Tips for Your Crossfit Training Plan: How to Get Started

Even though CrossFit® is basically suitable for everyone, since exercises and intensity can be individually adapted to the training condition, beginners should still keep a few things in mind. Especially for occasional athletes in the gym, an elementary component of the training is too often neglected: the warm-up.

Now, many may not have felt much of a disadvantage after moderate strength training on machines if you've foregone an adequate warm-up program - but in CrossFit®, if you don't warm up, you not only face significant performance losses, you also put your health at risk. Unlike machine training, CrossFit® involves almost exclusively complex full-body exercises with free weights that place a high demand on bones, joints, muscles and nervous system. For example, if you do heavy squats without getting your body up to operating temperature, you risk injury. So rule number one is: Always warm up well!

The right technique is at least as important as the warm-up. Time and again, it can be observed in fitness and strength training in studios that people train without technical know-how and professional advice. One must learn the correct execution of the exercises just as, for example, a track and field athlete learns to pole vault. Especially for the basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses or snatches and clean and jerks, a good technique is essential to avoid injuries and to make progress.

Therefore, it is important to lower your weight and ego and first learn the movement sequences of the CrossFit® exercises. In the long term, this will not only keep you healthy, but you will also develop much faster. It is also important to listen to your body and, for example, take a break from training after a sore muscle.

Especially for newcomers, the CrossFit® workout is a completely unknown form of stress in terms of intensity. Strength training combined with high-intensity interval training and the whole thing over time - it quickly becomes too much of a good thing. The key is to find the right level of intensity, preferably under the guidance of an experienced trainer, of course.

In order to achieve optimal results, CrossFit® training should and must be strenuous - anyone who is only half-hearted will not make any progress. However, beginners in particular want too much in the beginning and set unrealistic goals. For example, if you use too much weight too quickly and can't leave it at three to four workouts at the most, you'll quickly end up overtraining and risking your health. It is best to discuss your own goals with your trainer and create an individual training plan.

As with all sports, CrossFit® is the same: No master has fallen from the sky. It takes time for the body to adapt to the load and for you to become stronger and more athletic. Instead of constantly getting on the scale, looking in the mirror and checking your progress, there's one thing you should do with CrossFit®: Fun.

If you enjoy the collaborative strength training and look forward to the next workout, you'll draw motivation from it and stay on the ball much longer as a result. Of course, it doesn't hurt to document your progress. However, it should not be too much in the foreground, especially at the beginning. Also often neglected is the right nutrition for muscle building. If you work out several times a week at CrossFit®, you need an extra portion of carbohydrates, healthy fats and especially protein. In addition, you should make sure you drink enough fluids.