Reach Your CrossFit Goals with Compex
Whether you’re a die-hard or more of an enthusiast, CrossFit is not for the faint of heart. Intensity is the name of the game and the goal is to push your body as far as it can go; you’d be surprised at what you’re capable of!
With any intense workout program, proper form, training and conditioning is crucial to achieving results and preventing injury. First and foremost, make sure your CrossFit program, gym, and coach are the right fit for you.
Once you’ve solidified a good workout / rest routine and dialed in your diet it might be time to consider taking your training to the next level with Compex electric muscle stimulator. Compex is not only designed to help you recover, but also to build strength; strength you can use to lift more, to jump higher and to exceed your fitness goals.
If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t. Here is how Compex can help you with CrossFit.
Recruiting More Muscle
Compex can help you to build strength by recruiting more muscle but how? What does that mean exactly?
Say you are looking to increase the amount of weight you can lift. To be able to lift more weight, you need to train your body to recruit more muscle to the task. By lifting progressively more weight in the same motion, you more develop pathways from your brain to recruit more muscle, which is essentially what building strength is. This takes time and even at your fittest, you’re probably only recruiting around 30% of the muscle.
With Compex, you can recruit more muscle because the stimulation is direct and does not involve weight increases. The device works as the signals telling your muscles to fire instead of your brain. Targeting of these muscles is also easier because you are placing the pads over the muscles you want to contract. This is also helpful for underutilized muscle groups like gluteals that are important for strength but not as easy to build.
You can either use Compex to build strength instead of weight training, in addition to your weight training program or while you lift.
Lifting with Compex muscle stim can help you build more strength by firing more muscle while you’re lifting, thus allowing you to lift more weight. If you’re working on your deadlifts or clean and jerks, this can help you reach new weight goals.
Reducing Impact
Typically, in order to build strength, you need to lift more weight. However, this can lead to soreness and recovery time, pressure on joints and connective tissue, and possible injury. Compex muscle stim can help you work passed some of those hang ups and still increase your strength.
Using Compex muscle stim while you are training helps you have more muscle contraction without adding more weight. This reduces the impact on joints without sacrificing performance. Because of the impact reduction, this can also lead to a shorter recovery time. Get the most from simple bodyweight exercises or make your lifting sessions count more.
Balance
We all have a stronger side. When you are doing CrossFit, even if you are aware of which side is weaker, you body will still automatically compensate as soon as you lift, land or run. If you’re not balanced, there is risk of injury. If you have a weaker side, you’re not truly maximizing your strength.
Compex muscle stim has 4 different channels; that means you can hook the device up to both sides of the body at the same time. Use Compex to either strengthen a weaker side or to keep both sides of the body balanced while building strength.
Speed of Contraction
How fast your muscles contract is not crucial, but it is important for quick movements like clean pulls or jumping. Training your muscle to fire a certain way every time is the best way to increase the speed of contraction. Practice makes perfect and the same is true for your muscles; the more times they fire a certain way, the faster they’ll do it.
For example, when you jump, your leg muscles need to fire right away in order to send your body upwards. Jumping repeatedly to increase your jump or using weights can have a negative impact on your knees, feet or ankles before you reach your goals. However, training with Compex muscle stim allows you to train those muscles to fire how you want and as fast as you want.
Early this year, we told you about how volleyball player Brandon Talbot used Compex to increase his vertical leap and potentially break three world records. Talbot didn’t want to use weights so he chose electric muscle stimulation to increase his explosive strength. By doing so, he increased his jump using just Compex and ultimately was able to leap onto a 61’’ platform from the ground.
Recovery
As important as training is to reaching your fitness goals, so is giving your body time to recover. When you’re in the zone, it might be hard to a take a day or two off to rest your muscles but Compex can aid in recovery and help you get back on the floor faster.
Using an electric muscle stimulator like Compex helps increase blood flow up to 600%. This means you’re moving out waste products that build up from intense physical activity like lactic acid or debris from muscle fibers. This leaves more room for fresh blood to help your muscles heal.
Foam rolling is a great way to break up adhesions that can cause muscle pain and soreness. However, foam rolling is a very mechanical process where you physically roll out your muscles like you would with a rolling pin and dough. While this is very effective, it can be painful. Using the Active Recovery program helps break up some of the adhesions, but it only targets the muscle, not any connective tissue, making it less painful. At the same time, it helps to release endorphins, making you feel better and want to get back out there.
Got questions or want to tell us about how Compex has upped your CrossFit game? Talk to us on @CompexCoach on Twitter.