What is CrossFit workout?
You just signed up for your first CrossFit class! You’re a bit nervous, as all you’ve heard of or seen on social media platforms is these extraordinarily fit men and woman throwing themselves on to the ground yearning for just one last breath. It’s daunting, I know as I was once like you at the start of my fitness journey wanting to try what all my friends had been talking about, a CrossFit workout.
Expectations don’t have to be scary, fun is the opposite of scary.
After three years of participating and coaching in over 1000 CrossFit classes I get where you are coming from.
A well-structured CrossFit class focuses on the individual; it’s this focus that makes this strength and conditioning program unique. We take functional movements such as the air squat, the thruster and the kettle bell swing to create constantly varied workout applied at light-medium and high intensity. We run, jump, pull and push. We lift loads, and we do so at various distances, times and methods, because we are cool like that, no monotony here.
Mixing things up and applying a contestant and varied progression in intensity can be seen in the change of energy, wellness and health over a long period of time. While people still enjoy both the hardships and benefits that come with any workout regime. We find areas that we feel initially comfortable with and then ask people to increase this ‘excellence’ we strive for within the area of focus. It’s this ‘excellence’ we strive for in the workouts every week , the stepping just above our comfort zone that flows over to our professional careers and relationships with people in our private lives that makes this method of training more than just a workout but a regimen that betters us as people.
A Taste of a CrossFit Workout “Christine”
Let’s look at an adaptable way to train. The workout called ‘Christine’ is a great example – the majority of us step on-and-off a box a few times.
However, if we take a workout like “Christine” which is 3 rounds of a 500 meter row, then 12 deadlifts at body weight and 21 box jumps onto a 20 inch box would we all be able to do so? The answer in most cases is a resounding no. If we make a few changes to include newcomers and grow the community by adding a time cap for safety / performance of fifteen minutes and numerous other variables like height of the box, distance rowed and load on the barbell to include new comers, would we all then be able to do these movements at variable paces depending on your ability would go from a ‘No’ to a more ‘ yes , I can try that’. And that’s all we strive for as coaches, to have a newcomer be open to try something new that may look a bit daunting.
This is why CrossFit workouts are so unique, they are as stated earlier constantly varied functional movements performed at and applied at various intensities. With that in mind, we need to be able to measure and track our distances, performances, heights, workout times in order to upscale or modify our movements and make it a program and workouts that everyone can try and complete.
Let’s say we have a class of 10 participants, 2 of those might complete the workout as prescribed, and we like calling this ‘Rx’ as coaches. 5 of those 10 people might only deadlift at half of their body weight, and the 3 others might only row 300 meters, deadlift 35 kgs, and do 15 box step ups. CrossFit workouts allow us to approach any task from what we are capable of doing within the given time while maintaining intensity. At the end of the workout, we all got a stimulus appropriate to our abilities despite the ability level and share a fist pump at the end.
Why Are CrossFit culture is so Iconic?
We at Iconic Fitness put the individual in focus, with a strong team of coaches specialized in different areas such as weight loss, rehabilitation, sports conditioning, strength and conditioning and CrossFit principles. We know just how you can get the best out of any CrossFit workout you come to. We’d love you to come and try CrossFit so that you can discover that you are capable of more than you think and have fun while doing so.
We are a community. This is a huge and vital part of both Iconic mentality but also CrossFit as a brand and lifestyle. We warm up together, we lift together, and we sweat together and cheer each other on. This most effective way to train. This way of training develops trusts and respect among members and coaches while we have fun in a safe environment where you can be yourself and reach your goals.
The magic is in the movement, the support and the community.
You might find these blogs helpful: Why CrossFit is the best way to use Functional Training and What is Functional Fitness.
Contact us to start your CrossFit journey.
