Workouts

CrossFit is a racing sport wherein the players travel on foot to overcome series of combined military obstacle challenges that include, but not limited to wall climbing, trail crossing, carrying heavy objects, crossing over bodies of water, crawling under ropes or barbed wire and sometimes, jumping over fire.

Other CrossFit activities may also include running and crawling under or over large inverted quarter pipes, slanted walls, a cargo net, and varieties of balancing and hanging obstacles.

Far beyond regular or traditional running, CrossFit is more of an adventure running where sets of friends and families can join together – as a team or individual players. Over the past years, CrossFit has developed into a more complex and difficult sport that aims to test one’s physical, mental and social strength.

Who can join an CrossFit?
The truth is, not everyone is capable of joining a CrossFit competition. People with severe heart problems, high blood pressure, recently undergone surgery, and other serious illnesses are prohibited from joining this competition. For you to join a CrossFit competition, you must be ready for massive, strenuous, and strength-pulling activities ahead.

Your whole body, physical and mental attributes must be in synchronicity and willing to perform those activities with determination and goal to finish the race. How to achieve the physical and mental coordination in preparation for CrossFit? Well, the following articles aim to guide you in determining and pursuing skills and training you need before joining CrossFit.

Physical skills and training
Strengthening your cardiovascular: The best way to start is by conditioning and strengthening your cardiovascular muscles with personal training. Dangerously Fit run special classes, this is by far the best and easiest way to strengthen your cardiovascular since it requires no equipment and you can start anytime you want. When we say running, we mean off the pavement or treadmill. This is the time to get your feet off those comfy run and try to take it to trails and off roads. If you were able to run a marathon before, it can be a good start since you are able to assess how many miles you can run. Running can be combined with other activities like sprinting, climbing hills or stadium stairs.

Strengthening your body as a whole: The next step is to focus on functional and dynamic movements that will help you build your relative strength. As an obstacle racer, you should be strong to manage your body weight as you are expected to swing, crawl, and lift heavy objects. While doing these, you must be able to move your bodyweight over, under, or through obstacles.

Since you are expected to weigh heavy objects during the competition, you must summon all the strength you need to make it to the finish line. Enhance your strength by engaging in a number of bodyweight exercises that are part of the outdoor group fitness program including triceps dips, push-ups, and pull-ups for arms and even the upper body parts. For your legs and thighs, perform series of squats.

Improving your balance: Another skill that you need in joining obstacle race is balance. Balance is an important part of skill you must master when competing for an obstacle race. There will be activities during the run that will attest your balance like crossing distances through a rope or logs. To improve your balance, your legs must be strong enough to carry and endure all your bodyweight over a certain period of time. You can do kettle bell swings and quick but strong movements like burpees, jump squats, and box jumps.

Mastering your footwork: Since you have been running for quiet sometime, you must have learned your footwork ability. As a runner, you must be able to switch directions in a short period of time. We call that in physical fitness as agility. Agility is footwork and presence of mind combined.

You can improve your footwork by striding between targets unevenly placed on the ground. Targets can be placed as rocks, boxes, logs, or fun signs to keep your training more fun and less serious. You can try working on your footwork on level or flat ground first and then upgrade to angled, uphill and rough surfaces.

Mental strength: With all your physical endurance and strength improved, your brain must go with them. Keep your eyes and mind on the goal – and that is to make it to the finish line.

Remember, your body will not move unless your mind tells it to do so.

Everyone knows about the host of benefits which exercising regularly with Bulgarian and Power bags brings but few people know about what restrictions to apply to their workout regime after a major surgery. If you had knee surgery in the past then there is no reason you should stop training with a power bag or Bulgarian bags, but you might have to avoid doing certain kinds of exercises.

The ground rule
When you have undergone knee surgery then it’s imperative to avoid pushing your knees out from a level which exceeds your knees and makes them push forward past the toes. Doing this will put your kneecap under tremendous stress. All kinds of Dangerously Fit Bulgarian bag exercises including aerobic ones and stretches have parts where the knee has to be stretched forward. According to the top fitness trainers it’s important to know what to avoid doing

Deep lunges
Lunges are an important part of strength training but if you had knee surgery recently these should be completely off the schedule for you. A power bag lunge is a position which makes you bend one knee and keep the feet flat on the ground while the other leg is firmly positioned behind your body. Lunges are used in power yoga too. By understanding the position you can also make out the reason why lungs put so much pressure on the knees. Personal trainers advise their clients who have undergone surgery to perform lunges.

Squats
Squats are another form of strength training exercise that virtually makes the whole body weight fall on the lower limbs. The muscles of the hips, quads, thighs and buttocks are hugely benefited by the squat. A squat is performed when the body is pushed downwards in a straight movement while the hands hold a weight. The tendons, ligaments and bones of the lower body are strengthened by this exercise but the squat can easily be called the “most avoidable” exercise for people who are recovering from knee surgery.

The classic hurdlers stretch
The classic hurdlers stretch will need you to sit on one bent leg while the other leg is extended straight in front of you. You must perform a bending movement and tilt your body backwards. This position requires stretching the medial ligaments puts immense pressure on the knee cap and can lead to dislocation of the meniscus. Personal fitness trainers have classified the Hurdlers Stretch as another avoidable exercise for people who have undergone new surgery.

Full circle knee extensions
The name Full circle/ arc knee extensions is suggestive of pressure on the knees and this exercise is also on the “avoid” list of most Balmoral personal fitness trainers who advise clients about recovering from knee surgery. You can out more at: https://www.dangerouslyfit.com.au/kettlebells/

A personal fitness trainer says that the exercise sounds simple enough as you have to do is to sit comfortably on a chair while one leg is lifted and then again bent down. However this movement puts a lot of stress on the knee joint and is best avoided.

A Push-up is an exercise performed in a prone position –chest down and back up – to achieve functional movement in the larger muscles of the human body with a person’s own body weight providing the required resistance. Involving controlled and coordinated motion, this popular training is commonly perceived as toning up the pectorals, deltoids and triceps.

If you want to be an online personal trainer, it’s important you learn these basics in face to face becuase teaching online is much more difficult. When I created my online personal training coaching program I told myself that I wanted to have everything 100% correct in my 1-1 personal training first.

However, continuous and varied push-ups when executed using proper technique condition the whole body improving its strength, agility, and flexibility.

Although apparatus-free and simple-looking, there’s a lot more to a press-up than meets the average eye. A personal training expert with his in-depth knowledge of physiology and hands-on experience in instruction helps comprehend the nuances of this rhythmic drill, provides the much-needed motivation for persistence in trials and leads toward the eventual attainment of perfection in form, that which is replicated in every rep.

Below is a brief one-to-one explanation of the technique.
Step #1 – Starting pose (Plank)
Grip the floor well with both hands – palms facing down, fingers forward – aligning the arms below the shoulders. Keeping feet together drill the toes into the ground to create a firm base that will support the frame throughout the activity. Engage the core, squeeze the glutes and flatten the spine. At the end of it all, the entire trunk – right from the head down to the toe – should be stiff and straight.

Step #2 – Going down
Fix the gaze at a point on the floor about 7 to 8 inches ahead of the fingertips so that the torso and neck are kept neutral. Maintaining this gaze, draw the shoulders back and pull down the chest. Continue the restrained drop up to a point of where the thorax is inches away from the ground, ensuring deep inhalation all along.

Step # 3 – Coming up
Keeping the upper body taut, the abdominal muscles activated and hands firmly planted, create torque by twisting the palm on the floor. Exhale – quickly, completely – to tighten the core and power up to the original position.

Do’s and Don’ts
Lock the hips and stiffen the leg to ensure top-to-bottom straightness.

Maintain steadiness of the head.

Avoid a chin tuck-in.

To make the trunk rigid create tension in the lats by compressing the armpit

Neither arch nor sag the back.

Keep the arms pulled away and down, not shrugged up.

To engage the core, don’t just suck in the belly. Instead, tense up the deepest abdominal muscles as if you’re about to cough or receive punches.

Focus on the breath from start to finish.

Word of caution

Though aimed at imparting education on ideal push-up method, the above info can’t replace the technical inputs supplied by a personal training professional nor can it deliver the practical pointers quintessential to the mastery of this wonderful workout. If you are not sure, visit Online Fitness Profits Personal Training and become an expert!

It’s therefore imperative to avail yourself of the services of a specialist whose insight, personalised attention and valuable guidance will make repeated push-ups safe & effective.