ARE you bored at the gym? Are you tired of the same routine? Are you still not getting the results you want? Maybe it’s time you join the fastest growing strength and conditioning training trend known as CrossFit.
It’s a vigorous workout that combines weight training, aerobics and gymnastics all in one so that you become fit in every area of your game - not just one. The goal is to be functionally fit: push every aspect of your body to the max so that you’re healthy, strong and in shape. Not just so you can lift a tonne of weight or run a minute mile, but so you’re fit to do anything that life throws at you - now or later.
If this is starting to sound familiar, you might have seen the growing number of CrossFitters near you working their arse off in Reebok’s snazzy line of neon Nano CrossFit shoes. Not only does the workout stand out; so does the attire.
Visit Reebok if you want more info about the shoes but for now, read on to find out why CrossFit is better than what you’re doing at the gym right now.
Intensity
If you’re the type of person that moseys into a gym, does a round of bench presses, chats it up and then eases your way through a light workout, then CrossFit is going to be a serious wake-up call.
If the aforementioned workout is a light cup of coffee that slowly wakes you up, CrossFit is a shot of five-hour energy. It’s a fast-paced, intense workout that can take less than 15 minutes a day because that quarter of an hour is going to be condensed, non-stop movement. It may only be three or four routines, such as burpees, a jog and squats, but the idea is that you keep doing each one over and over through the set time.
It’s a concentrated shot of exercise and it burns the system … in a good way.
Effort
The key to CrossFit is the intensity but hidden in that fact is that you’re inherently pushing yourself to do the most you can through each exercise in the workout.
Everyone wants results but not everyone puts in the effort. In a regular gym, it’s easy to cheat reps here and there or sneak a longer break than necessary, but because of how the CrossFit workout is tailored, there’s no option other than to max yourself out.
Effort is the key to any workout routine, and because you go balls to the wall in CrossFit, you reach your goals sooner.
Short WODs
If you don’t have the time to spend an hour on the treadmill staring at the wall, the CrossFit Workouts of the Day (WODs) are what you need. One of the main benefits of CrossFit is that you can be finished in a matter of minutes - literally.
In a span of 15 or 20 minutes, you’ll be asked to complete as many rounds of a specific circuit as you can. By the end of it, because of the aforementioned intensity and effort, you’ll have burned more calories than you would have sleepwalking through a regular workout.
It’s faster and it’s more effective. Those short on time will appreciate that aspect of CrossFit.
Community
Often times a gym is just a collection of random people focused on doing their own different exercises. At a CrossFit box, which is what they refer to as their gym, it’s community.
For starters, CrossFit is about competing against yourself and not others. In fact, since the exercises are done in group workouts, the others often encourage you and help you push your boundaries unlike anything you’ve previously seen in a gym. Even the person who finishes last gets a round of high-fives for pushing themselves as hard as they can.
Everyone has the same goal in mind: to get in the best shape possible. Because of that, everyone is on the same team and working to the same goals. The camaraderie in CrossFit is part of what makes this exercise experience so unique.
Coaching
One of the most important components of a CrossFit box are the certified instructors. You didn’t think you were doing these intense workouts on your own, did you?
CrossFit instructors are specialised to not only teach and motivate but to guide you through the workouts and help modify them around your game. Form and posture are quite important going in and they are going to make sure you’re on point.
If you’ve been thinking about getting a personal trainer, your CrossFit membership basically has one included.
Multi-dimensional
While the sport - or workouts - are sometimes hard to describe, it’s because they are so multi-dimensional. When you’re doing CrossFit, you’re not just going to the gym to bulk up or to climb steps. This isn’t a basic circuit of weightlifting; rather it’s a program that mixes so many different exercises to push all aspects of your body to the limits.
CrossFit includes Olympic weightlifting, calisthenics, gymnastics, sprints, plyometrics and a few other miscellaneous exercises. When you add it all up, you’ll never be disinterested at the gym and your body won’t plateau from repetition.
As they say, CrossFit’s specialty is not specialising. It’s constantly changing, which keeps your mind and body from getting bored.
Weakness Can’t Hide
Since there are so many different challenging facets to CrossFit, none of your weaknesses will be able to hide. If you’re a power lifter that solely focuses on the glory muscles, your endurance, cardio and conditioning will be exposed. If you’re a marathon runner, then you’re going to grow in very different realms.
The goal of CrossFit is not to make you necessarily super strong, super flexible or super fast, but pretty strong, pretty flexible, pretty fast and pretty good at a lot of other things too. It’s the ultimate jack-of-all-trades workout and no aspect gets left behind.
The thinking is that niche athletes are not functionally fit. Instead, they are just really good at one type of exercise and are overlooking other areas. No aspect gets overlooked in CrossFit.
All The Girls Are Doing It
If you thought that CrossFit was a guy thing, think again. With the goal of the workout focused around overall physical preparedness opposed to just bulk strength, women are drawn to it for the calorie burning and butt toning.
You’d be surprised to know that the male-female ratios show women as the majority participants with splits ranging from 60-40 even up to 70-30. And the women who can make it through a CrossFit workout are going to have great bodies - you can be sure of that.
So if you’ve been hanging by the barbells in your regular gym wondering when that cute chick is going to appear and ask you for a spot, it’s not happening. She’s over at the box CrossFitting.