A healthy lifestyle can not be achieved without incorporating some form of regular exercise. Physical activity that raises your heart rate for a period of time and gets you sweating such as running, cycling and weight training, is good news for your heart and lungs. There are also less intense types of exercise such as Yoga and Pilates which promote healthy joints, core strength and supple muscles through flexibility, stretching and effective movement. Ideally you want an exercise regime that combines the best of a variety of exercise disciplines, this is where cross training comes in.
What Is Cross Training?
Cross training provides a complete workout for the body and this training technique is deployed by many professional athletes. As the name suggests, cross training involves using different exercise disciplines to give you a varied and effective workout. This way the muscles and body never become use to one exercise or discipline, and more benefit is derived such as more calories being burned or greater levels of fitness.An example of this may be to have a training regime that consists of weight lifting, cycling, running and swimming. You could even combine a cardio workout (cycling, running, circuits, etc.) with a discipline that uses stretching and promotes flexibility as well as combining mind with body such as Yoga or Pilates.
What Are The Benefits Of Cross Training For Fitness?
Effective training will work a variety of muscle groups, giving you a full body workout. Boredom can also be a major problem when you exercise regularly and rarely change your routine. This can often lead to a lack of motivation which may ultimately lead to you giving up. Cross training techniques will give your exercise regime variety and real purpose. It will allow you to target numerous goals, depending on what you are looking to achieve. You may be looking to build muscles mass, burn body fat, enhance muscle tone, build core strength or even train for a marathon. Cross training will help you achieve a number of exercise goals over the same period of time.
What Are The Benefits Of Cross Training For Weight Loss?
For a lot of us our main exercise goal is to lose weight, cross training can be very effective in helping us achieve this. When you repeatedly do the same exercise, your body becomes use to it and starts to perform it more effectively while burning fewer calories in the process. This is one reason why you can hit a weight loss plateau if you stick to the same routine. Using cross training will disturb the muscles, keeping them working hard while your body burns fat effectively.
Cross training will keep your exercise routines fresh and exciting, ensuring you get the maximum benefit from them. You will have the opportunity to work and develop more muscle groups while burning more calories and body fat.
