Crossfit WOD Exercises for Burning Fat & Better Fitness

Intense Crossfit WODs to Stay Energized

The grueling fitness program that has taken the fitness world by storm over the last few years is Crossfit. This style of fitness was first adopted by the military and first responders as a way to ensure they were physically fit for their jobs. What’s interesting about many of the Crossfit exercises is that each one was named after men and women who have died during their military posts in the armed forces.

One of the most common exercises was the Murph named after Michael Patrick Murphy a Navy SEAL Lieutenant. Of course, there are many other exercises with personal names attached to them of those who risked their lives.

Other names are:

• Grace (Olympic lift exercises focused on technique)

• Karen (wall ball exercises) and …

• Fran (thrusters and pull-up exercises) Crossfit exercises

Just to name a few…

There is a wide selection of Crossfit workouts-of-the-day or WODs as it’s often referred to as that has become intensely popular by many fitness buffs. The high strength and endurance components of the Crossfit sport have made it a favorite for those wanting a full-body-workout routine. The WOD’s ability to burn calories with its high-impact intensity has drawn many people to this style of workout routine that keeps them pumped and wanting more … much more!

Basically, this is what WOD is:

WOD is a daily workout aimed at working the muscles at high capacity, making this workout a popular choice for those seeking a high impact fitness routine. It often consists of three to four workouts per week. It’s usually three days on and one day off. The maximum number of days is usually 18 workouts per month by the most enthusiastic Crossfit lovers.

Crossfit’s WOD routines are a healthy balance of metabolic conditioning, strength, agility, and technique, which is often performed in a group setting. This type of group activity encourages teamwork and friendly competition for those taking part. It’s a great way to stay motivated while getting that extra bit of encouragement — something you’ll definitely be thankful for with this workout!

Crossfit focuses on completing one exercise before moving onto the next one. For example, you may start by doing a set of pull-ups before moving onto a set of push-ups and then moving onto the next assigned exercise. The main goal is to get a set number of reps completed, before doing the complete set of the next exercises. By doing the workout this way it allows you to move quicker while allowing the other muscle group to recover while the other muscle group is being worked.

Here are some of the most intense WODs commonly used in Crossfit gyms:

Grace

Don’t be fooled by the name of this exercise because it’s very intense. This workout involves you doing 30 repetitions of more rigid and jerky movement exercises using a standard weight of 95 pounds for women, and 135 pounds for men.

A common practice in Olympic weightlifting, this workout involves various elements including strength, flexibility, speed, power, technique, and coordination.

Filthy 50

This Crossfit exercise, the Filthy 50 is a common WOD staple. It is a grueling circuit-style full-body strength workout that involves the addition of not only strength but cardio as well. It’s an intense and very difficult but rewarding workout comprising of ten exercises with 50 repetitions each. It involves a lot of stamina. However, if this is your first time being introduced to the Filthy 50 workout, it’s recommended that you begin by just doing 20 to 25 reps of each exercise.  Most experienced Crossfit athletes say that this exercise routine is usually completed within a 25-minute time frame. Highly experienced fitness buffs can often do it in less time.

Here is the exercise routine:

-              Fifty jumps on a 24-inch box

-              Fifty Jumping Pull-Ups

-              Fifty Kettlebell Swings

-              Fifty Steps of Walking Lunges

-              Fifty Elbows to Knees

-              Fifty repetitions of 45-pound Push Press

-              Fifty Back Extensions

-              Fifty 20-pound Medicine Ball Wall Shots

-              Fifty Burpees

-              Fifty Double-Unders

Murph

Okay, now this exercise routine is very well-known to all involved in the world of Crossfit. It’s known to be the most brutal of all Crossfit workout exercises. This is, however, the most popular WODs in the Crossfit game. As referenced earlier in this article, this workout was named after Michael Murphy, a brave lieutenant who passed away while fighting in Afghanistan.

Although tough, it is a simple workout that uses very little equipment. Actually, you don’t need to be an experienced Crossfitter with a ton of expertise with Olympic weights for this WOD. However, what you do need is a ton of focus and stamina to get through this exercise workout.

Basically, the Murph WOD exercise involved that you begin with a one-mile run, followed by a hundred pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 body-weight squats. It’s vital to have both strength and cardio with the Murph WOD workout.

Once this exercise is complete, you’ll finish with a mile run.

While the exercises are quite simple, you’ll be burning fat and melting those unwanted pounds away!

There is a recommended completion time for this exercise circuit within a 40-minute time-frame. Even going beyond this set time by a few minutes is still quite an achievement and it does signal that you are in quite good shape. After all, Crossfit isn’t easy and by meeting the set times to complete these exercises, if you meet the allotted times, you’ve done an excellent job!

Fran

Fran is considered to be one of the shortest WODs in Crossfit. Regardless, it’s still a highly impactful routine that will have your heart racing! It’s a full-speed-ahead type of workout involving three rounds of pull-ups and thrusters. The first round of this WOD has you performing 21 reps of each exercise. Once you complete the exercises, you’ll perform 15 reps each for the next round, and finally finishing off with 9 repetitions on the last round.

The Seven

The Seven Crossfit WOD is made up of seven rounds of seven very challenging exercises consisting of seven reps each.

To complete this WOD, you have to do it within the span of 20 minutes. However, if Crossfit is completely new for you, it’s best to try to complete it in the 30-40 minute time range.

Just to get familiar with this workout exercise, here is what The Seven Crossfit WOD routine looks like. Each exercise below is done 7 times (as per the name):

-              Handstand push-ups

-              Thrusters with a 135-pound barbell

-              Knees to elbows

-              Deadlifts with a 165 or 245-pound barbell

-              Burpees

-              Kettlebell Swings

-              Pull-ups 

Remember, if you’re new to Crossfit try your best, but always listen to your body. If you fail to complete everything in the recommended time frame, you can try to master it the next day. As long as you’re improving week-after-week, you’re accomplishing a lot.

Be proud of your accomplishments and continue to improve your health and your fitness. In the end, it will all be worth it. And you’ll be proud to look at that new physique that you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Although intense, Crossfit has a great track record at helping people achieve their fitness goals!

Healthy Bones | Improve Bone Density with Age

4 Ways to Decrease the Risk Bone Loss with Age & What to Do to Assist the Aging Process

As we get older, it's only natural that our bodies deplete in various ways, whether that be having less fullness in our skin, decreased muscle mass or aging bones.

With age especially for women in the first few years of menopause, bone density slowly depletes as we become less active. That is why it's important to take the necessary first steps to decrease the aging process as much as possible. Healthy eating, healthy lifestyle changes and gaining the right amounts of nutrients in our diet along with regular exercise is one of the best ways to do it.

Age is just a number and we can easily improve how we age by making the right choices...

Exercise for Muscles & Bone Health

Here are 3 essential types of exercise that must be added to our daily and weekly routine to strengthen muscles and improve bone mass:

1—Stretching & Flexibility Exercises: This often forgotten exercise routine is critical in building better flexibility and benefits muscle mass. By adding flexibility into your exercise routine, this will help to enhance range of motion.

Common flexibility and stretching exercises include Tai Chi, Pilates or Yoga. These are excellent if done on a daily basis to decrease the chances of developing osteoporosis. By holding your stretched position for about 30 seconds, this stretched pose helps to lengthen muscles. This helps to improve flexibility and range of motion in the joints.

2— Cardiovascular Exercise: All and any type of exercise like walking, jogging or aerobics helps to create better bones mass by improving bone health. These cardiovascular exercises are weight bearing and place weight on bones and limbs — not to mention how good they are for overall heart health. These types of exercises are highly beneficial to overall fitness especially when aging. However, although many think biking may be a weight bearing exercise, it's not. Biking puts very little weight energy on the overall body and limbs and that's why it's more of a aid in building up the heart, but not necessarily in aiding in bone mass.

Other weight-bearing exercises are running under water or even underwater aerobics. Although having less impact on joints, it is still highly beneficial. For those more sensitive to the impact of exercises like these, but who still want to engage in exercise that builds stronger bones without the risk of injury, it’s a good choice.

3— Strength training: As we get older, it becomes crucial that strength training become a key part of our weekly routine. By engaging in using weights like free weights, stair climbing machines like the stairmaster, incline or elliptical trainer machines. Resistant bands are also excellent in building strength in order to improve bone density.

Exercise should not be the only focus.

Getting enough vitamin D is necessary to maintaining good health. You can get vitamin D from the sun as your body produces this vitamin when exposed to natural sunlight.

Eating a diet rich in vitamin D is also essential for building up your vitamin D levels throughout your body. You can do so by eating foods rich in D vitamins and if need be, add vitamin D supplements (if your diet is lacking in this vitamin).

Foods rich in vitamin D are fatty fish like mackerel, tuna and salmon. 100% natural orange juice, egg yolks and beef liver are also very good choices rich in vitamin D.

Benefits of Vitamin D

Vitamin D aids in the absorption and regulation of phosphorus and calcium within the body. It also helps to resist disease and to maintain a healthy immune system. But most importantly, this vitamin helps to develop healthy bones.

If you value your health and want to decrease you chances of developing osteoporosis, while also wanting to reverse or slow down the risk of decreased bone density while trying to improve your bone density, engaging in these exercises and keeping your Vitamin D levels up is a great way to improve your overall health and fitness. By doing so, you’re building up the necessary defenses your body needs to protect itself, while making better choices for your overall health and well-being.