Has your fat loss plateaued? Maybe you just want to ditch the pooch faster… Before you hit the treadmill for an hour of steady-state cardio or fill your workouts with hardcore burpees and mountain climbers take a minute and consider CrossFit. One look at a CrossFitter and it’s clear just how ripped they are. But you don’t have to convert to the lifstyle to benefit from the wisdom. We’ve rounded up five things you need start working into your gym sessions if you want to start seeing improved results in your regular training.
1. Define your goals
If you want to maximise your fat loss, you need a goal. Think about CrossFit workouts of the day (WOD), you’ve probably seen them scrawled on the whiteboard, mirror and even floor of the gym and there’s a reason for it. Just by seeing what you have to accomplish gives you a goal and an instant sense of purpose.
It’s a small, attainable goal: finish this workout. Boom. Sense of achievement.
Before you go any further in your fitness journey take some time to write down 4-5 specific goals you hope to achieve and put them where you’ll see them daily. You want that constant reminder.
2. Try Benchmark Workouts
Have you ever thought about adding the CrossFit bodyweight benchmark workouts to your routine? These are workouts push your limits and give you a good sense of your base fitness level.
3. Make this a lifestyle
For many of us this one is already true, but if you’re not quite there yet then maybe it’s time to consider it. Fitness isn’t something that just takes up an hour of your day day. It’s not something you just dip your toe into; a fitness focused life demands you take into account your recovery and nutrition as well as your gym time.
Approach your training as part of a bigger picture. Turn your habit into a lifestyle.
4. Try Tabata
Tabata is a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout, with exercises that last four minutes.
It has proven to be an effective way to shed fat and keep lean muscle mass. By combining an intense cardio exercise with a resistance movement, the 20 seconds you are working for will feel like a lifetime by the time you hit the 4-minute mark and your workout is over.
See if you can keep the pace going for a full 40 minute workout.
5. Get involved in a community
Support is key. Surround yourself with likeminded people and you’ll go further. If there’s one thing everyone knows about CrossFit is how close knit the community is; filled with people pushing each other further, helping them get better and supporting them through everything. There’s something to it.
