Why Cross train?
By
Chris Graff
of
Trackcoach.com
Cross training is a term that describes a wide variety of
athletic activities. Basically it refers to athletic activities that
are not your primary focus. Since our focus is running, cross
training can mean virtually any other activity you use to get into
or maintain physical fitness while you are not running.
People have many different reasons for cross training. If
a person is injured and can’t run, they may chose to cross train to
save some of their fitness until they are healthy and can return to
running. Other people simply enjoy lifting weights, swimming,
cycling, etc., so they put those activities into their training
regime. There is nothing wrong with doing other athletic activities
either in place of or in addition to running, after all, the point
is to enjoy yourself. Any activity that raises your pulse rate and
makes you breathe at an increased rate is helping you to become more
fit because it is building cardio-pulmonary fitness, (heart and
lungs) also known as your aerobic fitness. Cycling and swimming are
especially good activities for runners because they work the leg
muscles as well as the heart and lungs. In addition they are
non-impact activities, which means that unlike running, the body
does not impact the ground making these sports good for people with
weaker bones or stress fractures. Weight lifting builds muscle and
is non-impact, but it generally does not work your heart and lungs
very much, making it a good addition to one of the other activities,
but not a good substitute for them. If a serious leg injury has
occurred and the athlete can not do any of these, often they wil
turn to an arm bicycle to give them some activity which will elevate
their pulse.
Now that I have endorsed these other activities, let me
give you the down side. The best way to get better at doing
something is to practice doing it. The same holds true for running.
The best way to be a better runner is to run, either for more time
or more intensity. In this way we say that running is event
specific
