Last updated 19:45, Thursday, 31 July 2008

MEET my new friends Fran and Linda.

They would love to say hello, but they are too busy making ardent fitness fanatics suffer across the world.

Yes, this is Crossfit at its best, two of the most powerful workouts they have and today I’m going to review them both.

Let me picture the scene for you. Fran is tough, it’s meant to be Crossfit induction workout, although I consider it much harder than that.

It consists of two exercises: the barbell thruster and the pull-up. Not much, you may say; however you have to perform 21-15-9 reps without rest on both exercises.

Imagine it - you’ve finished your first 21 reps on thrusters only to have 21 reps on the pull-ups without rest.

Linda is an unforgiving workout that will shatter every illusion you have about deadlifts. Deadlifts are the most powerful component of sheer determination and strength you will ever come across. It will make the biggest of men cry. I’m not one of them but it made me cry anyway.

To start with, we have deadlifts, then bench presses followed by cleans. You perform 10 reps on each then work your way down one rep at a time until you get to one. Oh, I forgot one thing - you have to lift one-and-a-half times your bodyweight on deadlifts, your bodyweight on bench press and three quarter your bodyweight on cleans.

Let me tell you a little secret, I believed I could quite easily perform both of these workouts first time round, unfortunately on Fran I nearly threw up and on Linda my whole body had felt like it had been hit by a bus.

Am I winning you over yet? The worst thing was I couldn’t complete Linda and as for the thrusters on Fran, well let’s say I have a lot of improvement to do.

Here’s the good news. Though, both of these workouts are fantastic and I incorporate them into my weekly workout without fail. Don’t be like me, though; I become arrogant thinking you can blast these exercises first time. Patience is key here and you have to work to it very slowly.

Let’s take Fran. Thrusters are a great overall body workout. You basically perform a front squat then into a push press. It mimics a plyometric type movement if you think of throwing a medicine ball up into the air.

Thrusters develop power and without doubt engage your core to a degree where you know some good is happening. One point to mention on thrusters is you need to have good hip flexors.

If they are weak then you will find a lack of flexibility in squatting. It is just matter of practising them with the bar only and after time you will get used to that motion.

Following the thrusters is the best bodyweight exercise around - the pull up. Crossfit incorporates kipping pull ups as standard. Again you need time to master this technique. There is a good tutorial on kipping pull ups on Crossfit www.crossfit.com, and it’s worth checking out. If you can perform strict pull-ups then great, if like me you can perform 21-15-9 strict pull-ups try jumping pull-ups. This adds an edge because it conditions you with the jumping technique. You will still feel the burn on your biceps and lats so don’t worry about the fact you do these. Crossfit actually recommend these as an alternative.

Fran will condition you in such a way you will be burning fat hours after you train. This is strength and conditioning at its best.

Linda is a different animal altogether, in all my years of training I have never felt a workout like it. For the heavy people out there its worth noting that you must be comfortable with deadlifting 1½ times your bodyweight. I certainly wasn’t so I lowered the weight. But the aim is to finish the workout and don’t worry about times; it’s about trying to keep your form solid and good. It’s a metabolic blaster which will again ensure you burn calories at rest. Be careful with your lower back on deadlifts and never go fast at the start, remain composed because it gets hard quick. Bench press is known as the king of chest workouts, although I found the bench press a welcome rest. Use this time to get you ready for the cleans.

Power cleans or normal cleans where you front squat can be done here. You can throw in some high pulls if you wish just to add that extra bit of conditioning.

Both Fran and Linda can be performed twice a week and will certainly make your programme more interesting. Linda requires three Olympic bars if you can get them. Crossfit actually call this workout ‘three bars of death’. Not a nice name I know but it does work for you. I have certainly improved in strength and stamina using this workout over the past couple of weeks.

Next week, we shall meet Angie and Barbara.