Psychobehavioral profiles, competitive progression, and nutritional characteristics in CrossFit® athletes across a national competitive season.

BACKGROUND

Competitive CrossFit® involves substantial physiological, psychological, recovery-related, and nutritional demands throughout a competitive season. However, prospective field-based investigations examining psychobehavioral characteristics across successive competitive stages while simultaneously characterizing the broader training and nutritional context of competitive athletes remain limited. This study primarily investigated psychobehavioral and recovery-related profiles across competitive stages and their associations with subsequent competitive progression during a national CrossFit® season in Brazil. As a secondary exploratory objective, training, anthropometric, and self-reported nutritional characteristics were examined within the same real-world competitive setting.

METHODS

A prospective observational study followed an initial cohort of 239 CrossFit® athletes across three successive competitive stages of the 2025 TCB season. Athletes were followed across the championship's progressive competitive structure, comprising the 4ALL online qualifier, the in-person Super Selective events, and the national Finals. Mood states were assessed using the Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS), perceived stress and recovery using the RESTQ-Sport, and state anxiety using the STAI-State. Psychobehavioral analyses examined differences across competitive stages and associations with subsequent progression, whereas training, anthropometric, and nutritional variables were treated as complementary contextual and exploratory characteristics.

RESULTS

Athletes progressing to later competitive stages demonstrated lower scores for tension, depression, fatigue, confusion, total mood disturbance (TMD), stress, and anxiety, together with higher vigor and recovery scores. The largest stage-related effect was identified for TMD (χ 2 = 184.311; marginal R 2 = 0.501). Competitive category demonstrated stronger interaction effects than sex for psychobehavioral variables. Baseline analyses showed that semifinalists and finalists exhibited more favorable psychological profiles than eliminated athletes. Multinomial logistic regression demonstrated that lower anxiety, lower TMD, lower global stress, and higher global recovery were associated with greater odds of competitive progression. Nutritional analyses showed low explanatory capacity for BMI, with no significant associations between carbohydrate, protein, or fat intake and BMI in the exploratory regression model.

CONCLUSION

Athletes who advanced to later competitive stages showed more favorable psychobehavioral and recovery-related profiles, characterized by lower anxiety, mood disturbance, and stress, and higher perceived recovery. These variables were associated with competitive progression in this cohort, suggesting their potential usefulness for athlete monitoring during CrossFit® competitive seasons. However, given the observational design and the elimination-based structure of the competition, these findings should be interpreted as associations rather than causal effects.