It’s nearly impossible to talk about fitness trends without CrossFit entering the conversation. This high-intensity workout program of constantly varying functional movements has swept the nation and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. “The great thing about CrossFit is that it can work for anyone,” says Nick Lobotsky, CrossFit Level 1 trainer and full-time coach at CrossFit NYC. “We have everyone from ex-football players to ballerinas to grandmothers who come in.” And for good reason. All CrossFit workouts, or WODs (Workout Of the Day), are scalable to each individual’s fitness ability.

From bodyweight-only routines to workouts with weights, your first WOD doesn’t have to be scary. But it should challenge — and change — you. And the workouts below will do just that — without putting you on your back. But before we get into some of these heart-pumping beginner WODS, let’s get familiar with the CrossFit lingo.

Box: A CrossFit gym
WOD: Workout Of the Day, as posted on CrossFit.com or determined by your coach/box (typically only about 20 minutes). If you’re wondering why many WODs have names, it’s because these are workouts that come up over and over again: It makes them easier to remember.
AMRAP: As Many Reps/Rounds As Possible, in regards to number of reps or round in a timed workout, you want to complete as many as you can
For Time: Your goal is to finish the prescribed workout as quickly as you can
Score: The total number of reps/rounds completed in a workout. If you’re scoring rounds, you’ll tack on the additional reps you completed if you were into the next round but didn’t complete it (i.e., 8R + 12 would mean eight rounds complete and 12 reps into the ninth round when time expired)
Rx’d: This is written after your score if you did each exercise of the workout without any modifications, meaning you completed it as prescribed (i.e., 7R +16 Rx)
CrossFit Games: The Superbowl of CrossFit, where the most elite in the sport come to compete and be crowned the World’s Fittest Man and Woman (current title holders: Rich Froning (three-time winner) and Samantha Briggs)
CrossFit Open: CrossFitters can register online, then compete in a form of CrossFit Games alone or at their box

While the true CrossFit experience will take place at your local box with a team of athletes sweating right alongside you, it’s possible to get in on the action just about anywhere on your own. These beginner-friendly yet challenging CrossFit workouts will get your feet wet, and might just inspire you to commit to the program.

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If you find it hard to stick to your workout routine, or wish you enjoyed it more, it’s likely that your mind is a little… out of shape.

Sounds crazy? In fitness, it’s proven that a healthy mind is every bit as important as a healthy body. And if your mind’s not in peak condition, your body won’t be — because a workout just can’t reach its full potential with un-engaged grey matter.

Just as lifting weights strengthens our muscles, meditation teaches us to become more mindful. It takes just minutes each day to practice, but by doing so, and learning to apply mindfulness to exercise, getting fit becomes easier, more sustainable — and dare I say it — quite good fun. Exercising mindfully is even shown to cut levels of body fat, lower weight and reduce blood pressure.

So how can we use mindfulness to get motivated to exercise, and ultimately, become fitter?

Understanding your motivation
What’s driving your desire for fitness? Whatever it is, the strength of this motivation will determine your chances of successfully engaging with, and maintaining, your workout routine.

So, even before we put our trainers on, it’s important we work out why fitness is important to us. Meditation gives the mind the space and ability to see these reasons clearly and understand ourselves better, to approach exercise in a more grounded, confident and sustainable way. It’s a strong start.

Staying on track
It’s not easy to keep a fitness plan going through weeks, months and years. When we’re busy or it’s raining, it’s easy to think, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” But will we?

Learning to be mindful lets us recognize these negative thoughts as just that — thoughts. So rather than give in to them, we can acknowledge them — move on — and head out for that run. And even if it’s raining, we’ll probably enjoy it.

Focusing on the moment
Instead of planning tomorrow’s meeting or running through arrangements for the weekend, try to take a step back from busy mental chatter. Meditation teaches our minds how to be clear and free from distraction, creating the space essential for productive exercise.

Mindful exercise allows us to focus on the moment, so we can produce more confident, natural exercises — making each rep, and every mile, as effective as possible.

Exercising mindfully
And finally, as we walk, swim or run, remembering the five components of mindful exercise will always give us the maximum benefit from all that effort:

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Remember that time your exercise class had awesome music and fun gear — and left you feeling like you had a thorough workout?

Keeping this memory in mind could be the key to motivating you to exercise, a small new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of New Hampshire found that when study participants were asked to think about positive memories around exercise, they had higher levels of subsequent exercise compared with people who didn’t recall memories about exercise.

The study is published in the journal Memory and is based on data from about 150 students. For the study, the students were split up into three groups: One group was asked to think about something positive that happened that would increase exercise motivation, another group was asked to think about something negative that happened that would increase their motivation to exercise, and the third group was not asked to recall any memory. All the students were also asked to rate their future intentions to exercise.

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Making sure to get regular exercise could help protect your vision, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health found that people who exercise three or more times a week have a 58 percent decreased odds of becoming visually impaired, compared with sedentary people, after adjusting for age. Visual impairment was defined in the study as vision loss from disease or trauma that is unable to be corrected with glasses or contact lenses.

“While age is usually one of the most strongly associated factors for many eye diseases that cause visual impairment, it is a factor we cannot change,” study researcher Dr. Ronald Klein, M.D., MPH, said in a statement. “Lifestyle behaviors like smoking, drinking and physical activity, however, can be altered. So, it’s promising, in terms of possible prevention, that these behaviors are associated with developing visual impairment over the long term.”

However, because the study only showed an association between lifestyle factors and visual impairment, it’s impossible to say that the behaviors can directly cause — or prevent — visual impairment. “Further research is needed to determine whether modifying these behaviors will in fact lead to a direct reduction in vision loss,” Klein added.

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