Pull-up bars are some of the favorite pieces of equipment for any serious CrossFitter looking to enhance his workout. You can have pull-up bars anywhere in your house, and this means you don’t have to visit the CrossFit gym to do your exercises necessarily. Some of the places you can build pull-up bars include at the doorway right outside your house, at the ceiling in your garage gym or the backyard of your house. Pull-up bars are an incredibly efficient piece of equipment and depending on how you use them; you can make the best out of them. That said, some gyms do not have this old-school piece of equipment simply because they have no idea what a pull-up bar can do. To inspire you, the following are some of the exercises you can do with just a pull-up bar and nothing else. Pull Ups These are amazing exercises for the upper body which work out your back muscles. They also strengthen your core muscles and arms, particularly as you master them and your form gets improved. Doing pull-ups is simple. With straight elbows, begin from a dead hang with your palms facing away from you. Keep your shoulders back and your chest up while your core is tightened. Gradually, pull yourself up until your chest comes into contact with the bar. There are lots of variations you can do including jumping pull-ups and flex hangs. If you feel you are not ready for pull-ups, it is advisable you go through some pull-up preparation or mastery sessions first. Burpees Pull Ups Compared to the basic pull up above, burpee pull-ups are more advanced and work on your pull up strength. They also up your heart rate so that pumping of blood to the muscles can be faster. To perform this CrossFit exercise, stand in front of the bar and then drop into a squat position. Let your hands be on the floor as you kick your back into a push-up position. Gradually, lower your body to the floor and do a full push up. Finally jump back to the squat position and up into the air as you do a pull-up. How hard burpee pull-ups are depended on the height of your pull-up bar. Chin Ups These exercises are known for working on your latissimus dorsi muscles as well as your biceps. When you perform chin-ups, your body tends to work together to pull you up to the bar. For this reason, they are categorized as all-around exercises. Like pull ups, chin ups have lots of other variations such as negatives, flex hangs, and jumping chin ups that you can do. L-Sits This exercise is often viewed as a parallette bars exercise and not necessarily as a pull-up bar CrossFit workout. When done through the pull-up bar, they can help enhance your core strength. Other workouts you may do using the pull-up bar include the muscle ups, hanging leg raises, knees to elbows, and hanging knee raises.

Carbohydrates are the backbone of sports nutrition. Endurance athletes around the world consume foods rich in carbohydrates to give them the energy to sustain their training over long periods. During CrossFit training, the muscles need fuel, and your brain needs the energy to maintain the focus throughout the training. In many types of sports, low carbohydrates intake is the major cause of fatigue and low performance. Carbohydrate Intake Patterns for Athletes The carbohydrates needs of athletes are tied closely to their muscle fuel costs imposed by the training intensity. Since the training load changes from one day to the next and at different points in the careers of the athletes, the dietary intake of carbohydrates ought to change also in response to the rise and fall in muscle fuel needs. Instead of having a fixed carbohydrate intake target, you should fine tune it to fit your energy budget. Athletes should also target days when they are training hard at high intensity to ensure they have adequate glycogen (muscle carbohydrates) store to fuel their training goals. One of the greatest suggestions to help you monitor your carbohydrate intake is to track your muscle fuel needs to include additional carbohydrate-rich foods in meals and snacks before or after a CrossFit workout. As the training needs increase, your carbohydrate intake should also increase proportionally. Carbohydrates intake targets should be provided in grams relative to the body mass of the athlete instead of a percentage of the total energy intake. The Training Load versus Carbohydrates Intake As pointed above, your training load should determine your level of carbohydrates intake. A light training load characterized by skill-based or low-intensity activities should be supported by 3 to 5 grams of carbohydrates intake per kilogram of body mass. Moderate exercise programs lasting about an hour a day should be supported by 5 to 7 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body mass per day. Endurance programs which include 3 to 5 hours per day of high-intensity training should be supported by 6 to 10 grams per kilogram of body mass per day. As for the very high training loads, the carbohydrates intake should be upped to 8 to 12 grams per kilogram of body mass to support the extreme commitment of high-intensity exercise. Many athletes train with low carbohydrate availability particularly when they do their training in the morning without breakfast or when they engage in a long workout without access to sports drinks or foods. When the exercise intensity is low, this may not be a problem. However, when they train more than once every day in closely spaced sessions, CrossFit diet sufficient in carbohydrates is needed to enhance the speed of recovery.

When talking about supplements, there are natural and artificial. Most of the supplements you find in stores are a balance between the two. However, for top benefits, you should go for natural supplements which can be found in organic and healthy food sources. When you include supplements in your CrossFit diet, your body gets all the inevitable substances it requires such as antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Loading with vegetables and fruits is important, but even then, you can miss out on some components of your nutrition. Supplements help in giving your body those nutrients you can’t easily get from your ordinary foods. The following are some of the supplements you should have in your nutrition mix. Maca Maca is a plant grown in Latin America especially the mountains of Peru. Botanically, it is classified as a member of the cruciferous family from which vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage are derived. The supplement is made by drying the maca roots and then grinding them into powder form. This nutrient is also available in other forms such as liquid extract and capsules. Maca roots are known for their protein and carbs content. Their fat content is low, and they contain a fair amount of fiber. In maca, you will find some essential vitamins and minerals including copper, Vitamin C, and iron. There are numerous benefits that come with maca including support for your learning ability and memory, mood enhancement, and anti-depressive effects. Spirulina This blue-green alga has a specific taste and grows naturally around the world. You can find it in Africa, Mexico, Hawaii, in salty lakes and oceans. In terms of nutrients, spirulina has vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, A, C, D, and E. in addition, you will find lots of minerals in it such as phosphorus, manganese, selenium, zinc, and sodium. With its ability to remove toxins from the blood and bind metals in your body, this antioxidant can enhance your CrossFit gym performance by reducing muscle fatigue. If you want to last longer during training and burn fat, this magic green supplement should be on your list. Wheatgrass This grass can be found in moderate climatic zones such as the US and Europe. It is available in the form of fine green powder or liquid. In terms of nutrition, wheatgrass contains vitamin A, C, E, and chlorophyll. Minerals that play a key role in the body system such as calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium, and iron can be obtained from this supplement. The role of your immune system in giving you a good gym performance cannot be underestimated. Wheatgrass improves digestion, boosts your immune system, and enhances oxygen levels in your body. This reduces fatigue. Matcha Green Tea There is no major difference between the regular green tea and matcha tea. However, the way matcha is grown is unique. The shaded environment in which matcha green tea is grown enables it to gain higher levels of beneficial compounds including EGCG and ECG antioxidants which protect the body against free radical damage. Much like other green teas, matcha powder helps in treating depression, reducing cholesterol, blood glucose, and cancer cells. During CrossFit workout, matcha tea gives you the much-needed endurance and better muscle recovery. You cannot afford to skip this natural supplement.

There is no doubt that CrossFit athletes are always looking forward and busy in laying strategies for 2018. Gym memberships are likely to skyrocket, and every treadmill occupied. Every person has their own set of goals such as weight loss and diet restrictions. However, after a few months, feelings of discouragements come in, and before you realize it, the same old habits you wanted to kick out are slowly streaming in. Bad goal setting is one of the main causes of laxity and derailment in CrossFit training. Athletes tend to focus on the byproducts such as muscle gain and weight loss instead of taking an honest look at themselves and assess where they are vis-à-vis where they want to be. Why Weight Loss/Muscle Gain Resolutions Never Work Upon a deeper analysis of the failures athletes frequently run into, there are some things that stand out as the main obstacles. Narrow Focus Unless you are a physique model or competitive bodybuilder, making your focus too narrow can lead to discouragements. Physique models and competitive bodybuilders dedicate their time as well as effort to sculpt their bodies in ways that appeal to their professions. To them, this is a career and a lifestyle. If you are not in this field, adopting such a lifestyle of diet and exercise can lead you down unhealthy paths. Mentor readiness is crucial in this type of program and lack of it can lead to unhealthy eating habits and body dysmorphia. Slow Results We are a generation that is after quick results, be it in muscle gain or weight loss. The problem comes when results take longer than expected to make people impatient. You must understand that muscle gain and weight loss take time. If you constantly monitor the scale for even the slightest movements in the needle, you can become disheartened. Lack of Adherence to Programs Most often than not athletes find themselves going over the deep end in exercise and CrossFit diet which in the end ruins their discipline with the programs they are following. If you spent a greater part of the past year not eating well, being inactive, or making poor lifestyle choices, if you go the extreme opposite the following year, you are likely to experience some undesirable effects. Even rubber bands have a stretching limit beyond which they snap. How to Make Your Resolutions Work Successful athletes understand that muscle gain, and weight loss is just but byproducts of much bigger things. Instead of directly seeking these results, these athletes look forward to new skills, improved movements, and PR lifts. They set for themselves physical challenges and constantly program their fitness. Before you get into the CrossFit gym, you must have a physical goal(s) that you want to accomplish. Over the next few weeks, refine your goals and make them tangible. The usual SMART Approach to goals applies even in CrossFit. Set specific goals that can be measured, attained, and which are realistic enough for the time duration you have. This will limit frustration and enhance your proficiency.    

Olympic weightlifting is not a sport you would naturally pick up and succeed from the word go. This doesn’t mean that you cannot transition easily into formal competition lifts. However, it takes great sacrifice and an enormous number of hours to continue progressing after the initial surge of success. Many Olympic weightlifters will tell you that the sport requires focus because disappointments will come to push you towards the quitting line. To succeed in Olympic weightlifting, below are things you should start doing. Squatting with Integrity Weightlifting places huge demands on the maximal strength of an athlete. A majority of lifters on the other hand sacrifice integrity in the squat so that they almost perform a hybrid low bar to move more weight. The main purpose of squatting in weightlifting should be to enhance your jerk, clean, and snatch. This is because squatting is the ultimate strength movement to help you build a stronger and more forceful base. Don’t Train Too Heavy Athletes who go too heavy risk impacting negatively on their power output, increase injury risks, and affect their technique. The recommendations for athletes is for them to spend most of their training in the 70-85% of maximum for about 2 to 4 reps for snatches, cleans, and jerk variations. You can also use squats in the same loading, but with higher rep schemes so as to allow for enhanced volume. To prepare you for heavier lifts, integrate lifts over 85+% into your program. Follow a Program It helps to have a set program complete with progression, loading schemes, regressions, as well as methodical tracking and analysis. For the rudimentary lifter, performing daily WODs including weightlifting movements may be sufficient. However, this may not fully address your specific concerns, needs, as well as provide you with sufficient frequency to develop psychological adaptations and skill. Learn to Exert Maximal Tension Lifters who fail to harness tension end up in unbalanced pulls and setups. This imbalance may kickstart a cascade of weightlifting faults. It is therefore important that you develop, harness, and exert tension and balance upon a loaded barbell. The best way to address this is to become highly aware of both your setups and receiving positions throughout your strength work and lifts. Mobilize Your Hips When doing overhead squat, front squat, clean, snatch, and split jerk, the hips can be a culprit for poor movement. Hips may result in poor squatting strength, health, and mechanics. Because of the importance of squatting to weightlifting, athletes should prioritize hip movement and health. Implementing static stretching routines, mobility CrossFit training, and controlled range of motion movements can help you in your overall joint development and connective tissues health. Other tips you may want to look at include varying your intensities, training every lift almost daily, recording your lifts, joining a weightlifting club, and seeking out the services of a qualified coach.

Strategists will tell you that it is much easier to make a plan than to stick to it. People make excuses whenever they are inconsistent with their training and all this affects their outcome in CrossFit training. It all starts with a goal which most people tend to have. The next step is to have a plan that joins the dots from where you are to where your goal is. The third and final step is to work towards attaining the goal through the plan that you have set. This is where most people fail. There will always be athletes who are successful and others who are not. The separator is almost always consistency. Experts say believe that you are what you consistently do on a regular basis. Lack of consistency means you may reach your goals, but it will take a little longer. Applying this approach to CrossFit, there are 3 crucial areas that the spotlight of inconsistency shines on: training, recovery, and nutrition. Training There are two main dimensions of training. The first is the quality of training and the second is the volume of training. The quality of training is all about your approach and mentality. If you do not push yourself hard enough during CrossFit workouts, your peers who challenge themselves will certainly be better than you one day. The nature of human beings is that we do not want to step out of our comfort zones, but the whole essence of CrossFit is to make you uncomfortable so that you can achieve great goals. The second aspect of the volume of training is about decision making. How you prioritize your time will determine the hours you put into the box. Approach each day with a clear focus and plan on what you want to achieve. Recovery Recovery touches on rest as well as active recovery. If you train hard, it is important you plan your day so that you get enough sleep. If you are such person who doesn’t really care, the hours you sleep, and you still want to get up and train in the morning, you may experience inconsistencies in your performance. Target 7 to 8 hours of sleep. Active recovery, on the other hand, is about mobility work and stretching. This part of recovery is important because it enhances your performance and reduces instances of injury. Good functional movements require that you have a consistent warmup and cooldown schedule even if it lasts 10 minutes. Nutrition Having a consistent CrossFit nutrition is not as difficult as training. This is because we all love food and are clear on what we want. You need strict guidelines on your macros, and as you prepare your meals, you must be conscious about muscle building and fat loss. It all boils down to your plan and the commitment you put into it. Go for long-term solutions that you can comfortably stick to. Consistency and excuses cannot coexist. You always have to do your best because this will set you apart as a successful athlete in CrossFit.

The squat is a common type of CrossFit workout which gives your body an all-around exercise. Squatting is simply bending your hips and knees while the bar is on your upper back. While squatting, ensure you keep your knees out and your lower back neutral. To complete the squat, come back up from the lowered position and lock your knees and hips at the top. The reason squats are known as compound exercises is that they work on your entire body. To move the weight, your legs bend and straighten as your abs, and lower back muscles stabilize your trunk. The shoulders, upper back, and arms are responsible for balancing the bar on your back. Therefore, a lot of muscles are worked up all at the same time and not just your legs. Compared to exercises such as bench press and overhead shoulder press, the squat works more muscles, especially when having a heavier weight. Squat Pains As it is with many workouts, the possibility of injury in squats is not remote at all. When doing squats, you may experience some pains, and it helps to know what they are all about. Neck Pain If you hold the bar wrongly, squats can hurt your neck. Your muscles must support your weight and not the spine. If you squat with a loose upper back, the bar will stress your spine which is dangerous. Instead, you should squeeze your upper back before unracking the bar in the CrossFit gym. During your squats, stay tight so that the bar won’t move on your back and roll over to your neck. Never use a foam pad, wrap a towel around the bar, or a manta ray. These wrappings put the bar higher and further away from the hips. This, further makes it easier for you to lean forward, therefore, hurting your back. Simply hold the bar right without band-aid solutions. Wrist Pain Holding the bar with your hands will certainly hurt your wrists. This is because holding the weight presses your wrists down and bends them back thereby stretching them past their normal range of motion causing pain not just to your wrists, but also to your elbows. One of the ways to avoid this is supporting the bar with your upper back muscles which are bigger and stronger. Another cause of wrist pain is holding the bar too low. When you squat low bar, it must rest between your rear shoulders and traps. If it rests at low, it will slide down as you squat. This will force your hands to hold it back which causes wrist pain. You can temporarily use wrist wraps to give you support, but at the end of it all, it is your form and equipment that you have to fix. Knee Pain This pain occurs when your knees cave in or travel too far forward. When squatting, push your knees to the side and your hips back at the same time. Go down gradually until your hip crease is below the top of your knees. Squatting like this strengthens the muscles around the knees thereby enhancing support for the knee joint. Other types of squat pain include hip pain, lower back pain, groin pain, and elbow pain. If you concentrate on your form during CrossFit training, most of these pains will go away.

When you switch up your CrossFit diet and workout routine, you expect some changes in your muscle growth process. However, this progress may decline or even come to a halt despite your continued efforts. The question many CrossFitters ask is, what causes such a decline in muscle growth? Numerous factors are influencing the ability of your body to pack on gains. Some of these contributing factors include diet, fitness program, sleep schedule, and even your state of mind. Knowing which of these affect you can help in putting you back on the road to packing more muscles. Inadequate Sleep If you are not getting quality sleep every night you go to bed; your muscle growth process will be affected. Sleep inadequacy increases the level of cortisol hormone which wreaks havoc on your human growth hormone. Also, the ability of your body to store glycogen is inhibited, and this has a negative impact on muscle growth. To fix this, target about 71/2 hours of sleep every day and keep your stress levels low as you go to bed. Insufficient Protein Intake If you want to add more muscle, you need to increase your protein intake. The reason is simple; protein has amino acids which are the compounds responsible for repair and buildup of muscle tissue. Failure to consume enough amino acids may hinder muscle growth. As part of your CrossFit nutrition, include approximately 7.7 grams of protein per kilogram of your bodyweight. This means, if you are weighing 200 pounds, your protein intake should range from 109 to 154 grams daily. You can combine both plant-based and animal-based proteins to fuel your muscles. Alcohol Intake Muscle growth tends to be hindered by excessive intake of alcohol. When you drink too much of alcohol, your body system summons the antioxidants used for muscle growth and instead redeploys them to metabolize the alcohol. To fix this, it would be a lot of good to cut out alcohol altogether or limit yourself to 1 or 2 indulgences per week. Also, take several glasses of water so that you can reduce the number of drinks you consume in total. Too Much Cardio Cardio is great for fat loss, but if you overdo it, it can suppress your muscle growth process and instead initiate a muscle-burning or catabolic state. Remember your goals are to increase in strength and size and these cardio workouts must not dominate your workout. You may include high-intensity interval training workouts and some cardio sessions into your workout of the day program, but your priority should be in weight training first. Dehydration It is good if you focus on ingesting proteins and carbs to bulk up, but to stay hydrated is equally important. Water is critical for the digestion process which means if you don’t get enough of it, it negatively impacts the digestion process. Your muscles will lack the essential nutrients, and your CrossFit gym performance will dive. Ensure you train all muscles not just the trophy muscles and mix things up. CrossFit is good at this, and if you maintain the discipline, you will get the best results.