Crossfit Personal Trainer on Beach

The following video is of a friend of mine who will be staying with me for three months (perhaps longer, on and off) and who is a certified personal trainer and crossfit specialist on the beach. He filled up basketballs of various sizes with sand to create medicine balls, uses thick heavy fisherman (battle) ropes he found on the beach, an old truck tire, used 5L water bottles hanging from bamboo for barbells and other creative ideas to create intensive 5-10 minute workouts on the beach. The soft fluffy sand makes it an ideal workout for the ankles. In the big hut he has set up an exercise workstation using various gadgets he brought with him from the west. Then of course there are my own bamboo gymnastics rings, parallel bars and workout station which can be utilised as well. And once you’ve built up a decent sweat and gotten yourself in better shape in a manner of minutes, nothing better than to splash and cool down in the ocean only meters away!

Some technical crossfit terms and exercises you will learn from him:

• battle rope – many exercises, like dragging along the beach, flaring, rippling and tug of war
• farmer’s walk – with two buckets of sand which you carry along the beach on your tip toes (for example), and then carry back. The weights can be set differently (different amount of sand) so that you get a different workout on your way back.
• medicine ball exercises – ab workouts, explosive workouts, different throwing exercises
• tracter tire flipping
• pull up variations – in the big hut hanging from the bamboo cross beams, using resistant bands which can assist all exercises, or medicine balls for added weight
• suspension fitness – similar to gymnastics rings, but the height can be easily adjusted to create all sorts of exercises in different positions
• squat rack – using bamboo with water bottles for weights
• dumbbells – made from bamboo and coconuts filled with sand
• fartlek training – Swedish type of cardiovascular exercise
• HIIT (high intensity interval training) – short period, high intensity short burst exercises in between short breaks of varying lengths

Followed by a lovely splash in the ocean!