Advanced Cross Training
As time goes by, humanity constantly innovates. Today, we are going to discuss the details of the new sporting trend: cross training. This training method is causing an uproar in the world of fitness since it’s characterized by reaching advanced levels. It helps athletes to achieve almost incredible goals.
Going deeper into cross training, we find that it’s a very different way of working out. This is because it gives you the freedom to combine different physical activities. This, in addition to training your entire body, also reduces the risk of suffering from injuries or lacerations.
Cross Training
You must be wondering if you can actually do half an hour of running and one hour of weights? Does it count as cross training? In theory, yes! However, it’s not the way you should do it. Each sport and training routine must be carefully selected and ordered so that you don’t exhaust your body.
It’s ideal to combine low and high impact sports. This way, the body can acquire strength, resistance, and proprioception without becoming tired. The following is an example of what a weekly cross training schedule may look like:
- Monday: swimming.
- Tuesday: weight training.
- Wednesday: yoga or Pilates.
- Thursday: aerobic exercise (cardio, Zumba, running, among others).
- Friday: exercises with a trampoline or pilates ball.
Weekends are for rest. If you can’t train every day, you can choose two or three days and rotate the exercises. What you should always remember is that you can’t complete a whole week of high impact workouts. Divide the exercises and pace them in a way that you aren’t going to over-exert your body.
Benefits
Cross training has many benefits that you can take advantage of. Nowadays, human beings seek to stay healthy and at the same time to perform well in their daily activities involving their work, family, and home. This method, despite being different, provides balance. You can keep your body healthy without experiencing any problems. These are its other benefits:
- Develops fitness in a complete way: thanks to the variety of cross-training activities, aspects such as muscles, resistance, coordination, and strength are acquired completely.
- Less risk of injury: usually people who are engaged in a single discipline of high impact are more prone to trauma. This doesn’t happen in cross training since we maintain a balance between low and high impact workouts.
- Promotes weight loss and tones the muscles: the variety of exercises harden muscles, which in turn helps to eliminate fat.
- It’s dynamic: the problem with doing only one sport is that it can become boring. Cross training always keeps you motivated thanks to its versatility.
Advanced level
Now, is it the same for everyone? No, there are different levels. However, these levels depend on your athletic performance. That is, you must adjust the intensity of each exercise or sport to your body’s capacity. For example, if you are a beginner and you initiate weight training, you should start with weights between four and nine pounds.
On the other hand, if you have experience in exercising and are in optimal physical condition, then you can raise the requirement of each training session. In other words, make exercises and routines more difficult. You must remember that increasing the difficulty doesn’t mean altering the order and modifying the physical activities. Therefore, an advanced cross-training workout would look like this:
- Monday: swimming using chest stroke, butterfly stroke, and backstroke.
- Tuesday: bench press, squats, and burpees.
- Wednesday: yoga, Pilates, or flexibility exercises.
- Thursday: TBC, HIT, or cardio.
- Friday: dance or riding a bicycle.
Cross training is a good way to train if you are someone who likes to constantly change things up. It’s also a way to integrate and learn to operate in different areas. To obtain better results, accompany cross training with a good diet. Regarding all the rest, your effort and dedication are all that remains. Go ahead, enjoy and try a different kind of training!