Cross Training: how to train at home

Cross Training (or CrossFit®) is a high intensity, functional workout that’s used to increase performance, cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, strength and power, but also speed, coordination, agility, balance, and precision. If properly structured and performed, it’s a well-rounded workout that brings notable athletic benefits, especially benefits regarding health in general for those who practice it. Given the complexity and the variety of the moments and of the domains involved, it’s an activity that is usually practiced in a properly equipped box or gym, in order to have all of the materials and space necessary.

• Cross Training at home: is it possible?
• What you could use to do Cross Training at home
• Which workouts and exercises to choose
• Which workouts and exercises to choose

Cross Training at home: is it possible?

In the last year in particular, our lives were changed and turned upside down, and many activities were prohibited for more or less long periods. Furthermore, fitness was one of the areas hit the most by these changes. The long and continuous closure of gyms and fitness centers forced both owners and clients to reinvent a way to work out and to understand working out.

For those who practice Cross Training, it was definitely difficult to accept not being able to workout at the gym with the necessary equipment for a well-rounded workout, but at the same time it was difficult to find a way to continue to work out at home or outside

Let’s start by saying immediately that doing Cross Training at home is possible. Although it’s a type of workout that requires a lot of effort and a lot of equipment, its main characteristic, it’s variety, it what makes it particularly flexible and suitable to different situations.

The basic movements of this discipline are in fact bodyweight movements, so without the use of weights and equipment, that can be done anywhere and without particular equipment. You just have to have enough space, a good imagination and the willingness to try even when you’re outside of your comfort zone. Just think that some of the reasons that Cross Training became so famous is because you can truly do it anywhere, the work out sessions are brief, it’s scalability and adaptability.

What you could use to do Cross Training at home?

Even while traveling, far from the box, so also far from home, it’s possible to create efficient work outs with specific equipment and weights, and still have a stimulating work out. Almost all of the exercises of Cross Training can be done at home, with little space, even in just 30-40 minutes during lunch time, without going to the gym.

In a lot of cases, it’s enough to just have a room or a garage or a garden, an exercise mat, proper work out clothing and even some makeshift equipment like water bottles, a stick and a backpack.

Furthermore, for those who have more space, a lot of the equipment used in work out sessions are small and practical, and it’s possible to purchase dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance loops, medicine balls and a few square meters of rubber flooring to make the workouts even more varied and stimulating at home.

The web offers a lot of solutions for everyone, and it’s possible to create a completely equipped area at home, with a wall rack, pull up bar, barbell and bumper plates.

Again, Cross Training at home can be adapted to the needs of anyone, demonstrating how versatile it is compared to any other type of complete workout method.

Which workouts and exercises to choose

Although we said that this type of workout is suitable for everyone and everywhere, you shouldn’t overlook the correct technique of performing these exercises, even the bodyweight ones, and a correct program and progression, so that the time dedicated to physical exercise is high quality and productive.

All of the bodyweight exercises, abs, push-ups and their variants, squats, lunges, cardiovascular movements like burpees, jumping jacks and mountain climbers, can be combined to groups of two or three exercises with different modalities of time, like an EMOM, AMRAP or For Time and the workout is ready to be done.

If you’re not very creative or you’re not sure if you’re doing the right thing, gyms have organized classes online to substitute the daily ones in person, to give support and assistance to those who practice this sport, so that every exercise is safely followed and is suitable for the capacity and necessity of the individual.

Online you can find numerous tips and solutions for Cross Training workouts, but of course you need to know how to choose. There are a lot of work outs available online for free from Boxes and trainers on their social media pages or websites, suitable to do completely with body weight or with a minimum of equipment for those who have it. It’s wise to avoid trying to work out on your own if you’re a novice and you’re not sure how to create an efficient workout even if you know the exercises, the risk is to work out badly and in a non-productive way. Trust those who have more experience and who can give you examples and valid solutions, you can search online but always verify the source of who is proposing that work out. Searching Cross Training exercises pdf, you’ll find various workout and exercises already assembled, and a large quantity of videos with demonstrations that show how to perform each movement, especially if you choose the option to work out with a kettlebell or dumbbell.

Pros and cons of training at home

The aspect that’s most negative about working out at home is missing a group of people to share the work out with. At home, working out can be less stimulating with respect to the work out that everyone does together at the box, it’s missing the social aspect.

Furthermore, at home you don’t have the feedback of the trainer who, especially for those who aren’t experts, is fundamental to improve and learn the right movements.

Contrarily for those who are experts, the limitations of space and the equipment at home can be an obstacle for maintaining progress and acquired skills, making the training sessions less stimulating and productive.

On a positive note, however, organizing the training sessions at home could be simpler, subtracting time taken away from work and the family, and that you can take advantage of these workouts to work on complex skills like pistol squats, hand stands, or vertical walking that requires time and dedication. Even with the re-opening of gyms, continuing with some work out sessions at home with the equipment purchased over time, could be a valid solution to continue to improve without giving up the daily session when time to go to the box runs out.