Team Wharton CrossFit-style workouts

  Familycrossfit

When I shared our Team Wharton workout calendar I mentioned that we've been doing some family CrossFit-style workouts. I'd love to share more!

Surely you know someone who's obsessed with CrossFit; it might be our generation's Jazzercise (minus the awesome workout wear). CrossFit workouts consist of high intensity interval training.

High intensity = it's really hard!

Interval training = but you don't have to do it for long! 

During a CrossFit workout you'll do lots of functional fitness exercises. That's what Chris (the nutrition professor) told me. I said, "What the heck does that mean?" He said, "Multi-joint movements that mimic real life." So there you go. These include basic exercises like push-ups, squats, crunches, and lunges as well as more complex movements like burpees. Exercises might use only body weight or simple equipment like a medicine ball or resistance bands.

Trackshadow

Chris was in to CrossFit for a while but found the workouts so intense that he was too sore to workout again that week. And the $100+ per month fees are pricey. To save his achy muscles and a few bucks Chris started doing his own CrossFit-style workouts at a track near our house. We tried it out as a family with Dashiell in the jogging stroller and found we can fit in a great workout in 30 minutes or less. It's cheap, it's efficient and, most importantly, it's tolerable to the wee Wharton.

Dash_crossfit_stroller

Our Team Wharton CrossFit-style workouts consist of sets of exercises with a lap of jogging/pushing Dash in baby jogger in between exercises. Chris and I switch off so I'll run a lap while pushing Dash as Chris does an exercise set and then we switch. Can you picture the baton hand off during an Olympic sprint track event? It's exactly like that. 

To do the workouts we head to a high school track near our house but we could do the workout in our neighborhood, too. All we need is a place to run a short distance with the baby jogger and a spot to do some exercises.

We often choose to do 3 exercises with one set each of 21, 15 and 9 reps for each exercise. For example, push-ups, lunges and crunches. To warm up, Chris and I run a couple of laps together. Then, we switch off between running a lap with the baby jogger and completing the exercises in a spot off to the side of the track.

So, if I started with the exercises I'd do 21 push-ups (which I definitely cannot do all at once!), 21 lunges and 21 crunches. Then I'd run a lap while Chris did all of those. Then I'd do 15 push-ups, 15 lunges and 15 crunches, and then run a lap, etc. It's tough but you're never doing any one thing for too long and I like that I'm always getting to move on to something else.

And that's how we do Team Wharton CrossFit workouts!

Oh, and don't think that Dash just gets to lay around:

Dash_crossfit 

4 responses to “Team Wharton CrossFit-style workouts”

  1. Meghan Avatar
    Meghan

    oh, I’m so interested in this! I do know some people obsessed with Cross Fit. It seems like a good workout, of course, but also super intense and a little intimidating…
    This seems like a much better fit for me to try it.
    I’m trying to find more ways to get exercise outside the gym since it is so boring there. We’ve been mountain biking and hiking. and this seems like a good way to do something meaningful in a short time but still keep the variety.

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      Yes! I’m trying to remember that the goal is just to MOVE MY BODY and I’m trying to be move creative about that.

      Reply
  2. Erica Ladd Avatar
    Erica Ladd

    This is absolutely adorable and such a great idea for the whole family! Great post.

    Reply
  3. Chris (the Hubby) Avatar
    Chris (the Hubby)

    Meghan, the benefits of Crossfit lie in its intensity, all-body focus that is continually varied. Since most of us like to pick an exercise and do that a lot, we’re all generally very good at causing the overuse injuries, for example foot, knee, or hip issues due to running. You can probably avoid that with Crossfit, but the trade-off is increased possibility for acute injury. Because it is so intense, it’s easier to pull or strain something.

    So, try this as a good starter workout just to get the feel. Using the format Kelsey wrote about, do 21/15/9 (or even 15/10/10) of wall-balls, burpees, and v-ups. Wall-balls require a medicine ball of some kind, so if you don’t have that and you are a beginner to this style of working out, just do air squats (or maybe jumping air squats as a step up in intensity). Move right from the set of movements to the track lap, and repeat. The key is to not let yourself stop and rest too much. It’s intense and tough, but you also get done with the workout in 20 minutes or so.

    The best part about it all is that emerging research is showing this style of training (high intensity, interval training) might have longer term impacts on metabolism. In other words, 20 minutes of this might actually result in more calories burned over 48-72 hours post-workout compared to a 30-40 minute run.

    Reply

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