CrossFit Exercises for Bodybuilders

by David Sautter

Unleashing CrossFit for Bodybuilders:

Let’s take a look at the best CrossFit exercises for bodybuilders. We’ll also throw in two CrossFit bodybuilding workouts to help you get started.

CLEAN-AND-JERK

The clean-and-jerk is a CrossFit staple you’ll find in numerous WODs. This exercise targets the following muscle groups:

  • Hamstrings
  • Quadriceps
  • Calves
  • Lower back
  • Shoulders and traps
  • Arms
  • Core musculature: abdominals, obliques, and transverse abdominus

How to Perform the Clean-and-Jerk

Begin with the barbell on the ground in front of you, resting against your shins. Kick your butt back, lower yourself, and grab just outside of shoulder width. Straighten your arms. Pull the bar off the ground and straighten your legs. Extend your upper body back, push your hips forward, and pull the barbell upward. Bend your knees slightly and move under the barbell to catch it. Your elbows will rotate around the bar, facing forward. Dip your knees, then push the barbell above your head. Let the weight drop if you have bumper plates, or carefully catch it in your hips, then place it on the ground. 

POWER SNATCH

A more technical movement than the clean-and-jerk, the power snatch involves pulling straight from the ground to overhead. There’s no stopping point for this one. If you have wrist issues, we would highly recommend wrist wraps. The power snatch will activate the following muscle groups:

  • Lats and middle back
  • Lower back
  • Hamstrings
  • Quadriceps
  • Calves
  • Shoulders and traps
  • Arms
  • Core musculature: abdominals, obliques, and transverse abdominus

How to Perform the Power Snatch

Place the barbell on the ground in front of you, resting against your shins. Kick your butt back, lower yourself, and grab just outside of shoulder width. Straighten your arms. Begin with a casual pull off the ground. Once the barbell passes your knees, explosively pull upward. As the bar reaches chest level, loosen your grip to allow yourself to drop down and underneath the bar. Of course, you’ll maintain a hold on the barbell, but a loose grip will let you swing to match your grip with your new position. Once you have the barbell overhead, stand up, pause for a moment, then let it drop to the ground.

PUSH PRESS

This shoulder-focused movement concentrates on the upper portion of the clean-and-jerk exercise. The push press targets the following muscle groups:

  • Shoulders and traps
  • Arms
  • Hamstrings
  • Quadriceps
  • Core musculature: abdominals, obliques, and transverse abdominus

How to Perform the Push Press

Begin with the barbell across the front of your shoulders – Much like a front squat position, but your elbows don’t need to be as high. In one quick movement, dip your knees slightly to start the momentum of the exercise. As you straighten your knees, use that momentum to drive the barbell above your head. Pause for a moment, then bring the barbell back to the starting position.

SQUAT CLEAN

The squat clean is a lot like the clean-and-jerk, but you perform a front squat instead of going overhead with the barbell. The muscles that this exercise works include the following:

  • Quadriceps
  • Glutes
  • Hamstrings
  • Calves
  • Shoulders and traps
  • Arms
  • Core musculature: abdominals, obliques, and transverse abdominus

How to Perform the Squat Clean:

Begin as you would with a deadlift: barbell on the ground, resting against your shins. Your hips are back, and your thighs are parallel to the ground. Just like with a clean-and-jerk, pull the bar off the ground in a straight line. Extend your upper body back, push your hips forward, and pull the barbell upward. Move underneath the barbell, catching it on your front deltoids. As you catch the barbell, perform a deep front squat. Stand up with the barbell across your shoulder and your elbows toward the ceiling. Let the barbell come down to your hips. From here, place the barbell back on the ground to the starting position.

DUMBBELL THRUSTERS

The barbell thruster is featured in the CrossFit workout, Fran, but we want to focus on the isolation of the shoulder muscles. That’s why we’re going with the dumbbell variation. This one exercise works for the following muscle groups:

  • Quadriceps
  • Glutes
  • Hamstrings
  • Calves
  • Shoulders and traps
  • Arms
  • Core musculature: abdominals, obliques, and transverse abdominus

How to Perform Thrusters

Hold a pair of dumbbells at shoulder level. Pull your shoulder blades back and down. Take a deep breath and move into a deep squat. Keep the chest up and the dumbbells at your shoulders as you do this. From the bottom of the squat, begin to stand up, driving your hips forward. Push the dumbbells overhead. Make sure your elbows are locked out. Immediately lower the dumbbells back to your shoulder level and dip down into your next deep squat and repetition.

CROSSFIT BODYBUILDING WORKOUT

Let’s put everything together for you. Here are two CrossFit bodybuilding hybrid workouts you can use today to complement your normal routine.

WORKOUT A:

Power Snatch: 3 sets of 10 repetitions

Squat Clean: 3 x 15

Push Press: 2 x 12

WORKOUT B:

Clean-and-Jerk: 3 x 10

Dumbbell Thrusters: 4 x 15

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CROSSFIT EXERCISE FOR BODYBUILDERS?

Do you already use one of these CrossFit exercises in your normal bodybuilding workouts? If so, which one? Have a video of yourself crushing the workout above? Tag us on Instagram so we can share it!

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