{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T00:36:54Z","timestamp":1788827814733,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,21]],"date-time":"2024-02-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1708473600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>Workplace health interventions aim to motivate employees toward healthy behaviors to improve fitness and health in the long-term. We investigated whether CrossFit\u00ae is an effective training concept to achieve these goals in inactive employees with sedentary occupations.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>The study followed a prospective, controlled intervention design. Employees were invited to participate in intervention group (IG) or control group (CG) on their own preferences. Inclusion criteria were a predominantly sedentary occupation and execution of less than two muscle and\/or mobility enhancing training sessions per week at the time of enrolling. The IG did at least two times a week a CrossFit training of 1\u2009h. Mobility, strength, well-being, and back-issues were measured at the beginning, after 6, and 12\u2009months. Participants in the CG were free to choose any other activities offered at the same time (e.g., circuit training, meditation, full body stability training). Adherence, respectively, behavioral change and maintenance qualities were evaluated based on the COM-B system and presence of behavior maintenance motives.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>89 employees were enrolled into the trial, from where 21 dropped out due to external factors (24%). From the remaining participants, 10 out of 39 (26%) in the IG and 1 out of 29 (4%) in the CG stopped for intrinsic reasons, leading to a non-adherence to the intervention of 22 percentage points. Motivation for behavioral change and maintenance in the IG was primarily driven by enhanced physical and psychological capability. Development of physical capability was evident by significant improvements (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009&amp;lt;\u20090.001) in the IG compared to the CG for mobility (<jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20093.3), maximal isometric strength (min. <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20091.7, max. <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20092.5), as well as reduction in pain intensity (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.003, <jats:italic>r<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.4) and frequency (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.009, <jats:italic>r<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.35) after 12\u2009months. Significant improvements between the 6-month and the 12-month measurement in mobility and 6 out of 8 strength measures within the IG indicated the effectiveness of CrossFit beyond the beginner phase.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>CrossFit is a motivating training concept that led to long-term health and fitness improvements in inactive employees doing sedentary work and should be given greater consideration in workplace health promotion.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2024.1304721","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,21]],"date-time":"2024-02-21T05:00:34Z","timestamp":1708491634000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["The MedXFit-study \u2013 CrossFit as a workplace health intervention: a one-year, prospective, controlled, longitudinal, intervention study"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Tom","family":"Brandt","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elisabeth","family":"Heinz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yannik","family":"Klaa\u00dfen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Selina","family":"Limbara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marian","family":"M\u00f6rsdorf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Timo","family":"Schink\u00f6the","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Annette","family":"Schmidt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"103","volume-title":"Global action plan for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013\u20132020","year":"2013"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e1077","DOI":"10.1016\/S2214-109X(18)30357-7","article-title":"Worldwide trends in insufficient physical activity from 2001 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 358 population-based surveys with 1\u00b79 million participants","volume":"6","author":"Guthold","year":"2018","journal-title":"Lancet Glob Health"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"219","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(12)61031-9","article-title":"Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expectancy","volume":"380","author":"Lee","year":"2012","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.17886\/RKI-GBE-2017-026","article-title":"Arbeitsbezogene k\u00f6rperliche Aktivit\u00e4t bei Erwachsenen in Deutschland","volume":"2","author":"Finger","year":"2017","journal-title":"J Health Monit"},{"key":"ref5","volume-title":"Preventing noncommunicable diseases in the workplace through diet and physical activity. 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