CrossFit Work Out

Rhiannon Ally: By now, you’ve probably heard about the latest fitness craze, CrossFit. Now our fitness pro learns three moves that we can add to our own workout in today’s Getting Fit.

Andrea Metcalf: Hey, I’m in CrossFit in Chicago. If you want a unique workout that’s strength training that feels like an athlete and maybe a little bit of gymnastics and yoga, you’re at the right place.

We’ve got Jonny Vu who’s the head instructor who is going to show us a few moves that you can do CrossFit at home.

So Aileen, what did you notice that’s most different about this type of training?

Aileen: You know it’s really good for someone like me who’s just coming up for surgery because it can be – scaled your ability.

Female: I love the community, I love the camaraderie. I never played sports when I was little so this is the perfect competitive and camaraderie environment for me.

Female: I love how it pushes me and I love the high I get after like you push it to the max, you work hard and you walk out and you're like, “I feel great!” But in it, you’re like literally hate it.

Andrea Metcalf: Jonny, give us three moves that the people at home can do and get a little bit of cross fit by themselves.

Jonny Vu: Sure. The first move is called a burpee. It’s pretty much like you’re throwing yourself down to the ground into a pushup position and jumping as high as you can out of that position and doing a small jump with a clap overhead opening up the hips.

Andrea Metcalf: So about how many burpees are we going to be doing here?

Jonny Vu: Ideally you do probably 50 burpees. It would be a good workout.

Andrea Metcalf: Okay, so the next movement is what?

Jonny Vu: The next movement is going to be what’s called a squat jump where you’re going to a squat position. So your feet are just sides abo0ut hip width, toes are pointed out, your chest is tall and your eyes are looking straight ahead. And your hips creased beneath your knee crease and from the bottom position, you jump up as high as you can.

Andrea Metcalf: And how many of this do we do?

Jonny Vu: Ideally, you can probably do another 50 for time.

Andrea Metcalf: Okay, so really we’re doing like time sets here as what it comes down to.

Jonny Vu: Absolutely. If you can, you want to try to do what's called tabata set where you work 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off. It's very popular in MMA and boxing and also in CrossFit. You do eight rounds of that.

Andrea Metcalf: I love tabata.

Jonny Vu: Do you?

Andrea Metcalf: I don’t love the tabata style because it's so efficient I could be done at about 30 minutes.

Now tell me the last move. I'm out at the park. I love the pull up in upper body strength. What can we do?

Jonny Vu: Sure. A great way to do a pull up is to use best max velocity is to doing a keeping pull up where you’re hanging from the bar and you start doing a swing with your hips. And ideally, you thrust your hips up so high that your chin will be over the bar using a lot of arms but mostly hip movement.

Andrea Metcalf: Got it! Well you know this is CrossFit in Chicago, Crossfitchicago.com. Jonny Vu, thanks for having us in here. This is a great time.

Jonny Vu: Absolutely! Great having you. Thank you.

Rhiannon Ally: If you have any fitness questions or workouts that you think everyone might want to check out, email Andrea and ask Andrea at Bettertv.com.