Beginner Crossfit Workouts

at home workouts men — When Rob (guy on the right) first started he had never stepped foot into a gym.

New to Crossfit® and looking for beginner crossfit workouts?

We can help you out.

When Rob first stepped into our gym he didn’t even know what Crossfit was. He, like you probably just wanted to get in shape, shed some pounds, and get some more energy back in his life.

A few years later now he is doing the Crossfit open, continuing to learn new skills, and may I add…

…getting REALLY fit.

Today I’ll give ya:

What to prioritize first
What scaling is
Why keeping it simple is best
Types of workouts
What is the intended training stimulus
10 beginner crossfit workouts

Want to follow a program so you know exactly what to do everyday to fast track your success? Check out our training programs.

What To Prioritize First | Beginner Crossfit

Crossfit methodology is constantly varied functional movements at high intensity.

High intensity does not mean we sacrifice form.

Ever.

Mobility is priority number one.

A good training program prioritizes mobility in the beginning part of your workout so you can be in a better position when the workout begins.

#2 is technique

Once you can get into the “right position” and become aware of how the movement should look and feel.

You want to focus on technique so you can maximize positioning.

For instance:

Bulgarian Split Squat — Things like having your knee track over your toes and never coming in

Some movements are more challenging to get into than others.

Which is why we scale things (more on that later)

Example:

Front rack mobility -> tends to put a lot of pressure on your wrist and can be painful.

Overhead squats –> the most demanding position in Crossfit

Recap:

Mobility is priority number one
Learn the technique number two
Then you can focus on strength

Do it the other way around and you will only create bad habits.

how to improve grip strength for deadlift — My wife and I showing an example of a scaled workout

What Scaling Is | Beginner Crossfit Workout

Scaling workouts is tailoring the workout to meet you where you are at to get the desired “training stimulus” (more on that later).

Every Crossfit workout has what is called RX and Scaled.

RX = is doing the workout “as prescribed” or as it’s written
Scaled = is doing the workout “toned down” or a level down.

It would look like this:

21,15,9

Thruster & Pull Up

Men – 95 lbs
Women – 65 lbs

That is suggesting for the workout men would use 95 lbs and the women would use 65 lbs.

Scaling workouts can take place in many ways.

lowering the weight (instead of 95 lbs maybe 85 lbs or 75 lbs)
scaling the movement (instead of pull ups maybe banded pull ups, jumping pull ups, etc)
for workouts that have distance in them you can scale the distance/duration of the run, row, bike, etc
you can scale the amount of repetitions

crossfit programming — Within our app you can also just click harder or easier to “scale” the exercise to you.

Within our training programs at K Squared Fitness we provide detailed notes and scaling suggestions for each workout.

As you can see in the photo our app virtually guides you through the workout and the “harder” and “easier” buttons act as a personal coach to you.

The great thing about Crossfit is it can be done anywhere.

Not everyone has access to a local Crossfit “box” aka gym.

As passionate coaches and programmers we wanted to find a way to still provide coaching.

When you start to learn skills like:

handstand walks
toes to bar
muscle ups
snatch
clean and jerk
etc

Those harder and easier buttons come in handy because you don’t go from nothing to all of the sudden to doing handstand walks.

You master the foundations first and then you can begin to challenge yourself more and more.

That’s what’s fun about Crossfit.

The skills you learn, the desire to get better at something lives within all of us.

Why Keeping It Simple Is Best

We like the test and re test method.

I talk about this in great detail in the blog post what is a training cycle but essentially it allows you to objective measure your progress.

Keep it simple.

As simple as possible.

In general a full workout should look something like this:

do rehab/mobility exercises
warm up (ideally the movement pattern you will see later in the workout)
strength (olympic lifting, strength training)
conditioning (some days short, some long, some intervals)
skill (time to practice gymnastics based movements, etc)

beginner crossfit workouts — How to simplify workouts

Here are some different style of workouts:

Different Types Of Workouts | Beginner Crossfit

AMRAP

Which stands for as many rounds or reps as possible.

Pick some movements, set a clock and begin to work through the exercises for the desired amount of time.

We often like to program with some type of cardio, legs, push, pull.

For example:

10 minute amrap

Run x 200 meters (cardio)

20 x wall ball (legs and push)

10 x pull up (pull)

Then your goal would be to get through that workout as many times as possible and stopping when the clock hits ten minutes.

As we talked about earlier with our scaling segment if you couldn’t perform 10 pull ups then you could perform something like the jumping pull up.

These are often use in met cons.

The jumping pull up allows you to continue to move through the workout faster as opposed to doing 10 strict pull ups.

When we are doing a conditioning workout (a met con) which stands for metabolic conditioning we are trying to achieve a training stimulus.

EMOM

Which stands for every minute on the minute.

Let’s take the exercise in the photo for example…

…the American kettlebell swing.

You could do a workout that was an EMOM and just practice kettlebell swings.

10 minute EMOM

perform 10-20 reps per minute

If 10-20 reps takes you 30 seconds you would get 30 seconds of rest.

If 10-20 reps takes you 40 seconds (as you get more tired) you would get 20 seconds of rest.

EMOM’s are a great way to keep things extremely simple and work on building skills and capacity (aka being able to do more).

beginner crossfit workout — Next we have a “chipper”

Chipper

A chipper is one of my personal favorite style of Crossfit workouts.

You “chip” away at the work. And we want you to complete the workout or “wod” (workout of the day) as fast possible or we say “For Time”.

So how long would it take you to complete, for example:

You would start a stop watch and then time how long it would take you to complete the workout.

50 x calorie row
40 x push up
30 x box jump
20 x deadlift*
10 x handstand push up**

*deadlight weight:

Men – 135
Women – 95 lbs

**handstand push up scale choose one of these exercises to scale your handstand push ups.

Typically in the workouts there is always a “sticking” point where we want the athlete to have an opportunity to highlight there skills or get “stuck”.

In the workout example above it’s the handstand push ups.

Now again with scaling it gives you an opportunity to change the exercise to best suited for you and your current fitness level.

But we have a saying in Crossfit that is “written for the best and scaled for the rest”.

Meaning the way it’s written (or prescribed) is how we want to get everyone to eventually do.

Handstand push ups are a tough skill to learn. That require a TON of strength and confidence just getting upside down. If you want to improve your handstand push up ability check out my 4 week template to help you get your first handstand push up here.

Couplet or Triplet

A crossfit couplet or triplet workout is just two or three exercises that are repeated.

A triplet would be 3 rounds for time of:

Run x 400 meters

21 x kettlebell slwings

12 x pull up

You would complete those three exercises for three rounds as fast as possible.

This workout is called “Helen”.

Some workouts have names to them because they are a part of “benchmark” workouts.

I talked about this earlier when I discussed the importance of testing and re-testing.

You use benchmark workouts to measure your progress.

For example you do “Helen” today and you train for 6 weeks and then you re-test Helen again and see if you improved.

Watch this video to see how to get the fastest results.

The Intended Training Stimulus

Every workout has a desired “stimulus” which means what energy system we are trying to work.

Are we:

trying to challenge your endurance?
your strength?
your gymnastics?
your power output?
barbell cycling?
etc

When you follow a good training program…like ours 🙂 we give you a mix of it all.

If you watched the video on periodization we talked about how each training cycle has a desired outcome.

And within the training cycle we are working to get better at a specific set of skills/test.

CrossFit Gymnastics — Butterfly pull ups can’t happen if you don’t have the strength and technique first.

So when it comes to getting the desired training stimulus it’s important to have a coach, program or even a workout that helps you scale.

Let’s take a workout like “Diane” which is:

21,15,9 of deadlifts (heavy deadlifts) and handstand push ups.

Men are supposed to use 225 lbs and women 155 lbs.

Well what if you can’t even deadlift 225 lbs? Or maybe you can but you can’t do it that many times.

Two things;

All workouts require strategy (that’s what makes it fun) will you break up the deadlifts 11 + 10 or 15+6 or will you just do 21 straight? What about round 2. 8+7, 10+5, all 15? You get the idea
Changing the weight to where you can do this workout to meet your current fitness level.

deadlift correct form — Never compromise form either

10 Beginner Crossfit Workouts

I know, I know this is what you came here for but as a passionate coach it’s hard to just throw out random workouts.

It’s important to us for you to know WHY you are doing the things that you are doing.

But…

…since you asked for it we will give you 10 random Crossfit workouts that you are simple and don’t require a lot of scaling.

Beginner Crossfit Workout #1

3 minute amrap

Bike x 18/12 calories (the slash means men/women)
In the remaining three minutes perform and many hand release push ups as possible.

After 3 minutes rest x 2 minutes and then repeat two more times.

Overview:

The workout recruits just about every muscle in your body with the bike working your legs and then the push ups working your upper body. The workout challenges you to perform push ups under fatigue.

Scaling Options:

If you don’t have a bike use another piece of cardio like the rower, ski, erg or run. The objective is just to get your heart rate up for about 60-90 seconds.
If push ups are too challenging lay on your back and perform DB Chest press

at home crossfit — A workout that leaves you feeling good like Coach Katie 🙂

Beginner Crossfit Workout #2

Every 4 minutes x 4 sets

10 x Deadlift
20 x Ab mat sit up
30 x Hand plank shoulder tap

Deadlift weight:

Choose a challenging weight 10 times without stopping but is tough.

Overview:

This workout rewards you to work hard. The sooner you finish the more rest you get before the 4 minute. Some workout like this one doesn’t have any “cardio” in it but the challenge is on the deadlift and then the ability to keep moving.

Scaling:

If you don’t have access to a barbell you can do kettlebell deadlifts instead. And if you wanted to make the ab mat sit ups more challenging you could do a V Up instead 🙂

V Ups are really, really great for building the baseline strength so when you want to start doing things like toes to bar you have the mechanics down!

Beginner Crossfit Workout #3

For Time:

9 x Push press
15 x Box jump
7 x Push press
15 x Box jump
5 x Push press
15 x Box jump
3 x Push Press
15 x Box jump

Barbell Weight: 95/65 lbs

Overview:

This combination of upper and lower body is challenging. The push press demands you to dip and drive using your legs and then the box jump is tough already.

DO NOT do a ton of box jumps if you haven’t been jumping a lot. Especially under fatigue. Check the scaling for some alternatives.

Scaling:

If you don’t have access to a barbell for the push presses you can just use Dumbbells instead
You can swap the box jumps for something like a squat jump or even a bodyweight squat depending on where you are at in your fitness journey.

Beginner Crossfit Workout #4

5 Rounds For Time:

100 x Single Under*
20 x Kettlebell swing

*each time you trip up 5 x pull up variation

Overview:

The workout itself is very simple but has a simple twist/reward for those efficient at jump roping. The sport of Crossfit wants you to take on any skill and be able to do it under fatigue as well.

Scaling:

If you are terrible at skipping rope and you are going to trip up A LOT then you can reduce the reps or get rid of the rope entirely and just bounce up and down. We like workouts that bring out areas of opportunity because it shows you an area that you need to improve. (Plus I know soon you will want to be able to do double under)

Beginner Crossfit Workout #5

We have discussed how some workouts challenge skills, conditioning and well…

…some also challenge your strength ability as well.

Take 15 minutes to build to a 3-5 rep max Back Squat

Overview:

Within our training programs we would guide you through squat mobility drills to help you get into position better. Take you through a warm up to “prime your CNS” aka get your body and muscles active and ready to take on the test.

These are the little things that make a difference when striving for optimal performance.

Scaling:

The reason we said 3-5 reps is so that the weight doesn’t get TOO heavy and you put yourself at risk of injury. In fact as a beginner the higher reps the better when you are first getting into strength training to build muscular endurance. I’m talking 8-12 reps. But it’s okay to get an idea of where you stand right now 🙂

front squat barbell — This one is a burner

Beginner Crossfit Workout #6

12 Minute AMRAP

8 x Thruster
10 x Kipping knees to chest
12 x Box jump

Barbell Thruster weight:

75/55 lbs

Overview:

Some workout the barbell is heavier than others. Some days it’s light. Today the workout and reps are obtainable to where you should never really have to stop moving. Which challenges your mind and “engine” to keep moving. How many rounds can you get?

Scaling:

You can swap dumbbells for the barbell
You can swap the kipping knees to chest to another ab exercise like V ups or ab mat sit ups

Beginner Crossfit Workout #7

4 Rounds for time:

Run x 400 meters
6 x squat clean
6 x ring dip

Squat Clean Weight:

135/95 lbs

Overview:

This workout is challenging you to do two challenging movements while under fatigue (again never sacrifice form) so if you aren’t comfortable with them yet check the scaling below.

Scaling:

Run –> do some form of cardio for roughly two minutes
Squat cleans maybe you practice just deadlifts or just the front squat? Or red the weight?
Ring dips are extremely challenging. Choose one of these 7 progressions from this video.

Beginner Crossfit Workout #8

For time:

Row x 2000 meters*

*every 2 minutes perform 10 push ups

Overview:

Ouch. We talked about how simple workouts can be challenging. Well this is a perfect example. It rewards you work hard on your rower. Otherwise you are going to be doing a ton of push ups.

Scaling:

If you don’t have a rower you can do the same workout but run a mile in replacement of the row
If push ups are challenging for you try doing them elevated like this.

crossfit at home workouts — Here is a leg burner for ya

Beginner Crossfit Workout #9

For time:

30 x DB power clean
30 x DB Squats
30 x DB Thrusters
30 x DB Lunge

DB Weight:

40/20 lbs

Overview:

A workout like this since it’s not multiple rounds we want you to work as hard and as fast as possible through the reps. Can you hold and do it without stopping? That would be tough, but that’s what we want to get you to!

Scaling:

Not much scaling needed here. Just put the work in! If you need modifications drop them in the comments below.

Beginner Crossfit Workout #10

Complete:

Bike x 20/12 calories
18 x Bench
Rest x 2 minutes then complete
Bike x 20/12
12 x Bench press (heavier)
Rest x 90 seconds then complete
Bike x 20/12
6 x Bench press (heavier)

Overview:

This workout is a beautiful upper body and lower body workout. Weight increases each set on the bench press and the reps go down…can you also speed up the time it takes you to complete the bike?

Scaling:

swap the bike for another machine or cardio for 60-90 seonds
if you don’t have access to a bench press you can do push ups and increase the amount of push ups you do each time

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Conclusion

Once you leave the split training world of chest and triceps it can be a bit overwhelming coming over to the dark side.

But once you drink the kool aid you can't look back.

Crossfit workouts are so much more fun and the results are amazing.

I shared with you a ton of information including different style of workouts, what an emom, amrap, triplet and all of that means.

Also gave you ten sweet beginner crossfit workouts to try.

If you have any additional questions drop them in the comments below.

Don't want to piece together random workouts? You can join our training program (even as a beginner) and we will guide you through a program that will help you see results fast. And we have a pretty sweet community too 🙂

P.S.

We love helping athletes get bet better. Take our program for a spin by clicking here.

Kevin Andres

Head Coach, Owner of K Squared Fitness, and former professional athlete who now helps crossfit athletes build a robust engine, improve gymnastics proficiency and optimize performance.