How to get started with CrossFit?

First, you need to find out what your level of sports training is and what goals you set for yourself. After all, beginners are different: someone has already gone in for sports and is in good physical shape, but for someone the decision to go in for this sport was spontaneous, and the person has absolutely no training. Often, crossfit for beginners is something mysterious and scary, and in the absence of information in the Russian information field, it is simply not clear how to start doing crossfit.

Lesson Objectives

First of all, you need to decide for yourself – why do you need this sport, what goals do you set for yourself? Conventionally, all those who came to CrossFit can be divided into several groups. Let’s discuss them and find out the pros and cons of choosing CrossFit for each.

As a way to lose weight

Quite a few newbies come to CrossFit from scratch to lose weight. Is this the right place for such a purpose? In general, yes, CrossFit is a fairly high-intensity training with elements of strength and aerobic work. During training, you will have a fairly high calorie consumption (up to 1000 kcal per session, depending on the individual athlete and training program), which, together with the daily calorie deficit, will lead to successful fat burning.

Strength training will tone your muscles. However, you don’t need to think that you will be able to gain muscle mass and lose weight at the same time, this is impossible.

As an alternative to the rocking chair and a place to hang out

A lot of newbies, guys and girls, come from their usual gyms to crossfit boxes for a reason. CrossFit is primarily a group exercise that takes place in a very motivating atmosphere. In addition, every workout, the complexes change and alternate – you will never do the same movement over and over again.

How to pump up

If your goal is only to gain muscle, it is better to give preference to traditional strength training in the gym, so the effectiveness will be much higher. Crossfitters will always be inferior in performance to narrowly targeted athletes – bodybuilders in mass, powerlifters and weightlifters in strength.

If your goal is muscle gain, functionality, and strength endurance, go for CrossFit. Look at the photos of top crossfit athletes – if they suit you, then yes, this is for you. However, remember that most of the top athletes are adopting sports pharmacology and have been training for years.

It should be added that CrossFit is often used as a training tool for law enforcement agencies – special forces units, for example, as well as for professional fighters from MMA and other types of martial arts. CrossFit is a great way to improve endurance, flexibility, coordination and strength.

To train with a trainer or not?

How to start doing CrossFit – with or without a trainer? Of course, you can learn absolutely everything yourself – especially since now there are a lot of sources of information on the Internet. Most of them, unfortunately, are in English. But there is also in Russian:

Theory is, of course, good. But is it enough? How can a trainer help you at the beginning of your CrossFit session?

• He will clearly show the technique of performing the exercises, demonstrate the main mistakes and, most importantly, make sure that you do the exercises correctly.
• The trainer will give exactly the load that will be optimal for you. Many rush from one extreme to another – someone puts on unbearable weights and gets injured, someone, on the contrary, takes too little and does not get the result.
• He will provide tailor-made nutritional and post-workout recovery advice. Even if you have group training, it is a rare case when a normal coach would not give his advice to a direct question about it.

Should a newbie do CrossFit with a trainer or not? For us, the unequivocal answer is yes, a mentor is really needed in initial training. But at the same time, it will not be superfluous to first study the issue in the above sources.

Video on what a newbie is waiting for in CrossFit:

Tips for beginners

Next, we will give recommendations-squeezes for the first steps in CrossFit – what you need to know before starting classes and what to be prepared for. The first and most important thing is the choice of training with a trainer, we wrote about this in detail above.

Physical fitness

Do not be afraid of your poor physical fitness and, conversely, do not think that your couple of years in the rocking chair will give you an advantage. They will only give you that you will work with large weights. But at crossfit training it is equally difficult for all beginners, and if the complex was really hardy, everyone will crawl into the locker room the same way.

Health

Since CrossFit is, first of all, high-intensity training and, in addition, traumatic in places, be sure to inform the trainer about all your ailments. After all, there are quite a few contraindications to CrossFit due to illness, and also in some cases (for example, you have pain in your knees or back), the coach will select individual tasks for you that are alternative to the current complex.

In addition, a very important component of CrossFit is a warm-up – you should always do it, regardless of the type of WOD (complex of the day) and your mood.

Equipment

In general, it is not necessary for a beginner to specially stock up on knee pads, special crossfit nano 2.0 sneakers, compression form, wristbands, gloves, etc. All these things are needed by already experienced athletes, who clearly see the difference in how much it is necessary or not to practice in one or another equipment.

What’s really important:

• Comfortable shoes with flat, durable soles. You have to work with weights and keep your body balanced. If you do exercises in uncomfortable shoes, then you run the risk of simply not learning how to do it correctly – you simply won’t succeed. But more importantly, you risk injury.
• Comfortable clothes. Well-stretched shorts and a T-shirt that is roomy enough to keep you moving. But tight enough so that the edges don’t dangle or cling to anything.

Everything else you need in the process. Wristbands – if you suddenly feel that your wrists are experiencing too much stress and constantly sore, knee calipers in case of pain and discomfort in the knees (and best of all, as prescribed by a doctor). Shin gaiters – for rope training. Etc. Don’t bother with that yet.

Power and Recovery

A few simple rules and guidelines for crossfit nutrition and recovery for beginners:

• Don’t eat right before training. Best in just 2 hours. In the future, be guided by your condition – if you feel heaviness due to food during training, then eat in more than 2 hours. Or, conversely, if you feel weak and lack of strength, take my writing a little closer to class time and focus on complex carbohydrates.
• If you want to achieve your goals, taking a close control of your nutrition is a very important part of CrossFit culture. Successful progress requires a small surplus in daily calorie intake, a sufficient amount of protein and complex carbohydrates. When losing weight, it is extremely important to be in a calorie deficit.
• Rest. While you are just starting out on your CrossFit journey, consider your training frequency carefully. Load yourself up gradually. For example, you can start with 2 workouts per week. After 1-2 months, switch to 3 workouts per week. And after six months, when you feel your body, you can individually approach this issue. But there is also a downside – do not forget to train and attend them regularly. This is called a regime, and you have to work out it.

Where to start?

So where to start a newbie in CrossFit? Let’s go in order.

If you decide to train in a crossfit gym

If you have decided that you want to try CrossFit and do it in a professional setting, then the action plan for you is:

1. Set a goal, if it matches the above goals, then go to step 2.
2. Choose a gym, trainer and do some research on the principles and rules of CrossFit (see our recommendations for sources in the table above).
3. Sign up for workouts and do not miss them for at least a month (8 classes) – then you can definitely conclude whether this is right for you or not.

If you are not ready to spend money on professional crossfit workouts (in Moscow the price starts from 5000 rubles per month), then we recommend reading the article about free crossfit workouts, there we we talk about where you can find free groups with trainers, all the pros and cons of this format of classes.

If you decide to study on your own

Perhaps, for some reason, classes in professional crossfit gyms or even in free groups are not suitable for you. Then the action plan is as follows:

1. The first item is the same. We set a goal – why do we need CrossFit.
2. We carefully study the information about CrossFit, namely: do we go through health, prepare equipment (and sports equipment if we want to do it at home), choose a training program and study the technique of exercises that we have to do as part of the program.

We have several ready-made options for complexes for different occasions: a home workout program for men, a home workout program for women, for beginners in the gym. Each program is detailed for each of the cases + all the features of the place for training are taken into account.