Effect of three fitness programs on strength, speed, flexibility and muscle power on sedentary subjects

The aim of this study was to research and compare the effect of Crossfit^® (CF), LesMills^® (LM) and traditional resistance (TRAD) training program on short performances.

Participants were assigned randomly into three groups and followed the training sessions allocated at the rate of five sessions/week for 16 weeks. A battery of tests including anthropometric and performance measures were carried out over three sessions: before training (T0), after eight weeks (T1) and sixteen weeks of training (T2).

Findings indicated that strength tests demonstrated a significant time effect (P<0.001, ηp²=0.6), the results showed that CF and TRAD groups improved strength every 8 weeks while LM group only at T2, The speed test demonstrated also a significant time effect (P<0.001, ηp²=0.5) the results showed an improvement in speed every 8 weeks for LM, at T2 for CF and no change for TRAD, for flexibility, all tests demonstrated a main time effect (P<0.001, ηp². 0.46-0.7) CF was the best in shoulder range of motion and LM in trunk and lower limb flexibility, all power tests also demonstrated a significant time effect (P<0.001, ηp²: 0.76-0.9) the improvement for all groups was every 8 weeks.

Based on these findings, we recommend TRAD and CF as valuable trainings for strength development, LM for flexibility and all three trainings for power improvement.