A thruster is an extremely popular exercise you are likely to bump in when you visit a CrossFit gym. The starting point for any thruster is the front squat, and gradually you get into loading the bar on your shoulders using clean. For you to reach a rep, the bar has to finish overhead with your elbows extended and locked. This may sound easy, but when you have a nice amount of them combined with burpees or chest to bar pull-ups, they can be quite complex. Following are the tips to help you cycle through your thruster workouts more effectively. Putting in More Work on Your Front Squat The foundation for thrusters is built through front squats. When executing front squats, your torso ought to be upright so that your body along with the weight can properly balance. For you to keep the torso upright, you require sufficient degree of mobility in your hips and ankles and good core strength. This will help you to control your weight and movement better. The demand for overall mobility is higher in front squats than back squats. Front Rack Mobility A number of athletes struggle with CrossFit workout, especially with a thruster or front squat because of insufficient front rack mobility. The bar or weight should rest on your shoulders, and the position you are in should make you feel strong and put your arms in control. With an upright torso, your wrist, arms, and shoulders will be mobile enough to control the barbell position. Instead of touching the bar with your fingertips, grab it with a firm grip. In case you are having problems with this, make it manageable through mobility drills. Prevent the Bar from Slipping Off Your Shoulders Normally, if you experience limited overall mobility, inappropriate rack position, and a leaned forward torso, chances are the bar will also start slipping off your shoulders. While fixing this during the WOD is possible, it will cost you extra energy and strength and also disorient you in terms of focus in CrossFit workout. While you are in the bottom squat position, ensure your elbows always stay up irrespective of whether you are doing thrusters or front squats. Always keep the bar fixated on your shoulders and received it in this position with accuracy. Add More Work to Your Push Press After the front squat, push press takes the second position in the thruster. In terms of movement, you start from a bottom position and then you gradually engage your glutes and core as you drive up with your hips to thrust the bar overhead. It is recommended that you don’t press it because eventually, you may burn out especially when doing high volume thrusters. Your CrossFit workout movements should be efficient and use more weightless momentum. The same applies to thrusters. As you stand up from the squat, generate the power you need and utilize it in throwing the weight overhead. A thruster is a metabolic condition in exercise, and as such you need proper pacing and a smart approach especially when done in higher amounts of reps.  

Top performing athletes understand pretty well that nutrition is important if they are to gain a competitive edge over their peers. Through proper and well-planned nutrition, athletes can meet their goals whatever they are. In the 80/20 diet rule, it’s said that body fitness and optimal health is 80% what you eat and 20% exercise. This rubber stamps the importance of diet not only in sports performance but also in our lives as a whole. That said, there are certain foods you should as an athlete. This is because they derail your CrossFit workout performance and set you back. Among these foods include: Diet Soda Diet soda contains artificial sweeteners which have no health benefits to the body. A study was done by Purdue University revealed that consuming artificial sweeteners through drinks such as diet soda can expose your body to health risks and weight gain. Also, these sweeteners are more or less like tricksters to the body because they trick it into thinking that you have taken lots of food thus making it produce insulin for fat storage. Canned Soup The convenience that comes with canned soup makes it a favorite of most people including athletes. However, the bad news is these soups are highly processed and loaded with sodium which takes a toll on your health. Even though the body needs sodium to function well, excessive intake of this mineral through canned soups can have a severe effect on your blood pressure levels. You can opt for homemade soups instead. Rice Cakes Despite the long-held belief that rice cakes are good for snacking, nutritionally speaking, they are empty. These little crunchy snacks will severely affect your blood pressure, and their low-calorie count doesn’t even help in giving you the much-needed energy to fuel your workouts. The glycemic index of rice cakes is 91 which is closer to that of pure glucose which is 100. Foods that are high in glycemic index put your body at risk of developing insulin resistance type 2 diabetes and elevated sugar levels. Sugary Cereals Athletes may be active, but that doesn’t give them the leeway to consume sugary foods including sugary cereals. This is because including these foods in your CrossFit diet spikes insulin levels which in turn prime your body to store more fat. This stresses the body and lowers your overall performance. Intake of sugary cereals raises your blood sugar levels which fall afterward making your body yearn for more sugary foods thereby snowballing your health into a much bigger and unmanageable crisis. White Bread White bread may be popular, but its nutritional content is wanting. This is because the white flour used in making the bread is stripped off its nutrients including fiber, essential Vitamin B, and wheat germ. This leaves behind a processed food product which raises insulin levels when consumed. This is dangerous for an athlete because the dips in energy and the weight gain contributed by white bread can severely affect your CrossFit training schedule. Other foods athletes should put on their must-avoid list include microwave popcorn, granola, alcohol, nutrition bars, pasta, bottled salad dressing, packed deli meat, and pretzels. Instead of craving for these foods, they should look for their healthy alternatives.

If you have been keen on CrossFit athletes, most of them have muscular forearms. This is great because the grip strength they typify is vital if you are into lifting. A stronger grip strength gives you an advantage in lifting more weight in the CrossFit gym as you do powerful moves such as deadlift and pull-ups. This is why anyone wanting to build muscle all over must start with a stronger grip. That said, not everyone visiting the CrossFit box has stronger grip strength. This is because some athletes are masking their weaknesses while others rely solely on machine-based workouts which more often than not neglect challenging the forearm. If this is you and you want some tips to build your grip strength, read along. Do not Encourage Weakness Tools such as grip aids and wrist straps are only effective in putting a band-aid on your weak grip. Instead of challenging your grip to become stronger, these tools will encourage your body to become dependent and this weakens your forearms. The best approach is to lift slightly less weight so that you can hold it without the need for assistance. When you develop your grip strength, your ability to lift more will increase, and this will stimulate your body to grow. Regularly Train Your Grip Your grip should be trained daily. Every time you are in the box lifting and pulling, remember to train your grip. When you incorporate grip in your CrossFit WOD, the repetitive stress will make your grip strength to experience a quick jump, and this will further develop your forearms. Try to include core exercises such as farmer’s walks to help you in your grip. This workout is also great as a forearm and midsection finisher. Lift Heavy Instead of training with light wrist curls for lots of sets, consolidate your workout and train the rest of your body together with your grip. Incorporating body weight rows, pull-ups, and heavy deadlifts, your entire arm will develop including your grip. Add weight to rack deadlifts to help you challenge your grip. Other exercises such as walking lunges must not be neglected, and you can combine them with dumbbells to give you an opportunity to build a stronger grip. Go for Grip Builders There are lots of grip building tools in the CrossFit industry which can stimulate your body. The beauty with grip builders is that they help in amplifying your results through an increase in active demand. An easier way to enhance the thickness of handhold is to wrap a towel around the bar or handle when doing any CrossFit exercise. Another simple, but powerful tool for building your grip strength is squeezing the bar. When you press the bar during a set, you will activate higher grip, and this gives you more gains in grip strength. Instead of allowing the bar to slide towards your fingers, lock it firmly in the palm of your hands so that you can hold it in place. When you engage your grip more, your strength numbers will gradually spiral upwards.

When growing up, most of us were admonished by our parents because of posture. If you ever heard words such as don’t slouch, sit up straight, and such like other words directed at you, there must have been a problem. While many of us didn’t like the reprimands, the truth is, our parents didn’t like the manner in which we were either sitting or standing. Poor posture has lots of implications, and whether our parents knew all of them or not, they had our best interest at heart. Understanding Good Posture Posture refers to the positioning and alignment of the body concerning the force of gravity. Whether you are standing, lying down, or sitting on a mat in the CrossFit gym, gravity exerts a force on our muscles, joints, and ligaments. Good posture enables us to distribute the force of gravity all over our body so that no single structure is overstressed. When exercising in weight training, posture will affect how you run, jump, walk, and lift weights. This, in turn, will give you good balance, flexibility, and ease of movement. Apart from that, the following are some other benefits of good posture in and out of the gym. Better and More Confident Image At times, all you need is just self-confidence. If you slump over, the image you portray to those around you whether they are your CrossFit colleagues or even the folks in your neighborhood is that of a defeated soul. At all times, you need to stand tall, and this can be achieved through a good posture. The first thing your CrossFit trainer will work on with you in the gym is posture and form. This is because they are important for your CrossFit training. Helps in Breathing The slouching position affects the depth and ease of breathing. When working out, breathing is a critical process that gives you an exchange of air and keeps you going through reps. People who are comfortable in the slouching position may have difficulty sitting up straight because when they do, their frontal muscles end up being over shortened and tightened which affects the breathing volume. Enhanced Digestion and Circulation You may not believe it, but your digestion system hugely depends on your posture. With the right posture, your internal organs assume their rightful position without any compulsion or compression. This helps in the normal flow and functioning of the gastrointestinal system. If there is one aspect you cannot forego in CrossFit is poor digestion. It doesn’t matter how healthy your CrossFit diet is, but without proper digestion, it will be countless. Helps Your Joints and Muscle Assuming the right posture aligns your bones and joints thereby allowing your muscles to work properly. Bad posture increases wearing of joint surfaces which if not checked can cause degenerative arthritis as well as joint pain. Having good posture reduces the stress meted to the ligaments which hold the spinal joints, and this minimizes chances of injury. Also, correct posture is directly related to a healthy spine. Though posture seems a simple concept, it is responsible for holding together lots of intricate structures in the spine and keeping them healthy.  

Muscle-ups refer to a full body CrossFit workout which involves performing a pull-up either on a pull-up bar or rings and then followed by a dip. Compared to dips and pull-ups, there are lots of benefits attached to doing muscle ups, some of which include enhancing upper body strength and power. However, to reap these benefits, you should know how muscle ups are done the proper way. Step 1 – Getting Mobile Sitting behind a desk all day long limits your range of motion which is crucial when pulling your chest to the bar and when pushing your way out of the dip. The lack of shoulder mobility makes muscle ups a very difficult CrossFit workout which to some extent increases the risk of joint and ligament injuries. The fix to this is to add some wall slides into your schedule. To do this, lean your butt, upper back, and head against a wall and then place your hands and arms up against the wall as if you are doing a high five. Your elbows must be bent at an angle of 90 degrees, and your upper arms should be positioned at shoulder height. Step 2 – Pulling Like a Professional Before you do a muscle up, ensure that you can comfortably do at least five strict pull-ups as you bring your chest closer to the bar with every rep. To execute this, get hold of the bar in an overhand grip and hang at arm’s length with your legs pointing slightly in front of you as if to form a wide C. After that, press your thighs together and then brace your abs. During the whole of this time, your body should remain as rigid as it possibly can. As you pull yourself up, ensure you focus on gradually bringing your belly button up. This helps in boosting core stability as well as engaging your lats. Step 3 – Demolishing the Dip Before doing the dip, ensure you can comfortably do at least five triceps dips CrossFit exercises. In executing the dip, go as low as your shoulders can allow and when they begin tipping forward or rounding, stop and then press yourself back up. When you pause at this point, you will maximize the amount of your upper body workout without the risk of injuring your connective tissues or joints. Step 4 - Priming the Pattern While the dip and pullup are tough enough, the most challenging segment of the movement is when transitioning from one to the other. You will need a lot of timing and coordination hence the need to rehearse first. You can start by practicing on a low bar and allowing the flow to support a major part of your body weight. When you finally do the transition the right way, you can proceed to increase the height of your bar until it gets to a point where you have to jump to reach it. This improves your muscle memory.

Every athlete stepping into the CrossFit gym has their goal in check. For some, their goals could be athletic while others physique. Whichever you go for, your back strength, glute, and hamstring play a crucial role. One of the most loved workouts in CrossFit is the classic barbell lifts. The reason being they are effective and do not need as much special equipment which means anyone can do them at any place. The barbell lifts are the bread and butter exercises and should form the center of your program. However, this doesn’t mean that you should sacrifice the time for other specialized work. Anyone seeing the glute-ham raise for the first time may be led to believe that it is difficult. This is expected and understandable because the glute-ham raise scotches your lower body like no other exercise. Lifters who have tried this workout have ended up experiencing an unexpected boost in their squat and deadlift. Other beneficiaries of the glute-ham raise have been sprinters and other athletes. It Focuses on Posterior Muscles Lots of weightlifting programs concentrate on the anterior muscles at the expense of the posterior or back muscles. The posterior chain consists of all the muscles you can’t possibly see in a mirror. They include the spinal erectors, rotator cuff muscles, or glutes, hamstrings, as well as rhomboids and lats. If you neglect these muscles and instead prioritize arms, chest, and quads, you will be a lot less stronger than you look which certainly is not a good thing. Imagine having a 6 pack and suffering from epic arms and back pain. The solution is to emphasize more on the muscles of the posterior chain, and nothing does this better than the glute-ham raise CrossFit workout. It’s Different from Deadlifts and Squats It is common to hear athletes commenting that the deadlifts and squats they are doing are sufficient for the posterior chain. However, the glute-ham raise if performed correctly is a different movement pattern from any of the above. It allows you to maintain a straight body down from the knees all the way up to the neck. It is one of the few known workouts that train your hip extension and knee flexion at the same time. To do this movement, you will be required to generate significant muscular tension as well as control which makes it a great athletic movement. It Doesn’t Require a Bench One of the common reasons athletes give for not including the glute-ham raise in their CrossFit training schedule is their lack of access to the right equipment. While this may be a legitimate problem, it has a simple solution. There is a version of the workout known as natural glute-ham raise which can be done virtually anywhere. For instance, you can have your training partner hold your ankles while seated on the floor. You can also use an ab bench for the workout. However, one thing you must acknowledge is that simply because it is a natural workout doesn’t mean that it is easy to do. The level of difficulty remains the same. If you have been looking for a workout to add to your program, the glute-ham raise is one of those you cannot afford to leave behind.

In sports, the success of an athlete is determined by numbers of factors, some of which include motivation, training, talent, resistance to injury among others. This means accomplished athletes need to pay keen attention to every factor that influences their Cross Training Athletes performance. Nutrition is a key element in the preparation of an athlete for any competition as well as routine training. The foods athletes choose affect performance directly hence they need to be aware of their nutritional strategies and the foods that will help them meet their goals. In order to have a broad and comprehensive understanding of nutrition as it pertains to athletes, the discussion below has been divided into different topical issues. Food Groups There are three main food groups that athletes should include in their diet; energy giving foods, proteins as well as vitamins and minerals. The energy requirements of an athlete can be broken down into several components including energy for baseline metabolic needs, energy for growth as well as energy for physical activity. In order to meet the energy that is needed for all these processes,  therefore, athletes’ diet must contain sufficient energy giving foods. Athletes require carbohydrates for training and recovery as well as for energy during competitions. The protein requirements depend on the type of exercises and sport the athlete is engaged in. For instance, in strength training, dietary proteins help in enabling the muscles to synthesize certain proteins required to enhance performance. The contribution of proteins in the manufacture of new tissue, repair of worn out tissue and regulating metabolism and the immune system through hormones is critical. Cross Training Athletes should include a high-quality protein diet soon after Cross Training Athletes exercise to help in muscle protein synthesis. Vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals help the body in regulating metabolic processes by acting as enzyme co-factors. Some vitamins such as E and K have antioxidant properties which help in mopping up excess radicals hence reducing inflammation during exercises and competitions. Nutritional Needs of Special Populations In athletics, the needs of young athletes and female athletes vary nutrition-wise depending on whether they are training or in active competition. The diet needs of young athletes must be observed both before and during competitions so as to minimize gastrointestinal upsets and dehydration. Avoiding solid foods for about 2 to 3 hours before competition helps, however, the intake of fluids should be encouraged throughout. Because of active growth and the effects of adolescence, young athletes must be given the necessary nutritional support which includes energy, protein and vitamin intake. Female athletes have lower energy requirements because of their low muscle mass and body mass as well as a lighter training load. Their diets should contain lots of iron and less of fats. Types of Workouts Depending on the type of training an athlete is participating in, their Cross Training Athletes  diet intake changes. For instance, strength training which includes bodybuilding, powerlifting, throwing events, as well as weightlifting, requires a high intake of energy giving foods and adequate high-quality proteins. Power sports which include rowing, swimming, kayaking and track cycling requires moderate to high levels of carbohydrates intake, sufficient fluids, and high-quality proteins. Endurance sports including triathlon, marathon and road cycling requires athletes to have the ability to sustain performance over long periods. The diet here should be rich in carbohydrates to fuel the training phrase, fluids to prevent dehydration as well as high-quality proteins to promote muscle adaptation. In addition to the above sports, special consideration should also be made for aesthetic and weight class training such as gymnastics, figure skating, combative sports, and diving. Carbohydrates help athletes in this category to meet the energy needs for training and competition while fluids help to prevent dehydration.

Chest to bar pull-ups is one of the common CrossFit movements athletes should familiarize themselves with. To do them, you need some strength in place as well as technique. If you have been struggling to do chest to bar pull-ups or you want to add them to your CrossFit workout routine, here are some tips to help you improve. Explore Different Options Previously, these pull-ups have been paired with thrusters. Whether you are training for the competition or just for your personal fitness, it is good to try out different options on the chest to bar pull-ups. There are two main options worth trying, the first being palm facing towards and the other palm facing away. The first option is called regular pull-ups while the second is chin ups. Both of these options are legitimate and highly recommended in CrossFit training. Other options you may explore include kipping, butterfly, and strict. In between these options, you should know when to drop off the bar so that your energy is not wasted in failed reps. Developing Your Kipping/ Butterfly Technique Compared to the kipping chest to bar pull-ups, butterfly chest to bar pull-ups are much quicker and efficient. Try as much as you can to keep tight through your legs and torso. If you want to do butterfly chest to bar pull-ups in a more efficient way, try remaining tight throughout your torso instead of doing big circles or cycling backward. Get Enough Strength If for some reason you cannot successfully do chest to bar pull-ups CrossFit exercises, you may need to start with eccentric pull-ups. Begin practicing eccentric pull-ups on a box and gradually lower yourself to the bottom. After that, pull up back to the starting position and stick to about 5 sets. This will help you get sufficient strength to execute chest to bar pull-ups with much ease. Toes Up or Pointed If you are working out from a purist point of view, you may prefer to keep your toes pointed. However, from a physio viewpoint, people require different strategies. For instance, if your back strength is better than your abdominal strength, toes up will give you better results because it will tension your anterior muscles. On the other hand, pointed toes activate your posterior muscles which are important for CrossFitters who have stronger abs and relatively weaker back muscles. The bottom line is to find out what exactly works for you and stick with that. All through your chest to bar CrossFit training program, ensure you engage your coach to enable you to identify and rectify areas of weaknesses. Most coaches won’t have a problem to tell you what to concentrate on and the additional exercises to undertake following your workouts. For beginners, one on one coaching sessions is invaluable because they help you realize what you are doing wrong and do it right.