The benefits of aerobic CrossFit for your health and fitness

CrossFit is a type of training known for its intensity and variety, but it’s not just about high-intensity exercise. Integrating aerobic training into your routines can significantly improve your performance and overall health. Specifically, aerobic CrossFit focuses on exercises that improve cardiovascular endurance and allow you to work harder for longer periods of time. This approach not only helps you burn fat and improve lung capacity but also complements high-intensity workouts, creating a perfect balance for optimal performance. 

What is aerobic CrossFit

Aerobic CrossFit refers to integrating low- to medium-intensity exercise into CrossFit routines. This type of exercise is characterised by the ability to maintain comfortable breathing and prolonged activity for long periods of time. Common aerobic exercises include jogging, walking, swimming, and cycling.

Unlike aerobic CrossFit, anaerobic training focuses on short-term, high-intensity exercise, where breathing becomes difficult to maintain due to the high energy demand. The body uses glycogen as the primary energy source in these exercises, providing quick but limited power. Typical anaerobic exercises include weight lifting, sprinting and other high-intensity exercises.

While aerobic CrossFit is ideal for improving endurance and cardiovascular fitness, anaerobic training is essential for increasing strength, power and the ability to perform intense efforts. Combining both types of training in a CrossFit routine provides a balanced approach that maximises the benefits of both methods, improving an athlete’s endurance and explosive capacity.

Benefits of aerobic CrossFit

Aerobic CrossFit offers multiple benefits that improve both physical performance and overall health. One of the main benefits is improved cardiovascular endurance. This type of exercise increases the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen during training, which translates into better work capacity and recovery. In addition, regular aerobic exercise helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by keeping blood pressure under control, lowering bad cholesterol (LDL) and increasing good cholesterol (HDL), which is essential for optimal heart health.

Another significant benefit is weight loss and body fat control. During aerobic exercise, the body uses fat as its primary source of energy. This promotes burning stored fat and helps maintain a healthy weight. Thus, this combination of high caloric expenditure and improved metabolic efficiency facilitates body weight control and reduced body fat percentage, contributing to better body composition and overall health.

In addition, aerobic CrossFit helps to increase lung capacity. This type of training strengthens the respiratory muscles, increases the vital capacity of the lungs and improves the efficiency with which the body uses oxygen. Increased lung capacity allows you to perform physical activities for longer and facilitates faster recovery between intervals of intense exercise. This not only optimises overall performance in CrossFit training but also benefits long-term endurance and recovery capacity between sets, allowing athletes to meet physical challenges with greater efficiency and less fatigue.

How to integrate aerobic exercise into your CrossFit routine

Integrating aerobic exercise into your CrossFit routine is key to improving endurance and overall performance. Running long distances at a steady pace is an excellent way to increase aerobic capacity, as it allows the body to adapt to the continuous demand for oxygen. Another effective option is prolonged rowing at moderate intensity, which works both the cardiovascular system and various muscle groups sustainably. In addition, jumping rope for long periods of time is a fun and challenging way to keep the heart rate up, improving endurance and coordination.

For effective aerobic training programming, it is advisable to incorporate 30-—to 60-minute cardio sessions several times a week. This ensures that the body becomes accustomed to prolonged exertion and improves recovery capacity. Alternating high-intensity training days with aerobic exercise days is another key strategy, allowing the body to recover from intense workouts while improving cardiovascular endurance.

Polarised CrossFit training

Polarised training in CrossFit is based on the strategic combination of low and high-intensity workouts to maximise physiological benefits and minimise the risk of injury. This approach allows athletes to experience the best of both worlds: the cardiovascular and endurance benefits of low-intensity aerobic exercise and the strength and power improvements of high-intensity anaerobic exercise. Importantly, it improves physiological adaptation by forcing the body to adapt to different energy demands and reduces the risk of injury by avoiding overtraining in any one type of exercise.

Examples of polarised routines include sessions that alternate between high-intensity interval training (HIIT), such as sprints, weightlifting or intense CrossFit circuits, and low-intensity interval training (LISS), such as jogging, cycling at a steady pace or prolonged rowing sessions. A polarised weekly training programme could be structured with specific days dedicated to each type of exercise. For example, days of intense training can be interspersed with moderate exercise to allow the body to recover and adapt.

This approach has proven effective for many CrossFit athletes, as it balances the workload and optimises performance. Alternating between high and low intensity improves aerobic and anaerobic capacity and helps maintain motivation and prevent physical and mental exhaustion. Therefore, incorporating polarised training into your CrossFit routine can take your physical capabilities to a new level, allowing you to perform at your best in competitions and daily workouts.

Energy pathways in CrossFit

In CrossFit, energy pathways are crucial in optimising performance during workouts. The aerobic pathway uses oxygen to convert fat into energy, ideal for prolonged, low to medium intensity workouts. This process allows the body to maintain activity for extended periods without a rapid onset of fatigue. In contrast, the anaerobic pathway does not require oxygen and uses glycogen to provide quick energy, making it perfect for short, intense efforts such as sprints or heavy lifting. This process is essential for activities that demand explosiveness and strength in short time intervals.

The importance of each pathway in different types of WODs (Workouts of the Day) varies according to the duration and intensity of the exercise. Long, endurance WODs, such as running or rowing for more than 20 minutes, benefit more from the aerobic pathway, as they require a sustained energy source to maintain performance. On the other hand, short, intense WODs, such as sprints and high-intensity circuits, rely on the anaerobic pathway for quick energy to maximise performance in short but intense efforts.

To improve aerobic capacity, it is advisable to perform long-duration, low-intensity training, such as running, swimming or cycling at a steady pace. These activities increase the efficiency of the cardiovascular system and the capacity to oxidise fat. On the other hand, improving anaerobic capacity involves high-intensity, short-duration interval training, such as sprints, HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training), and heavy-weight training with short rests. These sessions increase the body’s ability to use glycogen efficiently and improve strength and explosiveness.

CrossFit aerobics improves your performance and overall health.

Aerobic CrossFit is a useful tool for improving athletic performance and overall health. Incorporating low- to medium-intensity exercise into your CrossFit routine not only increases cardiovascular endurance but also facilitates fat-burning and improved lung capacity. In addition, balancing aerobic exercise with anaerobic training can maximise your performance in WODs and reduce the risk of injury. This integrated approach allows for optimal physiological adaptation, which helps athletes meet varied challenges with greater efficiency and less fatigue.

To maximise the benefits of aerobic CrossFit, following certain pre- and post-workout care practices is essential. Proper warm-up and muscle preparation before starting your routine can prevent injury and improve performance. After training, it is essential to focus on muscle recovery to alleviate fatigue and enhance tissue regeneration.

This is where Silicium’s range of sports products, such as ORGONO G7® Sport Recovery Supplement + ZINC, is particularly useful. This supplement promotes collagen production and regenerates tissues, which is essential for post-workout recovery. In addition, Orgono Sport Recovery Gel with magnesium helps to improve strength, endurance and elasticity, relieving tendon and joint overload.