Thoughts on Cross Training

               I want to delve a bit into some discussion on cross training. Cross training simply is doing something other than specific training for a specific sport. Let’s say you are a runner and run 30 miles a week. Cross training for you may take the form of weightlifting or yoga or cycling, etc. Who should focus on cross training and when should it be done? The answer to this, for the purpose of this discussion, will be for people who are either competitive or recreational athletes focusing on a specific sport. For those focused on overall health and wellness all manner of cross training is applicable.

                As a former strength and conditioning coach I firmly believe cross training holds benefits for an in and out of season athlete IF it is included correctly. Let’s look at two sports that are polar opposites, running and Olympic weightlifting. I choose these because both included a lot of very specific training to exact any measure of results and both are multi joint, full body movements.

                The cross training indications for both are very different for in season versus out of season. I strongly believe that out of season athletes should get as far away from their sport as possible while focusing on maintaining fitness and base line strength levels. For an Olympic lifter this may mean basketball or swimming, etc. Whatever the athlete finds fun and refreshing. The off season needs to be a mental as well as physical break. For a runner this may take the form of triathlons or some other endurance type of sport.

                Out of season cross training is really quite simple. If an athlete asks if they should do an activity the answer is generally yes unless it could cause injury or be detrimental to in season. In season cross training becomes much more difficult to choose. I would strongly recommend asking your coach why you are doing an activity and if he or she cannot give you an answer that directly correlates to your sport, you may want to switch coaches (if possible) or have a serious discussion as to why you believe this cross training isn’t the right choice.

                So, how do you choose the right cross training activity if you are an in season athlete? First, it is essential that you are doing some form of cross training in early to mid season and even later in some cases. The right cross training regimen for you should:

1)      Be applicable to your sport

2)      Enhance whatever training you are doing at the time

3)      Address a deficiency in your training program that your sport training doesn’t cover

4)      Be scheduled so the workouts fit into your program without taking time away from sport specific training

Let’s look at some examples. When I took over the strength and conditioning for the college track team I coached, all of the athletes were doing the same workouts. This means the 10,000 meter runners were doing the same lifting routines as the sprinters, jumpers, and throwers. It was a canned generic program that was short changing everyone on the team. Since we are focusing on running let me address what we did with the milers and up.

        I asked the athletes why they were doing the lifting they were doing which was 1 rep max based and had some aspects of hypertrophy thrown in. They said it was because it was what they were told to do. The lifting sessions were actually hurting their running. We sat as a group and broke down the deficiencies that strictly running wasn’t addressing. We came to two main areas, core strength and upper body carriage.

Historically runners don’t focus on anything but running. If you watch film of runners from a biomechanical standpoint you will see most start losing form in the upper body the longer they progress into a race. The arms and shoulders will drop, the back will round or the stomach will distend, and efficiency will decrease along with performance. The answer for my runners became cross training for upper body and core strength.

The next question became “what kind of strength?” 1 rep max style heavy lifting was strongly contraindicated. We surely didn’t want our runners adding bulk and they needed carriage for up to 6.2 miles, not 30 seconds. We cycled them through more circuit style, high rep, low weight lifting sequences that addressed muscle endurance, not mass gain. We also added stability ball style core routines to strengthen the mid section and back.

In season Olympic lifters are a unique challenge. Olympic lifting is one of the most athletic events I have come across. It demands huge amounts of strength and power, flexibility, and speed of movement. Some of the most gifted athletes, especially in the eastern European countries gravitate to this obscure sport.

Setting up cross training paradigms for this activity is difficult. Things that must be constantly kept in mind are the size of the athlete, the amount of punishment they are doing to their bodies, and time. In some respects, given the fast twitch muscle nature of the clean and jerk and snatch, how to train large men and women like little men and women is difficult.

Again breaking down the sport specific training and identifying gaps that can be covered by cross training is essential. One of the methodologies we have used is yoga. Speed and power are covered through the practice of the lifts. Strength is also built. Flexibility however, and even active recovery to a certain extent, are a gap in Oly lift training paradigms. Yoga helps prepare the body for the deep catch in the clean portion and also the snatch. It also has directly attributable benefits for core strength. It is a methodology that makes sense for the in season athlete.

The point of all of this is to choose activity wisely. While swimming may make sense for an in season runner, powerlifting probably doesn’t. Evaluate your needs on these following points and you will realize increased performance.

Things to consider when choosing Cross Training Methodologies

1.       Where you are in the training cycle? Are you in season (early, middle or late) or out of season?

2.       What are trying to accomplish with the cross training? Have you identified a deficiency in your training cycle that, by cross training, will increase your performance but isn’t covered in the sport specific training?

3.       Are all methodologies in the cross training the same or must you drill deeper to choose the activity? For instance, you have decided you need to hit the weight room. Are you going to circuit train or powerlift or Oly lift? Are plyometrics indicated or contraindicated, etc?

4.       How should you periodize your cross training? Is it linear (the same workout weekly) or is it progressively overloaded (gains in the cross training methodology)?

5.       Is the time I will devote to cross training going to increase my performance more than if I concentrated on my sport specific activity? Most of us live under a time crunch. We only have finite resources to devote to training around work, family, etc. The economic term is opportunity cost, or, the cost of doing one thing versus another (the cost of doing activity one instead of activity two). If you can’t quantifiably come up with the answer that yes, the cross training will move my performance up, don’t do it.

I hope this has been of some benefit. Please feel free to email at terry@in2liquidyoga.com if you have any questions. Now get out there and train like champions!