You’re probably tired of being told how you need to get in shape, eat right, stay healthy, get enough sleep, don’t abuse drugs and alcohol, and don’t drink too much coffee. Health, fitness, and nutrition are everywhere, that’s for sure, and it can be overwhelming to think about when it’s a daily struggle just to slug to work everyday, shuffle the kids off to school, cook dinner at the end of the night, and remember to brush your teeth before bed. Yet, fitness is something you cannot ignore; if you do, you’ll definitely pay for it later (both physically and financially) as you age, which would be a shame since it doesn’t take that many hours a week to prevent.
CrossFit Pleasanton in beautiful Pleasanton, California, offers CrossFit classes, as well as a myriad of other fitness classes, such as yoga, Bootcamp, and Olympic weightlifting. We are passionate about sharing our love of fitness with you and helping you live your best life ever. In this blog post, we’ll review the benefits of CrossFit, and although some are probably very similar to the fitness industry as a whole, it’s worth reviewing the specifics in relation to CrossFit. And some benefits will come as a surprise, so keep reading, and contact us today!
BENEFITS OF CROSSFIT
- Improve physical strength. One of the secrets not many people know about CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting is that if you want to get stronger, you have to lift weights — and heavy weights to boot. You can only get so far with eight pound and ten pound dumbbell. You may get toned, but you’ll never gain the strength and the muscularity you will with CrossFit. That being said, not everyone wants to look like the CrossFit Games’ athletes, and you don’t have to. The CrossFit Games’ athletes train every day for many hours a day. Unless you start doing that, you have little to worry about. However, you will gain some muscularity appropriate to the hours you lift heavier weights.
- Lose weight. Many CrossFit workouts are HIIT-based, or high intensity interval training, which is high bursts of all-out efforts followed by rest. Furthermore, CrossFit is functional training, meaning the whole body is involved. Executing movements with all of your muscles firing will naturally burn more calories that isolated exercises, such as bicep curls. You’ll burn a ton of calories, which is what you have to do to lose weight. Furthermore, as you gain muscle mass, you’ll burn even more calories since muscle burns more calories. You’ll also increase your metabolism, which burns more calories as well. Even if you’re not necessarily looking to lose weight, your body composition can improve significantly, which is the proportion of fat versus muscle you have on your frame.
- After-burn effect. Post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) is the effect you get from all-out bursts of energy, such as CrossFit and HIIT-style workouts afford. This means that you’re metabolism will be increased for longer after a workout as well as the amount of oxygen you consume, resulting in more calories burnt.
- Can improve aerobic capacity and endurance. Due to CrossFit’s high bursts of all-out efforts, CrossFit may help to increase your VO2 max, which is the maximum amount of oxygen you can utilize during exercise. As you exercise on a regular basis, your endurance level will rise as well.
- You’ll never be bored. With CrossFit, no two CrossFit workouts are the same (excepting benchmarks), which not only allows your body to not adapt to the exercises you are doing, but also allows you to not be bored. Boredom is a major reason people give up on exercise.
- You’ll improve your mental game. As you progress in CrossFit (and even as a beginner), the CrossFit workouts become more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge. Pushing yourself to do moves you don’t like, or to beat your personal record in a CrossFit benchmark workout will be an exercise in defeating negative self-talk. When you’re sore from the day before and your alarm goes off, it will be an exercise in just getting out of bed to hit the gym again. CrossFit is about pushing through despite what your body and your brain tell you.
- You could sleep better. CrossFit is a workout like no other. Usually, if you do CrossFit during the day, you’ll be physically exhausted at night and have no trouble falling asleep. This can be true for other forms of exercise as well.
- You’ll have fun. CrossFit is rewarding when you crush a workout (or even when you slog through it and finish it). Rope climbs will make you feel like a kid again, and competition is always good for the soul.
CrossFit Pleasanton in Pleasanton offers you a better life through fitness and community. We’ll be there to cheer you on, and we’ll be there when something happens in your personal life. We believe in giving back to our community and supporting one another when life’s challenges hit.
In CrossFit, there is a euphemism that is poked fun of occasionally. This euphemism is “You drink the Kool-Aid” of CrossFit. Basically, this means you’re hooked. It means CrossFit is your thing. It means you love coming to CrossFit and beating yourself up. CrossFit Pleasanton sees nothing wrong with drinking the Kool-Aid. CrossFit can become a lifestyle — one where you’ll feel energized and alive. You’ll push yourself to places you’ve never been before. You’ll do things you never would have imagined. You’ll achieve your impossible at CrossFit Pleasanton. Contact us today!
