Single-leg squats are excellent for any outdoor CrossFit athlete looking to getting faster and stronger while staying injury free. For a long time, the two-legged squat has been the talk of strength training in the CrossFit gym. Endurance athletes have been incorporating it into their weight training routine because of its ability to engage virtually every single muscle. The squat also builds power as well as durability right from the legs all the way to the core. That said, single-leg squats are slowly gaining ground as the go-to workouts for athletes who want to become stronger. Through these squats, you can generate power one leg at a time in the same way you do when cross-country skiing, trail running or climbing. Research has proven that athletes who add single-leg squats to their training regimens gained strength and speed just like those who added barbell back squats. A unique advantage of single-leg squat is that it mimics real movements which means you are training your body directly for sport. Another advantage of single-leg moves is that they are much safer to perform because they require less mobility and technique. If you are looking at firing up smaller muscles, single-leg squats are the go-to workouts. Normally, injuries stemming from imbalances have their origin in improperly worked out lateral muscles. Metabolically, this type of workout is intense, which you do in CrossFit exercise. This means insofar as it will take you longer to work both sides of your body, you will get a bigger and better burn.The following are some of the common single-leg squats you can do. Single-Leg Goblet Squat This squat works out your stabilizing muscles. For you to lower on one leg, you need some serious control as well as stability. Because of this, you will build excellent lower body strength. The single goblet squat fires up your smaller muscles to balance your body, and this will help you to avoid injury. Bowler Squat This CrossFit exercise trains you to generate power right from your hips while at the same time staying stable, strong, and balanced. When engaging in outdoor sports, it goes beyond the forward and backward movements. At times, you may have to move diagonally to prevent a twist or to reach out and grab a jug. The moment you master the first variation, you can now comfortably scale up with anyone of these progressions. Plyometric Single-Leg Hip Thrust This is a good workout to help you build explosiveness. It really doesn’t matter whether you are cruising along the flats or bounding uphill when skiing, athleticism, and power comes from your hips. Therefore, with stronger hips, you become more efficient and stable thus protecting yourself from injuries. Try these squats one at a time in your WOD and add in your CrossFit exercise and you are bound to experience spectacular improvements.

Weight training may have its own rules and procedures, but there is no one size that fits all. What you go for in terms of weight sizes primarily depends on the fitness goals you have set before you and any previous experience you may have on weight training. The National Strength and Conditioning Association suggests that athletes should lift weights heavy enough so as to fatigue their muscles during specific repetition range when doing CrossFit exercise. This means if you work out in the CrossFit gym and you don’t feel the burn after you are done with your sets, then your lifting is not heavy enough. Beginner Lifters The recommended starting weight for beginners should be one that they can easily lift about 12 to 15 times for a set or two. The size of this dumbbell weight may range between 2 to 15 pounds depending on the target muscle group. With this dumbbell weight range, you will develop baseline musculature and strength as well as proper technique and rhythm. It is suggested that you train with this repetition and weight range for a period of about 4 weeks. The Weights The choice of weight for a dumbbell differs according to the muscle groups. For instance, when doing bicep curls, you can use weights ranging from 5 to 8 pounds. On the other hand, working out weaker triceps muscles requires weights of about 2 to 5 pounds. When performing squats, the recommended weights should be much heavier up to 45 pounds because your glutes and legs are much stronger than your arm muscles. Endurance If you are a distance athlete such as triathlete or marathon runner, your CrossFit training should have more of muscular endurance. To train for this, you should aim at using dumbbell sizes that will seriously fatigue your muscles in repetitions of about 15 to 20. Start with light weight and if you can perform up to 20 repetitions with ease, increase the weight. Your goal here is to get the maximum possible weight which you can lift through 20 repetitions and one which maxes out your endurance. Endurance training is not much about muscle mass, rather it enhances the amount of work your muscles can do over a long period. Hypertrophy When you hear of muscle hypertrophy it simply means building muscle size. The best repetition range to make this possible is 3 sets between 8 and 12 repetitions. Perform this between 2 to 3 times in a week. The dumbbells for muscle hypertrophy should be anything from 10 to 20 pounds. Strength If your target is to build strength, your CrossFit exercise should have higher intensity and weight compared to muscle hypertrophy. Make your sets around 3 to 4 and your dumbbell weight should enable you to max out at about 6 to 10 reps. The CrossFit exercise will determine the weight of dumbbell to use. For instance, when doing shoulder presses, start with 2 to 5 pounds of weight and when doing squats, aim at 45 pounds. It is advised that you get adequate rest in between the sets so that your muscles can fully recover.

If you are a beginner in handstand push-ups, one of the things you will have to overcome is the fear of turning upside down. Afterwards, you will have to develop incredible control and strength on your upper body to successfully press up and down. It is crucial for you to know the muscles involved during a handstand push-up as this will help you in the course of the CrossFit exercise. The Shoulders During a handstand push-up CrossFit exercise, you are literally standing on your hands with your legs straight up in the air. This means your shoulders will be bearing the brunt of your weight. This is more noticeable as you bend your elbows and press back up. The front of the shoulder cap and other parts of the anterior deltoids are the most used in this position. These are the muscles that connect your chest to your arms and are extremely useful with swinging, pushing, and lifting actions. To work these muscles out so that they can strengthen and bear your body weight, go for overhead presses such as barbell press or dumbbell shoulder press. For effectiveness, including the presses in 2 or 3 upper body workouts each week. Continue adding the weights to allow you to maintain good form. Pectoralis Major This is the biggest chest muscle. It is shaped much like a fan and spans the entire chest wall. The handstand push-up works the clavicular or the upper region of the pectoralis major muscle. Triceps Brachii This is a 3-headed muscle found on the back portion of your upper arm. It is responsible for elbow extension. The triceps brachii engages when you press back up all the way to straight arms down from a push-up. Lateral Deltoid The anterior deltoids are made up of two components: the posterior and the lateral deltoid. When you are doing a handstand push-up, the top portion or lateral deltoid engages to balance out your bodyweight as well as facilitate the press. Trapezius This is one of the main back muscles. It is responsible for stabilizing the scapula which is also known as the shoulder blades as well as keeping your neck in extension. Including the handstand push-up in your CrossFit training schedule ensures that you utilize the upper and middle section of the trapezius. Serratus Anterior This may also be known as the boxer’s muscle. It covers the uppermost ribs, wrapping around from your chest to your back. The main role of the serratus anterior is to stabilize the shoulder blades when doing the handstand push-up. The Importance of Stability in Handstand Push-Up Contrary to what some people may think or imagine, a handstand push-up is more than just muscle contraction. During the move, several muscles come together to stabilize your body. Some of these muscles include the core and all those muscles of the erector spinae and abdomen that run alongside your spine. The engagement of these muscles prevents your body from collapsing at the torso or hips. Your biceps especially the shortest head and the long head of your triceps keep your elbow straight while you are at the top of your handstand. Always remember to start modestly and your CrossFit exercise should be supported by the appropriate CrossFit diet.  

A thruster is an extremely popular exercise you are likely to bump in when you visit a CrossFit gym. The starting point for any thruster is the front squat, and gradually you get into loading the bar on your shoulders using clean. For you to reach a rep, the bar has to finish overhead with your elbows extended and locked. This may sound easy, but when you have a nice amount of them combined with burpees or chest to bar pull-ups, they can be quite complex. Following are the tips to help you cycle through your thruster workouts more effectively. Putting in More Work on Your Front Squat The foundation for thrusters is built through front squats. When executing front squats, your torso ought to be upright so that your body along with the weight can properly balance. For you to keep the torso upright, you require sufficient degree of mobility in your hips and ankles and good core strength. This will help you to control your weight and movement better. The demand for overall mobility is higher in front squats than back squats. Front Rack Mobility A number of athletes struggle with CrossFit workout, especially with a thruster or front squat because of insufficient front rack mobility. The bar or weight should rest on your shoulders, and the position you are in should make you feel strong and put your arms in control. With an upright torso, your wrist, arms, and shoulders will be mobile enough to control the barbell position. Instead of touching the bar with your fingertips, grab it with a firm grip. In case you are having problems with this, make it manageable through mobility drills. Prevent the Bar from Slipping Off Your Shoulders Normally, if you experience limited overall mobility, inappropriate rack position, and a leaned forward torso, chances are the bar will also start slipping off your shoulders. While fixing this during the WOD is possible, it will cost you extra energy and strength and also disorient you in terms of focus in CrossFit workout. While you are in the bottom squat position, ensure your elbows always stay up irrespective of whether you are doing thrusters or front squats. Always keep the bar fixated on your shoulders and received it in this position with accuracy. Add More Work to Your Push Press After the front squat, push press takes the second position in the thruster. In terms of movement, you start from a bottom position and then you gradually engage your glutes and core as you drive up with your hips to thrust the bar overhead. It is recommended that you don’t press it because eventually, you may burn out especially when doing high volume thrusters. Your CrossFit workout movements should be efficient and use more weightless momentum. The same applies to thrusters. As you stand up from the squat, generate the power you need and utilize it in throwing the weight overhead. A thruster is a metabolic condition in exercise, and as such you need proper pacing and a smart approach especially when done in higher amounts of reps.  

Rope climbing requires you to use your entire body and helps in testing your strength. In addition to developing your upper body, this CrossFit exercise also helps in enhancing the coordination and agility of skills. Regarding complexity, rope climbing is much simpler, but it is extremely beneficial for physical development. For thousands of years, rope climbing has been an exercise undertaken by people in the military as well as combat training persons. It is recommended that you first be in decent shape before practicing this workout. Being a compound exercise targeting muscle groups such as arms, back, shoulders, and the abs, you need to build up sizeable strength for you to support this exercise. There are so many benefits that you can reap from performing this exercise. Below are some of the common ones. Intramuscular Coordination To execute a strong rope climb, your body must be functioning effectively. Through a rope climb, you can train a large number of muscle groups and allow them to communicate with one another. This is important for your general body wellness and the effectiveness of the exercise. Stronger Grip While it is expected that rope climbing will help you in gaining strength, your grip will benefit too. CrossFit athletes who have integrated rope climbing into their WOD have witnessed massive gains in grip strength as well as their forearms. Core Strength If you have ever wanted to work out your core muscles, rope climbing is the exercise to go for. As you keep your body in front of the legs and climb, your core will strengthen, and this will certainly be beneficial to your body. Mental Strength In addition to the obvious benefits in strengthening body muscles, doing rope climbing also stimulates and utilizes your mental strength. As you know, success in CrossFit training requires a good mental attitude and rope climbing can help you develop that. Muscular Endurance As long as you perform it correctly, rope climbing can be an awesome conditioning exercise. It enables you to develop endurance as well as giving you the ability to master your weight. Because of this reason, wrestlers and martial artists have made rope climbing their staple workout. Boosts Stamina If you can establish a timing circuit where you climb up, do your workouts and then climb down multiple times within a certain duration, you can build up your stamina. Your muscles will be conditioned to perform difficult tasks for a long period easily. Anyone doing CrossFit would know that stamina lengthens your training circuit. To add to the above benefits, rope climbing enhances the strength of your pull and grip. This is important if you want to develop a stronger back because the pooling strength comes from muscles in the back. Even though you may assist yourself with your legs, the greatest weight is still carried by the upper body muscles. Just like other pulling exercises in the CrossFit gym, rope climbing will build your upper body strength.

If you have been keen on CrossFit athletes, most of them have muscular forearms. This is great because the grip strength they typify is vital if you are into lifting. A stronger grip strength gives you an advantage in lifting more weight in the CrossFit gym as you do powerful moves such as deadlift and pull-ups. This is why anyone wanting to build muscle all over must start with a stronger grip. That said, not everyone visiting the CrossFit box has stronger grip strength. This is because some athletes are masking their weaknesses while others rely solely on machine-based workouts which more often than not neglect challenging the forearm. If this is you and you want some tips to build your grip strength, read along. Do not Encourage Weakness Tools such as grip aids and wrist straps are only effective in putting a band-aid on your weak grip. Instead of challenging your grip to become stronger, these tools will encourage your body to become dependent and this weakens your forearms. The best approach is to lift slightly less weight so that you can hold it without the need for assistance. When you develop your grip strength, your ability to lift more will increase, and this will stimulate your body to grow. Regularly Train Your Grip Your grip should be trained daily. Every time you are in the box lifting and pulling, remember to train your grip. When you incorporate grip in your CrossFit WOD, the repetitive stress will make your grip strength to experience a quick jump, and this will further develop your forearms. Try to include core exercises such as farmer’s walks to help you in your grip. This workout is also great as a forearm and midsection finisher. Lift Heavy Instead of training with light wrist curls for lots of sets, consolidate your workout and train the rest of your body together with your grip. Incorporating body weight rows, pull-ups, and heavy deadlifts, your entire arm will develop including your grip. Add weight to rack deadlifts to help you challenge your grip. Other exercises such as walking lunges must not be neglected, and you can combine them with dumbbells to give you an opportunity to build a stronger grip. Go for Grip Builders There are lots of grip building tools in the CrossFit industry which can stimulate your body. The beauty with grip builders is that they help in amplifying your results through an increase in active demand. An easier way to enhance the thickness of handhold is to wrap a towel around the bar or handle when doing any CrossFit exercise. Another simple, but powerful tool for building your grip strength is squeezing the bar. When you press the bar during a set, you will activate higher grip, and this gives you more gains in grip strength. Instead of allowing the bar to slide towards your fingers, lock it firmly in the palm of your hands so that you can hold it in place. When you engage your grip more, your strength numbers will gradually spiral upwards.

One advantage of CrossFit training is that you never fall short of accessories. There are belts, straps, wraps, knee sleeves, and even lifting shoes. As a functional fitness athlete, you need to have access to these common pieces of CrossFit gear. The wrist wrap, though one of the common gears, ranks high among the most misused CrossFit accessories. The main function of a wrist wrap is to give support to the wrist joint when doing heavy lifting or maximum effort lifting. During some of these tough movements, the wrist may be pulled into excessive extension thus resulting in failed lifts, possible injury, and compromised mechanics. Every athlete should know how to use them correctly. Below are some of the tips to bear in mind when using wrist wraps in your training. Do Not Use Wrist Wraps during Warm Up When moving 60% of your 1-RM press, you don’t necessarily need to wrap your wrists. Athletes are advised to wear wrist wraps only during training days when working at near max loads. When you become dependent on wrist wraps, they will limit your strength development, particularly in your wrist extensors and flexors. If you are careful enough to look at some of the strongest athletes in the CrossFit gym, they rarely wear wrist wraps. Never Tie Your Wrist Wrap Too Low The chief purpose of a wrist wrap is to ensure your wrist joint has excellent support. Whenever you tie the wrap below your wrist joint, it will not function as it should, but rather work just like a forearm bracelet. When tying your wrist wrap, do so in such a way that it covers the entire wrist joint so as to create support and prevent excessive extension. Go for the Right Wrap There are two main types of wraps in the market: Velcro-bound powerlifting wraps and cotton wraps. While the powerlifting wraps give you awesome wrist support, cotton wraps are much thinner and flexible. When maxing on a movement such as a bench press, the advice is to use thicker wraps. On the other hand, if you want a max in your snatch or clean and jerk, using thinner wraps might be more advantageous. Not Every Gymnastic Movement Requires a Wrap Unless you really plan on competing in gymnastic events such as pommel horse or vault, you may not need to put on wraps. Also, when doing bodyweight CrossFit exercises such as handstand push-ups, ring dips, and pull-ups, you do not need wrist wraps. The only exception to all this is when competing or training with an injury. You may also consider having wrist wraps on to protect your skin when doing high repetitions of muscle ups with a false grip. In all you do, remember that mobility and flexibility issues should be addressed and not hidden by wearing wraps.

Exercises can be divided mainly into two categories: compound and isolation. While isolation CrossFit exercises involve the movement around a single joint, compound exercises involve movement around more joints than just one. Also, isolation exercises regarding target aim at a small number of muscles while compound exercises target at a large number of muscles. The thruster is one of the most effective compound exercises which allow you to perform a high volume of workout within a short time. Compared to other movements, the thruster has the greatest carry over into physical and sports performance. What is a Thruster? In simplicity, a thruster refers to a combination of two compound weight training exercises: overhead press and the front squat. For this reason, the thruster can also be referred to as complexes. When performing the thruster, CrossFit athletes use kettlebells, dumbbells, medicine balls, barbells, and many more. Well, any heavy object can be used in this exercise. The performance methodology involves standing with your feet at a distance apart equivalent to shoulder width. Your chosen weight should be in front of your shoulder, and your elbows should be positioned below your hands. Then, lift your chest, push back your hips, and gradually bend your knees. After that, you have to slowly squat down until the thighs are parallel to the floor. Then, drive up explosively and maintain the momentum of the bar by extending your arms and pushing the weight overhead at arm's length. Lower the bar back to your shoulders as you bend your arms and then squat down before doing a repeat. The Anatomy of the Thruster Adding the thruster to your CrossFit workout of the day will benefit your major muscles including the glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps.  The part of the thruster that works out your legs muscles is squatting. Your legs generate some force which is transmitted to your upper body through the lower back and abdominal muscles. The powerful push that drives the weight overhead originates from the triceps and upper back. The Benefits Thrusters are usually done using a variety of repetition and set schemes which target different elements of your fitness. High rep, light-weight sets dramatically elevate your heart rate and enhance your cardiovascular fitness because they are metabolically demanding. On the other hand, low-rep, heavyweight sets develop muscular power and strength. When you perform thrusters using an unstable object such as a sandbag or water-filled barrel, your core strength will be significantly improved. If you want to enhance your balance, try using dumbbells as your weights in the thruster. It is not advisable to include thrusters in a beginner CrossFit training programme. This is because of the high-risk nature of this exercise characterized by the heavyweight lifting and complex, coordinated movements. Argued in another way, thrusters place a potentially injurious and significant load on the lumbar spine which requires perfect technique else the lower back can become rounded.