If you are like most people you find it hard to find the time to get into a place and exercise. In fact if you are normal you usually have so much going on that you actually can't find the time to work it in. That is why it is so critical that when you actually get the time that you make the most of it. The best way to do that is to do what is known as cross training.
Most people do the same exercise, such as running for example and they think that is good enough. The truth of the matter is that if all you are doing is one routine then you are doing a great disservice to your body, your muscles and your overall health. Different muscles move in different ways and if you want to truly improve your overall condition you need to find a method to work out all of them effectively.
Cross training will improve your overall cardiovascular system and will allow you to take your exercise and the benefits form it to the next level. It allows you to condition more than the one or two muscles groups that you are using in your singular exercise routine.
It is important for someone like a professional runner to make sure that they specifically train to improve the muscles in the legs and thighs. But if you follow a professional you will see that they also work on improving the overall fitness by using other exercises that help to tone, strengthen and define the other areas of the body. That is because they are aware that the best way to improve overall and to increase the endurance and stamina is to cross train and improve all the muscles in the body and not just the areas that they use when running.
When cross training you can choose exercises that are complimentary to each other for example such as biking and swimming. Both of these exercises will use complimentary muscle groups and will help increase the rate at which the benefits are derived from the other one.
What people don't understand is that the body uses the same muscles in different types of activities. It just uses them in different ways. SO if you want that muscle to be used as effectively as is humanly possible then you need to work it in your exercise program in different ways so it has a chance to develop and improve and build in density and overall strength. The cross training will allow this to happen and as a direct result it will increase your overall aerobic function while decreasing the chances of injury or fatigue from overuse or misuse of that specific muscle or muscle group.
At this point you are most likely starting to see what we are talking about and you can sort of understand that there might be some portions in cross training that are worth your looking into. I am also sure that you would like to know exactly what the benefits of cross training may be. Well let's get into that right now.
The benefits of cross training are multiple and almost infinite but the main benefits you will get from doing it is that you will freshen up your routine. Let's face it, as a rule exercising is fairly boring. Adding something new makes it more interesting. It will allow you to be more flexible as to your timing. If you want to go swimming but the pool is closed you can go running for example.
As we pointed out above it will give you a much more rounded and higher level of results and will help you develop and condition more of the body than you will with just one exercise. This will also reduce the overall chances of injury because more of your body is getting the benefits from the workout and while some muscles get a workout on one routine, they get to rest on the other so it is a more rounded pattern.
Even if you should sustain some form of injury, if you are working on cross training there is going to be some type of exercise that you have been doing that might still be able to be done. You will notice that your balance, skill and agility levels are all going to improve as you begin adding cross training into your workout.
There is a plethora of exercises that can be worked into your cross training schedule. You can choose just a few or work in a bunch. It is entirely up to you and your body and conditioning level. Typically though a trainer will tell you that you should try and limit the number of different exercises to three to get the maximum benefit.
You can choose from swimming, bicycling, running, rowing, climbing stairs with a stair climber. There is jumping rope and skating, skiing and racquetball or basketball and other assorted sports of that type. You can get into the gym and lift weights and do strength training and the old standard standby calisthenics like push ups and sit ups and crunches and even things like yoga are considered cross training.
The secret to having it work well for you is to try and come up with routines that compliment the muscle groups that are worked by the others without completely duplicating the repetitive movements of the others. That way you are building the muscle groups in a well-rounded fashion that is likely to have a greater and farther reaching effect on your bodies total overall fitness level. When you are cross training it is up to you whether you do one or more exercises per day and that will likely be determined by necessity in your schedule. You can and should vary the order in which you do the cross training routines to stay off boredom and increase the exercise effectiveness. Changing it up also helps to challenge your body in new and exciting ways.
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