CrossFit is one of the most all-encompassing workouts around. Their workouts are designed to improve every aspect of your fitness, including cardio, strength, mobility, agility, and power.
But the one thing CrossFit isn’t is a bodybuilding program. The workouts look nothing like the average bodybuilding split routine, and they use a whole bunch of different exercises, too. So, for example, you probably won’t see any biceps curls, triceps push-downs, leg extensions, or calf raises in CrossFit workouts.
But, despite this lack of interest in bodybuilding training methods, a lot of CrossFitters are JACKED! Some of these guys and gals could easily be mistaken for bodybuilders, despite not doing much in the way of hypertrophy-specific training.
In this article, we explain how CrossFit can help you build muscle and share the best CrossFit workouts for increasing muscle mass.
How Does CrossFit Build Muscle?
So, how do CrossFitters build such impressive physiques without doing any hypertrophy-specific training? Good question!
While CrossFit workouts don’t bear much resemblance to the average bodybuilding workout, they still manage to include some of the “ingredients” that trigger muscle growth, namely:
Volume – many CrossFit workouts involve a lot of reps. For example, it’s not uncommon to do 50-100 chin-ups or pull-ups in a single workout. High-volume workouts have long been a favorite mass-building method used by bodybuilders.
Intensity – CrossFitters often train to failure, which is a recognized stimulus for muscle growth. Many CrossFit workouts are against the clock, which encourages exercisers to push themselves to the limit of their endurance.
Variety – CrossFit workouts are different every day. This means muscles are hit from different angles and with different loads and rep ranges. Bodybuilders sometimes use a similar approach to stimulate muscle growth, i.e., the Weider Muscle Confusion Principle.
Big bang exercises – CrossFitters don’t do a lot of isolation work for their biceps, triceps, deltoids, etc. However, they do spend a lot of time on compound exercises like squats, cleans, deadlifts, pull-ups, dips, and overhead presses.
These are regarded as the best exercises for building muscle mass, although CrossFit workouts tend to be designed to increase strength (low reps/heavy weights) or endurance (high reps/light weights).
Related: The 10 Best CrossFit Exercises for Bodybuilders
The 10 Best CrossFit Workouts for Building Muscle
So, it’s easy to see how CrossFitters build big muscles despite not training like bodybuilders, but some CrossFit workouts are better than others. Here are some of the best muscle-building workouts that CrossFit has to offer.
Note:
Make sure you spend a few minutes warming up before trying any of these workouts. Begin with 5-10 minutes of easy cardio followed by dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises for your major joints.
Also, feel free to scale (adjust) these workouts according to your fitness, strength, etc. The quoted weights and reps are suggestions, and you should change them as necessary.
Finally, understand that CrossFit workouts are intense, which is why they’re so darn effective. Don’t be surprised if they kick your butt and leave you feeling tired and sore. So, be conservative, and don’t go all-out too soon. Unless you LOVE post-workout muscle soreness, that is!
1. Cindy
Cindy is a bodyweight workout, but don’t let that put you off. Despite requiring nothing but a pull-up bar or power tower, this benchmark workout hits all your major muscles and only takes 20-minutes.
While Cindy is a simple workout, the high volume of sets and reps should leave you pumped and fatigued, triggering renewed muscle growth.
How to do it:
Do as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of the following exercises:
- 5 pull-ups
- 10 push-ups
- 15 air squats
Alternatively, you can do this as an EMOM (every minute, on the minute) workout. Do 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats at the top of every minute. Whatever time you have left is your rest period. So, if you complete the three exercises in 35 seconds, you have 25 seconds until you start your next lap. This variation has a name, too – Chelsea.
Make these workouts even better for building muscle mass by wearing a weighted vest, doing chest dips instead of push-ups, or replacing the air squats with goblet squats.
2. Linda
While CrossFit workouts often feature bodyweight exercises, some break out the barbells for a more traditional training effect. Linda is another benchmark workout that CrossFitters repeat time and time again to measure their progress. Linda is fondly nicknamed “the three bars of death” because it’s such a killer!
How to do it:
For time, do 10–9–8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1 reps of each of the following exercises:
- Deadlift at 1.5 x body weight
- Bench press at body weight
- Clean at 0.75 x body weight
So, do ten deadlifts, ten bench presses, and then ten cleans. Next, do nine deadlifts, nine bench presses, and nine cleans. Continue downward until you end with one rep of each exercise.
It’s unusual for anyone to do all the reps in one go, so feel free to break your sets into smaller chunks. But, do not move on to the next exercise until you have completed all the allocated reps.
3. Strict Lynne
Need a fast but challenging upper body workout? Look no further than Strict Lynne. This push-pull session works your chest, back, shoulders, biceps, and triceps, with each set taken to muscular failure.
How to do it:
Do five rounds for max reps of:
- Bench press loaded with your bodyweight
- Strict pull-ups or chin-ups (No kipping)
Rest three minutes between rounds and add up the number of reps performed. Try to beat that number next time you do this workout.
4. Meathead Deck of Cards
Despite the somewhat derogatory name, this workout is a great muscle builder. Designed to train your entire body, it contains several exercises that most bodybuilders should be familiar with.
How to do it:
Using a standard deck of cards, shuffle the pack and turn over the top card. The suit determines which exercise you have to do, and the value is the number of reps.
The exercises are:
- Hearts = Front squat at 135 pounds
- Diamonds = Ring or parallel bar dips
- Spades = Push press at 135 pounds
- Clubs = Pendlay row at 135 pounds
- Joker= 50 weighted sit-ups at 25 pounds
So, if your first card is the seven of spades, pump out seven push presses. Then, turn over the next card and continue until you have completed the entire deck. Face/picture cards are worth 13, and aces are one.
Feel free to change the exercises and loads based on what equipment you have available and your current fitness level.
5. Fran
Fran is one of the most well-known CrossFit workouts. Despite only featuring two exercises, dear old Fran still manages to hit most of your major muscles in double-quick time. This workout is against the clock, so push yourself to go as fast as possible, and expect to make close friends with muscular failure along the way!
How to do it:
Complete the following as fast as possible:
- 21 Thrusters (95 pounds)
- 21 Pull-ups
- 15 Thrusters
- 15 Pull-ups
- 9 Thrusters
- 9 Pull-ups
6. Grace
Clean and jerks are an Olympic weightlifting discipline. Between them, the clean and jerk works virtually every muscle group in your body.
Some trainers are against high-rep Olympic lifting, but if you know how to do the specified exercises correctly, these moves can add slabs of muscle to your entire body. And, if you want to get yoked, the Olympic lifts are tough to beat.
Grace is a short but sweet workout that will leave your entire body pumped and tired.
How to do it:
As fast as possible, do:
- 30 clean and jerks with 135 pounds
Rest when necessary, and make sure your form for each rep is perfect. The bar must touch the floor between reps.
7. Angie
Angie is another high-volume bodyweight workout that hits every major muscle group. This one is ideal for home exercisers as the only thing you need for it is a pull-up bar.
In CrossFit parlance, this type of workout is called a chipper. You chip away at the reps until you’ve done them all, and then you move on to the next exercise. Bodybuilders would probably know this better as rest/pause training.
How to do it:
For time, do 100 reps of each of the following exercises:
- Pull-ups
- Push-ups
- Sit-ups
- Air squats
8. Tabata Something Else
Tabatas are best known as a high-intensity interval training method, but they work well for bodybuilding, too. With Tabatas, you pump out reps for 20 seconds, rest for ten seconds, and repeat eight times. This produces an intense pump and burn in the target muscles.
For CrossFit’s Tabata Something Else workout, you’re going to do four bodyweight exercises to train your entire body. Do all eight sets of the first exercise before moving on to the next.
How to do it:
Do eight sets maximum reps in 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, of:
- Pull-ups
- Push-ups
- Sit-ups
- Air-squats
You could also replace these bodyweight exercises with your favorite freeweight or machine exercises, e.g., lat pulldowns instead of pull-ups or dumbbell bench presses instead of push-ups.
9. Squats and Sprints
This brutal workout will push your legs to a whole new level of exhaustion. Pairing squats with sprints will thrash your fast-twitch fibers, which are responsible for most of your muscle size. But, be warned, this workout is going to leave you sore with a capital S!
How to do it:
Do 5 rounds of the following:
- 5 back squats at 80% of one-rep max
- Sprint 100m on track or treadmill
- Rest 2 minutes
10. Barbara
Barbara is the girl your mom warned you about. She’ll break your heart and kick your butt if you let her! Crummy jokes aside, this bodyweight workout involves a high volume of several key exercises to train your entire body. All those reps will create a deep burn and massive pump, making Barbara a great muscle-building workout.
How to do it:
Do five rounds of the following:
- 20 reps of Pull-ups
- 30 reps of Push-ups
- 40 reps of Sit-ups
- 50 reps of Air squats
Rest three minutes between rounds.
More CrossFit Workouts:
- Why You Should Scale Your CrossFit Workouts
- Best Endurance CrossFit Workouts to Become Fitter
- Best CrossFit Dumbbell Workouts To Improve Your Weaknesses
- Best CrossFit Leg Workouts to Build Strength and Conditioning
- CrossFit Athlete Brooke Wells Workouts
- Noah Ohlsen — Before and After CrossFit, Plus His Workouts
- 3 Reasons Why All Bodybuilders Should Try CrossFit
Best CrossFit Workouts – Wrapping Up
CrossFit is one of the most effective ways to get fit, burn fat, and get stronger. With its emphasis on intense, varied workouts, CrossFit is designed to develop the type of all-around physical conditioning appreciated by soldiers, fighters, and those working in the emergency services.
However, many bodybuilders view CrossFit as entirely incompatible with training for hypertrophy. After all, the workouts (or WODs) are entirely different from the way that most bodybuilders train.
That said, some CrossFit workouts are actually pretty good muscle builders.
While there is nothing wrong with bodybuilding-style training, it could eventually start to get a little stale if that’s all you ever do. Your progress may even begin to grind to a halt or stall altogether.
Avoid progress plateaus by embracing a different way to build muscle. Any of these ten workouts will challenge your muscles and force them to grow. CrossFit workouts sure ain’t easy, but they can definitely help you pack on some new lean mass.
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