What do Olympic gymnastic rings, Plyometric box jumping, kipping kettlebells and free weights all have in common?  They are all exercises you might find in crossfit training.   This form of HIIT (high intensity interval training) requires many exercises and capabilities.  This isn’t your daddies weightlifting routine, get ready to sweat and burn some fat!

Let’s cover some of the workouts your may experience in crossfit training.

What are box jumps?   Well they are about as simple as they sound and while they don’t actually require you to have on a pair of crossfit gloves – what’s nice about GymPaws is that you don’t have to take them off between each exercise, but we’ll get into that later.

Box jumps require you to jump up onto a 6-12” raised platform.  To begin stand about 6 inches from the box.  Shift your hips back and down similar to if you were performing a squat.  Your arms should simultaneously stretch out behind you.  Imagine that you’re trying to do a long jump.  The power of the jump should come from your heels and propel you onto the box.  At the same time, you’re arms are raised above you in a continuous motion.  Once on the box, stabilize yourself and an softly jump back down to the starting position.

Part of your crossfit training may also include chin ups.  Remember that the whole point of crossfit is to avoid resting in between exercises.  A chin up is similar to a pull up and I’m a big fan of those!   Review the article for how do to a pull up properly. This would be the point to make sure you’re wearing your crossfit gloves!

So now let’s assume you have the best crossfit gloves on, now it’s time to find that chin up bar!Why GymPaws are the best weightlifting gloves for crossfit training:  well the easiest thing to see is that you don’t have to keep taking them on and off.  They are designed to fit right in the palm of your hands.  The leather front surface is slightly padded but most importantly it prevents your hands from slipping.  The cool 4 finger loop neoprene backing assures that they’ll stay in place whether you’re going from a weightlifting exercise to a non-weight bearing one, you don’t need to take them off!

Things to remember with chin ups:

You are lifting your body weight.  This seems like a no brainer but if you don’t feel strong enough you may want to start training with an assisted pull up machine.

Your back muscles will be called into play.  This means those lats (latissimus dorsi) and traps (trapezius) muscles are going to take a beating!