Table 2.

Cross-sectional studies analyzing psychological variables of CrossFit participants (n = 20)

References	Theme	Sample			Results	Adherence to the STROBE Criteria (total/%)
		n	Caract./Gender	Age
Partridge, Knapp and Massengale [41]	Motivacional climate	144	Participants 56 men and 88 women	34.4	Males reported higher levels of performance approach goals and females reported higher levels of master avoidance goals (Mav). Participants who reported shorter membership times were found to have significantly higher mastery-related goals than individuals who reported longer membership times. Participants who reported shorter membership times (less than 6 months) were found to have significantly higher mastery-related goals than individuals who reported longer membership times (more than 6 months)	13/59.1
Martínez and Marmól [39]	Effort, enjoyment and learning	104	Adolescents 62 boys and 42 girls	14.7	High effort perception in CrossFit classes. Adolescents showed high levels of enjoyment and learning perception after CrossFit practice. Boys perceive higher enjoyment and intensity than girls	13/59.1
Fisher et al. [7]	Motivation	314	Participants 132 men and 182 women	36	CrossFit participants (n = 68) were more likely to report higher levels of intrinsic motives (enjoyment, challenge and affiliation), whereas personal training clients (66) reported higher values for health-related motives such as positive health, ill-health avoidance and weight management	15/68.1
Lichtenstein and Jensen [3]	Exercise addiction	598	Participants 328 men and 270 women	Do not report	5% of exercise addiction in CrossFit and young males showed a higher risk	18/81.8
Köteles, Kollsete, Kollsete [49]	Well-being, self-esteem, body awareness, satisfaction with body image, and perceived body competence	186	Participants 57.5% Women	28.9	CrossFit training was not connected with higher levels of psychological functioning (well-being, affect, body awareness, and self-esteem) and satisfaction with body image	15/68.1
Davies, Coleman, and Stellino [36]	Motivation	206	Participants 58% Women	37.6	Participants who attended CrossFit more frequently had significantly higher levels of basic need satisfaction across all three needs (autonomy, relatedness and competency). The sample reported high satisfaction in the relatedness and autonomy needs. Regarding the motivational regulations, the participants presented high autonomous regulation. 59.3% participants reported a 15 to 17 on Borg’s Rate of Perceived Exertion	12/54.5
Pickett et al. [26]	Sense of Community	276	Participants 157 women and 117 men	33.5	The results indicated that sense of community was significantly different for the CrossFit group only. The CrossFit group rated their context higher across the dimensions of administrative consideration, equity in decision making, and social spaces. The CrossFit context did enable strong sense of community perceptions	12/54.4
Whiteman-Sandland, Hawkins, and Clayton [23]	Social capital and Community belongingness	100	Participants 52 men and 48 women	Do not report	Social capital was found to be significantly higher in the CrossFit gym sample than in the Traditional gym sample. It was observed the same result to feelings of community belongingness	19/83.3
Bycura, Feito, and Prather [37]	Motivation	737	Participants 388 men and 344 women	32,4	Revitalization, enjoyment, affiliation, and competition were all significantly correlated with both duration and frequency of participation in CrossFit training. Women were more likely to place greater emphasis on factors related to stress, weight management, and appearance compared to men, who placed greater importance on factors associated with challenge, social recognition, competition, strength and endurance, and nimbleness	16/72.7
Sibley and Bergman [9]	Motivation	322	Participants 65.2% Men	33.9	Results showed that CrossFit participants primarily strive for goals related to health management and skill development, with physique enhancement and social affiliation being of secondary importance. The most frequent participants in CrossFit had significantly higher levels of basic needs satisfaction (autonomy, relatedness and competency)	13/59.1
Feito et al. [50]	Motivation	732	Participants 388 men and 344 women	32.3	The results showed that individuals training < 3 days/week scored lowest on enjoyment, affiliation, and competition motives. Those training > 5 days/week scored highest on challenge, social recognition, strength and endurance, and nimbleness motives, but lowest on weight management	18/81.8
Ayar [51]	Motivation	200	Participants 161 men and 39 women	Do not report	Differences have been found between motivation factors that affect individuals to participate in recreative sports and some of the demographical parameters in some variables of REMM’s health, rivalry, physical appearance, social/entertainment and skill development sub-dimensions Male participants attend to exercises in CrossFit centers with competitive reasons more than female participants	8/36.3
Marin et al. [52]	Motivation	493	Participants 493 351 men and 148 women	30.3	Participants: 365 traditional resistance training and 128 CrossFit CrossFit participants presented higher levels of enjoyment, stress management, social recognition, affiliation, competition, and weight management. CrossFit participants showed higher intrinsic motivation and higher levels of perception of relatedness than resistance training participants	16/72.7
Box et al. [53]	Motivation and Personality	403	Participants 148 men and 255 women	36.3	Participants: 89 CrossFit, 127 Resistance training, 97 Aerobic training, 59 Group exercise, 31 Sport It seemed that those who selected CrossFit training as their primary mode of physical activity reported stronger motivation across the majority of participatory motives in comparison to the other modes. CrossFit training participants reported the greatest levels of intrinsic motivation	17/77.3
Box et al. [54]	Motivation	735	Participants 53.1% men	32.4	Older participants (> 50 years) scored higher on health-related motives, while younger participants (25–32 years) scored higher on social motives relative to their counterparts	18/81.8
Box et al. [43]	Motivation	722	Participants 46.8% women	32.4	Those who had greater length of participation reported more motives associated with relatedness (i.e., affiliation, competition) and enjoyment, while those with less HIFT participation were more motivated by body-related variables (i.e., weight management)	17/77.3
Coyne, Sarah, Woodruff [38]	Body image, self-esteem, and eating behaviours, motivation and reasons for practice CrossFit	149	Participants 149 women	34.9	CrossFit skill was positively associated with overall body image and evaluative body image. CrossFit length participation was negatively associated with disordered eating. No CrossFit variables were associated with global selfesteem. The most commonly mentioned motivations were improving/maintaining physical abilities, challenge, community, and mental health. The reasons most commonly mentioned to practice CrossFit were the community, sense of inclusion, programming, and challenge	15/68.1%
Swami [42]	Body Image	63	Participants 34 men and 29 women	26.1	The scores on body and functionality appreciation, and on body acceptance were significantly higher at the second testing session (after 3 months of CrossFit training compared with baseline). The largest improvements in body appreciation and functionality appreciation were achieved by participants who attended CrossFit classes regularly, ≥ 4 days a week compared to ≤ 3 days a week	14/63.6%
Wilke, Pfarr, Moller [19]	Anxiety and Coping	79	Athletes 36 men and 43 women	32.7	The results indicated substantial levels of anxiety, particularly regarding the somatic dimension of the competition fear index. The most pronounced coping skill was freedom of worry. Women reported higher competition fears and lower coping skill levels than men. Age or level of competition showed no/very small associations	15/68.1%
Freire et al. [20]	Body dissatisfaction, addiction to exercise, and eating disorders	60	Participants 22 men and 38 women	26.5	Individuals dissatisfied with their bodies showed higher level of addiction to exercise and risk behavior for EDs, women showed higher presence of body dissatisfaction than men. Fitness participants (n = 44) reported higher presence of addiction to exercise than Crossfit practitioners (n = 16)	18/81.8