.088) and VO[Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]0.747, [Formula: see text] 0.106, [Formula: see text] 0.003). Furthermore, according to the before and after study values, BP, SQ, LS, and CMJ decreased significantly ([Formula: see text] 0.05) while BM, FP, HGS, VO[Formula: see text], pull-up and push-up variables did not in the CF ([Formula: see text] 0.05). In the RT, the pull-up and push-up variables decreased significantly ([Formula: see text] 0.05) while there was no significant difference for BP, SQ, LS, HGS, VO[Formula: see text], body mass, body fat percentage and CMJ ([Formula: see text] 0.05).

CONCLUSION:

CF Barbara workout was more effective in maintaining strength endurance performances, and RT in maintaining maximum strength performances. According to the individual performance needs of athletes, reasonable training method can be used to prevent performance decrement in the strength domain.