- by Liam Crivelli
Yep! You heard me right. CrossFit is a good thing to do.
Goes against everything I have ever said… I know. There is a reason for this article. Here it is.
Over the last few months I have begun to alter my training style slightly. What I do with myself, as well as what I do with clients. I decided on this change because I realised that I adapted well to this certain style, as did my clients.
My average client has quite a few years less experience in lifting weights than me, which is fine, and that’s when I realised it was even more important for them to adopt this style through my teachings. To perfect something, is to practice it. Practice makes perfect right? You want to squat better, no amount of burpees is ever going to help you squat better. Or more weight. Same goes for deadlifts. Running on the treadmill isn’t going to give you a shaped booty! Yet performing reps and reps of lunges, squats, deadlifts, hamstring work WILL!
Weight lifting is all about lifting weight. The main exercises that people did decades ago, are still performed today. There may be a slight difference to technique, but as a whole, it’s the same stuff. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when you’re exercising. If you confuse yourself with too much variety, then you will lose interest. At the same time, it’s important to include some variety so your body can get stronger and develop more through multiple ranges and movements.
I had a client say to me, “I feel like I did this workout not long ago.” Yes. You probably did. I need to give clients the same workouts occasionally so I can gauge progress and assess strengths and weaknesses. If their goal is to tone their legs and booty, then yes, you WILL be doing squats.
What CrossFit does right is they incorporate volume and repetition. That’s it. They repeat the same exercise over and over until they perfect it. In saying this, CrossFit (I’m stereotyping a bit here) also overdoes certain exercises, and progresses people faster than what they are ready for, and also doesn’t have a huge emphasis on perfect technique, hence the injury rate of CrossFitters. At the same time, there is a percentage of CrossFitters who do have good technique, and perform exercises quite well to ensure progress and strength gains.
Now, don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not saying the only form of exercise to do is CrossFit, because that would be a terrible idea for me, as I own and run a non-CrossFit personal training gym. All I’m saying is that they have a good principle that I believe should be adopted across the exercise range (so come and train with Revive…cough cough… ). Just incorporate more repetition into your workouts. Always push the limits of what you’re comfortable with.
So in conclusion, what I’m telling you is that repetition is KING (not CrossFit)! Squat MORE! Lunge MORE! Deadlift MORE! Bench MORE! JUST DO MORE!
Don’t do your 3 sets of 8 that the 18 year-old gym instructor wrote on your generic workout card 5 years ago at the local YMCA.
Here is my advice;
– DO 10 SETS OF 10 AT A HEAVIER WEIGHT.
– DO GIANT SETS (MULTIPLE EXERCISES FOR THE SAME MUSCLE GROUP).
– PERFORM SOME BIGGER MOVEMENT EXERCISES (DEADLIFTS, SQUATS, ROMANIAN DEADLIFTS, BENCH PRESS ETC.).
– INCLUDE A SOLID BENCH WORKOUT INTO YOUR PROGRAM.
– COME BACK INSIDE THE BOX.
– DON’T TRY AND REINVENT THE WHEEL. SURE, ENJOY TRAINING, BUT KEEP IT RELATIVELY BASIC.
– LIFT HEAVY STUFF.
– DON’T OVERTRAIN.
– HAVE FUN!