Should I cross-train?

Should I be cross-training?

Are you wanting to get better/ faster at your favorite sport? If you want to be a faster runner, you need to run, right?  If you want to be better at dancing, you need to dance.

Did you know that complimenting your running/dancing/whatever your sport of choice is with other activities can actually make you better at your core sport? 

I know it can sound counterintuitive. You want me to run less to be a faster runner? Yes. Now I’m not saying you need to STOP running completely. You’ll want to keep your main training focus on your sport – say running. Then you weave in other activities like strength training or another form of cardio. Changing up fitness activity allows us to use our muscles in different ways. 

I’ve never been what you’d call a fast runner, but cross-training did help me increase my running speed. At the time, the intent was not to get faster. I was experiencing some minor yet irritating injuries, so I decided to back off on the running and replaced them with weight training and other types of cardio. I was so afraid that my speed would drop and I would be starting all over. What happened was just the opposite.

By giving my body some much-needed rest from running, I became injury-free, gained a renewed excitement to run AND my time improved!!! That was a WIN – WIN – WIN!!

 I know it is scary to train LESS in your primary sport. Just remember no one sport or activity trains all muscles. We all have areas of weakness. Cross-training helps to shore up that weakness and gives other muscles some rest so they can become even stronger.

Just like we don’t want to ONLY bench press every day, ideally, we are training a variety of muscles in different ways for overall strength and fitness. Remember, we actually get stronger from the rest not from the actual workout.