CrossFit – Definition, Benefits, Advantages, Types of Workouts, and More

CrossFit Definition

CrossFit is a physical conditioning system based on exercises that always vary, with functional movements executed at high intensity.

In other words, it is a training technique that links movements from different disciplines in a sequential way, such as weightlifting, metabolic training, or gymnastics.

Its purpose is to develop the human being’s capacities and abilities through various exercises to adapt to any scenario it has to face.

CrossFit so that you can delve into the knowledge, history, and dimensions it is reaching worldwide. Without further ado, we will tell you about CrossFit’s benefits that you will experience if you practice it.

What are the Benefits of CrossFit?

We will show you the advantages that your body can experience if you practice CrossFit regularly and under the supervision of a Coach.

1. Helps to Lose weight

The practice of Crossfit regularly will allow you to reduce the percentage of body fat, especially the so-called fat mass, which will help you lose weight.

This exercise accompanied continuously by healthy eating habits or a complement to a diet, under the supervision of a professional, will help you reach your ideal weight.

2. Increase your Stamina

• Performing the Workout Of the Day will improve your cardiovascular and lung capacity.
• So you will gradually notice how energy accompanies you throughout the day, and fatigue and tiredness take time to appear. You will be able to perform much more in any activity.

3. Improves Psychomotricity

• Thanks to the movements that you will perform, your muscles and joints will acquire greater flexibility.
• Your psychomotor abilities, such as balance and coordination, will enhance, and you will experience greater agility. For example, this will be a great way to prevent injuries.

4. Strengthens the Muscles

• Thanks to its variety of exercises, CrossFit allows you to work your body’s muscles integrally.
• This way, you will tone the body muscle volume in a general way. This work will make you stronger, and for example, you will be able to lift weights more quickly.
• But not only will you be healthier physically, as you will see later, but you will also be stronger mentally.

5. A Slimmer Body

• The most important thing is to have a good general physical shape.
• Crossfit’s benefit is that, as we mentioned before, by working all the body muscles globally, little by little, the less developed muscles will reach the muscles with more excellent development.
• You are thus balancing all the muscle mass. Together with the loss of fat mass and weight, your figure will be leaner and more proportional.

6. Concentration and Extra Motivation

• Due to the intensity of each WOD, its performance requires focusing attention on learning and performing the exercise, concentrate your thoughts on achieving the routine.
• But once it does, your satisfaction will increase, and next time you will want to go a little further. You will see the benefits it has brought you in a short time, so your motivation will increase.
• These benefits can be transferred to other areas of your life, work, academic, personal, etc.

7. Reduce your Stress Level

• By practising CrossFit, you will have fun, have a good time, and this coupled with the fact.
• While you concentrate for a while, your mind free from external worries, and thanks to mental relaxation, your stress level will significantly reduce.
• Also, exercise helps you sleep better, so the rest will be more fantastic, and you will be able to face the new day less tense and, therefore, more effectively.

8. Increase social relationships

• Around a CrossFit Box, people who like the same passion usually coincide in the same space.
• So the exchange of impressions and experiences around sports practice will facilitate conversations around other aspects of personal life, and you will be able to establish friendly relationships.

9. Teamwork

• About the previous point, you will see how the Box does not lack people who support each other, either by providing advice when carrying out an exercise or with encouraging phrases.
• It fosters solidarity between people. The activities, although individual, are shared with colleagues. In this way, a dedicated work team is configuring.

10. Greater Self-Confidence

• When you manage to perform the techniques and exercises correctly, you will experience a feeling of dominance and control over what you do, making you feel more self-realized.
• This higher self-esteem will carry over into your life so that you will face new challenges with greater confidence in yourself.

What are the Advantages of Crossfit?

1. Work of the Cardiorespiratory System

• Even being an activity of tremendous force impact, we force the cardiorespiratory system to work to its limit with the consequent modification in our physiological system.
• More excellent erythropoietin production is responsible for producing red blood cells and carries oxygen, therefore more significant transport of oxygen to our muscles and organs.
• Growth of the heart’s cavities and hypertrophy of its walls, with this we achieve, in each beat more blood moves, since the heart can pump more blood in each moment and that the blood circulates with more force.
• With this, we can notice that our pulsations at rest have decreased, and when we start practising sports, they rise more quickly.
• The alveoli are responsible for capturing the oxygen that we breathe work more efficiently; therefore, they charge a higher% than sedentary people.
• The exchange zone works more effectively. This zone is the one that exchanges the substances, in this case, oxygen and carbon dioxide between the venules with the pulmonary system.

2. Resistance to Muscle Fatigue

• We not only achieve resistance to physiological fatigue but also muscle fatigue.
• It is working on a muscular level repeatedly and with short or no breaks.
• We get our muscles to get used to high-intensity work maintained over time, considering that the higher the intensity, the less time we can keep the effort.

3. Muscle Hypertrophy

• For people who may be interested, with Crossfit, we achieve slight sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and moderate sarcomeric hypertrophy to have quite a rocky hypertrophy as it contains many myofibrils per muscle fibre.

4. Fat Burning

• By doing this type of training, we will achieve that the body is burning more calories in fat after exercise, up to 72 hours later.

5. Butt Motivation

• A sport that allows us to measure and improve ourselves in each session will keep us motivated and fulfilled. With this, we will release even more endorphins than doing other sports types.
• It will allow us to maintain a more stable psychological state.

What are the Types of Crossfit Workouts?

1. WOD AMRAP

• It consists of performing as many rounds as possible of the combinations of exercises given in a given time.
• For example, Amrap 20 minutes, you have 20 minutes to do as many rounds as you can.

2. WOD EMOM

• In this type of WOD, the aim is to perform a certain number of repetitions of an exercise (or several) within a minute for a certain number of minutes.
• The time remaining from the end of the marked exercise to the end of the minute is rest.
• The EMOM ends when the athlete cannot finish within the minute or after the coach’s minutes set by the coach.

3. WOD By Time

• Another form of training is to perform several rounds, determined as a goal.
• In a time limit to meet the objective or perform the combination of exercises given, as quickly as possible.

4. WOD TABATA

• There are eight rounds in which 20 seconds of execution of an intense exercise carries out, followed by 10 seconds of rest, and total repetitions count.
• It can be a TABATA of two or three different activities.

DrawBacks of CrossFit

1. Injuries

• Some of the proposed exercises can be highly damaging to our joints and even to the tendons.

2. Special Material

• Not all gyms adopt for CrossFit work. It depends on the city; it will be difficult for us to find a gym that allows us to train in this modality.
• So, if your goal is to train CrossFit, you must go to a centre that allows you to develop your routines with a full guarantee.

3. Non-Specialized Assistants

• In many centres, the way to perform basic weight lifting exercises such as clean & jerk not usually practice.
• When they do incorrectly, they can be highly damaging to the spine, so you have to try to get into the hands of an excellent professional.

4. Overtraining

• If we do not monitor workloads or direct us does not take them into account, it is easy to fall into overtraining.
• That is, we have exceeded the limit of exercise load that our body can assimilate.
• If we notice headaches, loss of appetite, or insomnia, I recommend taking a week of total rest to regain strength and avoid injuries or health problems.

5. Wear and Tear and Danger of Breaking

• By pushing the body to the limit, in the last minutes of training, our intramuscular and intermuscular coordination will impair.
• It leads to poor execution of movements and exercises, therefore a danger to our back, muscles, and joints.
• Try to put heavy load exercises early in your workout to avoid this inconvenience.

Conclusion

CrossFit may be an effective workout for losing weight, building strength, agility, flexibility, and improving your aerobic fitness. It may not be right for everyone, however. If you have a health condition or injury, talk to your doctor before trying CrossFit.

It considers working with an instructor when you’re starting instead of relying on online videos or workouts. They can help you learn proper form, which may reduce your risk of injury.

Its classes generally focus on creating a community. For that reason, you may prefer CrossFit classes instead of doing the workouts on your own.