Master Your Fitness Game: In-Depth Gear Guides and Workout Tips by TuffWraps

Although testosterone is generally associated with masculinity, the benefits of this naturally produced hormone are critical for both men and women in a number of ways. Playing a key role in the building of lean muscle mass and strong bones, healthy testosterone levels can guard against osteoporosis, boost athletic performance, increase sexual desire, improve mood, decrease risk of cardiovascular diseases, and much more. Specific to the fitness athlete, however, how can we continue to naturally boost this hormone in our body after having already pursued the basics of decreasing body weight through exercise? Here are 5 ways you can boost your testosterone levels and make greater gains both in and out of the box.

It’s pretty obvious that CrossFitters love a good barbell workout. We love the clanging of the weights as they hit the floor and that feeling you get when you have the perfect hook grip set-up. As athletes, however, we must remember that there is a world outside of the gym! It may be hard to believe, but all of that fitness can prove to be quite beneficial out in the “real world.” We need to do our best to find a balance, for both our mental and physical well-being, of activities both inside and outside of the box. Here are 7 activities that put the “fun” in functional fitness.

It's summer, which means a lot of people are traveling and taking vacations. For a lot of people, vacation doesn't always mean taking time off from the gym—especially when it often DOES mean indulging in foods and drinks outside of their normal diets. It can be difficult to find the time to make it to an actual gym or to find a gym to go to. Here are some suggestions for making your workouts happen, even when you're on the road.

We’ve all heard of the “seven year itch.” This issue of the “honeymoon phase” being over can happen to our relationship with CrossFit as well. The first year or so is filled with PRs, learning new skills, and discovering an inner athleticism that you never knew you had. Around the eighteen month mark, however, things begin to shift. PRs become less and less frequent (or non-existent). You begin feeling run down, and workouts that used to relieve the stresses of the day actually make it worse. The love and passion you once felt as a CrossFit newbie is waning, and unfortunately, it seems as if you have hit the proverbial “wall.”

FOMO, or the Fear of Missing Out, is a term usually used to describe interactions within social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. The feeling can come from missing actual activities with friends (and constantly “checking” social media), or it can come from a broader source, like feeling as if you are missing out on a potential type of life. Social media outlets are great ways to keep in touch with people from your past, but they can cause feelings of jealousy (I want his/her life) or regret (I wish I had…). This fear of missing out can also be applied to activities themselves. In the case of CrossFit, FOMO can occur because an athlete has worked so hard to adopt a certain lifestyle and missing certain activities, like WODs, can prove to be a huge detriment to their mental, physical, and emotional health.

Our hips and shoulders get a lot of use in CrossFit, like those of many other people so passionately involved in functional fitness. But due to the greater complexity of the shoulder, they often times get put into overdrive and overuse and as a result, it is not entirely uncommon to hear complaints of shoulder pain or discomfort in the CrossFit community…maybe you have even experienced these frustrations yourself. But it doesn’t have to be this way! These 3 simple tips can help you not only be shoulder pain and injury free, but increase your performance in and out of the box.

Living in an East coast beach town, my box gets quite a few drop-ins, especially during the summer months. Just as gyms have their own rules, commonly known as “box etiquette,” guidelines for drop-ins are just as important. Here are the ten most important things to remember when dropping-in to another box.

More and more athletes are cross training to improve overall performance in their main sport. Some runners may be concerned that heavy strength training can produce too much muscle mass and hinder their speed. However, most studies show no adverse effects on aerobic power from heavy resistance exercise. Kraemer and colleagues reported that women who performed both resistance and aerobic endurance training had greater aerobic development than those who performed aerobic endurance training alone.

How many days a week do you RX the wod? Every day? None? Somewhere in between? According to an article on mensfitness.com, to RX a wod "means the athlete performs all modalities using the prescribed weight and reps." My number is typically 4. Four out of 5 wods I do in a week, I can RX. Should I be satisfied with that?

What do Talayna Fortunato, Emily Bridgers, and Camille Leblanc-Bazinet have in common? Aside from the fact that they are incredible CrossFit athletes, all three of them also have a background in competitive gymnastics. Even Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit, tumbled his way through his teenage years. As a retired gymnast myself, and someone who has been doing CrossFit for just over a year, I can say without a doubt that my experience with CrossFit would be completely different if I didn’t have twelve years of gymnastics under my belt. It doesn’t matter that I’m ten years out from competitive gymnastics or that I am unable to do a lot of what I used to do, I truly believe that my transition into CrossFit was made easier by the fact that I spent a good chunk of my life upside down. Here are a few reasons why.