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.
Long Biker Shorts Backlash?
In the past two years, we saw longer-style bike shorts start taking over the women’s side of the competition, with more and more athletes abandoning the booty shorts.
- In 2023, the longer short arguably became the dominant look at the Games.
This trend, however, seems to have slowed, even reversed its course, as many of our favorite female athletes—Brooke Wells, Dani Speegle, Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, Emily Rolfe, Danielle Brandon, to name a few—sported shorter shorts again in 2024. O, at the very least, they split their time between the two short types.
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Our prediction: We will continue to swing back to shorter shorts (because they just look better).
HYROX Training Explodes
In case you have been living under a rock, HYROX has become all the noise in the functional fitness space and has spread deeply into the CrossFit community.
CrossFit athletes like Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, Emma Lawson, and Jack Farlow are signing up for HYROX’s worldwide competitions in droves, and many affiliates are now offering HYROX-specific training and classes.
John Singleton, the owner of The Progrm is even an official HYROX Programming Partner and offers affiliate programming to CrossFit boxes looking to implement HYROX training and classes at their affiliates.
- Fun fact: HYROX just hit 5,000 global training clubs this month.
Our prediction: HYROX is on the rise and will keep growing for another couple of years. However, we expect the novelty to wear off eventually because the event is always the same, and CrossFit athletes like variety. Many of us might try it once and then move on. Just like we did with Tough Mudder.
Our Beloved Vets Are Retiring
It started with 10-time Individual and current Fittest Team on Earth captain Kara Saunders, who retired after the 2024 Games. Then, nine-time Games veteran Brent Fikowski announced his retirement this fall. More recently, it was 10-time Games vet Katrin Davidsdottir who said she is finished with competing.
Also, Chandler Smith wrote a riddle of a post that said: “Not stopping, just turning. Good run,” which can only be interpreted as he’s planning on pivoting away from the CrossFit Games season.
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All of the above are some of the most beloved athletes our sport has to offer, and it’s sad to see them go.
Our prediction: We’re hearing other rumors of other athlete retirements and certainly rumors of athletes who are planning on looking for alternatives to the CrossFit Games season after everything that has gone down in recent months.
LSKD Is Going Strong
LSKD made our what’s trending list last year, as the Australian apparel company seemed to be everywhere all of a sudden. (Sara Sigmundsdottir, with her 1.7 million followers, probably helped).
- And as predicted, LSKD seems to be getting even stronger in our community.
Our prediction: The apparel market is competitive, but we expect LSKD to continue spreading its tentacles inside the CrossFit community in 2025 and beyond.
The PFAA
Sadly, it took a tragedy at the 2024 CrossFit Games for the Professional Fitness Athletes’ Association, which was formed in 2020, to become more visible and relevant in recent weeks, but their presence is very apparent to the community now.
Our prediction: With the now-retired Fikoswki at the helm, we expect the PFAA to start gaining a little more traction on the sport side of things. At least, we can hope.
Diversification of the Shoe Game
From 2011 to 2015, it seemed like all anyone wore on their feet were Reebok Nanos. Then, in 2015, Nike entered the market with the Metcon and stole a bit of the market.
Since then, more and more brands have entered the training shoe space — TYR, RAD, NOBULL, and Born Primitive. More recently, Laura Horvath and Haley Adams started rocking Adidas, and Dani Speegle just announced a new partnership with INOV8.
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Today’s trend: No one shoe brand is dominating anymore, and the market continues to expand.
Our prediction: Reebok and TYR aren’t going anywhere, but NOBULL seems to be fading. We expect Adidas and INOV8 to grow in the space.
Contrast Therapy
Cold plunges became mainstream a couple of years ago, but it seems we have all come to our senses and have realized it’s nicer to be warm.
As such, contrast therapy has become the thing where you go back and forth between cold and hot water or a sauna.
Fun fact: Scott Panchik’s gym, CrossFit Mentality in Mentor, OH, has both a cold plunge and a sauna, and his athletes can access them at any time, even when the gym is closed, as he offers unattended access through HybridAF.
Our prediction: On the one hand, contrast therapy isn’t new. It has been around forever. But in terms of gyms offering it, we don’t expect this trend to explode. If you want a cold plunge and a sauna in your gym after your workout, you might have to move to Ohio.
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Featured image: @anikhagreer / Instagram
