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- What Is A CrossFit Workout?
- What Are The Benefits of CrossFit Training?
- What Is In a HIIT Workout?
- What Are The Benefits of HIIT workouts?
- How To Make the Most Out Of Your Active Zone Minutes
- What You Need to Know About Active Zone Minutes In A Nutshell
- What About Active Zone Minutes and Floor Work?
- Do I Have To Add Active Zone Minutes Manually?
- Does Swimming Count?
- How Accurate Is the Information You Gain From Fitbit CrossFit?
- In Conclusion
When you want to challenge yourself, there are two forms of exercise that you should look at. In short, CrossFit and High-Intensity Interval Training, HIIT in short, have both been around for some time. Thanks to platforms such as YouTube, they are becoming popular. Fitbit Crossfit helps you to track your HIIT and CrossFit workouts.
You can put your Fitbit to good use when you want to track your progress by using Active Zone Minutes. This page will cover how you can make the most out of your Fitbit when it comes to CrossFit and HIIT training.
First of all, we will look at both fitness concepts.
What Is A CrossFit Workout?
Cross is a form of training more intensely. You use both strength and conditioning training when you do a CrossFit workout. Through a series of exercises, you work on improving your strength and increasing your aerobic capacity.
CrossFit is a very versatile way of training. You can apply many different techniques to CrossFit. The most popular ones are pushing, pulling, and squatting. Best of all, you don’t have to do them in a gym.
If you are the kind of person who likes to work out on your own, CrossFit is a great way to exercise.
Greg Glassman developed CrossFit. He realized that many were putting fitness on the back burner as they did not have the time.
Eventually, back in the 1990s, Glassman developed the CrossFit workout. Today, it is a popular way to work out when pressed for time.
What Are The Benefits of CrossFit Training?
CrossFit has many health benefits. The best way to think of CrossFit is as an all-over body workout. It is not for the faint-hearted, but if you have been exercising for a while, there is no reason why you should not try it.
The benefits of CrossFit include:
- Strength
- Endurance
- Flexibility
- Speed
- Coordination
- Balance
- Aerobic capacity
- Increased results
- Increased metabolism
The idea is to make the body stronger in more ways than one. As we age, all of these things matter. We often underestimate how important flexibility and balance are when it comes to our health.
Do you need to lift heavy weights to get CrossFit? No, you don’t. It is often better to lift a lighter weight and do many repetitions instead. Squatting is an integral part of CrossFit workouts. When you squat, you work on balance, flexibility, and coordination. As a result, you get stronger.
When you lift weights as you squat, you improve your endurance, strength, and aerobic capacity. Your speed will increase as you get fitter.
It is essential to continue to challenge yourself when you do CrossFit workouts. That is how you get more out of your workout.
What Is In a HIIT Workout?
A HIIT workout combines shorts bursts of intense exercise with lower intensity exercises.
Many presume that HIIT workouts are all about aerobic training.
Aerobic training is an integral part of HIIT workouts. However, it would be best never to underestimate the benefits of low-intensity exercises combined with high intensity.
When you want to lose weight or get rid of excess fat, both high and low-intensity exercises play a vital role.
An excellent example of a HIIT workout would be three minutes of running on the spot and then three minutes of arm exercises. You can use a band or a weight when you work your arms.
You can also do floor-based HIIT exercises. They are a great way of toning your core and improving leg strength.
Unlike many other exercise methods, your body uses fat when doing HIIT workouts. Usually, your body would draw most of its energy from carbs. The result is fat loss. However, when you regularly workout using HIIT exercises, your body uses fats.
If you are not trying to lose fat, you must eat correctly before a HIIT workout. Ensure you eat plenty of healthy fats, including oily fish and avocado.
What Are The Benefits of HIIT workouts?
HIIT training is good for you when you don’t have much time for exercise. You only need to spend about 30 minutes to get benefits from a HIIT workout. In many ways, spinning is one of the best HIIT workouts.
You can apply all techniques to HIIT workouts, including running, weight training, and fast-moving floor exercises. Monitor them using the Fitbit CrossFit function on your tracker. You will soon find that you are getting the benefits.
The main benefits of CrossFit workouts include:
- Increased metabolic rate
- Fast fat loss
- Can help to increase muscle mass
- Increases aerobic capacity
- Improves heart-rate
- Lowers blood pressure
- Can help to improve the glucose balance in the body
You can do HIIT training at home or in a gym class. It is a fast workout. You will quickly notice the results when you do it several times per week.
How To Make the Most Out Of Your Active Zone Minutes
You can use the Active Zone Minutes on your Fitbit fitness trackers when you want to monitor your progress.
You can share the information you get from the Fitbit CrossFit function with others, but ultimately this is about working out against yourself. Nevertheless, it is an excellent way of keeping an eye on your progress.
What You Need to Know About Active Zone Minutes In A Nutshell
What is Active Zone Minutes? You earn active zone minutes on your device by doing daily activities that get your heart beating faster during the day. It can be anything from walking faster to climbing the stairs.
Many people who are into HIIT and CrossFit use their Fitbit to monitor their progress. Active Zone Minutes are found on the following Fitbits:
- Fitbit Charge 4
- Fitbit Charge 5
- Fitbit Inspire 2
- Fitbit Ionic
- Fitbit Luxe
- Fitbit Sense
- Fitbit Versa series
You earn your Active Zone minutes by taking part if fat burning and aerobic activities.
The information you get from Fitbit CrossFit training is based on your fitness level and age. To get an accurate picture, you must add the correct personal data to your Fitbit.
Your Fitbit encourages you to reach the goal of 150 Active Zone Minutes every week. It is an idea developed together with the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization.
Can you change your goal?
You can most certainly change your goal by updating your Fitbit app.
Tracking your Fitbit Active Zone minutes is easy. You can track them by day or week. The information you get include the amount of calories burned and your heart rate.
Can Active Minutes track fat loss?
As a fitness trainer, I am often asked if Fitbit can track fat loss. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is no. However, what you can do is monitor your weight. Don’t forget to update your weight information if you are trying to lose weight and body fat.
Do I need to wear my Fitbit all of the time to track my Active Minutes? If you want to get a better result, you need to wear your Fitbit when you are active during the day.
What is great about Fitbit is that it even takes the minutes you spent walking fast to the bus stop into account. Stop and think about it, and you will soon realize your Active Zone minutes quickly adds up.
Here are a few ways you can add more Active Zone Minutes to your day:
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Take longer strides when you walk
- Walk faster
- When in the office, send fewer emails. Instead, walk to your colleague and have a conversation with them.
- Move when you cook the dinner
- Walk the dog for longer
- Go for a walk at lunchtime
- Get off the bus a stop before your actual stop
There are many ways in which you can increase your Active Zone score.
What About Active Zone Minutes and Floor Work?
Many think that their Fitbits monitor any floor-based exercises for some reason. That is not true.
Fitbit carries on monitoring floor exercises. Remember that this is a fitness tracker that your wear on your wrist. As you exercise, it monitors any activity you do, even if it is floor-based.
Do I Have To Add Active Zone Minutes Manually?
On some Fitbit devices, you may have to add the function manually. Charge 4 seems to have a bit of a blind spot for Active Zone Minutes. It should be available on your Dashboard, but there have been a few problems.
If you can’t find it on your tracker, the best thing you can do is to log into the app and set it up. You should now be able to track your active minutes without any problems at all.
Does Swimming Count?
There are times when I wish I could go on a Fitbit training course. Like so many other PE and PT trainers, I often find myself answering questions about Fitbit. Swimming is a great way to tone your abs.
Providing that your Fitbit is suitable for use in water, it should not be damaged at all. Your Fitbit will track your Active Zone minutes when you swim.
Here is a top tip for you. If your favorite exercise method is swimming, you can quickly turn your swimming workout into a CrossFit or HIIT training session.
Challenge yourself by swimming a pool length faster than your average speed. On the return, swim slower. Speed it up again. Carry on doing so for the duration of your pool session. Check your Fitbit, and you will see that you have gained more active minutes.
Play around with this idea and constantly challenge yourself. The next time you go, you can swim two lengths fast and the subsequent length slower. Treading water also helps you to increase your count.
How Accurate Is the Information You Gain From Fitbit CrossFit?
The information is pretty accurate. Comparing the Fitbit data I get from the CrossFit function, it agrees very closely with other fitness trackers.
I have tried wearing different trackers, but the data has more or less been the same. I think that Fitbit is one of the best fitness trackers when it comes to CrossFit.
For the average user, the information is easy to understand. However, many say that they are having a problem setting up the CrossFit function.
If you find that you are having a problem, refer back to the Fitbit site. The site is packed with helpful information referring to your particular Fitbit.
It is essential to monitor the data that you are giving Fitbit. Sure, the tracker may understand that you are a year older. But, it does not know that you have lost 5 kilos in weight unless you tell it.
Keeping the data on your Fitbit up-to-date is essential when you more accurately want to monitor your fitness level.
In Conclusion
Fitbit CrossFit is a great function. Both HIIT and CrossFit training are popular. Lots of people are getting into them.
When you have a busy lifestyle and find it hard to fit in exercise, CrossFit and HIIT training are excellent ways of exercising.
Make it fun by monitoring your results using your Fitbit. Yes, it is fun to lose weight and get rid of body fat. However, you should not lose sight of the fact that your heart rate is a vital health indicator.
The best way to monitor that is by using a fitness tracker. Make yourself up a chart to keep a note of your heart rate and your weight. As you lose weight, you will see an improved heart rate. Moving at both high-intensity and low-intensity is beneficial to our health, and your heart rate is the beating proof of that.
