CROSSFIT YOURSELF

Cross Fit is a cult following in itself. It has been developed as a high level physical fitness program for strength and conditioning of the body and now has been taken up as a competitive fitness sport.There are many different elements incorporated in Cross Fit, elements like Olympic weight lifting,gymnastics,high intensity interval training, plyometrics, strongman, calisthenics.

CrossFit training requires use of equipment from multiple disciplines, including dumbbells, barbells, gymnastics rings, pull-up bars, jump ropes, kettle bells, medicine balls, plyo boxes, resistance bands, rowers, and various mats. CrossFit is focused on concept of constantly varied, high-intensity,functional movements drawing on categories and exercises such as calisthenics, olympic weight lifting, power lifting, strong man,plyometrics, body weight exercises,swimming, indoor rowing, gymnastics and swimming.

BASIC EXERCISES TO BUILD CROSS FIT STRENGTH:

AIR SQUAT:

The squat is a fundamental movement that is a part of our human evolutionary biology. It is not an ‘exercise’ created by a trainer or coach, it is a natural human movement. Everyone can and should squat.

Squatting is not bad for the knees, in fact, it is necessary for healthy joints (and helps the hips and back as well). If you don’t squat you don’t have functioning and healthy knees. The use it for lose it concept very much applies to the squat just as it does to the brain and the rest of the body.

HOW TO DO AIR SQUAT:

Stand with your feet hip-width apart with your toes pointed slightly outward. Your arms should be hanging loose by your side. Then engage your core muscles and push out your chest slightly by pulling your shoulder blades towards each other.
Bend your knees and push your butt and your hips out and down behind you as if you were sitting into a chair. Keep your weight on your heels and make sure your knees are over your toes, but not beyond them
Come down until your thighs are below parallel to the ground, or as far down as you can get them. Make an effort to keep your knees externally rotated (don’t let them fall inward). As you lower down, raise your arms in front of you no higher than parallel to the ground. Make sure to keep your torso upright.
Straighten your legs and squeeze your butt to come back up, lowering your arms back to your side.

OVERHEAD SQUAT:

The overhead squat is the ultimate core exercise and peerless in developing effective athletic movement. This functional gem trains for efficient transfer of energy from large to small body parts – the essence of sport movement. For this reason it is an indispensable tool for developing speed and power. The overhead squat also demands and develops functional flexibility, and similarly develops the squat by amplifying and cruelly punishing faults in squat posture, movement, and stability.

Set up:

Review the air squat for the basic squat mechanics
Grip the bar such that when placed overhead, it is 6-8″ above the top of your head
Push your shoulders and the bar up as high as you can (“active shoulders”)
The bar should be perfectly aligned with your heels
Maintain a tight core through the entire movement

Perform:

Pull your hips back and down while keeping your weight on your heels
Pull the bar back deliberately as you squat to keep it directly over your heels
Do not let the bar move forward of or behind your heels at any point of the movement
Make sure your hips reach a point below the top of your knee (below parallel)
Keeping your weight on your heels, stand to full extension

DEAD LIFT

How to perform:

look straight ahead
keep back arched
Arms dont pull, they are just straps
Bar travels along legs
Push with the heels

Benefits:

The Deadlift like the squat is essential functional movement and carries a potent hormonal punch. This is core training like no other.

FRONT SQUAT:

How to perform

Bar rests on chest and shoulders with loose grip - "racked"
Mechanics to be used like other squat (air squat = strong basics)

Benefits:

This is the ultimate exercise for posterior chain and quadriceps development
Front squat immediately assesses flexibility and to perform the movement with proper technique you must be flexible in all major joints
Will create big flexibilty in wriest and shoulders (to achieve this you will have to constantly work/practise on it form - the toughest part is to hold the rack position)

PUSH PRESS:

Dip (quick drop of the hip)
Drive (rebounding extension of leg and hip)
Press

Benefit:

A gateway movement to the push jerks, the push press is an important introduction to the core to the extremity nature characteristic of most functional movement

Watch out:

The dip is shallow, around a quarter of the way
Don't dip too fast, otherwise you'll separate from the bar.
Do not dip back or forward, just straight down. Bend through the legs while keeping your torso straight up.

PUSH JERK:

Dip (quick drop of the hip)
Drive (rebounding extension of leg and hip)
Press and dip (press overhead while dropping hip again)
Rise to full extension(extend hip and leg again)
Lower bar to shoulders and repeat

BENEFITS:

This is more functional effective, efficient than the push press.
A very important crossfit lift, if donw with the right timing is a powerful conditioning tool.

WINDSHIELD WIPER:

HOW TO DO:

Hang from a pull-up bar and raise your legs until they’re perpendicular to the floor while keeping your torso parallel to the floor. (You’ll make an L shape with your body.) This will require you to pull your body closer to the bar, bending your elbows and contracting your upper back. Rotate your legs side to side. You can make the move easier by bending your knees. Add the workout below to your training to build up to doing the full hanging windshield wiper.

BENEFITS:

Works upper and lower body abdominal muscles and hip flexors.

The windshield wipers exercise is great for restoring normal range of motion and motor control to the hip joint and muscles. It also develops lower abdominal strength to stabilize the pelvis during leg movements. It will loosen and stretch the tensor fascia lata (TFL) and rectus femoris as well

THRUSTER:

How to do:

start from standing and racked (bar on chest and shoulders with loose grip)
lower to full front squat
rise to full hip and leg extension
continue the bar acceleration upward with a powerful press to lockout
lower bar to racked position
repeat

BENEFITS:

Thrusters work many of your major muscles. Your quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes; essentially all your major leg muscles; work very hard in the squatting part.
The force developed by your legs is then transmitted into your upper body via your abdominal and lower-back muscles. Finally, your shoulders, upper back and triceps provide a powerful push to drive the weight overhead. The thruster is very much a whole-body exercise
High-rep, light-weight sets of thrusters are metabolically demanding and can dramatically elevate your heart rate and improve your cardiovascular fitness. Low-rep, heavy-weight sets will develop muscular strength

SUMO DEADLIFT HIGH PULL:

Start on ground with a wide sumo stance
Grip has to be narrow on bar,look straight ahead
Back needs to be arched
use your hips and legs only for pull until both are at full extension
flick hip near full extension
shrug with full power,immediately pull with arms continuing the bars travel up position
Elbows need to be on top of the hands as much as possible
Bar has to be right under and close to the chin on lift
Lower back to hang position and then to ground

BENEFITS:

Its good range of motion builder, builds legs, core, shoulders and back

THE CLEAN:

The basics start just like doing a deadlift (pls refer up for deadlift set up)
All depends upon the acceleration of the weight lift, as you lift it off the floor, so acceleration has to be smooth and precise.
Once lifting up from the deadlift position , a powerful shrug is required by you to lift the weight along with a jump
The shoulders carry the weight(your shrugs) not your arms, so don't bend them until your jump finishes.
This motion creates a weightless action for a split second on the bar.
following quickly after the jump , get under the weight aggressively to move for a full front squat position
The feet position after catching the weight will change a few inches outside, than normally where you started
Elbows will be high and parallel to the ground and your weight has to balance on your heels
To finish your move you have to stand up completely straight and to do that you have to thrust your hips up after driving your elbows up (from front squat position) to achieve the stand.

BENEFITS:

Builds speed , power and coordination
This requires amazing athleticism, so it works heavy on your bio-mechanics and you achieve an athletic body
his complex move builds flexibility, strengthens posterior chain, creates agility, accuracy and balance.

SNATCH:

look straight ahead
Get a overhead squat wide grip
Your back remains arched
Extend your hips and legs slowly
Explode at top of thighs
keep your arms locked until hips/legs are at full extension
Duck under the line of barbell and catch in full squat with arms locked overhead
Rise to full extension

Benefits:

Snatch is the quickest lift of all, thus it developed explosive strength
It builds amazing balance, improves your bio mechanics by bringing in your functional flexibility
It works greatly on the coordination

CLEAN AND JERK:

PREPARING AND PERFORMING:

Your starting position: With a barbell on the floor close to the shins, take an overhand or hook grip just outside the legs. Lower your hips with the weight focused on the heels, back straight, head facing forward, chest up, with your shoulders just in front of the bar..
Begin the first pull by driving through the heels, extending your knees. Your back angle should stay the same, and your arms should remain straight. Move the weight with control as you continue to above the knees.
Second pull, the main source of acceleration for the clean. As the bar approaches the mid-thigh position, begin extending through the hips. In a jumping motion, accelerate by extending the hips, knees, and ankles, using speed to move the bar upward. There should be no need to actively pull through the arms to accelerate the weight; at the end of the second pull, the body should be fully extended, leaning slightly back, with the arms still extended.
The third pull: by aggressively shrugging and flexing the arms with the elbows up and out. At peak extension, aggressively pull yourself down, rotating your elbows under the bar as you do so. Receive the bar in a front squat position, the depth of which is dependent upon the height of the bar at the end of the third pull. The bar should be racked onto the protracted shoulders, lightly touching the throat with the hands relaxed. Continue to descend to the bottom squat position, which will help in the recovery.
Immediately recover by driving through the heels, keeping the torso upright and elbows up. Continue until you have risen to a standing position.
Then comes the jerk, which raises the weight overhead. Standing with the weight racked on the front of the shoulders, begin with the dip. With your feet directly under your hips, flex the knees without moving the hips backward. Go down only slightly, and reverse direction as powerfully as possible.
Drive through the heels create as much speed and force as possible, and be sure to move your head out of the way as the bar leaves the shoulders.
At this moment as the feet leave the floor, the feet must be placed into the receiving position as quickly as possible. In the brief moment the feet are not actively driving against the platform, the athletes effort to push the bar up will drive them down. The feet should be split, with one foot forward, and one foot back. Receive the bar with the arms locked out overhead. Return to a standing position.

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