What Trended in CrossFit in 2024?

December 18th, 2024

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • From CBG to HYROX to LSKD to the PFAA, today we take a look back at what trended in 2024.

  • Which matters more for postmenopausal women: protein intake or resistance training and exercise? The answer might surprise you.

  • CrossFit Union Square in New York City qualified six teams for TYR WZA Miami Beach. Learn more about the gym and its training philosophy. Get your tickets for the premier fitness festival of the year now!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I like the idea of tough workouts being written with the best athletes in mind, so at CFUS, this means some very hard workouts. The community pushes each other to progress, and I think it's safe to say what results is one of the fittest gyms in the world.” - Jay Adams, head coach, CrossFit Union Square.

INDUSTRY

Credit: @anikhagreer / Instagram

8 CrossFit Trends From 2024 – A Look Back

It’s that time of the year again: When we review what was hot in the CrossFit stratosphere in 2024.

From apparel and training to nutrition and recovery protocols, we’re looking at what was all the rage in the last 12 months and whether we think these trends will become mainstays in 2025 or fizzle out before we hit Valentine’s Day.

Macros Are Out: CBG is In

First, it was The Zone Diet. Then, the Paleo Diet. And from 2016 until recently, it has been all about tracking your macros with an app.

But when you speak with both nutrition coaches and athletes, many argue that macro tracking is dead, or at least dying. Because, as it turns out, pulling out your phone every time you eat a meal gets old. Fast.

Sure, there are still some athletes who still diligently track their carbohydrate, proteins, and fat grams every day — the third Fittest Woman in the World, Emily Rolfe, is one of them — but others, like CrossFit Games champion James Sprague, say there is a better way.

For Sprague, that better way is Consistency Breeds Growth (CBG), a nutrition coaching company that doesn’t coach their athletes to track macros. Instead, they use what they call a blueprint method, which is much more flexible and relies on less restrictive measuring tactics. And their line-up of elite CrossFit athletes is growing.

  • CBG athletes include Sprague, Danielle Brandon, Haley Adams, Jessi Smith, Chandler Smith, Ellie Turner, Anikha Greer, Rebecka Vitesson, Hattie Kanyo, Hannah Black, and Sam Kwant.

Our prediction: We expect more and more CrossFit athletes, elite and lifestyle alike, to continue moving away from focusing so hard on macros, and we predict the CBG blueprint method is only going to grow in the upcoming year.

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SPEED READS

🏌️‍♂️👟Reebok x Bryson DeChambeau: 2024 U.S. Open golf champ Bryson DeChambeau and his LIV Golf team, the “Crushers GC,” were just signed as the faces of Reebok’s re-entry in the golf footwear and apparel space.

😎🌴 2024 TYR WZA Miami Beach The Gauntlet: Throwdown on the beach at TYR WZA! Registration for the 2025 TYR WZA Gauntlet, powered by the U.S. Army, is LIVE. Register here! 

So far, the TYR WZA elite athlete roster includes:

  • Team: “Girls Who Don’t Run” (Dani Speegle, Kyra Milligan, and Olivia Kerstatter), “Yeti OutKasts” (Danielle Brandon, Emma Lawson, and Shelby Neal), “The OGs” (Sara Sigmundsdottir, Katelyn Van Zyl, and Victoria Campos), “Relyte Salt Baes” (Arielle Loewen, Alex Gazan, and Emily Rolfe), “PJ’s” (Jeff Adler, Jayson Hopper, and Pat Vellner), “the Boys” (Noah Ohlsen, Chandler Smith, and Travis Mayer), and “the Broadway Girls” (Haley Adams, Brooke Wells, and Sydney Wells).

  • Individuals: Emily Rolfe, Saxon Panchik, Jeffrey Adler, Brooke Wells, Travis Mayer, Anikha Greer, Nick Mathew, Laura Horvath, Gui Malheiros, Alexis Raptis, Ricky Garard, Pat Vellner, Dani Speegle, James Sprague, and Arielle Loewen. Many more to come.

🏆 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Rogue Invitational Recap on CBS: The 2024 Rogue Invitational will be replayed on CBS on December 28, 12-2 p.m. ET. Get more details here.

🏃 🧑‍💻 Push Start Webinar: Have you been considering adding HYROX-style programming at your gym? Join Zach Forrest, CrossFit OG and former owner of CrossFit Max Effort, and The Progrm Head Coach John Singleton as they break down the popular functional fitness sport and how it could be a great fit for your gym.

  • The details: This is the first in a series of FREE webinars and will take place TODAY (December 18) at 8:00 a.m. PST / 11:00 a.m. EST. Learn more and register here.

ICYMI: The CrossFit Quarterfinals era is over, relegated to the dustbin of history in the sport of fitness. Before we enter into a period that will more closely resemble the Sanctional Era, we take a look back at Quarterfinals by the numbers.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Credit: Odiseo Castrejon / Unsplash

The Training Priority: Why Exercise Beats Protein for Postmenopausal Women

I'm constantly fielding questions from my postmenopausal clients about how much protein they need to maintain muscle mass.

The fitness world is obsessed with protein these days, and the common wisdom is that aging women need to down protein shakes by the gallon if they want to stay strong and lean.

For an episode of the Consistency Project podcast, I broke down the results of a recent study challenging that notion, and the results might surprise you.

Resistance is Not Futile

The study, published in October 2024, looked at the effects of resistance training and protein intake on body composition and strength in postmenopausal women. 

The researchers divided the participants into four groups:

  1. A control group that did no resistance training and ate a normal amount of protein (0.8g/kg or 0.4g/lb).

  2. A group that did no resistance training but ate a high amount of protein (1.7g/kg or 0.77g/lb).

  3. A group that did resistance training three times per week but ate a normal amount of protein.

  4. A group that did resistance training three times per week and ate a high amount of protein.

After the trial, the groups that did resistance training saw significant improvements in muscle mass and decreases in body fat, regardless of whether they ate a normal or high amount of protein.

The high protein group that didn't exercise saw no changes in body composition.

COMPETITIONS

Credit: Emeric Harney, @emericharney / Instagram

CrossFit Union Square Qualifies Six Teams For TYR Wodapalooza Miami Beach

Nestled in the bustling Union Square intersection of Manhattan is CrossFit Union Square. The gym has a history of producing competitive athletes in the city, and next month, it’s sending a staggering six teams to TYR Wodapalooza in Miami. 

  • The gym, known as “CFUS,” opened in 2014 and has since gone through several iterations and owners. 

Daniel Lynne and Ross Twanmoh, both coaches, came on as owners in 2021 alongside Quinn MacNulty. Like many, the gym closed during COVID-19 and re-opened in September 2020. 

  • “We tried to hit the ground running with what limited membership base was left and then also kind of mold the gym, take the best aspects of the previous iterations and kind of intertwine them with some of the things that we thought were very important,” Lynne tells Morning Chalk Up in an interview. 

The Story of Crossfit Union Square

The gym relocated out of the Union Square area for three years but is back in its original home at the west corner of Union Square in a basement space of 4,500 square feet and 11-foot ceilings.

However, parameters such as those have not slowed down athletes in any sense. 

The gym’s membership ranges from 375 to 425 at one time, and it has become known for its competitive nature and programming. 

HIGHLIGHTS

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.

  • 🏃‍♀️Congratulations to Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and James Newbury, who completed their first HYROX together in a time of 55:48.

  • Congratulations to Olympic medalist and world weightlifting champion Hampton Morris on this 182-kilo/400-pound clean and jerk PR.

  • Congratulations to Chicho Quesada, winner of the 40-44 Men's Division at the Legends Championship.

  • Well done to the athletes who podiumed at Wodstock in Chile last weekend.

  • 🙌Congratulations to Mirjam von Rohr for winning the iF3 World Championships and for PRing her snatch (92 kilos/202 pounds).