It is time to refine your CrossFit nutrition by committing to eat quality foods which will take your training to a higher level. The reason why each fitness food you choose is important is that you cannot substitute quality nutrition. What you eat largely depend on your lifestyle, your biology, training, and your goals. That notwithstanding, the cardinal principle is to respect your body and consume only the best quality of foods. To build a nutritional framework for success, follow and implement the simplest rule of meal prepping and including some form of protein in your breakfast meal. Below are five types of foods that will help in perfecting your CrossFit diet. Coconut Oil All CrossFitters should consider adding coconut oil to their diet. There are lots of benefits associated with this easily available food. For instance, it increases your energy levels, enhances fat burning, lowers oxidative stress, improves cognitive function, improves digestion, and lowers inflammation. If you are a vegan, an athlete on a low carbohydrate diet, or one who trains early in the morning, you have every reason to make coconut oil part of your daily diet. Coconut oil has medium chain triglycerides which are saturated fats. They are metabolized on a different path from that of other saturated fats. They form a more rapid source of energy. Bio Protein This is an ideal fuel to take after your workout of the day. Bio proteins play a key role in replenishing your muscles and optimizing recovery. There are many reasons why it forms a perfect inclusion into your breakfast meal. It boosts neurotransmitter production, satiates hunger, provides amino acids which are the building blocks of muscle, and stabilizes your energy levels. Nuts and Berries When you are on an intense training schedule, you should have some nuts and berries to give you the support you need. Nuts are usually packed with important nutrients and essential fats and can serve as a perfect snack. Berries are packed with vitamins, anthocyanins, fiber, and polyphenols. Protein Porridge Any CrossFitter looking for a perfect start to a morning should consider adding protein porridge to their diet. It is a great tasting snack that can enhance your daily protein intake. This contributes to the growth as well as maintenance of muscle mass. Depending on the brand, you will have different nutritional quantities per serving, but the nutritional profile contains energy, fat, carbohydrates, protein, and a bit of salt. Chia Seeds The beauty of this super food is its flexibility. You can easily throw in chia seeds into your smoothie, morning yogurt, or a fruit salad. It has lots of health benefits amongst them anti-oxygens which prevents muscle soreness and inflammation, protein for muscle growth, and nutrients that boost concentration. When designing your CrossFit diet, be simple and include foods that you can easily find around. Ensure the nutritional basics are met and always go for the best possible quality.

Brands at times do shy away from supporting alternative sports whose future may not look promising. However, Reebok is different. They developed the first shoe to be used in CrossFit, and they became the official CrossFit games sponsor, injecting millions of money into this sport of fitness. Over the past few years, other brands have come into the scene, and they are quickly biting at the heels of Reebok as a leading CrossFit brand. Below are some of the brands that have tapped into this vibrant multi-million-dollar industry. NOBULL This brand is associated with clean products that perform well. Their latest CrossFit training shoe is known as Trainer. This shoe has a seamless one-piece construction comprising an extremely durable, abrasion resistant, and breathable material. The guard plates are constructed using a highly flexible mesh base layer that allows you to do rope climbs effectively. Strike Mvmnt This brand brings a classic, fresh aesthetic to CrossFit. Since their inception, they have been improving and honing their product to what it is today. With the release of their latest shoe, Chill Pill, Strike Mvmnt have completely reconstructed the platform and added some rope-resistant material to the sole while at the same time maintaining the lightweight construction of the shoe. This brand boasts of the superior foot strike athletes achieve when running or training in their shoes. New Balance  Previously, New Balance was famous for their running footwear. However, things took a new twist, and they ventured into the functional training scene. Currently, the brand has some of the advanced Cross-trainers used in many CrossFit gyms. The reason why their Minimus collection has become a favorite to many CrossFitters is that it is lightweight, durable, and has a low heel drop. Another key reason is that these shoes give you a variety of widths which many other brands do not. Asics This brand has been known for its comfortable and extremely functional shoes. They have a new release known as Met-Conviction which was developed and specifically tested for burpees, box jumps, running, lifts, and everything in between. It has a 3-millimeter drop and qualifies as a minimalist shoe which connects you firmly to the ground. It also has a removable sock liner to give you cushioning and to wick away the moisture. Inov-8 This brand was among the first to hop into CrossFit, and as we speak, they are on their third edition of the F-Lite Cross-training series. This is specifically designed for the workout of the day. It has a descent 8-millimeter heel drop and close to 50% denser heel compared to the forefoot. What this means is that the shoe will absorb lesser power while more of the power will go into the ground. Thanks to the enhanced cushion at the front, you have ample padding for running and box jumps. While these brands may not have the history and appeal that keeps them on par with Reebok, they are coming up quite fast and may with time dominate the CrossFit training arena.

According to research, 20% of people suffer from one kind of knee pain or the other. This percentage may be higher within the weightlifting population. There are many causes of knee pain some of which include misalignment, osteoarthritis, and IT band issues among others. Irrespective of the cause, knee pain can seriously hinder your CrossFit workout gains. Apart from that, knee pain also causes problems in movement patterns because your body unconsciously starts avoiding hurting movements. This is what ultimately opens the door to more knee-related problems. Collagen and Why It is Important Collagen is one of the main building blocks of body tissues which include the knee. It also happens to be the most abundant protein type within your body system and can be found in hair, muscles, skin, and your knees. Collagen is more or less like a scaffold which holds things together. Your body system generates its collagen, but you can also source it from outside from supplements and bone broth. The reason why collagen has not been a problem in the past is that our lifestyle consisted of eating connective tissues and bones of wild game as well as drinking bone broth. If you do not have access or for some reason cannot slurp broth or gnaw bones, you can go for collagen supplements. Research again indicates that people who supplement with collagen such as collagen peptides experience a faster reduction in athletic-related knee pain. You can get collagen peptides from health food stores or even in online stores and add it to your CrossFit diet plan. The recommended intake is about 20 grams per serving, and if you can have this once per day, then you will be sorted. The side effects of collagen supplementation in your CrossFit diet include thicker hair and nails and better digestion among others. Since collagen doesn’t easily melt, it is important to blend it with your protein shake or stir it in hot drinks. It is also advisable that you take it before bed. This is because it is loaded with amino acid known as glycine which can make you sleepy. Since collagen is categorized as an incomplete protein, it doesn’t have all the necessary amino acids to give you the gains you need. This is why you should not count it as part of your daily protein goals in your CrossFit training. There you go! If you can’t handle the knee pain anymore, think about this protein supplement, and your struggles could be over.

Many athletes rest comfortably on lateral raises and conventional pressing not knowing that they are selling themselves short when it comes to shoulder building. There is a lot more that you need to put in your CrossFit training schedule if you want to shake things up. When looking for variety in your shoulder training and virtually any other CrossFit training, planes of action and force angles are crucial. The following are ways you can create a new stimulus and expose significant amounts of weakness for big, healthy shoulders. The Y Press When you perform the standard shoulder presses, they strengthen your shoulders in one plane. If you could only shift the angle slightly, you could work out your mid deltoids much harder. For you to do the Y press, you have to remember your angles. Begin with your palms facing each other and at the dimensions of your shoulder width. As the arms get extended, your hands will move further away from one another, and your fist will rotate to make your palms face forward at the end. The greatest tension is felt at the top because this is where the lever arms are at their longest. This explains why posing at the very top of each rep for about a second or two is smart. The Y presses are excellent movements which can follow your dumbbell overhead presses. Seated Snatches Even with a coach in the CrossFit gym, the barbell snatch is one of those exercises that are complex and somewhat difficult to master. That said, you can simplify the movement using dumbbells. The dumbbells eliminate the involvement of the knee, hip joint, and ankle. When you incorporate a seat, it becomes great because it gives you size and conditioning. Seated snatches, unlike barbell snatches, make you responsible for the negative reps. In turn, this makes you honest concerning the weight you choose. Just like a Z press, seated snatches quickly expose mobility issues primarily because the seated position does not have a backrest. If you discover you can’t bear the weight directly overhead while in an upright torso, you may need to enhance the health of your thoracic spine and your shoulder mobility. Push Press with Snatch Grip Behind the neck, push pressing is one of the underused tools for working out the rear deltoids. If you add a snatch grip as well as a push start, it all becomes invaluable. The beauty of this movement is that it restricts the weight you can bear and at the same time works out your rear deltoids, mid traps, and scapular muscles much harder. A point to note is that this movement needs good shoulder health hence not advisable for beginner CrossFitters. Blackburn This movement mimics the overhead press pattern and serves as a good stimulant towards shoulder mobility, a neutral lower spine, and rear deltoids activation. As a bonus, it hits hard on the rest of the posterior chain. To get the most benefit out of this, secure your heels in the horizontal back extension machine instead of using an unsecured bench or the floor. This works hard everything between the rear deltoids and the back of the knees both isotonically and isometrically. This CrossFit workout gives you an excellent way to train the overhead range with a different reference point thus allowing gravity to form a new force angle.

Mirror muscles which include the back, arms and the core are more noticeable than the rest. For this reason, they tend to be worked out more than the others. Many CrossFit athletes focus on training above the belt and don’t spend as much time training the lower body. You may not know, but the lower body has some of the biggest muscles in your body system. Focusing your CrossFit workout on your bottom half will see you rewarded with athletic quads, strong glutes, toned calves, and healthy hammies. If you are still not convinced, below are more reasons why training your lower body matters. Reduction in the Risk of Injury Training your lower body helps in preventing frequent injuries which means you will stay longer in the game. When you perform functional exercises such as squats and lunges, you promote knee stability which goes a long way in preventing an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tear. Strengthening the posterior chain has been associated with cartilage injury recoveries and muscle balances. CrossFit workout burning of More Calories Whether you are targeting at weight loss or not, if you want to get the most from your CrossFit gym, you should focus on the legs. Multi-joint exercises such as deadlifts, squats, and lunges require higher levels of metabolism and more work from the brain and heart because they engage bigger muscles. For you to successfully challenge these muscles, you need to put in more energy which translates into burning more calories. Ability to Run Faster and Longer There is no secret; strength training makes you a much better runner. Movements such as deadlifts and squats are strength based and play a key role in developing your hips. Research further reveals that strength training allows your body to develop endurance and this gives you an edge during competitions. Enhancement of Your Range of Motion Olympic weightlifters, pro-level athletes, and elite athletes need mobility in their joints for them to max their power output. You don’t have to be a top competitor for you to benefit from correct movement patterns. Deadlifts, lunges, and squats will enhance your range of motion which further help you in safely tackling more weight and increasing your gains. Improvement in Your Balance A stronger lower body can help you in avoiding a wipeout. Workouts such as deadlifts and lunges develop your proprioception, enhance your stability, and readies you for anything. It doesn’t matter whether you are a weekend warrior type or an adrenaline sports junkie, maintaining balance is essential for total body control. To add to the above, incorporating a leg day to your CrossFit training schedule, will speed up your metabolism. Lifting weights helps athletes build muscle mass and maintain their form. When your body has more muscle, your entire engine will run faster, and this keeps your metabolism level up.

Have you just completed an early morning CrossFit workout and you are feeling somewhat tired, sweaty, and very hungry? Well, this is a common feeling after you give your morning exercise everything you have. At the back of this, all is the awesome feeling of successful training. To come back to your normal self, you need to bring in your post-workout recovery nutrition. Consuming carbohydrate and protein is important after a physical exercise because it boosts your recovery and makes it a lot quicker. The quality of the breakfast needs to be up to scratch if you are to benefit fully. Training in the morning is excellent because it takes your body through a cycle of energy combustion without much food to accompany the process. Because of this, immediately after you must replenish the little your body had before the CrossFit workout. As a rule of thumb, get at least 0.6 grams per kilogram of bodyweight of protein into your post-workout meal. This means if you are 75 grams in bodyweight, you should then take 45 grams of protein. Below are three breakfast recipes that are delicious, healthy, and full of nutrients which you may want to include into your post-workout meal. Magic Smoothies Smoothies are fun because they are easy to make, hydrating, nutritious, delicious, and easy for your body to digest. You have plenty of options, and you can always do a mix and match of your favorite ingredients as long as you maintain the needed nutritional profile. In your recipe, you can include frozen blueberries, bananas, almond milk, coconut milk, a handful of seeds and nuts, vegan protein, and some ice cubes. The advantage of vegan protein is that it forms key building blocks for body restoration and it is easy to digest. On the other hand, coconut and almond milk are excellent sources of healthy saturated fats which you will certainly need to power you through your CrossFit challenge. The Omelet of Champions This is again easy to prepare and contains loads of protein. To make your omelet truly unique, enrich it with nutritional powerhouses by combining tomatoes, courgettes, tofu, eggs, spinach, avocado, raw vegetable salad, and if you can, strawberries. Protein Pancakes Pancakes can be a healthy meal if only you pick healthy ingredients. For instance, instead of the regular flour, use rice or bucket wheat flour. You could also replace part of your flour with protein powder scoops. To make your pancake, put together eggs, flour, water, and some milk. If you want your pancakes to be thinner, ensure your mixture is also thin. When your pancakes are ready, feel free to serve them with frozen berry, Greek yogurt, or a smoothie of your choice. The key element to a post-workout recovery CrossFit diet is that it should contain all the nutrients required to balance the meal. Don’t trade anything for the quality and sufficiency of the nutrients.

Research indicates that a person breathes about 20,000 times per day. However, has it occurred to you that you have been doing it all wrong? Breathing seems so natural that while eating or doing any other normal activity, we don’t seem to think about it much. The only time breathing becomes noticeable is when huffing and puffing during a CrossFit workout. Breathing is much more than oxygen coming in and carbon dioxide going out. By the mere fact that we have been breathing doesn’t mean that we have been right all the way. There are a lot of possible ways you could improve your breathing. Benefits from enhanced breathing include stress reduction, lower blood pressure, increased brain size, improved athletic performance among others. Below are the techniques to help you achieve this. Deep Breathing at Rest Proper breathing can help relieve stress by increasing the parasympathetic nervous system activity. This system works in the opposite of fight or flight response system thus giving you a more tranquil and calmer demeanor. If you can, work on your breathing while lying on the ground and your feet raised up against a wall. The advantage of this posture is that it eliminates gravity and its effects on the equation. Then, put one of your hands on your chest and the other one in the abdominal area. Take deep, focused breaths for about a minute or two ensuring that you spend much time on both inhalation and exhalation. The key to this technique is to ensure your abdominals rise before your chest. Breathing While Warming Up Breathing has an impact on your athletic performance, and this is why you should take advantage of the warm-up session in your CrossFit training schedule to refocus on your breath. Take time foam rolling your upper body especially the sections that are hindering your correct breathing ability. Then, perform the deep breathing exercise as explained above before moving into your active warm-up. Focusing on your breath before exercising ensures a reinforcement of proper breathing movements before engaging in the high-intensity interval training. Doing this will lessen your huffing and puffing leading to an effective CrossFit workout. Breathing When Working Out If you want to remember how and when to breath as you work out, you can use the Valsalva Maneuver technique which comprises taking a deep breath immediately before lifting and then holding your breath as you do the lifting. This method is important in creating an intra-abdominal pressure which in turn creates a strong foundation and allows you to handle the much greater weight. When lifting sub-maximal loads, bracing is recommended. This involves activating your core musculature thus creating a super fitness in your mid-section. This helps you to stabilize your core and as such goes a long way in reducing the risk of injury. If you have been keen on counting your macros, stretching, hydrating and foam rolling, you should also try and integrate your breathing into your CrossFit workout plan. Just one or two minutes a day can enhance your breathing and take your workouts and performance to another level.

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.