At Health Me Up, we endeavour to bring you the latest from the world of health and fitness. This time we're talking about Crossfit - the new fitness mantra doing the rounds the world over. Crossfit is a type of physical training that blends power lifting, gymnastics and sprinting.

Move over isolation workouts at the gym, hours and hours of lifting heavy weights just to workout your biceps of shoulders. Crossfit is making waves all over the world with its elite training and more and more Crossfit gyms are popping up everywhere. 

According to Crossfit, proficiency is required in each of these ten fitness domains - cardiovascular/ respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.  True fitness according to Crossfit is increased work capacity across all these domains and this is achieved by provoking hormonal and neurological adaptations by increasing metabolism. 

Previously only the domain of the elite athletes (read law enforcement agencies and military organizations), now Crossfit is more accessible to anyone who wants to build strength and endurance. A growing number of Crossfit gyms are steadily on the rise in the US alone, (the number now at nearly 2000 gyms worldwide) and The Crossfit Inc gives licenses to affiliates who follow their workouts and certifies affiliates and trainers.

Crossfit is also noteworthy for their virtual community whereby they share Workouts of the Day and other information an athlete may need, thus allowing best practices to emerge from a variety of approaches.

Previously written off as a fad or a cult, it is apparent that Crossfit is here to stay owing to its growing popularity. A Crossfit gym, will not have most of the fancy equipment like the hamstring curl machine and the hip or thigh extensor seen today at most modern gyms. Instead a Crossfit gym will have certain necessary equipment like pull up and dip bars, barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells, climbing ropes and rowing machines. Crossfit swears by the Concept 2 Rower, or rowing to take care of all cardio needs, as it is a full body workout by itself.

To bring alive the concept, here is a look at some examples of what 3 different Crossfit workouts on 3 separate days look like: 
(Note: at least two days a week are forced rest days)

Workout 1
Do in as little time as possible
70 Burpees
60 Sit-ups 
50 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 poods
40 Pull-ups
30 Handstand push-ups

Workout 2
Do in as little time as possible:
Run 1 mile
100 Sit-ups
100 Back extensions
Run 1 mile
Mix and match back extensions and sit-ups as needed.

Workout 3
Ten rounds, each for time of:
100 meter Sprint
Rest 90 seconds

Workout 4 
Four rounds in as little time as possible:
10 L-pull-ups
15 Push-ups
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups
15 Push-ups
20 Pull-ups
15 Push-ups
Post time to comments.

As you can see from the above examples, Crossfit believes in mixing up workouts and getting the maximum from your body in all the 10 categories of physical training.