The question of how height affects CrossFit workouts is not new, but with the research Mark Baum has done we can now see every single CrossFit Open workout in one organized graphic depicting each workouts’ correlation relative to height of athletes.
The plot charts below will show men (green) and women (orange) using something called rank correlation. It depicts athletes’ heights relative to their placements for each workout for each Open workout from 2011 through 2022.
This metric measures how well ordered athlete placement is by height.
- A perfect positive correlation of 1 would show athletes finishing in a perfect finishing order of shortest first, second shortest second, etc, until the tallest athlete was last.
- A perfect negative correlation would be -1 where the tallest athlete was first, the second tallest was second, etc. until the shortest athlete was last.
For each Open workout the top 2,500 finishers were used for both men and women.
A few clerical notes to help understand the plots below:
- Zero indicated no preference for taller or shorter athletes (or a well balanced workout relative to height of the top 2500 athletes for that workout)
- Negative values (higher on the plot), mean taller athletes had a better finish
- Positive values (lower on the plot), mean shorter athletes had a better finish
- The size and transparency of the markers relates to the p-value of each correlation; this means smaller / semi-transparent dots closer to the 0 indicate that the correlation could potentially have happened by chance, but the larger more filled in dots further from zero likely did not.
The chart below shows the correlation of an athlete’s height and workout placement. Click here for the interactive chart and a detailed explanation on the analysis conducted by Mark.
Rank Correlation: Athlete Height and Workout Placement (Open – Men)
The chart below shows the correlation between height and performance for every Open workouts since 2011. The bars going down favor the shorter athlete while the bars going up favor the taller athlete. Click on the chart to view the interactive chart.
Top Five Open Workouts that Favor Taller Male Athletes:
| Workout | Workout Description | Rank Correlation |
| 19.1 | 15:00 AMRAP 19 Wall Balls 19 Calorie Row |
-0.448 |
| 18.1 | 20:00 AMRAP 8 Toes-to-Bar 10 DB Hang Clean & Jerks |
-0.247 |
| 14.3 | 8:00 AMRAP Deadlifts (increasing reps/weight) 15 Box Jumps |
-0.21 |
| 21.4 | Barbell Complex: 1 Deadlift + 1 Clean + 1 Hang Clean + 1 Jerk |
-0.198 |
| 15.5 | 27-21-15-9 Calorie Row Thrusters |
-0.191 |
- Three of the five workouts included Rowing.
- All five included a weightlifting component, and in four of the five instances it included putting weight overhead.
- he five workouts have no similarity in terms of time domain; in this regard they essentially span the full spectrum from a heavy lift to a twenty minute AMRAP.
Top Five Open Workouts that Favor Shorter Male Athletes:
| Workout | Workout Description | Rank Correlation |
| 12.1 | 7:00 AMRAP Burpees to 6″ target |
+0.376 |
| 19.4 | 3 Rounds for Time: 10 Snatches (95/65) 12 Bar-Facing Burpees –rest 3:00– 3 Rounds for Time: 10 Bar Muscle-Ups 12 Bar-Facing Burpees |
+0.304 |
| 13.5 | 4:00 Gated AMRAPs 15 Thrusters (100/65) 15 Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups |
+0.238 |
| 19.3 | 10:00 Time Cap 200-ft DB OH Walking Lunge 50 DB Box Step-ups 50 Strict Handstand Push-ups 200-ft Handstand Walk |
+0.234 |
| 18.2 | 1-10 reps of: DB Squats DB-Facing Burpees |
+0.233 |
- Three of the five workouts included burpees.
- Nothing heavy shows up here, and the only barbell movements that show up are snatches (19.4) and thrusters (13.5) which are basically the same weight (95 or 100 lbs for men and 65 lbs for women)
Rank Correlation: Athlete Height and Workout Placement (Open- Women)
The chart below shows the correlation between height and performance for every Open workouts since 2011. The bars going down favor the shorter athlete while the bars going up favor the taller athlete. Click on the chart to view the interactive chart.
Top Five Open Workouts that Favor Taller Female Athletes:
| Workout | Workout Description | Rank Correlation |
| 19.1 | 15:00 AMRAP 19 Wall Balls 19 Calorie Row |
-0.458 |
| 18.1 | 20:00 AMRAP 8 Toes-to-Bar 10 DB Hang Clean & Jerks |
-0.238 |
| 15.5 | 27-21-15-9 Calorie Row Thrusters |
-0.238 |
| 21.4 | Barbell Complex: 1 Deadlift + 1 Clean + 1 Hang Clean + 1 Jerk |
-0.212 |
| 14.3 | 8:00 AMRAP Deadlifts (increasing reps/weight) 15 Box Jumps |
-0.204 |
*These are the exact five workouts which were most favorable for the taller male athletes. 19.1 was the most favorable for both, 18.1 was the second most favorable for both, and 21.4 was fourth most favorable for both. 15.5 and 14.3 exchanged positions for women relative to men.
Top Five Open Workouts that Favor Shorter Female Athletes:
| Workout | Workout Description | Rank Correlation |
| 12.1 | 7:00 AMRAP Burpees to 6″ target |
+0.315 |
| 19.3 | 10:00 Time Cap 200-ft DB OH Walking Lunge 50 DB Box Step-ups 50 Strict Handstand Push-ups 200-ft Handstand Walk |
+0.275 |
| 15.4 | 8:00 AMRAP 3 Cleans (185/125) Increasing reps of Handstand Push-ups |
+0.249 |
| 19.4 | 3 Rounds for Time: 10 Snatches (95/65) 12 Bar-Facing Burpees –rest 3:00– 3 Rounds for Time: 10 Bar Muscle-Ups 12 Bar-Facing Burpees |
+0.226 |
| 15.2 | 3:00 AMRAPs of increasing reps Overhead Squats (95/65) Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups |
+0.205 |
- Three of the five are the same as they were for the men (12.1, 19.3. 19.4)
- Two workouts from 2015 (15.2 and 15.4) show up replacing 18.2 and 13.5 for the men
- With the inclusion of those two workouts from 2015:
- 2 of these 5 for women feature handstands push ups
- 2 of these 5 for women feature chest to bar pull ups
- For men handstand push ups and chest to bar pull ups both only showed up once
General Takeaways
In the modern era of the Open, where the CrossFit Open serves as a qualifier to the quarterfinals, and also has a bearing on the new Worldwide Ranking System (which ultimately how Games spots are allotted for the Semifinal stage of the season), movements which are known to have dramatic favorability towards a predictable demographic should be an understood commodity that is factored into the programming.
It doesn’t mean rowing or burpees should be excluded from Open programming, but it does suggest that if they’re going to be included, what they are paired with, and in what capacity they are programmed should be well thought out. And in a competition with such a small number of workouts as the Open has, if there is one that is historically likely to offset the leaderboard in one way or another, is there another workout amongst them that balances it out?
Thank you to Mark Baum for pulling together all of the data, research and charts referenced in the article. Check out the link here for detailed notes of Mark’s correlation analysis along with additional research, including height correlation at the Games.
