CrossFitters who are true to the spirit of rigorous training activity may experience a sense of boredom on rest days, and this can dampen the benefits meant for such a day. There is a feeling somewhere at the back of your head which is hard to shake off making you believe that there is something that you are missing out on by taking a rest. It is important to know that though stamina, strength, and speed are important in CrossFit training, rest is equally vital. You can only go for so long before your body begins to rebel in an attempt to recover. By varying the way, you rest, your body can have ample time to recuperate while at the same time keeping your mind at ease. Dangers of Not Taking Rest Days Unless you are cut from a different stone, your body requires a break at some point. CrossFit as a sport is structured in a way that breaks down muscle so that it can rebuild them up. However, if the rest period is not integrated, the muscle breakdown initially meant for a good cause can begin hindering development. Strength loss, fatigue, and injury are concerns that come up when you are too active at a level that is intense and demanding. Overtraining will hinder your physical abilities and can also have a detrimental effect on the state of your mind. If your body doesn’t operate to the expected standards, your mind begins taking a toll leading to irritation, frustration, and lack of concentration. This is why you are not doing anybody a favor by taking a day off. When Should Rest Days Be A majority of CrossFit training experts are of the opinion that rest days should be planned for the 4th day. This means 3 days of workouts and 1 day off. People with little flexibility in their schedule patterning rest days this way gives them a fantastic option which ensures the body gets some relaxation. On the other hand, if you have a tight schedule that only leaves specific days open, having 2 days rest per week is a good option. You can either set these days in advance if you love prediction and regularity. Thursdays and Sundays can be your days off. That said, it is important to listen to your body. If you are feeling run down, it may help laying low for that day waiting for your body to be up again. Spending Your Rest Days There is no script cast in stone that outlines how rest days should be spent. Remember this opportunity is to help you ease your tight muscles and get the maximum possible recovery benefits. Even though you are not in the CrossFit gym, you can incorporate some light cardio, stretching, and a little bit of yoga just to spice things up. If you love adventure, you can consider swimming, hiking, or just walking around trying to work up your heart rate.

Many people claim that dairy, gluten, carbs, or even wholefoods are giving them issues. Surprisingly, some of them didn’t have problems with those foods early in life. The question is, could there be a reason for this? Experts in CrossFit training have observed that excessive dieting just like excessive exercise may force the body to adapt to the stress that is constantly being exposed to. There is no doubt that our bodies are super adaptive machines, but this can work against us depending on the scenario. For instance, an adaptation imposed by diet may favor or work to your disadvantage. Dietary Distress Cycle Going on a fad diet or moving back and forth between diets can cause digestive distress and many other negative symptoms. There is a cycle which develops carrying with it the element of food intolerance. When you are exposed to a new diet, your hormones which include glucagon and insulin change. This, in turn, causes a change in metabolism and negative symptoms which then make you go back to your old diet. The old foods may also react with your body leaving you either helpless or with no option other than getting back into your new diet. Carbs Not Serving You Well Most of the people who have problems with carbohydrates never had them before. In fact, they used to load decent amounts of carbohydrates without any signs of negative health effect. However, somewhere in the course of their life, they try out a fad diet from which they start experiencing digestive issues such as acid reflux, bloating, and lethargy. In some cases, these people have been told that the problems they are experiencing are as a result of adaptation or detox of the new diet. Others believe that the reactions they are experiencing are because of their age and their bodies cannot handle the same foods they did before. Getting on to the Wrong Diet When you start seeing problems with your CrossFit diet, it could be that you are on the wrong diet. For instance, ditching animal products can cause a lot of metabolic adaptations. Increasing the number of vegetables and cutting down on meat can push the stomach into an alkaline state which works to reduce stomach acids. If you avoid fats and all of a sudden you introduce higher amounts of fat in your diet, can make you queasy. When you are on a low-fat diet, your gallbladder adapts. If you re-introduce fats at higher levels, it creates confusion and puts you at a greater risk of gallstones. The above scenarios are quite common, and chances are high you may have encountered one of them. The bottom line is, if you don’t have a diagnosed medical condition, it is a good idea to revise your CrossFit nutrition and establish a healthy relationship with your diet. Listen to your body and not just the diet app or guru.

When lifting a barbell overhead, you have an option of a simple shoulder press or a complex jerk. The shoulder press is mainly for hypertrophy. In the middle of the complexity of a jerk, lies the push press which is an excellent CrossFit workout for every athlete. Looking at it from a physical standpoint, the push press is important in helping you develop a stable trunk while at the same time highlighting deficiencies in your mobility. They also help you to train heavy loads overhead in a proper strength endurance format. Push press is dynamic, and it recruits the lower body and trunk, making it an excellent way to push heavy rep schemes way beyond 15 reps. Push Press Training Cues Several training cues can help you perfect push press. Some of them include: The Grip When doing push press, the width of the grip should be slightly outside the shoulders. If you find yourself having a rough time rotating your shoulders externally or you have large biceps, try a wider grip. Some CrossFitters start their push press with the same rack position as that used in a standing shoulder press. This is incorrect because it places your body at a mechanical disadvantage and makes it vulnerable to shudder-to-shoulder injuries. Contrary to the shoulder press, the push press requires that your upper arm be parallel to the floor in a position similar to that of a front squat. This will make your wrist slightly cocked, and the barbell well gripped. Prepare to Dip The push press uses the lower body and trunk in a dynamic way to get the barbell overhead. For this reason, the setup needs to be different from the press. The goal here is to maintain a stacked spinal column while at the same time exhibiting force throughout the lift. To achieve this, take a wide stance with your feet externally rotated and toes out. The stance you take should be similar to that of the front squat CrossFit exercise. The Dip Before heading to the dip and drive, take a large belly breath and hold it. This will not only protect your lower back but also help in facilitating a transfer of energy from the legs to the barbell via the trunk. When beginning the dip, flex slightly at the knees as you push them out in the same way you should do in a squat. This is meant to be a quick movement because it is shallow and violent. The Drive This is nothing more than a redirection force. Performing the drive is hugely dependent on creating tense musculature throughout your trunk and legs as you quickly extend your knees, hip, and ankles. Putting it Overhead The moment you initiate the drive, the barbell should then hop upwards. This is where you need to utilize your upper body and finish the lift. Compared to the other phases, this is a rather weightless phase you should finish by rotating the arms into a similar position as that of a shoulder press. When the bar is knocked out and your feet stable and flat, you can lower your barbell to its original rack position. Push press is a specific CrossFit training tool whose purpose and the outcome will be determined by how well you execute it.

The L-sit pull-up is a much higher challenge compared to the ordinary pull-up exercise. It changes your center of gravity thus making it a little bit more difficult to execute. On the core strength, this exercise increases the challenge as well, especially for the lower abs. Because of its difficulty, this CrossFit exercise is great for learning and practicing proper dead-hang pull-up technique. Compared to other difficult workouts, the L-sit pull-up is much easier to learn because it combines two main exercises which are pull-ups and the L-sit position. When you master these two exercises separately, putting them up together is much easier, and the below tips will help you do this. Doing L-Sit Pull-Ups While hanging from a pull-up bar with your shoulders packed down and elbows locked, get into a dead hang position. Then, raise your knees to a level where your thighs are parallel with the ground. Lock your knees and point your toes to extend your legs straight in front of you. While performing your pull-ups, maintain this L-sit position. Before you start pulling yourself up the bar, exhale forcefully. The extent of your pull-up should be where your arms are fully flexed, your chin at or above the bar, and elbows behind your ribs. Pause there for a moment and then slowly lower yourself down until you get a full elbow lock. As you descend, inhale. Tips for L-Sit Pull-Up Technique With L-sit pull-ups, repetition speed and tempo are very important. Perform your reps slowly and under control always. Do not jerk or kip your way through the movement. Do not allow your body to jerk down into the bottom dead hang position. Make the transition gradual and controlled so as to prevent shoulder and elbow problems. When you initiate the L-sit pull-up with a strong exhale, make sure you contract your entire core musculature hard. Tuck your tailbone forward and roll your hips up with a slight abdominal crunch. Squeeze your thighs and glutes as you keep your knees locked, and your toes pointed out. The L-Sit Pull-Up Progression Once you can do about 10 dead-hang pull-ups with good control and technique, you can now start L-sit pull-ups. This is how to work your way up to this phenomenal CrossFit workout. Phase 1 –Here, you combine pull-ups with knee raises. Do at least 10 reps of hanging knee raises, 30-second hanging knee raise isometric hold, and 10 reps pull-ups with a hanging knee raise. Phase 2 – In this phase, you combine pull-ups with knee raises. Do at least 10 reps of hanging leg raise, 30-second hanging leg raise isometric hold, 10 reps scap pull-ups with leg raise isometric hold and at least 10 reps pull-ups with a hanging leg raise. The above progression is just an experiment because there are many other variations you can come up with yourself. The most important thing is to keep on challenging yourself progressively as you take on harder exercises.

Even with moderate training, you can gain more muscle mass and strength. The secret to this lies in CrossFit nutrition. There is a common trend among athletes where they train hard, but they do not give as much attention to nutrition. The result of this is that the effort expended on training goes to waste. This is tantamount to sabotaging your own success.Interestingly, nutrition is not a complicated subject, and if you put your mind to it, you can master the fundamentals quite fast. Understanding how nutrition works help in your fitness and strength gains. To start you off, below are some of the foods that can enhance your muscle mass and strength, key aspects of CrossFit performance. Lean Beef If you want to gain serious muscle mass, lean beef should be part of your diet. This food is loaded with lots of minerals including zinc, iron, and B vitamins which are conducive to muscle growth. The quality of protein found in lean beef contain high levels of amino acids which promote muscle growth. Cottage Cheese You may not know it, but cottage cheese is one of the purest sources of casein protein. Compared to the other protein sources, casein is a slow digesting type of protein which plays a key role in muscle maintenance. This is particularly useful for athletes who go for long periods without eating. Other nutrients found in cottage cheese include calcium and vitamin B12. Whey Protein Whey protein supplements are not just popular in CrossFit diet plans, but also in the entire fitness industry. The reason behind this is that they provide a convenient and fast source of protein at a price that is affordable. Most bodybuilders put themselves on whey protein immediately when they wake up, after a workout, and mix it in some of their meals. Taking whey protein after workouts can enhance muscle mass gains. As expert advice, it is recommended that you get quality protein from whole foods and then top up with whey protein. Oatmeal This is an excellent source of carbohydrates because it is minimally processed and has a low glycemic index value. Because of this, oatmeal has an impressive micronutrient profile compared to fiber, increases satiety, and decreases hunger. It can also help you in fat loss while preserving your muscles. Fruits and Vegetables In your CrossFit exercises, one of the things you need to sustain your performance is a well-functioning immune system. Fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of antioxidants that neutralize the free radicals in your body. Also, this food group contains lots of other nutrients such as vitamin C, E, and beta-carotene.Once you make nutrition and workouts your areas of focus, chances are you will meet your CrossFit goals much faster and without lots of struggles.

Box jumps are one of the foundational movements in CrossFit and are responsible for working out your body muscles. However, for you to reap the maximum possible benefits from this CrossFit training movement, you have to do it right. It is common to see and hear people performing box jumps in a rather inefficient manner. For instance, some of them have heavy landing which places a significant amount of stress on their joints which may lead to injury. The best way to do box jumps is to absorb the landing impact throughout the entire body in a controlled and soft manner. Insufficient mobility in one part of the body will make you accommodate the forces through another plane of movement, and this may affect your form when working out. For you to competently perform box jumps, you require sufficient control in all the joints involved. During takeoff and landing, your ankles, knees, and hips should all stay in alignment. A good landing requires that your ankles, knees, and hips absorb the force while the muscles on the opposite sides of the joints should work in partnership to allow the extensor muscle group to lengthen and after that shorten to control joint bending. In some athletes, this range of motion doesn’t come automatically, and often their muscles fail to change length making the athletes land with locked joints. This causes a kind of jarring sensation and reduces the ability to move easily following the landing. There are three main components which come to bear in vertical force management when performing box jumps. Unlocking the Hips This involves a small movement which lowers your body center of gravity while at the same time maintaining a vertical trunk. This releases tension in the lower back and hip flexors which makes the spring action possible in the hips. In turn, this allows for glute activation and efficient functional motor patterning. Well, separating spinal movement from hip movement is important. It is unsurprising to see athletes coupling back extension with hip flexion which compresses the lumbar spine and compromises the spine. Dropping the Center of Gravity When performing the air squat CrossFit workout, it is easy to see how it drops the center of gravity. This exercise requires hip, knee, and adequate ankle mobility as well as the ability to control your balance point. If you want to find your balance point, try sitting in a squat and then shift your weight from your heel to your ball of foot until you get to a comfortable position. Once you get to this position, try dropping into your squat and then bounce back out of it with minimal effort. If you can master this, shock absorption in box jumps will become much easier. Shock Absorption If your knees and hips do not absorb the forces arising from box jumps, they will be forced downwards, causing a collapse of the ankle and foot. Alternatively, they may shunt up into the sacroiliac or hip joint. Smooth and coordinated hip and knee bending make the vertical forces to flow down and out. If at the hip and knee, this motion is blocked, the pelvis will stop moving downwards, and this will cause the force from above to crash into your lower back. To stay injury free and to prevent stress in your joints, it is important to concentrate on your box jump form to ensure you are in the right frame to undertake this CrossFit exercise.

These three CrossFit workouts are usually short and super intense. They are a combination of gymnastics, sprints, ply metrics and Olympic weightlifting. There is always plenty of good reasons people keep coming back for more of these. The CrossFitters’ workouts of the day (WOD) are normally done in groups; points measured and recorded just like a sport. This encourages friendly competition and acts as a motivation.It’s almost always that after just 10 weeks of intensive training which includes lifts like the squat, deadlift, the clean, snatch and overhead press are usually performed as quickly as possible. Here are three that will really challenge but keep you yearning for more. Fran Fran is undeniably one of the most popular and dreaded workouts of the day. To do it successfully, you need to be in a standing position holding a barbell against your shoulders. Gently squat and keep the bar at shoulder level. All this while your palms should be facing up, elbows extended out. Rise again to your standing posture as you keep thrusting the weight over your head into a push press. Do these use a rapid burst of motion? Eliminate routine by performing 21 reps, countered by 21 pull-ups in a 21-15-9 scheme. Annie Annie is one CrossFit workout that makes you able to crank out 150 of the wild double-under. Most people pick it up almost immediately, while others find that they need more practice to master the trick.To do it, you are going to need a jump rope; about chest height as you stand on it. Now start jumping with both feet together. To do a double-under in the process, jump a bit higher and then turn the rope twice as fast so that it can go under your feet twice before it lands. Once you can work your way up to several double-under in a row, you’re set for the Annie. Angie WOD This is a straightforward CrossFit workout that combines basic bodyweight exercises for that intense full-body workout. You need to complete all reps of one exercise before you move onto the next workout. Angie, combined with Fran, it should be an awesome WOD, this means you can use it to keep track of how much you have progressed over time.

Most beginners who sign up for CrossFit show up with some preconceived notions about CrossFit workouts and how generally the experience will be. Some of them have watched videos and read articles on the rigorous nature of CrossFit workouts and tend to be a little bit worried and scared. However, CrossFit has another face, especially for beginners. Instead of putting newbies through a thorough and high-intensity training experience, trained CrossFit professionals ease their students into the program in a smooth way so that they can have the inspiration to come back. The following are some of the basic tips on how to embrace CrossFit and keep it going through and through. Positivity and Patience The initial months of CrossFit are certainly the toughest. This is because a majority of the movements are new and the anaerobic training is somewhat uncomfortable. To go through the startup stage is for you to be focused and have faith in the CrossFit program. Listen carefully to your coach to have an understanding of the basic movements and how to follow their cues. Make Attendance and Punctuality Your First Mission Your first goal should be to show up daily or according to the schedule. In the beginning, most people do not have an idea of their physical form to set any meaningful CrossFit goal. With attendance and punctuality, you become aware of the movements and how to flow well in the CrossFit gym. This helps you in coming up with personalized goals. Feed Your Body System CrossFit is characterized by a mixture of high intensity and lifting metabolic training. This places huge and tremendous demands on your body for muscle tissue rebuilding and energy. In most training, the coach introduces a tailored nutrition program that works in combination with the workouts to enable you to achieve your long-term goals. The observation most coaches make of beginners is that they fail to fuel their body systems adequately. It is important you eat enough to balance out your nutrition needs. Pay Attention to Technique It is scientifically proven that it requires about 550 reps to establish a motor pattern. On the other hand, you require approximately 5,500 reps to unrun a bad habit. Instead of focusing on heavy weight or speed, your attention should be on mastering the techniques involved in learning basic movements. Once you learn the technique, it will naturally pave the way for much greater gains. Work on Your Muscle Soreness As the training loads more demanding functional movements and the intensity move towards the peak, muscle soreness may set in. The impact this has is to make you stop the training which unfortunately can reverse the gains you have made. Muscle soreness is part of the CrossFit game and as such, you ought to learn how to manage it. You can buy a foam roller for in-house workouts and after your CrossFit class, remain behind for about 10 minutes to stretch before leaving.To add to the above tips, ensure you set long-term goals to help you sustain energy and make CrossFit more satisfying. In this way, your CrossFit for beginners experience will be one of the most rewarding.