The WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins is having a reign atop the WWE that many wrestlers and fans would envy and in a recent interview Rollins has attributed the style of training that is CrossFit as a key reason behind his success.
CrossFit has become one of the most popular forms of working out in the last number of years. Its fitness program combines a wide variety of functional movements, such as pull-ups, squats, weightlifting, gymnastics, running and rowing, into a timed or scored workout.
Rollins argues that gone are the days of long, repetitive bodybuilding styled workouts championed by the likes of Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior as it doesn't suit today's generation of WWE stars. Rollins believes that functional fitness, like CrossFit, is far more apt for today's wrestlers.
I couldn’t do traditional bodybuilding and keep this schedule, it just wouldn’t work for me, I don’t think it works really for our generation of guys.
More and more you’re seeing guys transfer over into functional fitness as opposed to training for aesthetics. The side effect of training functionally with high intensity, which is what CrossFit is that you also happen to look pretty decent as well. For me it serves two purposes, I get the job done in the ring, I look the part, and I stay super healthy all the time.
What the success of Rollins and of previous wrestlers like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan in the WWE has shown is that massive size isn't everything and that even in a sport that has previously been dominated by wrestlers of giant like comparisons sometimes even the slimmer guy can succeed with the right workout regiment in place.
