Average height: 5'9.5"
Avg weight: 183
Avg Fran: 2:57
Avg Fight Gone Bad: 393
Avg Deadlift: 442#s
So if one of your goals is to make it to the crossfit finals, I highly recommend you shoot for these kinds of numbers.
I've also done a lot more number crunching. Now I know I don't have a large sample to work with, but here's what I've figured out so far (purely hypothetical):
1) For an rft or arap workout, smaller is better, up to a point.
This chart shows the average fgb score and fran time according to height. As the chart shows, there's an inverse relationship between height and Fran time and FGB score. The cutoff for this relationship for Fran is 5'5", while it's 5'8" for FGB. I know this is nothing new, but I still want to explain why. If your score/time is based on repetitions, and a full repetition is measured relative from your body (like a thruster or a pull up), the smaller you are the shorter the distance you have to travel, for example:
If you're 67" and weigh 177 (avg weight for 67"), and do Fran in 3 minutes, your body traveled .46m with the thrusters, and .55 meters for the pull-ups.
If you're 75" (the tallest of the competitors) and weigh 215, the same workout would require your body to travel .52m for the thrusters and .61m for the pull-ups.
The 6'3" competitor has to travel an extra .12m than the 5'7" competitor. It might not seem like much, but when you have a race everyone has to run the same distance. Not so in Crossfit. You would think that the added strength from being more massive/taller would be a benefit in crossfit, but this doesn't seem to be the case, as my second point shows.
2) Although taller is better for max lifts, the strength difference isn't that big, up to a point.
Unless there's a crossfit wod to find one's max, the strength difference between a 6'3" competitor and a 5'6" does not appear to be a factor. Although the average deadlift for a 6'3" was the heaviest at 497#s, the average 5'6" deadlift tied for third at 474#s (5'9" was second at 483#). That's only a 23# difference over a 9" difference.
However, once you're under 5'5" heavy weights will pose a problem for you, as the 5'3" group's fran time was significantly higher than even the 6" group. But if you're working out with relatively light weights, like in FGB, short competitors still have an advantage over tall competitors. For example, the avg 5'3" fgb score was 412, while the avg 6'3" score was 371.
In crossfit, it appears that the strength field is so level that what makes the difference in wod scores is speed. Given that shorter bodies have less distance to travel a WOD will always favor a smaller athlete unless the weight is extremely heavy (like 350# dl's). Because Wod's are usually scored by time or number of repetitions, the smaller athlete will always be favored. The only measurement I can think of where the larger athlete has an advantage is work performed. If wod's were set to work performed, the larger athlete would have an advantage. For example:
A 6'3" 215# athlete needs 46 reps of 95# thrusters to achieve 40k joules,
and 47 pull-ups to achieve 25k joules
While a 5'7" 177 athlete needs 56 reps of 95# thrusters to achieve 40k joules,
and 64 pull-ups to achieve 25k joules
I don't feel like I'm being too crazy to say the 10/17 rep difference gives the larger athlete the edge. Unfortunately, the only exercise that does this is rowing for calories, too bad there aren't more WOD's out there that favor larger people like me.
5 comments:
Interesting... very interesting.
Jerry and I were talking one day and he said that he thought the optimal CrossFit athlete was 5'8" and 180-lbs.
Adam
Interesting analysis, but I think I see things a little differently. Power is defined as P = W/T where W = F * D
where W is work, F is force, and D is distance. So, P = F*D/T
Let's use a 95# thruster as an example. In this case, we would use the center of the mass (the person) to measure distance traveled. So, just to make some numbers up, let's say the center of Person A (short person) is 1 meter and the center of Person B (tall person) is 1.5 meters.
For sake of argument, let's say we measure how many thrusters each person does in 1 minute. Let's say Person A does 10 and Person B also does 10. I do this so we can see what happens if we hold time and reps constant, but vary the only condition we want to explore, height of a person.
Now, the power of Person A moving this load is
P_a = (95 * 10)/60 = 15.83
Now, the power output of Person B is
P_b = (95 * 15)/60 = 23.75
So, we can see that moving a load over a distance requires a taller person to generate more power.
BUT, and this is important, we can see that it takes more work for a tall person to move this load.
So, the work of Person A is 950 but the work for Person B is 1425.
This makes sense if we think about it. Let's now change our example to a deadlift. Again, distance would be measured using the center of the mass. The shorter person here has a shorter distance to travel whereas the taller person has a longer distance to travel.
All of this is interesting, and I like discussions of things that are measurable. But, remember, there are things that cannot be quantified that will always be the biggest separator--HEART!
Harold, I don't think we see things any differently. I decided to not use Power because of the time element, and like I said earlier if it's timed it favors the shorter athlete. That's why I used work instead. You are right, heart can overcome anything, but if you're 6'2", you just have to overcome more than if you're 5'8" :)
Forgot to post this, but here's the link where I made my calculations:
http://www.cathletics.com/resources/powerOutput.php
Also one more thing to add. You're right in that if we had wod's that measured power tall people would have the advantage. Can you imagine that: For time, Thruster 95#, get to 1hp!
Amen Adam,
I think the only CF exercise where I feel advantage is rowing. Interestingly enough it is the one where I always feel I can hang with the pack... even if my stroke still needs work.
If I were to gander a guess, I'd say the optimum height for a CF female athlete is around 5'4" and 130. Fortunately, I'm in it for the game of life, where my height is still and advantage. I have the speed of life since I rarely have to get a step to get things down from that top shelf!
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