a typically brutal crossfit workout
I find myself ever more interested in Crossfit from an ‘elite fitness’ and maximum results from a minimum time investment but the daily workouts posted on www.crossfit.com are just so damn tough. The general idea is that Crossfit provides all round fitness, unlike say jogging, that gets you good at, well, jogging, Crossfit gets you fit, strong, flexible and fast in a way that can transfer to other disciplines.
The workouts themselves are varied, almost different every time and we will follow a similar plan so I will post new variations regularly (follow @PaleoQnA on Twitter, subscribe by email or RSS or follow our page on Google+ with the red button to the right)
10 Minute Workouts
The idea is that workouts are short and hard so I have been designing myself some simple crossfit style workouts that require no gym equipment as such. The goal is that they could be completed in ten minutes when you get good at them but allow for 15 or 20 minutes to begin with or a little extra time to get to your local park or some such where you can do the workout.
Frequency
As with any training system, it all depends on your fitness levels but aim for three times a week – it is only 10 minutes after all! If you are getting cocky add a fourth or even fifth workout to really start pushing your fitness levels up but don’t rush, baby steps, brutal, Crossfit style baby steps but baby steps no less.
Intensity
The idea is that you give this your all and really go for it BUT if you are just starting out take it easy and scale up the intensity. Give yourself time to adjust to the workout before you really go to pain town!
The Exercises
We will stick with standard body weight style exercises, the kind of stuff you used to do in P.E. (gym class for our american brethren) so we are talking sprints, jumping exercises, push ups, squats, sit ups, crunches and variations of. All simple enough and things you can Google each exercise. As time goes on we will add examples for each exercise with videos and the like but for now, Google it if you don’t know the exercise.
Example Workouts
Crossfit also names their workouts, which I find kind of cute, so I am going to do the same, but with more either wacky, relevant to me, or British names. The exercises are usually done in circuits so where we are doing 15, then 10, then 5 push ups that would be denoted as 15/10/5 and where we are doing say a 60 second plank followed by a 45 and 30 second plank it would be shown as 60/45/30.
Monday – Boris
- 3 x 100 – Meter sprints
- 15/12/10 – push ups
- 20/15/10 – bodyweight squats
- 20/15/10 – squat thrusts
Wednesday – George
- 60/45/30 – star jumps (jumping jacks)
- 10/9/8 – burpees
- 60/45/30 – plank
- 15,10,5 – park bench jumps (or just jump as high as you can with both feet)
Friday – Steve
- 60/45/30 – 3 x 100 – Meter sprints
- 20/15/10 – crunches or sit ups
- 60/45/30 – running on the spot (high knees)
- 20/16/12 – walking lunges
And… rest
That’s it for week one, not so hard eh? Each week we will introduce some new exercises and we will take a look at plyometrics next week. Over time we will wrap this up into a 8 week training plan to get you from zero to hero!
At home CF WODs…great idea!
Hey, that’s the idea. I like the quick, brutal efficiency of this style of workout.