The Importance of Cross Training

Living in Jackson most people are extremely active and enjoy a variety of different recreational activities from cycling and running, to climbing and mt. biking. Participating in these activities is great for your body and also a lot of fun. Practicing these sports alone can cause your body to become imbalanced, weak in certain muscles, and misaligned. That is why i recommend at least one to two days of cross training.

Training sport specifically in a gym helps with balance, muscle imbalance, strength and mental toughness. When training in a controlled environment the person is able to work on different weaknesses that they have in their cycling for example. I coached a 6 week progressive women's cycling specific course and all the women reported an increase of strength in their cycling. See some previous posts to understand some of the workouts. Some other areas of improvement included less shoulder soreness, stronger pedal stroke and little or no back pain over 50 plus miles of riding. Cross Training can also be a great way to learn about your body and how it functions while increasing your overall fitness for your preferred activity or sport.

Baja Beach Bootcamp with the Ladies!!!!

The ladies: Ashley Magnuson, Hannah Horigan, Hannah Whitney,Pip Hunt

and

Crystal-Rose Lee

I am in Mexico on vacation with 5 awesome ladies that I compete in freeskiing events with. I convinced them to join me on the beach for bootcamp at 730 this morning. The temperature is perfect in the morning for exercise and the ocean is about 75 degrees and perfect for a little swim after. We did a 45 minute workout consisting of work capacity, strength and durability. All a person needs for this workout is a towel and a beach!!

Warm-up: 10 to 1

Push-ups

Touch Jump Touch

Air squats

4 rounds

Full leg blasters

- 20 fast squats

- 20 lunges

- 20 jump lunges

-10 jump squats

6x Jingle Jangles

10x Plank Walk-ups

4 rounds

10x ea Single Leg Touch Down

50x ea Glute Raises

25x ea Donkey Kick

20x Up with a Twist (core)

Stretch and Swim in the Ocean!!!

Cycling Specific Classes

Two weeks ago I started a cycling specific class for women, it has been fun and great for my coaching because the women are very athletic and hard workers, but have a lot of muscle imbalances. I have been working with them to equal out their hamstrings, quads, endurance and power and lastly focusing a lot on core. When cycling a lot certain muscles do all the work and muscles such as the hamstrings, abdominals and shoulders become neglected and weak. The ladies are doing a 6 week progressive and intense cross training program specific to biking. It has been really rewarding to see how strong the women have become only after 2 weeks. The training has been a mix of strength training and work capacity. Here is an example of one of the workouts from last week.

Warm-up: Sandbag get-up 10 min

1. 4 rounds

6xs push press

10xs weighted sit-up

shoulder stretch

2. 4 rounds

6x single leg deadlift

20x each calf raises

instep stretch

3. 4 rounds

10x box jump

10 each single leg touch

run 200 m

10x russian twist

4. 2 rounds

20xs belly blasters

20xs up with a twist

Stretch!!