According to a top Cross Fit coach, how to exercise like an elite athlete for faster gains

Even if you don’t have time to exercise all day, an elite Cross Fit coach says you can train like a professional athlete and get stronger faster in your garage or local gym.

Ben Bergeron of Comp Train has over 15 years of involvement training both regular competitors and whizzes of the Cross Fit Games like Katrina Davidson, Mat Fraser, and Brooke Wells. Bergeron announced this month that he would be retiring from working with professional athletes to concentrate on growing the Comp Train community and bringing his training to more common people.

He said in an interview that the same methods that work for the champions can also help you get fitter, whether you’re new to fitness or an experienced athlete looking to improve your weaknesses.

Bergeron stated to Insider, “The biggest misconception about elite athletes is that they need to be doing something very different.” Even though working out is a full-time job for the elite, Bergeron’s program is based on the idea that you can improve more quickly and work toward multiple goals at once by including three fitness elements in every workout, even if it’s only 30 minutes. The methodology is to have every exercise incorporate lifting loads, a tumbling or bodyweight development, and some cardio for generally speaking molding, so competitors can deal with various abilities as well as strength, endurance, and power.

The end result is assisting athletes in improving their overall fitness, whether they are vying to win the Cross Fit Games or just want to become healthier, have more energy, and perform better in their everyday lives.

“Do you have the ability to not feel exhausted after working a really hard shift? The most overlooked aspect is that. You must have the option to outperform individuals,” he said.

Concurrent training is a straightforward method for accelerating gains. Periodization is a strategy that high-level athletes traditionally employ. This means that they devote a significant amount of time—often ranging from two to six weeks—to a single fitness goal, such as maxing out on the dead lift or running the fastest 5K possible. After a cycle has ended, athletes shift their attention to a different goal, working on one thing at a time.

Bergeron stated, “Periodization works if you’re trying to get world-class levels of one thing.”

The disadvantage of zeroing in on each thing in turn is that different parts of your wellness can decline — for example, doing only dead lifts for about a month and a half will support your solidarity, yet you might see you have less speed and endurance while running.

According to Bergeron, the right mix of exercises can be used to train multiple aspects of fitness simultaneously to avoid plateauing or losing gains.

“You don’t have to forfeit one for the other. We raise our solidarity, our abilities, and our molding all together,” he said.

The idea is that by getting fitter as a whole, you’ll have more energy for each task and be able to work harder for longer before getting tired. At the same time, you can strengthen any areas where you’re weak, as those are the areas where you’ll improve the most quickly even if you’re also improving all of your other skills.

“You will get all the more value for your money since you have more space for development on your most fragile regions,” Bergeron said.

You can get fitter in just 30 minutes a day. Bergeron often uses a workout called a “triplet,” which is a series of three different exercises, to use concurrent training in the gym. Weightlifting, conditioning or cardio, and bodyweight or gymnastics are all subcategories of exercise. Additionally, you can pick a period that fits your schedule: The Comp Train app offers workouts that last anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours.

Bergeron gave an illustration of a typical Cross Fit style triplet: 21 pull-ups and 15 clean-and-jerks were performed in three quick rounds of a 400-meter run.

You can likewise scale the developments to make them more available. Personal trainers previously told Insider that eccentric or “negative” versions of pull-ups and push-ups are beginner-friendly versions of bodyweight exercises.

What’s more, a few incredible weighted practices for any level incorporate dead lift varieties, cup squats, power cleans, and rancher conveys, coaches say.

You can get a workout that can build well-rounded fitness without spending a lot of time in the gym or doing exercises that are too complicated by adding your favorite cardio activities like biking, rowing, or running.