10 Best Crossfit Workouts

Whether bodybuilders, fitness models or dedicated gym freaks, they all succumb to the warm blanket of complacency at one point in time. Due to this, the body stops responding.

An effective way out of this muscle malaise is to add some non-traditional exercises to improve your physique and health. In this regard, Crossfit workouts will help you escape the confines of mainstay moves. The next segment will discuss the 10 most popular and effective Crossfit exercises to help you add variety to your daily workout regime.

Crossfit exercises are conditioned programmes comprising diverse functional movements, such as climbing, lifting, rowing, etc. and performed with a higher intensity. It engages every body part, making our muscles flexible and adaptive to new movements.

Go through the list of the 10 best Crossfit workouts along with the procedure, benefits and contraindications to make an informed choice.

1. Barbell Deadlift

Individuals aspiring to build muscle and functional fitness can include a deadlift in their strength training workouts. It is commonly performed with a barbell or a bar or dumbbell and engages a large muscle group.

Benefits:

• It activates several lower body muscles, which in turn accelerates muscle strengthening.
• Deadlift strengthens the core to stabilise the body while performing it.
• Posterior training with deadlifts cures hunched shoulders, underdeveloped glutes and weakened core and thus is beneficial to relieving lower back issues.
• As a body needs to work significantly harder to perform this Crossfit exercise, it will help you with your aesthetic goals to achieve a better physique, improve muscle growth, and lose weight.

2. Kettlebell Swings

You can include a kettlebell swing in your Crossfit workout program to strengthen your muscle. This is a high-intensity, low-impact exercise that engages posterior chain muscles. It targets calves, glutes, erector spinae, hamstrings, rhomboids, trapezius and other muscles.

Benefits:

• As it involves the whole body, it enables a faster heartbeat to pump blood throughout the body.
• It improves overall performance, fitness and power as it requires high force development to activate the posterior muscles.
• You can burn a lot of calories in a short time with this Crossfit exercise. It happens due to post-exercise oxygen consumption, which temporarily improves metabolism to support recovery.
• Being a low-impact exercise, the kettlebell swing reduces force and exerts less strain on the knees.

3. Cindy

Cindy stands out among the most effective Crossfit workouts of the day (WOD). It is a 20-minute AMRAP, including 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 air squats. If you do not have access to a gym, you can try out this beastly challenge at home.

Benefits:

• If you aim to burn fat, this high-rep circuit training is effective.
• It helps to monitor cardiovascular health and efficiently endures muscle.

4. Fran

Fran WOD is among the most objective and easy ways to gauge athletes' skill levels. This 90-repetition workout is deceivingly simple to perform and requires all your effort. Fran comprises two common Crossfit workouts, thrusters and pull-ups.

Benefits:

• As performed in a 21-15-9 decreasing rep format, fran enables power output to remain constant throughout.
• This high-intensity exercise potentially burns calories.
• As it includes intense resistance training within a short time span, it is effective for muscle strengthening, hypertrophy and muscular endurance.

5. Murph

Named after the noble sacrifice of Lt. Michael Murphy, Murph is a Crossfit Hero WOD. It includes a 1-mile run, 300 air squats, 200 push-ups, 100 pull-ups, and a 1-mile run. Though you can customise the sequence of squats, push-ups and pull-ups, make sure to start and end with a 1-mile run each time.

Benefits:

• Being long and intense, this workout will assess your cardiovascular fitness.
• These high rep ranges tax slow-twitch muscle fibres and repeatedly examine the capacity to exert force.
• It improves dedication level and willpower.

6. Helen

Helen is a series of WODs that confirms the strength, endurance, agility and speed of Crossfit athletes. It includes a 400-metre run followed by kettlebell swings and kipping pull-ups. This is among the critical Crossfit exercises for beginners that significantly monitor your fitness progress.

Benefits:

• Helen significantly strengthens the upper body, targeting the biceps, traps, shoulders, upper back and lats.
• It examines your cardiovascular condition and focuses on muscular endurance.
• This exercise will improve your ability to maintain optimum speed for three intervals with minimal rests.

7. Grace

Want to improve your speed to perform these Crossfit workouts efficiently? Include Grace WOD in your fitness schedule for effective results. It is an advanced workout with moderately heavy weights that can be customised to intermediate or beginner levels. This includes 30 cleans and jerks with 95 lbs weight for women and 135 lbs for men. 

Benefits:

• It effectively builds power in the posterior muscles, including glutes and hamstrings.
• Grace efficiently strengthens the core, upper body and legs and prepares you to perform jerks and cleans better.
• This workout demands flexible elbows and fast recovery, so grace retains steady movement patterns.

8. Box Jumps

Box jumps primarily engage the core and lower body and strengthen the quadriceps, calves, hamstrings, glutes and core. If done after a solid warm-up, it is safer to perform and will not exhaust you excessively.

Benefits:

• With regular practice, your vertical jump range will increase steadily.
• Box jumps enable professional football players and sprinters to focus faster on explosive movements and depend on their leg strength.
• As it requires a lot of energy, you tend to burn more calories while performing box jumping.

9. Burpees Pull-ups

The next on the list of Crossfit training exercises is the burpees pull-ups, a full-body workout option. It effectively fuels up muscles and improves aerobic ability. As it engages the upper and lower body, it works on a host of muscles. They are hamstrings, quads, glutes, triceps, core, erector spinae, pecs, and shoulders.

Benefits:

• Being an explosive jumping exercise, it burns calories and serves as a solid cardio element.
• It significantly improves your grip strength and prepares you for other strength-training exercises that demand strong grip, including thrusters, back and front squats, power cleans and deadlifts.
• Burpee pull-ups utilise your body weight for upper and lower body muscle activation, such as hamstrings, triceps, deltoids, lats, core muscles and glutes.
• You must keep your upper body aligned with this Crossfit exercise.

10. Barbell Thruster

As they target both the upper and lower body, barbell thrusters are beneficial to reaching your fitness goal in various ways if done at an intermediate or advanced level. It engages a vast range of muscles, including glutes, quads, shoulders, core, back and arms.

Benefits:

• Barbell thrusters enhance the core strength and care for coordination and balance. They also reduce the chances of any injury and back pain.
• Besides a strong core, thrusters accelerate the upper body development process. They recruit chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps and back muscles.
• This front squat and barbell press combination fastens the muscle burn in the glutes and quads.
• As thrusters pump up the heart and muscle, it induces cardiovascular endurance. This full-body strengthening Crossfit workout efficiently monitors how your heart and lungs can transfer blood, nutrients, and oxygen to the functioning muscles.
• It significantly strengthens your legs, enabling you to easily perform daily and recreational activities like swimming, trekking, hiking, etc.

Whether Crossfit workouts are healthy or a cultish fraud is one of the most hotly contested topics among fitness enthusiasts. While some Crossfit workouts are effective, a few have an adverse impact on the body. Let us find them out.

1. Olympic Lifts

As explosive movements are challenging and often suggested to perform at a brisk pace, the entire point of Crossfit is to rush. Therefore, if you are an amateur lifter, you may fail to sustain the required coordination for the same.

2. Sumo Deadlift High Pulls

Sumo deadlift high pulls (SDHPs) comprise pulling a bar off the floor, standing straight and lifting forearms to bring the bar in front of your face. The last step is similar to a shoulder impingement test. Thus performing this with weight in the hands may lead to injury.

3. Snatch

As mostly associated with Olympic weightlifting, snatch may be strenuous for the knees, shoulders and elbows. Further, the movement of propelling the bar above the head requires expertise.

4. Glute Ham Developer

Though the glute ham(string) developer (GHD) potentially develops the glutes and hamstrings, repeated extensions with other spinal stressing exercises harm the spine, making it damage-prone.

Nonetheless, it is wise to consult a professional for a comprehensive understanding regarding which Crossfit training exercises to avoid and which to perform.

Although Crossfit workouts are making a buzz in the fitness world, the high-intensity nature makes them daunting for beginners. Therefore, factor in the following precautions beforehand to avoid any accidents.

• Warm-up

Before exerting intense pressure on the muscles and joints, start warm-up workouts to sensitise your body.

• Self-restraint

Patience is the key to matching up with the more seasoned Crossfit athletes. In addition, if you are a novice, seek professional assistance to mitigate the risks of injuries and get effective results.

• Limitations

It is essential to understand your body and perform exercises accordingly. So, being strenuous, taking things slow and focusing on perfecting the posture is advisable.

• Healthy Diet

Eating healthy plays a significant role in Crossfit training sessions. Practitioners follow a certain diet plan that includes an accurate amount of carbohydrates, lean protein, healthy fats and macronutrients from plant-based food items/

• Accuracy

To steer clear of any injuries, you must pay additional attention to maintaining proper posture and form and intimate the right techniques.

Apart from these, run comprehensive research to select a proficient trainer who can guide you throughout the Crossfit training program. Additionally, gyms offering Crossfit workouts are typically expensive, and thus it becomes difficult for everyone to access such facilities.