The Most Common CrossFit Exercises and Why You Should Do Them

The Most Common CrossFit Exercises and Why You Should Do Them

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CrossFit is a high-intensity, high-impact workout that challenges your body in new ways. It incorporates a variety of different exercises and techniques to create an intense, fast-paced workout. It isn’t just about lifting weights or running on a treadmill. CrossFit is built around compound exercises that train many different muscles at once by challenging them in multiple ways at once. These types of exercises are known as ‘functional movements’ because they mimic common actions we perform every day. For example: picking something up from the ground, reaching for something above our heads, or squatting down to reach something underneath something else. Doing these movements as CrossFit exercises means you can work more than one muscle group at the same time, which trains your body in a way it hasn’t been before. If you want to get started on the right track with CrossFit, read on for some of the most common exercises and why you should do them...

 

Box Jumps

Box jumps are a great way to build explosive power in your legs and glutes, as well as improve your coordination, balance, and reaction time. When you perform box jumps, the quick change of direction makes your muscles work harder, specifically the quick twitch muscles. This means you’re putting your muscles through an effective and intense workout. Box jumps are also a great way to improve your vertical jump. If you play basketball or any other sport that requires you to jump for height, this is a great exercise. If you’re brand new to CrossFit, this is a great movement to start with. You can use a lower box until you’re ready to move up to a regular-sized one. Box jumps require a lot of power and control, and they use a lot of different muscles in both your lower and upper body. They are a great all-around exercise and a must-do CrossFit exercise.

 

Pull-ups

Pull-ups are a compound exercise that works your back, biceps, shoulders, and even your abs through different versions of the exercise, such as kipping and strict pull-ups. They are also one of the best bodyweight exercises for increasing your overall strength. Pull-ups are a great CrossFit exercise because only a pull-up bar is needed to perform them. You can do them just about anywhere, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or advanced, they will still be challenging. Pull-ups also offer a lot of benefits for your overall health and wellbeing. They can improve your posture, reduce back pain, increase grip strength, and even help improve your digestion thanks to the work it does on your core muscles.

 

Deadlifts

Deadlifts are one of the best all-around exercises you can do. Not only do they build strength in your legs, core, and back, they work just about every muscle in your body. They are also a very functional exercise as long as they are done properly. You must have adequate flexibility and mobility for this exercise or else you can easily injure yourself. Just like the name suggests, deadlifts are all about lifting a heavy barbell to about thigh high. Deadlifts are great for increasing your overall strength and stability. Deadlifts are a full-body exercise that challenges you in multiple ways. You’re lifting heavy weight up from the ground while trying to keep your back straight and your core tight. This is why it’s such a great all-around workout and one of the most common exercises you will have in any CrossFit class.

 

Overhead Squats

The overhead squat is a mix of upper body and lower body exercises. Your body has to lift a weighted barbell over your head and squat down to the ground. This means your lower body is under a lot of stress, but so are your shoulders and upper back. Overhead squats are a great exercise to improve your overall strength and mobility. When you perform them, you’re working your legs, glutes, core, arms, shoulders, and back. Squatting is a common movement we do every day, but when you add the weight of a barbell over your head, it challenges your body in new ways. Performing the overhead squat is a great way to build foundational strength in the legs as well as work on power and stability in the shoulders and back.

 

The Clean

While not as well known in the non-CrossFit world, the clean is a full-body exercise that is great for building strength and improving your posture. This exercise is meant to challenge your body by taking a heavy weight that you are standing over and pulling it up so that you are now moving underneath it. This helps to replicate moving an object in a position to be lifted overhead. This is purely a functional exercise to lift an object above your head. This exercise is extremely challenging but once the form has been perfected, is a foundational exercise for other workouts where the object, or barbell, is now lifted completely above you all in one motion. The clean is a very common base exercise in CrossFit that will help improve balance and mobility as you progress to more challenging moves.

Push-Ups

Push-ups are a great way to build muscle and increase your strength using only the weight of your body. Push-ups target your upper body and can be varied slightly to target different muscle groups depending on which one you want to work out. This makes it an effective exercise without becoming boring. Push-ups are also a great way to burn fat as they can be done quickly for many reps to get a slight cardio workout in as well. When you do push-ups, you’re burning calories while challenging all the muscles in your upper body such as chest, triceps, and shoulders. You can do push-ups any time and anywhere, so this makes them a great addition to any workout routine.

 

Conclusion

CrossFit is a great way to get fit, stay fit, and challenge your body in new ways. It incorporates an extensive list of different intense exercises. Every exercise uniquely targets your body with most being compound exercises that continuously push and challenge your body. This means you can get an effective, full-body workout while also building strength and improving your overall health and fitness. If you’re looking to start CrossFit, these exercises are a great place to begin. They are some of the most common moves that should be performed regularly throughout your CrossFit training.