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If you stop and think about it, are you more likely to breathe through your nose or your mouth? If you are being honest with yourself, you will probably answer ‘mouth’. No need to worry; that is the response for most people. But did you know, there are actually a significant number of benefits to breathing in and out only through your nose? Not kidding. Here are just a few:

Nasal Breathing Helps Fight Infections

When you breathe in through your nose, the air is mixed with a colorless gas called Nitric Oxide which kills deadly bacteria and works as a vasodilator (an agent that dilates or widens) on your airways, arteries, and capillaries. Essentially, breathing through your nose results in breathing in less infectious air and helps blood flow more freely through your body.

Nasal Breathing Helps in Better Brain Functions

The correlation between brain function and breathing has become a topic of interest for many individuals in the realm of neuroscience. Several studies have been conducted to determine if the way you breathe does in fact affect the way your brain functions. In a 2017 study conducted at Northwestern University, a team of scientists used electroencephalography (EEG) data from seven epilepsy patients to distinguish the differences in brain activity that occurred when patients breathed in through their nose versus their mouth. 

The researchers found three areas of the brain that were affected during breathing – the piriform cortex (processes smells), the hippocampus (controls memory), and amygdala (controls fear and pleasure responses). These three areas of the brain showed major activity when the participants inhaled through their noses, but nothing changed when they breathed in through their mouths. Furthermore, research has shown that increased air intake through the right nostril is correlated with enhanced verbal performance (left brain activity), and increased inhalation through the left nostril is associated with increased spatial awareness (right brain activity). 

Nasal Breathing Helps During Workouts

If you are like most exercisers, then you probably breathe through your mouth as the workout gets harder and you feel more fatigued. This is actually counterproductive and can result in an increased state of fatigue and stress. However, breathing through one’s nose can allow for more oxygen to get to active tissues. This is possible because breathing through the nose releases nitric oxide, which is needed to increase carbon dioxide in the blood, which then releases oxygen. Therefore, as you breathe through your nose, your cells are getting more oxygen, giving your body what it needs to better fight exhaustion. 

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Whether it be Russian, American, Jamaican, or Australian (just kidding, there is no Jamaican or Australian), kettlebell swings are often overlooked as one of the most effective movements in fitness. Oftentimes, when individuals are looking for a single movement that will give them a quick, full-body workout, they will usually choose the burpee; nothing wrong with that. But the kettlebell swing can also prove to work a wide range of muscle groups and leave you gasping for air. Next time you’re looking to change up your fitness routine, think about doing multiple reps of kettlebell swings. Here’s why:

Increases Power

The kettlebell swing is an excellent way to increase your power through the hips. In order to perform a kettlebell swing correctly, you will need to do a powerful hip thrust using your glutes and hamstrings. Added bonus: perfecting this powerful hip thrust will translate over to Olympic weightlifting movements. The snatch and clean and jerk generate their power from this powerful hip thrust, so the more you train it, the more effective you will be at performing the Olympic lifts.

Increases Muscular Endurance

A lot of workouts in CrossFit require athletes to have a high level of muscular endurance. Whether it be repping out sets of 15 ring muscle-ups at a time, or performing ‘Grace’ (30 clean and jerks) unbroken, having the capacity to perform a high volume of work is essential to being successful in the sport of CrossFit. Cue the kettlebell swing: have you ever tried to hang on for 50+ reps of kettlebell swings? It’s not easy. So, to increase your muscular endurance, try performing max sets of kettlebell swings with minimal rest in between. Beware: your forearms may turn into rocks.

Increases Aerobic Capacity

Performing a high volume of kettlebell swings can also do wonders for improving one’s aerobic capacity. Most commonly, aerobic capacity workouts often involve movements like burpees or any kind of machinery (rower, bike, skierg), so kettlebell swings do not immediately come to mind. However, kettlebell swings can easily result in an athlete gasping for air and their heart feeling like it’s going to burst out of their chest. Don’t believe me? Try this workout on for size: the 200 Rep Reckless Challenge – 10 rounds for time: 10 burpees and 10 kettlebell swings. This may leave you with a similar sensation as the notorious “Fran lung”. 

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When first learning the Olympic lifts during an introductory CrossFit class, you may remember the coach telling you this popular phrase over and over, ‘Straight bar path!’ The coach is probably referring to the line that the bar travels up your body as you are performing a lift. Using the term ‘straight’ has the connotation that the bar should travel in a straight line. However, this is not often the case and can look more like a smooshed S curve rather than an actual line. This is not to say that maintaining a straight-ish bar path isn’t important. Keeping the bar close to your body for the duration of a lift increases efficiency as the bar follows the shortest distance between two points. 

Oftentimes, coaches only teach about the importance of bar path and neglect to consider how the athlete moves their own body to generate the movement of the barbell. Basically, asking themselves the question, ‘Does the lifter have the proper athletic movement patterns that transfer over to weightlifting?’ Is the athlete explosive (can they jump)? Is the athlete fast (can they sprint)? These are two essential components of being a good weightlifter.

So, if you are an athlete who struggles with the Olympic lifts, try shifting the focus away from just bar path and practice the following drills to teach your body the movement patterns it needs to successfully complete the lifts. 

Backward Medicine Ball Toss and Jumping Good Morning

The purpose of these two movements is to work on the rapid extension of the hips (just like you see in the snatch and clean) while working against resistance. For both of these movements, think about exploding through your legs to forcefully open your hips. Watch examples of the two movements using the links below:

Plyometric Push-Ups

This movement helps develop rapid elbow extension that is essential for successfully locking out snatches and jerks. Once you’ve lowered yourself to the ground, think about driving through your hands to lift your body and hands off the ground as quickly as possible. Speed is your friend. 

Concentric and Eccentric Pull-Ups

These two movements help strengthen the elbow flexors and are helpful in aiding elbow flexion during the pulling portion of the snatch and clean. For concentric pull-ups, you want to start from a dead hang (arms straight with shoulders engaged) and then slowly pull yourself up until your chin passes above the bar. For eccentric pull-ups (also known as negatives), you start with your chin above the bar and slowly lower yourself down until your arms are straight. Try to use a 3-5 second count when pulling yourself up and lowering yourself down. 

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We’ve all been there…twenty minutes into a CrossFit class and you’re thinking to yourself, ‘Is this the warm-up or the workout?’ Oftentimes, warm-ups can be underappreciated because their value and importance is not fully understood. However, warm-ups can arguably be the most important component of a CrossFit class. They serve many different purposes with the most important being injury prevention. So, the next time you start to complain (whether audibly or in your head) about the length of the warm-up, think about these components of an effective warm-up and why they are important.

Increases the Body’s Core Temperature

A good warm-up usually starts with some type of monostructural movement (rowing, biking, running, skiing) to literally get the athletes warm. This is important because it starts to loosen up muscles and tendons which decreases the chance of muscle strains; it increases blood flow and oxygen to muscle tissues; it increases enzyme and metabolic activity; and improves the efficiency of muscle contraction and activation of neural pathways. Dropping a few beads of sweat in the warm-up is perfectly normal and is all part of preparing the body and brain to perform more difficult movement patterns that are likely to be seen later in the workout.

Elevates the Heart Rate

Warm-ups are also important for increasing an athlete’s heart rate. For example, let’s say Fran is the workout of the day. If you’ve done Fran before, then you know that thrusters and pull-ups are a deadly combination that can immediately spike your heart rate and leave you gasping for air. Therefore, in order to avoid the initial shock of this workout, it is important to increase an athlete’s heart rate before the workout even begins. An example of this could be completing a short workout with movements similar to those in Fran, something as simple as: 3 rounds – 5 cals on the Assault bike, 5 thrusters, 5 ring rows. The goal is to increase the heart rate, not kill the athlete before they do Fran, so you want them to work at a fast pace, but not an all-out sprint.

Preps the Joints and/or Movement Patterns

This warm-up component is especially important when the workout contains higher-skilled gymnastics movements or heavier and more technical lifts. For example, if heavy back squats are programmed for the day, it is important to first of all, prime the joints and muscles involved in the movement (hips, knees, ankles, glutes, hamstrings) and then secondly, to slowly build in weight to what the athlete will be working at. Using a small band around the athlete’s ankles or right above their knees and performing monster walks and skater walks down the length of the gym is an excellent way to target the posterior chain. Having the athlete perform Russian kettlebell swings to practice hinging at the hips or tempo goblet squats to warm up the knees and ankles are two more movements that help prep an athlete’s joints for more difficult loading.

Skill Practice 

Lastly, a warm-up is the perfect opportunity to practice skills that an athlete is lacking. For example, one great way to spike an athlete’s heart rate is to have them perform several sets of double-unders (either for a set amount of time or a specific number of reps). An added bonus: if athletes struggle with double-unders, they can use this time to practice using drills such as double taps, going back and forth between doubles and singles, etc., to improve their efficiency with the movement.

Sources: https://btwb.blog/2018/10/18/coachs-corner-elements-of-a-group-class-warmup/

A ‘standard’ by definition is “something set up and established by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, or quality” (taken from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary). If you’ve been around the sport of CrossFit for any period of time, then you are probably aware that there are a specific set of standards for each movement. When you attend a CrossFit class, your coach will most likely go over the standards for the movements in the workout. This ensures the athletes know what’s expected of them. But without fail, some members will choose to ignore the standards so they can get through the movements as quickly as possible. However, there are several different reasons why standards are important. 

First of all, they establish a status quo – a way to measure who is the best. Let’s be honest with ourselves for one quick second…what CrossFitter actually competes with just themselves? (hardly anyone) No. In most CrossFit boxes, the daily wod quickly turns into who has the fastest time or the heaviest lift on the gym’s Whiteboard. So with that being said, there has to be a standard, a status quo, for determining who is actually the best. 

The best example of this is at a CrossFit competition. Judges are given the task of making sure the athletes meet the set standards for each movement. If they don’t, then the athlete is given a ‘no rep’ and must complete the movement again.

But how often do you see another athlete give themselves a ‘no rep’ as they are working out in class? How often do you honestly give yourself a ‘no rep’? How then will you be able to compare yourself to the other athletes if you’re shorting the movement and they are performing it correctly? Short answer: you won’t. If you truly want to get better and be competitive in your gym, then you need to hold yourself to the same standard as everyone else. In order to truly measure your progress and then accurately compare scores with other athletes, you have to perform the movements correctly.

Another reason why standards are so important is because of safety. Think about the simple air squat for a second…in order for a rep to count, the hips must pass below the knees and then fully open at the top of the squat. Even if these standards are not met, the athlete is in no real danger of badly hurting themselves. However, picture an athlete who is attempting to max out their clean in a workout. First of all, they are most likely fatigued so the chances of injury are already increased. Second, this particular athlete has a history of shorting their depth on squats, barely reaching parallel, and only for a few reps. As the athlete starts to increase the weight of their clean, they are no longer able to power clean and their coach is encouraging them to catch the clean in a squat. Do you see where I’m going with this? If the athlete has not trained squatting to full depth, then chances are, they won’t be able to catch the clean in a full squat and their risk for injury to occur during the movement increases as well. 

Finally, standards are important because they actually help to build strength. Let’s go back to our example of the athlete who was trying to max out their clean from the paragraph above. Now, imagine that this athlete was consistently squatting below parallel in every workout and opening their hips to full extension at the top. In doing these two actions, the athlete is training their muscle memory bank for when they need to perform more complex movements – now the athlete has the ability to squat to full depth and can initiate a powerful hip extension. Cue the max clean: as the athlete starts to build in weight, they quickly realize that they will need to perform squat cleans in order to lift heavier weight. Now that the athlete has trained themselves to squat properly and reach full hip extension, they will be more likely to successfully make the lift. This movement will now feel natural to them and they will become stronger because their muscles and joints have been trained properly. 

Movement standards are not set to be an annoyance. They actually serve a greater purpose in essentially making you a better athlete and functioning human being. Therefore, it is in your best interest to adhere to the standards as best you can and reap the benefits of doing so.

First it was the Assault Bike, now it’s the Skierg. CrossFit has this incredible ability to find movements and machines that will leave you contemplating your sanity. Exhibit A: the Skierg. This machine was originally developed as a supplementary tool for athletes in the sport of Nordic skiing. In keeping with Greg Glassman’s description of fitness where he states, “…Regularly learn and play new sports”, CrossFit has integrated this machine into many of its daily workouts. Now that these machines are becoming more and more popular, it’s time for you to become a Skierg pro. Below are several tips to help you master the three basic positions your body goes through when completing the skiing movement:

Triple Extension

This is your starting position and occurs when your arms are fully extended overhead with hands grasping the handles, your hips are completely open and your legs are fully straightened. Oftentimes, depending on your height, you will also be standing on your tiptoes in order to be as long as possible and grasp the handles at the highest point on the erg.

The Pull 

Oftentimes athletes are under the impression that skiing is an upper body movement only. This is definitely not the case. When using the Skierg correctly, it should actually feel like a full body movement, engaging the upper body, core, and lower body all at the same time. In order to perform the pull correctly, follow these steps:

1. When initiating the pull, you will start at triple extension and then slightly pull the cables so that your arms are now bent and each form a right angle. 
2. From here, you will continue to pull down with your arms (keeping them bent in a right angle), while simultaneously engaging your core (which sends energy from the hips to the arms) and hinging at the hips (send your butt backwards as if you are trying to shut your car door when your hands are full of groceries). This should be one fluid movement and not a disjointed activity (hips flex and then arms pull). 
3. Once the hips are closed and your chest is facing down toward the Skierg platform, you will then finish the pull by lengthening your arms at your sides.

The Recovery 

The last piece of the Skierg puzzle is called the recovery, or basically, how you return to the starting position. The recovery phase can be divided into two categories: the arms and the hips. 

1. The arms: once you have extended your arms at your sides to finish your pull, you will then reach your arms straight back up to the top of the Skierg to begin the next pull, or you can make a circular motion with your arms to get the handles back to the top of the erg (almost like the butterfly stroke in swimming). There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to recover with the arms. Play around with both techniques and decide which works best for you. 
2. The hips: the recovery movement with the hips is similar to that of a kettlebell swing. Just like in a kettlebell swing where you generate your power and energy through opening the hips, the same is true when skiing. To finish the movement and return to the starting position, you simply open your hips so that they are fully extended. 

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How do you get better at something you’re not good at? “Practice, practice, practice!” or “Practice makes perfect.” But do you ever feel that no matter how many times you get on the Assault Bike it never feels easier? Don’t lose heart. Just like everything else in CrossFit, the more you do it, the better you will get at it. Below are some Assault Bike workouts to help you learn to love the Assault Bike.

Assault Bike Tabata

One of the best ways to sharpen your skills on the Assault Bike is to do some type of interval work, such as Tabata. In this format, you work for twenty seconds and rest for ten seconds for a total of eight rounds. In all, the workout lasts only four minutes but your legs feel like lead weights by the time you’re done. This is a pretty easy workout to do because there is a setting on the Assault Bike screen (under Programs on the right side, top button) that will set up the Tabata format for you. All you have to do is push the pedals.

20 Min. RPM Challenge

Another great way to get better at the Assault Bike is to push yourself to maintain the same RPMs for a specific amount of time. For example, hop on the bike for twenty minutes. Start at a medium pace (Ex. 50-55 RPMs) and try to maintain that same pace for five minutes. At the five minute mark, increase your speed to something a little more challenging (Ex. 58-63 RPMs) and hold that pace for another five minutes. Do this for the entire twenty minutes, challenging yourself to increase your pace each five minute interval. Repeat this workout every week or every couple of weeks and try to progressively increase your different paces. 

Minute Repeats

The Assault Bike can be just as much of a mental challenge as it is physical. These minute repeats will challenge you to push yourself harder than you think possible in order to make yourself better. The workout is a total of ten minutes: five working minutes and five resting minutes. On the first minute, bike for a max set of calories and then rest on the second minute (this equals one round); alternate biking and resting for a total of five rounds. The challenge is to bike the same number of calories each working minute. 

Calories for Time

Lastly, try biking 100 calories for time. Take note of your RPMs, specifically for how long you can hold different paces. Also, make a mental note of how many calories you bike each minute, trying to maintain that same number for each minute until you are done. Record the total time it takes you to complete the 100 calories and then do this workout every week or two and try to improve your time.