In this day and age, working out is becoming more important than ever. It is essential that you can find a particular exercise or group of exercise that you genuinely enjoy doing on a daily or weekly basis so that working out becomes less of a chore and more of a enjoyable activity to do in your free time. However, sticking to one exercise or one routine for prolonged periods of time could actually be to your detriment. Even more important than finding an enjoyable exercise or exercise routine is finding different ways to switch it up from time to time and participate in new exercises that utilize different parts of your body or utilize similar parts of your body but in a different way. There are a multitude of benefits that go along with cross training and by the end of this blog, hopefully you will be convinced to make cross training an integral part of your exercise schedule.
- Improves Your Fitness
This point may seem like it hardly needs to be said, but cross training will have a great positive effect on your overall fitness. Adding versatility to your workouts will help to condition different muscles and will prevent your muscles from getting accustomed to the same type of exercises that are performed over and over again. In this way, you will improve your fitness and also increase overall power and efficiency.
- Prevent Injuries
Performing the same exercises repetitively over and over again can have a very negative effect on your musculature. Constantly performing the same activity without the proper maintenance can cause overuse injuries and may cause you to be on the sideline, so to speak, for a significant amount of time. If you are a runner, for example, you are repeating the same movement continuously, so it is important to do exercises that will strengthen the supporting muscles around the hips, legs and ankles in order to help prevent those overuse injuries.
- Improve Posture and Coordination
Overuse of particular muscle groups can not only cause injuries, but it can cause your body to favor or rely very heavily on one side or one part of the body. Cross training can help remove these imbalances and get you back to a natural posture and a general increase in overall coordination.
- Great For Mental Strength
Mixing up your training routines can actually help you maintain your mental health. Physical exercise helps to improve mental clarity through the release of endorphins in the brain. Depending on the type of day that you had, you may be looking for a sense of calm and tranquility or you made need an immediate physical release. For example, had a stressful day? Go enjoy a long run or a yoga session. Come home angry or frustrated? Go and release those aggravations with a HIIT session instead.
- Faster Recovery
Whatever your preferred sport or activity is, you will need some rest days in order to let your body recover and get the most out of your training. These off days are a great time to try something new. One of the main benefits of cross training is that it allows you to engage in periods of active recovery alongside periods of rest. This can increase overall fitness as well as recovery. Yoga is great to get involved in as a form of recovery as yoga increases blood flow to sore and fatigued muscles, allowing tightness and soreness to be removed more effectively and efficiently.
