The benefit of jumps is that they help in muscle fiber recruitment. Through the various jumps, you can recruit the dormant muscle fibers, enhance the efficiency of your nervous system, and increase neural drive. Through this, you can activate and train more muscle in the course of your CrossFit workout, and this enhances your strength gains. The more muscle fibers are activated, the more the number of muscles you can fatigue is increased hence muscle growth. The main problem with many weightlifters is that they use loads that are way too heavy and boxes which are extremely high. This can jeopardize the strength boosting goals of jumps. To start you off on the right path, below are some types of jumps you can embrace to make your training worthwhile. Box Jump These jumps are effective in reinforcing landing mechanics as well as reducing joint stress. Restrict them to a single response jump as you maximize hip extension with each landing. Focus on your form and don’t try difficult box jumps, but slowly build your way up. Broad Jump When looking to develop your explosive horizontal power, longer jumps, and faster sprints, broad jumps should be your staple in the CrossFit gym. They also help you in developing powerful deadlift. Your focus should be on both up and out jumping to reduce the shear stress on your knees. The three common types of broad jumps include static single response jump, countermovement single response jump, and countermovement multi-response jump. Squat Jump This is a classic vertical jump that you can undertake either with bodyweight or by using a weight vest, light barbell or light dumbbell. Squat jumps are divided into four ranging from the simplest to complex ones. They include static single response jump, static multi-response jump, countermovement single response jump with weights, countermovement multi-response jump. In all jumps, there are three important phases which include loading, exploding, and landing. You need to get these phases right for your jumps to be effective. It is advisable that you program jumps very early into your CrossFit workout before you engage the main lift. The advantage of doing them before the main lifts are that they extend the warmup and rump up your nervous system to better recruit muscle fiber, boost power and strength. You can add your jumps two times in a week before you start your CrossFit training sessions. Anything between 3 and five sets made up of 3 to 5 reps with a 90-second rest in between the sets is awesome. If you find you can’t possibly stick each landing position, try and regress your jumps.
KUNAL JHAVERI | 12 Apr 18
People who have never been into CrossFit have all sorts of notions concerning women taking part in weightlifting. Somehow, they think that instead of some serious weightlifting, they work out with some pink dumbbells which do not have any physical fitness benefits. What must be agreed from the onset is that heavy lifting in CrossFit workouts is a key component of building muscle, feeling stronger, and leaning out. When your body goes through these transformations, it will make you abandon the fear of bulking up for good. The following myths have been doing rounds, and in this article, we deconstruct them. Weightlifting Bulks You Up When you pick up weights, your muscles strengthen but do not necessarily get bigger. This is because the fat in your body system gets burned leaving behind the lean muscle. This, in turn, tones your body and gives you a greater shape. When you pick weights that are light and do lots of repetition, you will not build tight and strong muscles, but rather you will build muscular endurance. Therefore, if you want to look good and feel stronger, pick the heavyweights and continue adding weights as your body allows. This is the sure way of getting there. Ensure you combine the heavy lifting with a healthy diet.  Lots of Cardio are Necessary for Weight Loss While cardio has been hyped for long as a weight loss exercise, strength training produces much better results in weight loss. For instance, if you perform four treadmill sessions each week for a duration of about 30 minutes per session in CrossFit workouts, you can burn 600 calories per week. In one year, you can burn a total of about 30,000 calories if you provide for missed workouts. When you go for strength training, your body muscles break down and then rebuild within 24 to 48 hours. During the rebuilding of the muscles, more calories are recruited to make the process happen. This is referred to as the afterburn effect. This causes your metabolism to operate at a higher level while seated on your couch after a workout. This is much more effective than cardio. Women and Men Should Train Differently There is a belief that women should go through different training in the CrossFit gym from men. This is not true because women too can compete in the same type of exercises as men. The only difference will be in the outcome. Men lift to get bigger while women lift so that they can build a dense, tight and lean look. The hormones, testosterone, estrogen, dietary differences and genetics automatically put men and women in different result paths. The last myth is that weightlifting is not good for your bones and joints. Of course, no one enjoys sore knees and achy hips, especially when doing the morning run. However, when you strengthen the muscles that surround and support your joints, you can prevent injuries. By lifting weights, you enhance bone density, and this reduces the risk of osteoporosis and fracture. Women, in particular, need to lift weight because as they age, they become more vulnerable to the bone and joint issues.
KUNAL JHAVERI | 11 Apr 18
Pull-ups are among the most versatile CrossFit exercises today. You can decide to do them simply with your bodyweight, using your narrow and wide grips, throw in some chains, or better still do the exercise with your palms turned over and doing a chin up. There are lots of benefits that pull-ups confer on your body amongst them strength, development, and muscularity. While many CrossFitters appreciate these benefits, they also affirm to the fact that pull-ups is one of the most difficult exercises to do. Below are some of the reasons why you may still be struggling to master this workout. You are Too Heavy Pull-ups is one of those CrossFit exercises which requires a complete balance of strength. This means you should be stronger compared to your body weight and also light. Many times, athletes have had trouble with bodyweight movements because they are heavy and their general physical preparedness is minimal. If you have a lot of fat that you need to lose and your shape is not in line, you need to first start tackling the obvious obstacles before you engage fully in pull-ups. For instance, your CrossFit nutrition should be in order to help you cut some weight. You should also focus on heavy resistance training with dumbbells and barbell and undertake other activities including walking, biking, swimming, sprinting, and rowing. Your pull up numbers will also soar if you tighten your nutrition plan and get rid of the excess body fat. Your Grip Strength is Wanting People who come from sedentary backgrounds are usually disadvantages in that they don’t play as many sports and their activity level is generally low. As a result, their grip strength tends to be lacking and this undermines their pull-ups. In order to enhance your grip strength, you need to undertake exercises which involve static contractions of the forearms, hands, upper back, and shoulders. Try hanging up on the pull-up bar for a few minutes, take a long walk while carrying two kettlebells, or load up barbells and time your holds for anything between 30 and 60 seconds. You Over-Rely on Bands Bands give you resistance or assistance at certain points in your range of motion. However, they can have a major disadvantage in these CrossFit exercises. The most unfortunate thing is that many people hit a snag when they try this and get their chin over the bar. At the top of the pull-up, the band gives you least assistance yet this is when you need it the most. On the flipside, they give you the most assistance on the bottom part of your range of motion. Because of this, people fail to gain a mastery of pull up even after months of exercise. Inadequate Practicing In CrossFit training, you are what you continuously do. If your specific work capacity sucks and as such forced to jerk your body around so as to get your chin over the bar, you are simply teaching your body to go through an inefficient movement pattern. Unlearning a bad form is difficult hence it pays to do it right the first time. You can start by hanging on a cheap pull up bar as you take the numbers and do your sets. Each week add reps as you grease your grove to take advantage of enhanced training frequency to perfect your movements.
KUNAL JHAVERI | 10 Apr 18
If you have been faithful attending to your CrossFit workouts, you may have the feeling that you are good enough to take on your peers in a CrossFit competition. Far from the truth, the mindset of a competitor is far much different from that which you get from a daily routine. Just like any other sport, CrossFit competitions are characterized by difficulty and intensity in execution. For this reason, you have to prepare and train well if you want to do well in these competitions. Remember, unlike soccer, marathon, or a physique show, CrossFit requires mastery of lots of skills if you are to excel. For you to be good at everything, you need a big-time strategy that trains you for virtually every aspect of fitness. To start you off, consider the following. Strengths and Weaknesses Assessment No two persons can have exact strengths and weaknesses. There are those who are stronger compared to others. For instance, you may be stronger at gymnastic movements while another person can do several miles nonstop. There is no definite time you are required to spend in CrossFit training, but rather it all depends on you as a person and your skill level. There are those athletes who only spend a month doing metabolic conditioning to get to a competitive level. However, for the average person, you will need more time in preparation and training as you learn CrossFit workouts movements and solve various mobility issues. Some athletes have confessed to taking almost a whole year just reprogramming their nervous system and doing mobility work. The bottom line is you need high conditioning, strength, and skill levels for you to compete well. Enhance the Time Spent on Training As pointed above, in CrossFit competitions, you have to be good at almost everything. If you really want the prize, you need to go beyond the regular classes and practice many other movements. Talking to your coach and asking for their help in preparing you for your competition is a plus for you. Because of their experience, coaches can assist you in coming up with lifting programs that will enhance your lifting game. If you feel you need a little more help in building your endurance, a metabolic condition workout of the day thrown into your daily training regime will go a long way. Train Your Mental Game The type of training required to get you up to the competition status needs to be challenging not just to the body, but also to the mind. The length and difficulty of CrossFit workouts competitions require a mind that is prepared to go through the rigors. The stress you will go through will require more than just the physical; you need a mental edge. For instance, when you are sore everywhere, and you have a number of workouts left, you must have the mental strength to carry on. To add to the above, you should endeavor to control what you can. Do not be carried away by what your closest competitor is doing because you have no absolute control over them, but there is something you can do to enhance your performance.
KUNAL JHAVERI | 06 Apr 18
Nutrition is not just for the gymnast or weightlifters, but it is necessary for life. Understanding the basics of CrossFit nutrition and making them a habit can transform your performance and experience. You may be practicing hard in the gym, but if you don’t have regard to nutrition, it is like paddling with a single oar. Diet is so crucial to CrossFit performance and health that in the CrossFit pyramid, it is positioned at the foundation of it. The CrossFit pyramid starts with nutrition at the base, followed by metabolic conditioning, gymnastics, weightlifting, and throwing, and ultimately sport at the very top of the pyramid. It is suicidal to jump right away into the main class without completing the foundations. In CrossFit nutrition needs to be a lifestyle, a habit that you enjoy. When you nail the basics, the impact this has on health and performance are incredible. Below are the basics to focus on. Eat More Vegetables Most people underestimate the impact of vegetables on their CrossFit health and performance. As we may all know, CrossFit is an intense sport which means your body system requires more support compared to the average athlete. Your meals must comprise a variety of nutrients with a special emphasis on fruits and vegetables. To start with, add more vegetables especially green vegetables into your meals. For instance, adding spirulina or kale into your smoothie in the morning and drop some spinach into your omelet for your lunches and dinner. Personalize Your Nutrition Not everything works for you, and this is why you need to individualize what you eat. To crack this, you need self-awareness. Do you recall the days when you feel overly energized and superhuman? These are the days you probably ate certain meals that gave you the energy. Note down the foods you ate in those days. Also, journalize the foods you ate on the days you felt low and unenthusiastic. Those are the meals to avoid. Instead of following someone else’s nutrition plan, come up with your own that addresses your unique needs. Crossfit nutrition is a process that you need to be disciplined to follow it. Minimize the Decision-Making Stress Always deciding on what to eat before a workout, during a workout, and after a workout can be so overwhelming and draining. This is because you may find yourself in the process of decision making each day. There are simple strategies you can adopt so as to minimize the stress of these decisions so as to focus on other productive areas such as your work, CrossFit training, and social life. You can do meal prepping so that you always have meals in your fridge. Optimize Your Diet Budget You don’t have to buy expensive foods from high-end shops and groceries. The basic thing is to get the most in terms of quality food from your budget. This may call for research from your local producer where you can get good products at cheaper rates. You should also buy larger cuts of meat and spread it over some time. Lastly, ensure your breakfast has protein in it. Most breakfasts are solely carbohydrate-based, and this can undermine your health and workout of the day performance. Don’t discard the cornflakes and milk, but include more proteins to stabilize your energy levels, boost neurotransmitter production, and provide amino acids for muscle building and recovery.   
KUNAL JHAVERI | 05 Apr 18
From the efforts expended in capturing caloric expenditures, it is clear everyone would want to know how much they eat in terms of CrossFit nutrition. However, there are lots of methods and calculators developed that are meant to help in this, and to some extent, they can become confusing. When you get disparate estimates from different scales, you may wonder which category you fall into. The good thing is that they are all estimates and as such don’t define the real you. In order to determine the optimal food amount for your health and CrossFit workout performance, you should start weighing and measuring everything you eat. Caloric Estimates The total calories you burn on any day is known as total energy expenditure. It includes your thermic effect of feeding which simply means the calories you burn when eating food, what you burn when walking around say from the house to the box and the basal metabolic rate which are the calories you burn when the body is at rest. Lots of online calculators use one or the other of the various acceptable forms of basal metabolic rate equations. They depend on a conglomerate of variables such as age, height, and mass. Unfortunately, genetic factors which have been shown to result in individual variations are not factored in by these calculators hence the output is only, but an estimate. Multipliers usually calculate the exercise and non-exercise associated expenditure. For instance, moderately active may be assigned the multiplier 1.5. Alternatively, the calories expended in the various activities in a typical day may be summed up. As a rule of thumb, the thermic effect of feeding is taken to be about 10% of the total calories in CrossFit nutrition. The Best Estimate The best approach kind of ignores the above estimates. It proposes that you track your food intake for about 3 days, these days must represent an accurate composition of your typical diet. The goal for the 3 days is to record as honestly as possible what you eat on a regular basis. The consistency of the calorie totals from one day to the next will enable you to get your baseline number. If you find the numbers varying widely, say over 500 calories, it is advisable that you continue tracking for about a week so as to get a representative total for your typical day. Focus on the Macronutrients One of the reasons why CrossFit nutrition such as the zone diet is gaining popularity is because of the way it breaks down the calories. It clearly states that 40% of the calorie intake should be from carbohydrates, 30% from fat, and the remaining 30% from protein. This composition contains enough carbohydrates to sustain high-intensity activities, enough protein to support your quest for lean mass, and sufficient fat to help in body activity and recovery. In view of the foregoing discussion, the bottom line is, your caloric total should be consistent. By consistency, it is meant that it should be within 50 calories of the target goal per day.
KUNAL JHAVERI | 05 Apr 18
CrossFit is a relatively fast-growing sport. This is mainly due to the uniqueness and variety of workouts athletes are exposed to during CrossFit training. Compared to some years back, CrossFit facilities have improved with gyms spread across streets as people embrace the culture and modalities of CrossFit. Even with such popularity, there are always good and bad apples, and it is important if you know what to look for in a gym. The following are some of the pointers to consider when looking for a CrossFit box. Layout or Appearance This is the first attribute you see when you visit a gym. Take note of how neat and organized it is and even the cleanliness of the floor. Even though CrossFit training does not constitute a formal class, you need whiteboards, leather boards, and timers to take care of the time conscious workouts. The layout should also include clear markings and labeling of important areas such as restrooms and the places where you can leave your belongings. In short, when looking at layout or appearance, you need to determine how comfortable and inviting the space is. Equipment There are two main aspects to look out for when assessing Crossfit gym equipment. The first is to check the sufficiency of the equipment and the second bit is to look at the organization. If you find plenty of equipment to go around or the instructor can organize the available equipment such that there is no limitation, then it is a good CrossFit gym. If the equipment in the gym is well taken care of, the chances are high that you will also be looked well after. Cleanliness Because of the activities that go on in gyms, it is hard to find a squeaky-clean facility. However, there is a seriously a huge difference between a Crossfit gym that is dirty and one that has the appearance of a hardcore box. Look at the floors, kettlebells, and bars for chalk remnants and dust. Also, check whether the restrooms are clean. The Profile of the Coach While considering any CrossFit facility, one of the people you cannot afford to ignore is the coach. This is because he provides direction and above all determines to a greater extent what you get out of the gym facility. Check the kind of work the coach has done outside CrossFit, the other certifications they have, and if truly CrossFit has transformed their life. The fitness industry also has an opinion concerning certain coaches and therefore tapping into this can help you in deciding whether the person you are considering to be your coach has what it takes. Class Structure CrossFits are different in organization, but at least they must have a structure. The advantage with well-structured CrossFit classes is that they allow for the flow of events and expectations, which are critical in the learning process. For instance, there should be dedicated times for beginners, different CrossFit exercises, and time for competition teams to train. The last, but certainly not the least aspect to look at is the CrossFit community. Training in a gym is all about the experience, and this is determined by the kind of community you are training around. Every community is different, but you should look at a mixture of people who have the drive to push you on as you interact with the box.
KUNAL JHAVERI | 04 Apr 18
If you are a vegan and you are wondering how to constitute your CrossFit diet so as to include foods that fuel performance and optimize recovery, read along for some excellent ideas. There is a myth which goes; vegans can’t expect to be strong. It seems like the two are mutually exclusive, but the reality is the opposite. Vegans can do everything their non-began counterparts can do. The only point to note is that sustaining your energy and building strength on a predominantly plant-based diet can be a little bit harder. You need some master chef skills to combine the different foods that give you the most nutrition-wise to power you through your workouts. Failure to plan out your diet opens up the possibility of reaching out to the easiest foods you can find some of which may not be as nutritious as you may want them to be. Energy is basically measuring calories which come from fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Since plant-based proteins take a different digestion path to that of animal proteins, having a diet that combines the three is extremely important. Get the best quality of food added in your CrossFit diet which can range inside your budget and also are high in nutrients. B Vitamins This vitamin powerhouse group includes the likes of thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, B12, pantothenic acid, biotin, and folic acid. All these vitamins are necessary at an individual and collective level for energy processes. Folic acid, for instance, has another important role of producing red blood cells which are responsible for the transport of oxygen to the extremities of the body. Microorganisms make vitamin B12. Hence you may need to supplement or consume fortified foods. B12 plays a central role in DNA synthesis and production of red blood cells, particularly in the bone marrow. The foods to eat in order to pack all the above B vitamins are spinach, kale, bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, asparagus, steel cut oats, and beans. Iron The top task of iron in the body is to support healthy blood flow. Foods that are rich in iron prove out to be helpful in building muscle as well as availing protein particularly to the vegans. Consider adding the iron-rich foods to your CrossFit diet to improve your workout of the day performance as well as enhance your recovery post-workout. Must-Have Foods in Your Diet Your day-to-day diet as a CrossFit vegan must include certain foods. An important note here is, these foods cut across the board from CrossFit athletes to those who visit the gym occasionally due to their busy activities. The foods include: Fresh fruits such as mangoes, papaya, bananas, apples, kiwis, berries, pineapples, melon, and satsumas Vegetables and leafy greens – Include foods such as spinach, raw leaves, watercress, pumpkin/squash, and sweetcorn. Grains – Wild rice, brown rice, millet, quinoa, barley, and oats Plant proteins such as chickpeas, edamame beans, split peas, sprouted lentils, and beans. Remember to add fermented soya foods such as tamari, tofu, and tempeh. In addition, your breakfast recipes must include most if not all the food groups so that you can have a better start to your day in the CrossFit gym. If you want to snack in between meals, go for fresh fruits and raw nuts such as cashews or almonds to boost your blood sugar levels.
KUNAL JHAVERI | 04 Apr 18