The Amazing Health benefits of CrossFit

If you are bored of your current fitness regime and are looking for something that will push you to your limits, then CrossFit might the answer.

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program designed to help you achieve broad and general fitness, so you are prepared for any physical challenge. This is not for the faint-hearted, so starting off with a decent level of fitness will help you adapt to the program; this is where your years of running come in.

Notable CrossFit athletes include Annie Thorisdottir, who obliterated the competition in the 2011 and 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games. She’s now known as the ‘fittest woman on Earth’. Although not competing this year, due to a back injury, Annie is an impressive physical specimen of how CrossFit can transform your body.

The CrossFit regime focuses on constantly varied functional movements, performed at high intensity. With a mixture of aerobic exercise, gymnastics, body weight exercise and Olympic weight lifting, it is a well-rounded program of fitness.

An example of a WOD (workout of the day) shows how intense CrossFit can be:

• Running – 1 mile
• Pull-ups – 100 reps (sounds impossible, but you do as many as you can, up 100 then return to it again and again between your push-ups and squats)
• Push-ups – 200 reps
• Bodyweight Squat – 300 reps
• Running – 1 mile

Combining cardio with weight training, this WOD gives an overall workout that will push your body to the limits. As a runner, you will have the cardio bit down, but if your aim is to build up your strength and muscle, the pull-ups, push-ups and bodyweight squats will get you there.

This sport is massive in America, and is becoming increasingly popular in the UK with specialist suppliers such as Savage Strength offering a wide selection of CrossFit equipment to aid you in your strength and conditioning build up.

As a principal program for many police academies, tactical operations teams, champion martial art specialists and military special operations units, you can be sure that this regime is pretty hardcore, so you’ll need to look at your diet as well as your training routine.

The workouts for CrossFit are generic enough to be adapted depending on your body type and fitness goals, so you can scour through the backlog of WODs to find some of the less extreme ones to try out this fitness regime. You can find a vast amount of information at CrossFit.com - including workouts - and if your local gym is anything to brag about, they should have a CrossFit class for you to test out.