In its literal meaning, cross training is a kind of workout or exercise that involves using movements and exercises other than the ones you normally or usually do. As we all know and experienced, a certain body part wears down quickly if you tend to use it most of the time. For example, running exercises uses your legs. If you’re just running every single day, your legs, including muscles, bones, joints and ligaments in the leg area will suffer degeneration much faster than those parts that were seldom used. Through cross training, the problems are being prevented in a way that the body parts involved with the workout or aren’t being worn down much faster.
What is Cross Training and How Does it Help us Lose Weight?
Examples of Cross-training Workouts
- Running and Rowing Workouts
- Biking and Treadmill Workouts
- Swimming and Jogging Exercises
Cross Training and Losing Weight
Needless to say, whenever we do some cross training, not only these workouts prevent our body parts from wearing out easily; it also helps us lose more weight. Listed below are the reasons why Cross Training helps us lose more extra weight.
- Cross training enables more body parts whenever you do serious exercises. Since you’re doing two or more body-specific workouts, you lose more weight due to the fact that parts such as your arms and legs are being used more frequently, therefore building up more muscle and burning up calories at the same time.
- Cross training enables you to do more workouts. Due to the fact that cross training decreases the rate of worn-out legs, arms and joints, pain in these areas are also being decreased or minimize. And since stress is being minimized in those areas, chances are that you can do more workouts.
- Cross training reduces potential workout and exercise boredom. We all know that most of us tend to get bored easily. If you’re doing a certain workout or fitness regimen on a regular basis, you will definitely find it very boring. Once bored, chances are that we will eventually minimize our workout habits, if not totally stop it.
- Cross training improves our motivation in addition to weight loss. Since we’re doing two or more exercises in one workout or training session, we burn our calories faster, therefore helping us lose more weight. And since we’re seeing very good results, there’s no doubt that we’ll get more motivated in doing more workouts.