A workout made in hell

If you’re looking to up the challenge in your fitness regime, CrossFit training may be just right for you, suggests Manoj Kumar R.

Fitness is, in the 21th century, a luxury that everybody can’t afford. Because money can buy you a gym membership, but not the drive to attend it regularly! Fitness sure does demand a lot of self-discipline, and more so if you choose the gymming route. Because, let’s face it, gymming can get boring, especially if you have been consistently maintaining your fitness for years now. 

Thankfully, these days, there are more fun and challenging ways to get fit. The one that seems to be ‘challenging as hell’ is CrossFit training. A CrossFit gym, referred to as ‘box’, does not have state-of-the-art cardio and strength-training machines.

 It is usually a vast open space with a line of pull-up bars, aerobic rings, suspension bands, barbells and plates, a lot of free weights, medicine balls and huge tires that are all part of the workout sessions. The gyms are designed in order to facilitate group classes, and so, a bunch of people can perform the same exercise at the same time, without waiting for their turn. 

In India, CrossFit is relatively new. Here, it incorporates functional movements, methods and routines from various disciplines of exercises, in order to achieve an overall fitness. The programme may involve a mix of Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, plyometrics, gymnastics, sprints and a few other functional movements that you wouldn’t be doing in traditional gymming. 

CrossFit workouts are mainly meant for building greater core strength and conditioning, and are, therefore, performed at high intensity, switching to different exercise forms, in short spans of time, often with little or no rest. So there is absolutely no question of monotony.

 You must bear in mind though, that to perform the CrossFit workouts, you surely need more than several years of sport-like fitness; it needs a certain level of madness.

 Popularly known as ‘the sport of fitness’, CrossFit workouts will make you flex muscles that you never knew existed! So don't panic if gallons of sweat start pouring off you; CrossFit training isn’t for the faint-hearted. You need to remain mentally strong to pursue this gruesome workout.

Needless to say, you may find faster results with CrossFit workouts than with any other fitness regimes; it just takes one hell of a strong commitment. Not that you will be put through modalities of hell by your CrossFit coach at the very beginning of the training. Like any sport, you will be assisted, by qualified trainers, to move up from level to level gradually. It would take several months before you start hitting the high notes.

You may not see yourself bulking up in CrossFit workout. This regime mainly helps to achieve an overall wellbeing and cardiovascular fitness. Regular CrossFitters are likely to be in a better physical condition to do any given task that calls for core muscular strength compared to those, who follow other fitness regimes.

 CrossFit, over the time, makes you feel healthier and more active like an athlete, and even gives you the much-envied athletic body shape and build. An Olympian weightlifter may not be able to bolt like a marathon runner, just like a marathon runner may not be able to lift heavy weights like an Olympian weight-lifter.

But with CrossFit training, you can develop the strength to do various such tasks, rather than specialising in a single form of strength. Simply put, the CrossFit training programme focuses on building physical strength for the unexpected.