Benefits of Cross Training
What is in it for me? Someone who puts in effort and participates in cross training will reap many benefits. As with general exercise programs, there are numerous health benefits, such as reducing the risk of major diseases, both physical and psychological. When the body is pushed, it will respond by adapting, which means improvements to you.
As with any well-rounded exercise plan, an individual can expect to see an improvement in overall health. Physically speaking, many health risk factors are lowered such as blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. As those things go down, you are considered to be in better health. The risk of many major diseases such as cancer, metabolic diseases, and cardiovascular diseases can be lowered with exercise as well. Take a second to appreciate this. Just by actively participating in an exercise program, your body responds tremendously well and feels better overall. Not to mention the potential cost of your healthcare could go down as you maintain good health. Additionally, tasks on a daily level become easier, whether that means carrying kids, groceries or moving items throughout your day. As your fitness level increases, these tasks become quite effortless. It is always nice to keep these things in mind and actively appreciate them occasionally.
The mind is something that is complex and amazing. It too receives benefits from participating in cross training. The risk of psychological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and dementia goes down. Multiple research studies have seen decreases in rates of disease and even symptoms as well in those who exercise. The exercise helps to strengthen the connections in the brain to keep it functioning normally.
What do you think happens to your mental toughness over time from cross training? Essentially, you are kicking your own butt every day, both physically and mentally. Each workout tests your ability to push through the pain of the burning fatigued muscles. There are mental battles to overcome as the mind tries to convince you to quit but you refuse as you push through. Experiencing this again and again leads to an increase in general mental toughness. Essentially, it creates an attitude of what can the day bring that is worse than the self-inflicted punishment you go through frequently. This is something that will help out in more ways than you may realize. Even so I must mention, each person handles things their own way and certain events will naturally be extremely difficult to work through, no matter how mentally tough you are.
A great way to handle stressful events is to have an effective outlet for the built up emotion. Use cross training as this outlet. The stress of the day is fuel for the workout. If someone has been making you mad or grumpy at work or elsewhere, use that to push through the workout. Not only will you get a little more out of the workout itself, but it will help to calm your mind and something that was weighing heavily will be small if still there at all.
Having mental toughness and methods to handle stresses of the day impacts your confidence. Mentally, you are aware of what you training means and the work it takes. Not to mention your body will be changing and adapting. As this happens, you will notice clothes starting to fit better and people offering compliments your way. It serves as a prideful moment when this happens and demonstrates others are aware of the work you have been putting in.
Just to recap from above, working out and participating in cross training does help your overall health. That being said, there is something that needs to be mentioned. There is a possibility you may get hurt at some point in your life through an exercise program. Should this scare you? NO. It should NOT impact you as you set up your program. It is a simple fact, as you start to move more, and with added speed or resistance, there is a likelihood that your body may break down at some point. It needs to be a fitness professional’s and the participants’ goal to do everything we can to lower the likelihood of this happening.
First and foremost, you need to perform each exercise safely and correctly. If you are unsure how to properly perform an exercise, please seek out the advice of fitness professional. This professional should preferably have a degree in Kinesiology with a concentration in Exercise Science or at the bare minimum, a certification from American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) (Health Fitness Specialist, personal trainer), National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Personal trainer), or American Council on Exercise (ACE) (Personal Trainer). There are a couple other organizations that have usable certifications but the main point is for you to make sure the person is well educated with the appropriate credentials before you take advice. Only after you have verified the credentials, should you then trust them and work on your form improvements. As you are working out, NEVER sacrifice form. NEVER SACRIFICE FORM. Yes, that statement was repeated and with capitalized letters, meaning it is extremely important.
The reason we fitness professionals care so much about form is because form is the one thing you can work on to greatly reduce the risk of injury. Most injuries happen from people doing things incorrectly. There are reasons why there is “form” for exercise. The body has been studied greatly and that gives us an understanding how it functions. When we are working out, we are essentially looking at ways to add resistance to a certain movement. With over 600 muscles working to move over 200 bones, this process of movement is much more complex than the average person realizes on a given day. Certain movement angles can place stress upon other tendons, ligaments, or muscles themselves. In our daily lives, this typically does not matter as our bodies are tough. When we add weight for resistance, however, it is a different story. The weight can add stress beyond our threshold and injury occurs. Maintaining good form not only prevents this from occurring but it also helps to maximize our benefits as we can make sure the intended muscle groups are getting the work without help from other parts of the body.
There are many experienced individuals that need more focus on their form. Certain lifts such as shoulder press and deadlift always require diligence. For shoulder press, you want to stand straight (or if sitting, keep you upper body straight) but this is not as easy as it sounds. When your shoulders get fatigued, you will notice your body start to arch as your chest will point towards the ceiling. This occurs because your body is adjusting to utilize the big chest muscles to help the smaller deltoids push. The issue is that the back will get hurt from this. When performing deadlift for reps, there is a tendency to lower at the waist to touch the weight and minimize the leg movement. As your legs get fatigued, the body looks to lower the weight by other means. This again places pressure on your back. The take home point here is no matter your skill or experience level, please remain diligent on your form at all times.
Correct form is essential to reducing the risk of injury, but it is not the only thing that matters. Listening to your body, and allowing enough time for it to rest and recover from workouts is key. As you complete a workout, essentially you are inducing stress on your body. It responds to that stress in several ways, such as becoming sore (which is a good thing!). If you do not allow time for the body to rest and recover, it will be broken down easier than before and may even do so where injury results. There can be a fine line between pushing yourself hard and pushing yourself too hard. Typically speaking, you should allow a day of rest in between resistance training workouts for a given muscle group. If the amount of resistance is light or the workload is small, you may be able to work the same muscle group consecutive days but use caution. Most importantly, listen to your body and give it rest. Another way to look at it is to think of the workout itself at the time you breakdown the body. The recovery is when the body rebuilds itself and the improvements are made. Without the recovery, there are no improvements. (Disclaimer: You must be truly pushing yourself for this to apply. There are plenty of people that workout too light and do not require the same recovery time.) The more you work out, the greater your understanding of your body will be.
When you perform a workout, it should always have a similar start and finish. The start should be some sort of warm up to get the blood flowing and the body warm. When you are done, you should have a nice cool down to ease your body back down and lightly stretch. A proper warm up helps to prepare your body for the workout ahead, while the cool down is the first step towards good recovery.
Even with correct form, rest, warm up and cool down, there is still the possibility of an injury occurring at some point in your fitness life. The best athletes in the world often suffer injuries due to the amount of stress put upon their bodies. This should not be something that scares or deters you from working out. If an injury does occur, simply give it rest and seek medical attention to determine the best plan of action. From there, work hard to get back to full health. In the meantime, your workouts will need to be adapted. For instance, if you have a hurt elbow, pushups may be out of the question, but running could be fine. Do not let injuries stand in your way of exercise. Look to be creative and focus on a different area while you heal. Remember, exercise is a lifetime commitment and it will treat you well more so than not!
Now, some people might still be a little uneasy at this moment, but please do not be. You will feel great and your body will look great too. Cross training is great for your body as it utilizes so many different ways of training. It will help to produce one of the most sought after improvements for the body—make it more toned. A countless number of people want to be more toned.
“I don’t want big muscles, I want to be toned.”
“I don’t want to be too skinny or anything, just want to tone this and this area.”
I have heard these and many similar variation countless times before, and if they apply to you, then you are in good luck. Naturally, with cross training, it blends aerobic (think cardio) with anaerobic (resistance training). This means you get the fat burning lean effects of the cardio in combination with the muscle building and metabolism enhancing effects of resistance training. When the focus is on both areas, the body will respond with a leaner toned look. I will be talking about this in more detail later in the book.
The benefits associated with cross training are plentiful. Those who participate in it would be able to talk your ear off about it. I am sure that as you cross train on a frequent basis, you will see some connection to the items I mentioned and will likely identify several others as well. At the end of it all, appreciate the experience and have fun.