Study aim: The aim of our study was to determine whether six weeks of CrossFit training, a popular form of high-intensity training, improves the atherogenic index of plasma and blood lipid profile indicators in young healthy men.
Material and methods: Twenty-nine young, normolipidemic men (age 23.3 ± 2.4 years, height 181 ± 6.2 cm, BMI 24.4 ± 1.7) participated in a six-week CrossFit program. Total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), autoantibodies against oxidized LDL (oLAB), and triglycerides (TG) were determined before and after completion of 6 weeks of CrossFit training, before, 3 minutes, and 60 minutes after the VO2max cycling test to exhaustion. Based on lipids, the atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) and the ratios TC/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C, and TG/HDL-C were calculated.
Results: A statistically significant main effect was found for the measures TG and HDL-C for the predictor variable TIME (p = 0.04 and p = 0.02, respectively). No significant main effect was found for the predictor variable TRIAL or the TRIAL × TIME interaction.
Conclusions: The statistically significant changes observed after cycling to exhaustion confirm that intense physical exercise affects lipid metabolism. Six weeks of CrossFit training had no effect on the statistically significant changes in plasma lipid profile and AIP in young healthy men.
