by Molly Rausch Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Athletic Trainer
Hello everyone! This week’s “Fitness Tip of the Week” is about cross training. Cross training is very wide and highly-variable term. The meaning of cross training is simply the practice of regularly mixing up your routine or doing workouts different than your normal activity or fitness routine. Cross training for a runner would be very different than someone who regularly swims.
There are several benefits to cross training. As a fitness and correct exercise specialist, I believe the biggest benefit to cross training is that it can reduce your risk of injuries. Doing the same physical activity day after day, week after week, can start to lead to breakdown of tissue. If you continue to stress the body the same way all the time, eventually something is going to get worn down and that is what causes injuries. Cross training helps add variety, trains muscles in different ways, and create a balance in the body.
Another great benefit is that cross training helps improve overall fitness and accelerates results. If programmed correctly, cross training should be that missing puzzle piece to your fitness plan. Whatever your body is lacking, cross training should provide that. You get the complete picture and are then able to optimize results.
Tips on Cross Training :
Knowing why you need to cross train provides purpose and, hopefully, motivates you to branch out into different types of workouts. Knowing why is only useful if you also know how to actually do it. In case you are lost as to where to even start, here are a few tips to help guide you in that planning:
- Know what you do now
- You can’t pick effective ways to cross train, if you don’t know what your current routine looks like. A fitness journal of what you do each week can be very helpful. For example, you may not realize it, but maybe all the classes you pick are strength based. That’s great to do, but to have a well-rounded routine you need that cardio aspect. You can now plan your next week by replacing one or two (depending on how many times per week you workout) strength workouts with a cardio based workout to balance your routine more.
- Cross training doesn’t mean work harder
- Cross training can include flexibility work as well! Your current plan may have a good balance between cardio and strength workouts already. That’s wonderful! In that case, doing an active recovery day or flexibility training may be your missing piece.
- If your normal fitness program involves a majority of high intensity strength and cardio workouts, you 100% need to cross train with flexibility work. A huge part to injury prevention is listening to your body and giving it rest when it needs it. If you workout hard for multiple days in a week, show your body some love and pick a more mind/body workout to break up the intense workouts.
- Every single person benefits from flexibility training! This needs to be included in everyone’s workout routine, no matter the intensity or frequency of workouts.
- Use your resources
- Sometimes it’s hard to see what a plan needs. Seeking help from professionals, like personal trainers, coaches, or fitness professionals, can really take a lot of the guesswork out of cross training.
- Think outside the gym
- If all your workout days are spent at the gym or inside, then maybe the proper cross training activity is changing the location to outside. Anything from kayaking, rollerblading, golf, or walking can be cross training if you don’t do it often. Remember, the whole purpose of cross training is to add variety.
- Don’t forget about proper form
- If you do find that the best cross training is something completely new to you, make sure you get guidance on how to do it correctly. If it’s strength training, get your form look at before you load up on weights. If it’s starting to run, make sure you have proper footwear and have your gait analyzed. Cross training is meant to prevent injuries, so add variety properly!
If you have any questions on this topic, please feel free to contact me at mrausch@healthworksfitness.com or comment below!
Molly’s Fitness Tip of the Week 