From Performance to Health: A Global Scientometric Analysis of the Evolution of CrossFit Research

Scientific production on CrossFit^® has expanded alongside the growing popularity of the modality; however, multi-database scientometric analysis describing its structure, research trends, and knowledge gaps remains limited.

This study conducted a scientometric analysis to identify patterns within the literature and to provide directions for future research.

Searches were performed in the databases Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus, including all publications available up to December 2024. The search identified 3927 records. After removing duplicates and excluding reviews, meta-analyses, and studies outside the scope, 526 original articles were included in the analysis. Scientometric analyses were conducted using Bibliometrix (version 4.3.2) implemented in R (version 4.4.2), with additional support from Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer (v1.6.20).

The results indicate a marked growth in publication output, with an average annual increase of approximately 37.5%, reflecting the increasing academic interest in the modality. The United States and Brazil emerged as leading contributors, supported by strong research infrastructure and expanding scientific communities. The thematic structure of the field is predominantly centered on physiological responses, performance outcomes, and injury-related topics, while psychosocial, behavioral, and population-specific dimensions remain comparatively underexplored. Despite the observed expansion, the findings suggest that quantitative growth has outpaced methodological diversification and longitudinal development within the field. In addition, a limited integration between scientific findings and applied training contexts was identified, highlighting a gap between research production and real-world practice.

Overall, CrossFit^® research appears to be expanding toward a more diversified and structured scientific field; however, advancing the field will require greater methodological rigor, increased focus on longitudinal and integrative approaches, and stronger translation of scientific evidence into applied settings.