CrossFit exercises: the 20 movements you'll learn
CrossFit exercises are ordinary movements you already make in daily life: squatting, lifting something off the floor, pushing, pulling, jumping, rowing and running. CrossFit sorts them into three groups: weightlifting, gymnastics and conditioning. Below you'll find the twenty exercises you'll learn in your first few months. For each one I'll explain how it works and how you start.
There are plenty of lists of 'the best CrossFit exercises' out there. But one exercise on its own isn't CrossFit yet. It only works when you learn the movements properly, mix them up and do them with real effort, at your level. That's what this page is about too.
Never held a barbell? No problem. Every exercise below has an easier version. That's simply where you start.
Updated: 2026-11-05
How CrossFit groups its movements
CrossFit describes its approach like this: constantly varied, functional movements, at an intensity that suits you. Functional just means movements your body makes naturally. Think squatting, bending from your hips, pushing, pulling and carrying. Want the bigger picture first? Read what CrossFit is.
Every exercise falls into one of three groups:
| Group | What you do | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Weightlifting | Lifting with a barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells or a medicine ball | Squat, deadlift, press, clean, snatch |
| Gymnastics | Moving your own bodyweight | Push-up, pull-up, handstand, dips, rope climb, muscle-up |
| Conditioning | Repeating one movement for a long time or at speed | Running, rowing, cycling, skipping |
In a class you'll often combine the groups. For example: strength work with the barbell first, then a short, tough workout with rowing and pull-ups.
You'll find lots of lists online with 'the nine foundational CrossFit movements'. They often include push-ups, box jumps or wall balls. That's not right. CrossFit's own official list is three groups of three:
- Squats: air squat, front squat and overhead squat
- Presses: shoulder press, push press and push jerk
- Deadlifts: deadlift, sumo deadlift high pull and medicine-ball clean
Why these nine? They teach you the basics you'll see in almost every other exercise. How to squat. How to move power from your legs into your arms. And how to lift something off the floor safely. Get these nine right and the rest gets a lot easier.
Strength: squat, deadlift and press
These are the nine foundational movements, exercises 1 to 9. They're usually the first ones you learn. Often with a light PVC pipe or an empty barbell to begin with.
1. Air squat. The squat without any weight. It's the base of every other squat, including wall balls and thrusters. Feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned out a little. Push your hips back and sit down. Keep your weight on your heels and your chest up. That way your lower back keeps its natural curve. Your knees track the same way as your toes.
You're deep enough when the crease of your hip drops below the top of your knee. The rep only counts once you're standing fully upright again, hips and legs straight.
Watch out for these squat mistakes: a rounded lower back, weight on your toes, not going deep enough and knees caving in. Can't get deep yet? Put a box behind you and sit on it for a moment. That's called a box squat. There's more on this in learning the squat properly.
2. Front squat. The same squat, but now with a barbell resting on the front of your shoulders. Your elbows point forward and stay high. That keeps you upright. You'll need this position later for the clean as well.
3. Overhead squat. You hold the barbell above your head with a wide grip, arms straight, and squat all the way down. This is the hardest of the three. You need mobile shoulders and hips, and a strong trunk. Nearly everyone starts this one with a light pipe. That's completely fine.
4. Shoulder press. The barbell sits on the front of your shoulders. You press it straight up until your arms are locked out. Your legs don't help. This builds strength in your shoulders and arms, and teaches you to keep your trunk still.
5. Push press. Now your legs join in. You dip a little at the knees, drive up hard and finish pressing the bar with your arms. You'll notice straight away that you can get more weight overhead this way than with your arms alone.
6. Push jerk. Almost the same as the push press. But after the drive you drop under the bar. You catch it with straight arms while your knees bend slightly, then stand up tall. This one is all about speed and timing.
7. Deadlift. You lift a barbell off the floor until you're standing upright. Flat back, bar close to your legs, and think of pushing the floor away from you. It's the base for everything you pick up from the ground. From a barbell to a crate of shopping. Read more about the deadlift: technique and progression.
8. Sumo deadlift high pull. You stand wide, hands close together on the bar. You lift the bar off the floor and pull it up to just under your chin in one go, elbows high. It teaches you how power flows from your legs and hips into your arms.
9. Medicine-ball clean. You pick a medicine ball up from the floor, extend your hips fast and catch the ball at the bottom of a squat. It feels a bit like playing. But it's a smart way to prepare for the clean with a barbell.
Olympic weightlifting: clean and snatch
Olympic weightlifting has two lifts: the clean (usually paired with the jerk) and the snatch. These are the most technical exercises in CrossFit. You don't need to be able to do them in week one. You build towards them with the foundational movements above.
10. Clean. You lift the barbell from the floor to your shoulders in one smooth movement. You start like a deadlift. Then you extend your hips fast and pull yourself under the bar. You catch it in the front squat position. Catch it high, with only a slight bend in your knees? Then it's called a power clean.
11. Snatch. Here the bar goes from the floor to above your head in one movement. You catch it in the overhead squat. It looks easy when someone does it well. But there's a lot going on: speed, timing, mobility and the nerve to get under the bar.
My advice: take your time with these two. Practise them in pieces, with an empty bar or a pipe. Weight comes later. If you go heavy too fast, you teach yourself bad technique. And that's really hard to get rid of afterwards.
Gymnastics: push-up, pull-up and handstand
In gymnastics your own body is the weight. Sounds easy, but it often isn't. The good news: every exercise has a version you can do today.
12. Push-up. Your body is one straight plank, from head to heels. You lower until your chest touches the floor and push yourself back up. Can't do that yet? Put your hands on a box or a bench. The higher it is, the easier. That way you're training the right movement, instead of half a push-up with a sagging back.
13. Pull-up. You hang from a bar and pull yourself up until your chin is over it. For a lot of people this is the exercise they work towards the longest. You start with a resistance band around your foot. Or with ring rows: hanging at an angle under two rings and pulling yourself up. In CrossFit you'll also see kipping pull-ups, where you swing from your hips. You only learn those once you can pull yourself up without the swing.
14. Handstand. Standing on your hands, usually with your feet against the wall. It builds strong, stable shoulders and a tight trunk. Later comes the handstand push-up: lowering your head to the floor in a handstand and pushing yourself back up. You start with a pike push-up (feet on a box, hips high). Or you walk your feet up the wall.
After that come exercises like dips, rope climbs, toes-to-bar (hanging and bringing your toes up to the bar) and the muscle-up (going from hanging below the rings to supporting yourself above them). Great things to work towards. But you don't need them to train well.
Conditioning: burpee, wall ball, rowing, double unders, box jump and kettlebell swing
These are the ones that get your heart pounding. You'll often find them in the second part of the class, in a short workout at pace.
15. Burpee. You go down until your chest touches the floor. Then you come back up and do a little jump with your hands above your head. Everyone finds them hard, even people who've trained for years. Easier version: step your legs back instead of jumping, and skip the jump at the top.
16. Wall ball. You hold a medicine ball in front of your chest and squat down. As you stand up, you throw the ball at a target high on the wall. You catch it and go straight back down. Squat plus throw, in one rhythm. Easier version: a lighter ball or a lower target.
17. Rowing. On the rowing machine the order is: push with your legs first, then lean back slightly, then pull with your arms. On the way back it's exactly the other way round. Most of the power comes from your legs. A common mistake is pulling mainly with your arms.
18. Double unders. Skipping where the rope passes under your feet twice per jump. This takes timing and patience more than anything. You start with normal jumps, called single unders. In between you practise a few double unders at a time.
19. Box jump. You jump onto a box with both feet at once. On top you stand all the way up, hips straight. Then you step down calmly. Box jumps train the fast power in your legs: how quickly you can produce force. How high should the box be? High enough that you jump onto it with confidence. Not sure? Take a lower box or do a box step-up, where you simply step onto it.
20. Kettlebell swing. You swing a kettlebell from between your legs out in front of you. The power comes from your hips. You hinge forward from your hips and then snap them straight. Your arms only guide the bell. It mainly trains your glutes, your hamstrings (the back of your thighs) and your fitness. Also read the kettlebell swing step by step.
How the exercises come together in a workout
One exercise on its own is one thing. In CrossFit you combine them. The training of the day is called the WOD, short for Workout of the Day. A few well-known examples show how that works. These are benchmarks: fixed workouts you repeat every now and then. That's how you see your progress.
| Workout | What you do | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Cindy | 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats | An AMRAP: as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes |
| Fran | 21, then 15, then 9 reps of thrusters and pull-ups | For time: finish as fast as you can |
| Helen | 3 rounds of a 400-metre run, 21 kettlebell swings and 12 pull-ups | For time, takes roughly a quarter of an hour |
The thruster shows up here for the first time. It's a front squat that flows straight into a press overhead. Two exercises from the list, stuck together.
Sounds tough? It can be. But nobody does these workouts on day one exactly as they're written. You adjust them: less weight, fewer reps or an easier version of the exercise. That's called scaling. A scaled workout isn't a lesser workout. That's just how CrossFit works.
By the way, CrossFit's own sample programme has rest days built in. Strength days, short workouts and slightly longer workouts take turns. In between, you recover. That's part of the training, not something separate from it.
Which CrossFit exercises should a beginner start with?
You don't start with the snatch or the muscle-up. You start with the movement itself, with little or no weight. Here's what that looks like for a few of the exercises:
| Exercise | How you start | Later |
|---|---|---|
| Squat | Air squat, onto a box if needed | Front squat and overhead squat with a barbell |
| Deadlift | Light kettlebell or empty barbell | Heavier barbell, then the clean |
| Press | Light pipe or dumbbells | Push press and push jerk |
| Push-up | Hands on a box | Push-ups on the floor |
| Pull-up | Ring rows or a band | Strict pull-up, later kipping |
| Handstand | Pike push-up or walking up the wall | Handstand push-up |
| Burpee | Stepping back instead of jumping | Full burpee |
| Box jump | Box step-up or a low box | Higher box |
| Double unders | Normal jumps | Double unders |
So you don't need to be fit to start. You do need to be willing to train. A coach looks at which version suits you today. In a few weeks that might already be a different one.
How to learn the exercises safely
CrossFit has a fixed order. First you learn the movement. Then you do it well, again and again. Only after that do you go harder or heavier. You don't flip that order, not even on a day you feel strong.
- Technique comes before weight. A light squat that's right is worth more than a heavy squat with a rounded back.
- Build up step by step. A bit more weight or a few more reps when the last session went well. Not everything at once.
- Intensity is personal. Working hard means working hard for you. You don't have to end up flat on the floor.
- Let someone watch you. You can't see your own knees caving in or your back rounding. A coach can.
- Rest counts too. Plan rest days. Your body needs time to recover from what you've done.
Is CrossFit dangerous? Every sport carries some risk, running and football included. What helps: a coach in the class, exercises you can adjust, and technique before speed. Nobody can give you a guarantee, and I won't either. But with those three things you're training sensibly.
Got pain or an injury, are you pregnant or on medication? If in doubt, check with your doctor or physio first. Then tell the coach what's going on, so they can adjust the exercises. We don't take over the role of your doctor or physio.
Can you do CrossFit exercises at home?
Yes, some of them. Air squats, push-ups and burpees you can do anywhere. Got a pull-up bar? Then you can even do Cindy at home. Add a kettlebell and you'll get quite a long way.
But at home you miss two things. Nobody sees that your squat isn't deep enough or that your back is rounding. And nobody notices you haven't trained for three weeks. After work the sofa wins, and next week turns into next month. That's not your fault. Keeping it up on your own is just really hard.
Barbell lifts like the clean, the snatch and heavy deadlifts are also better not learned from a video. For those you want someone there who watches and corrects you.
How you learn these exercises at CrossFit Zeeburg
At our box on the Cruquiusweg in Amsterdam East, the training is ready for you every day. You walk in, the coach explains the exercises and watches while you do them. You don't need to write your own programme or work out which weight to use. You just turn up and we sort the rest.
Next to the regular WOD classes, we've got classes that go deeper into one group of exercises:
- Weightlifting for the clean and the snatch
- StrongLifts for strength
- Gymnastics for pull-ups and handstands
- Hybrid Endurance for strength and conditioning together
- CrossFit 60+ for people over sixty
You'll find all the times on our schedule. Want to feel whether it suits you first? Then try two weeks of unlimited training. And you can read more about how we work on CrossFit in Amsterdam East.
Learn these movements properly, with a coach beside you
With Your Strong Start you learn the basic movements step by step, from the squat to the pull-up. You don't have to figure anything out yourself: you turn up, we make sure your technique is right and that you keep going. So you build a solid base straight away, instead of guessing with videos.
- 12 coached CrossFit sessions in 4 weeks, around 3 a week
- A personal starting assessment plus scalable Fit Test as your baseline
- A midway check, so one busy week doesn't break your rhythm
- Final assessment and repeat Fit Test: you see what changed
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Frequently asked questions
What is CrossFit, exactly?
CrossFit is a training method with constantly varied, functional movements, at an intensity that suits you. You combine weightlifting, gymnastics and conditioning, in a class with a coach. Every exercise can be adjusted to your level.
Is CrossFit better than strength training?
It's not one or the other. Strength training is part of CrossFit: squats, deadlifts and presses are the foundation. CrossFit adds gymnastics and conditioning on top. If getting stronger is your main goal, a class focused purely on strength might suit you well too.
Which CrossFit exercises are good for your core?
Pretty much all of them. In a squat, deadlift or press you have to keep your trunk tight, or the movement won't work. Handstands, toes-to-bar and push-ups also ask a lot of your core. You don't necessarily need separate ab exercises for that.
Am I too old for CrossFit exercises?
According to CrossFit itself, you can take part over 40, 60 or 80 too. The exercises stay the same. Only the version and the weight change. We also have a separate class for people over sixty: CrossFit 60+.
What is the 3-3-3 rule in strength training?
There's no fixed, official definition. Several versions are going around. My advice: don't steer by a rule like that. Build up calmly, put technique first and let a coach watch you.