Brief high intensity bodyweight workout at home without equipment

[El OchoCinco]

Wall Balls are a cardio fat burning exercise, just like thrusters, burpees etc. Used by many athletes to develop explosiveness and muscle endurance, and anyone working out looking to also burn fat.

As for muscle mass/strength, CF has daily strength exercises that are bench press, squats, presses, deadlifts, C&J, barbell rows, dumbbell presses. that is where muscle mass os built doing multiple sets, pyramids or building to 1 Rep max.

The other plyometric/gymnastic exercises are for fitness/cardio/HITT. If all you want to do is just do pure lifts then it is not advisable for you. But every workout has a strength lift that is not the shit you see on TV.

If you don't like CrossFit, that is an opinion which is fine and I can respect. But being entitled to your opinion does not also make you entitled to your own facts about what it is.

 

[destriero]

I don’t do CrossFit. CF appropriated the compound lifts but got stupid with all the variations in order to keep it fresh. My issue with it is they are all seemingly injured.

Their crazy high AMRAP routine will get you to your genetic potential on strength, but not necessiraly mass.

You cannot fault their lifts. The friggin top women can all snatch over 200lbs. The top guys can snatch >300. A few would medal in their class at the Olympics.

Camille Leblanc Bazinet snatched 225 at CrossFit Blizzard. 90% of the dudes on this board cannot flat bench 225.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

90% of the dudes on this board cannot flat bench 225.

I benched 285 (single rep) in a gym competition in the early '90s, when I weighed in the mid-140s. It was judged, to ensure that the butt remained on the bench and the bar wasn't bounced off the chest. No way I could do it now, and it wasn't exactly earth-shattering then either, but not bad for a weekend warrior.

 

[destriero]

I had an injury to my foot/ankle/calf in my 20s which preclude me from doing this high-rep stuff, but I do the cleans and the push-press 2-3x a week. Thrusters are great, but I break-up the movement. I can’t bench twice my weight and never have. I have a PL total from many years ago in Chicago where I benched 180 over my weight. I have hit 400 with a bench shirt (2002) but I was on a gram of enanthate per week at 250lbs. I am not bragging. My lifts are nothing special for a guy my size doing that much gear. I am more into aesthetics.

 

[El OchoCinco]

but got stupid with all the variations in order to keep it fresh.

This is 100% true but mostly coming from the competition side.

Actual daily workouts in a CF gym focus mainly on strength exercises/technique/warm up. For example a typical WOD could be a 12 AMRAP or timed to finish the whole workout which lands at 20 minutes on average at the end of class.

That means the other 40-45 minutes of the hour is Warm-up/Stretching; then technique and then the primary strength lift. This is the main benefit, the WOD is just your HITT to burn fat/develop cardio.

I skip the days of rope climbs or muscle ups or do pullups/ring rows instead. I am not trying to do rope climbs or muscle ups, I aint built for it.

The competition aspect is way outside of what most people want to do when they work out. I am not there to throw barbells around and get the fastest time on the WODs, but do lifts, not waste time and get my HITT in as well. I still play soccer and basketball so I also like the plyometrics and functional strength exercises. If you just want to do max Bench press and no moving then I would say avoid it.

 

[destriero]

I can’t do a muscle-up (well maybe one) as I refuse to kip to achieve it. I can do 20-25 pull-ups with perfect form. I get the kipping... it’s to make the movement aerobic and it makes all the sense in the world, but I refuse to do it.

I mean shit, I’ve been to three CrossFit Games when they were in Cali. Thinking of flying out to Madison this year to watch Brooke Wells.

 

[ESfocus]

This is 100% true but mostly coming from the competition side.

Actual daily workouts in a CF gym focus mainly on strength exercises/technique/warm up. For example a typical WOD could be a 12 AMRAP or timed to finish the whole workout which lands at 20 minutes on average at the end of class.

That means the other 40-45 minutes of the hour is Warm-up/Stretching; then technique and then the primary strength lift. This is the main benefit, the WOD is just your HITT to burn fat/develop cardio.

I skip the days of rope climbs or muscle ups or do pullups/ring rows instead. I am not trying to do rope climbs or muscle ups, I aint built for it.

The competition aspect is way outside of what most people want to do when they work out. I am not there to throw barbells around and get the fastest time on the WODs, but do lifts, not waste time and get my HITT in as well. I still play soccer and basketball so I also like the plyometrics and functional strength exercises. If you just want to do max Bench press and no moving then I would say avoid it.

What's the point of all this "complexity"? It's not longevity per se, you can get the benefits of rational exercise with a lot less "drama". Entertainment, maybe?

 

[El OchoCinco]

I can’t do a muscle-up (well maybe one) as I refuse to kip to achieve it. I can do 20-25 pull-ups with perfect form. I get the kipping... it’s to make the movement aerobic and it makes all the sense in the world, but I refuse to do it.

I mean shit, I’ve been to three CrossFit Games when they were in Cali. Thinking of flying out to Madison this year to watch Brooke Wells.

Yeah I am not a kipper on anything. It looks crazy and wild and I am not going for large numbers. When pull ups are part of the strength WODs they are almost always listed as Strict or Banded. Kipping is often in the time/fitness wods for volume. For chest to bar pull ups it is used to really get that wide back pull like a bent over row but nah.

For pull ups I would rather do the banded pull ups to get more in. Muscle ups just look like a 13 year old girl from Romania should be doing it, not me.

 

[El OchoCinco]

What's the point of all this "complexity"? It's not longevity per se, you can get the benefits of rational exercise with a lot less "drama". Entertainment, maybe?

You see it as complexity and drama. it is just a fitness approach that maximizes time and provides cardio/strength/HITT together. Lots of people don't just want to sit on a bench and push weight for 3 sets of 10.

Many people just want to go to the gym, do their chest and back workout and go home. Great, don't do CF. I don't understand why something has to appeal specifically to you to have any value to others.

Also many people I see in the gym are sitting on their ass on their phone in between sets or talking or doing everything but workout and wonder why it takes them 2 hours. CF is basically using the group to motivate and push (contrary to popular belief, CF boxes are not ultra competitive or filled with meat head assholes) as well as the trainer. Most people in the gym cannot self- motivate. Just go to a normal gym and watch the amount of wasted time sitting around/bullshitting/phone use. If you can do your workout hard and get in and out without the distractions, great. DOn't do CF.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

I am more into aesthetics.

With that in mind, what is your view of HIT, which focuses on intense, brief, and infrequent workouts with a relatively slow rep cadence to minimize momentum? The Internet is alive with debate on the subject, with studies supporting both sides of the argument.