Crossfit athletes have a lot of movements that they need to master, so adding in accessory work can be difficult. However having a strong core musculature is one of the keys too long term success to performance and longevity in Crossfit. Sometime moving away from from the high intensity work to build a solid foundation is the best way forward, especially for people just coming into the sport.

Benefits Of Core Work For CrossFit Athletes

1. Improved Gymnastics

Gymnastic is a key component of the sport of Crossfit, and the core musculature is absolutely essential for high performance metrics here. With emphasis on the anterior core for most of the movements in CrossFit, it’s important to progress this movement pattern outside of HIIT/ WOD’s.

2. Reduce Risk Of Injury

The mixture of movements involved in CrossFit can put a huge strain on the body, especially if physically your body cannot keep up with the pressure the sport puts on your body. Having a strong and robust core can prevent the sport having such a rough time on your body. This is linked to movement quality and movement breakdown under fatigue, when you have a strong core, this is far less likely to happen.

3. Increased Lifts

Weightlifting requires extremely high levels of core stability, to catch a heavy weight in the bottom of a squat is one of the toughest aspects of the sport. Establishing a strong core in conjunction with strong movement patterns will enable you to increase your lifts while maintaining excellent movement patterns.

The 8 Best CrossFit Core Exercises To Add Into Your Accessory Work

How To Use Accessory and Core Work In CrossFit

1. Add Ab Exercises Into The End Of Your Normal Training

Adding core work into the end of your strength or metcon sessions can be a really great way to ensure you’re progressing your core musculature. Maybe this is just 1-2 times a week, even this amount could have a big impact.

2. Integrate Abdominal Work Into You Low Intensity Cardiovascular Work

Doing low intensity cardiovascular once per week is a great way to progress your aerobic base, using the ergs is one of the most popular ways to achieve this. These long erg sessions can easily have both core work and technique work integrated into them. This is an excellent way to kill two birds with one stone, an essential skill for people wanting to excel in Crossfit while getting adequate recovery.

3. Use Sport Specific Exercise (WODS) and Non-Sport Specific Movements

Using a mixture of both sport specific skills like ring muscle ups or kipping pull ups specific training progressions can have a progressive impact on core strength. But in conjunction with that working on non-sport specific forms of training can be very beneficial. Take the Half Kneeling KB Windmill, this is excellent for getting into the transverse plane and improving rotation strength, this is never going to show up in CF competition, but will still be extremely beneficial to those trying to excel at the sport. Also adding more sport specific core work like heavy carries can be a great way to get extra core work, remember though to keep the movements very clean, there needs to be a clear distinction between competition and training, so maintaining movement quality on heavy carries will be very important.

Common Questions

How Do I Strengthen My Core For CrossFit?

By training the core musculature consistently, using a variety of movement patterns and methods. This can be done both using accessory work, gymnastics work and strength training, all three will have an impact on the core musculature.

How Do Crossfitters Get Abs?

The same way that you can get them, doing consistent physical training that allows them to improve the core musculature whilst having a relatively low body fat.

Why Do Crossfitters Have Thick Cores?

Probably because they are required to be extremely strong, whilst having low body fat, so they can lift both heavy weights, perform complex gymnastic movements and run long distances.