Cross Training
One of the biggest misconceptions about exercise is that there is “one” program that works for someone all the time. People think that they need to get on a particular workout program and just keeping doing that program over and over again. Although getting on a good program IS a necessary first step, ensuring that your body doesn’t adapt to that program is critical to ensuring that your results don’t slow down or stop!
In order to maintain the effectiveness of your workouts over the long term, you have to employ a concept known as cross training. Although there is no hard and fast definition of cross training, the basic idea is that you continually change your exercise program to work both your muscular and your cardiovascular systems in a variety of ways, forcing your body to adapt to a new stimulus. Remember that the whole idea behind exercise is to make your body do things that it is not used to doing. In response to that effort, your body naturally adapts in order to meet the changing energy demands of the activities that you engage in. This process happens with your muscles, as well as with your heart, lungs, and circulatory system – collectively known as the cardiovascular system. To ensure you get the most out of your cross training efforts, you should make changes to the activities that challenge your muscles as well as your cardiovascular system.
Challenging Your Muscles
When you are putting together the muscular training part of your exercise program, remember that the primary mission of the activities is to challenge your muscles and connective tissues – tendons and ligaments – beyond their normal boundaries. For example, if you were to pick up a suitcase that only weighed 5 pounds, it would probably not be very difficult for you. However, if that same suitcase had 50 pounds worth of items inside, it would be significantly more difficult to pick up and carry. In response to that increased demand, your body would recruit additional muscle fibers to assist with the work, and in some cases would even recruit a different type of muscle fiber. Although we won’t get into the details about the different types of muscle fibers in the human body, you do want to take away the fact that the number and type of muscle fibers recruited for any given task is proportionate directly to the difficulty of the task.
Let’s apply this concept to weight training – or resistance training, as it is often called. If you were going to do a basic bicep curl with 5 pounds, your body would engage a certain number and type of muscle fibers. Doing exactly the same exercise with a more challenging weight would cause your body to need additional resources in order to handle the increased demand. However, is that only true of picking up a heavier weight? What would happen if you used the same weight, but did a higher number of repetitions? The same basic concept applies – your body will recruit additional resources in order to accomplish the task. What can be determined from that fact is that in order to change the stimulus on your body, two easy ways to do so are are to increase the weight and/or increase the number of repetitions.
However, there are other ways to challenge a particular muscle group in addition to simply adding weight or repetitions. What about changing the position of your body when you do the exercise? Using the same example as above – the bicep curl – most people do the basic version of that exercise standing up, with their arms extended, elbows at the side, and palms facing forward. What if you were to do the same exact movement, only this time, you turn your palms to face the center of your body throughout the entire exercise? Do you see how that would change the stimulus? You would still be engaging the biceps of your upper arm, but you would also engage the muscles of your forearms in a different way, just because of the position of your palms.
Further, what if you were to change the speed at which you did the exercise? Most resistance exercises should be done as a basic count of 2 seconds during the initial phase (also known as the concentric phase), and then a count of 3 to 4 seconds during the second phase of the movement (known as the eccentric phase). What if you were to reverse that process? Count to 4 during phase one, and only count to 2 during phase two. Do you think your body would need to react differently to handle the different stress? Of course!
There are many, many different kinds of exercises for the biceps. If you normally do bicep curls, hammer curls, and cable curls, what would happen if you started using 2 or 3 of the bicep curl machines instead? Your body would have to adapt to the new stimulus! By sitting down in a bicep curl machine, you are no longer using your leg, back, and abdominal muscles to stabilize yourself like you were when you were standing up doing a bicep curl. However, by locking your body into a certain position on the machine, you are isolating the biceps, allowing you to focus more on the contraction of the bicep muscles during the movement. Does that mean that the machines are better than the dumbbells? No. It also does not mean that the dumbbells are better than the machines – it just depends on what your goal is. What you need to take away from this section is not that one exercise is better than another – just that they are different, and that is cross training.
To summarize, here are but a few of the ways that you can cross train your muscles:
* Heavier Weights
* Higher Number of Repetitions
* Change the Position of Your Body
* Modify the Speed of the Exercise
* Use Machines as well as Free Weights
Challenging Your Cardiovascular System
Just like the muscular system, your body will find ways to adapt to the cardiovascular training that you do, and before long you will stop seeing a high degree of results. Let’s try to use some of the same concepts that we applied to resistance training, and see if they also apply to cardiovascular training!
Heavier Weights
How can you make yourself heavier? Most people are trying to make themselves LIGHTER when they exercise! However, if you are able to find a safe way to increase the total amount of weight that your body is moving during cardiovascular training, don’t you think that the activity would be more difficult, and force your body to adapt? Sure it would!
A common method that people use to do this is one that you should NOT do, and that is strap on wrist weights or ankle weights, or to carry dumbbells while you are doing cardio. Although this does increase the total amount of weight being moved by your body, it also puts a stress on your joints that is not natural, and therefore, not a good idea. However, alternatives that DO work include putting on an adjustable weighted vest, or even just strapping on a backpack with some weights or books in it! The idea is to keep the additional weight as close to your body as possible, away from easily damaged joints.
Higher Number of Repetitions
Although you don’t normally count repetitions when you are doing cardio, you DO take a certain number of steps, have a certain number of revolutions per minute on the elliptical or the bike, or you take a certain number of steps on the stair master. Do you think that increasing those numbers would help? You bet! Whether it be by staying on the equipment for longer, or just working out harder to get a higher number of steps or revolutions in the same amount of time, either way you have changed the stimulus on your cardiovascular system (not to mention your legs!), and by reacting to that new stress, your cardiovascular system will burn more calories while adapting to the new program.
Change the Position of Your Body
You may be asking yourself at this point just how many positions can the body be in when you are walking on the treadmill? The answer is PLENTY! Changing the incline of the equipment is an obvious way to change the position of your body, provided you continue to STAND UP STRAIGHT. If you hunch over, or grab the machine for support, you are defeating the purpose. What about leaning backwards or forwards when riding a bike, or peddling an elliptical? By changing the angle at which your legs are pushing on the machine, you are most certainly changing the stimulus, forcing your body to adapt!
Modify the Speed of the Exercise
This one pretty much goes without saying! Go faster, and you’ll burn more calories, and elicit a new adaptive response from your body. However, what about going slower? What if you are used to the Cycling class where your instructor seems to be made of steel, and can spin his/her legs around 80,000 times a minute for 30 minutes straight? Can slowing down be as effective as that? Sure it can! Trying reaching down to tighten up the resistance knob on that bike past your normal comfort level, and it’s guaranteed that your body and your legs will have to find a new way to provide energy, even though you are actually going slower than you were a few minutes ago.
Use Machines as well as Free Weights
Other than what we discussed above with weight vests/backpacks vs. ankle/wrist weights, you really don’t use free weights during cardio. However, you DO ride a treadmill or an exercise bike or a stair master on a regular basis, right? Trade those machines in for the real thing! Go outside and go for a brisk walk or a jog. Use a REAL bike and get out for some fresh air and an invigorating ride around your area. Find a tall building in your area and walk up and down the stairs. It’s a safe bet that after a few flights you’ll be wishing you were back on the stair master with it’s motorized movement assistance!
The examples above have been just a few ways that you can cross train your body. There are many different training protocols, and literally thousands of different exercises that the human body is capable of. You should research as many different training protocols as possible, and even enlist the aid of a personal trainer if you need help setting up a program for yourself, or to change the program that you are already on. Remember, the key is to make your body ADAPT to new stimulus as often as possible!
Now get out there and get some exercise!
Aaron Potts is the owner and creator of Fitness Destinations, a content-filled health and fitness website for consumers as well as professionals in the fitness industry. Aaron’s experience in the health and fitness industry includes one on one personal training in many different environments, maintenance of several health-related websites, and authoring of many fitness-related products for consumers and fitness professionals. fitnessdestinations.com
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5 Tips For Weight Loss
Are you ready to lose some weight? Perhaps you’re surfing for the magic pill that will vanish your weight away. Maybe you’re simply searching for the right information to help you lose and keep the weight off. Whatever the case, here’s some surefire tips to help you with your weight loss.
1. Do your homework. As you start your weight loss plan, take the time to carefully evaluate your situation. What caused the weight gain? Pregnancy? Inactivity? Overeating and binging? Emotions? There are many triggers in our lives that will cause us to gain weight. Some can be prevented or eliminated, some can’t. It’s important as you begin your weight loss to understand and come to grips with the cause of your weight. Be honest with yourself. Don’t cheat on this one. Obviously, you want to have your weight loss become permanent.
In order to keep off the weight in the future, you may have to make some lifestyle changes to stay slim. Don’t give up before you start. There’s usually more than one solution to any weight gain reason. Just remain open-minded, and be willing to change to get the results you desire. Don’t hesitate to read and learn as much as you can about weight gain. It’s really easy to understand, and you may be surprised at what you learn.
2. Avoid Hidden Calories. Here’s an over simplified version of weight loss and weight maintenance? if you eat more than your body needs, you gain weight. If you eat less (reduce calories) than your body needs, you lose weight! While it sounds simple enough, just eat less ?.Right? Basically that’s true. Yet, there are other things that come into play as one is trying to lose weight. One common mistake many people make as they diet is the fact they don’t really understand how much is provided by the food they are eating. This is especially true with eating out and eating snack foods and beverages.
A serving as defined by the scientific communities on weight loss and a serving that your local restaurant provides is most often very different. For example, one serving of bread is typically one slice. Yet, the average bun in a fast food restaurant is actually almost three servings. A single serving of French fries is 15 fries. Just take a guess at how many servings are in a "Biggie" French fry container.
Also, don’t be fooled into thinking just because a bag of popcorn is small, that it’s a single serving. The same thing goes for beverages. The bottle may contain16 oz. Yet, the serving size may be 4 ounces. Pay attention to actually how many servings of food and beverages you are actually consuming. The amount may surprise you.
I’ll give you an example, my son-in-law who’s 28 was had put on several pounds. His favorite cola is Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew has higher sugar content than most other cola’s. He didn’t have a clue as to how may calories he was consuming by drinking 3 or 4 24 oz bottles a day. When my daughter told him, he was amazed. He replaced the cola with water and went from a 38" waist to a 34" waist in about two months. Be careful, you may be consuming more than you think.
3. Consider Diet Pills Carefully. Maybe one of your diet buddies has decided to buy diet pills, or maybe you’ve seen or heard a commercial for diet supplements promising easy fast weight loss. If so, please evaluate CAREFULLY! Even the most natural-sounding diet pills or weight loss supplements can be useless for weight loss, or dangerous, or both. Diet pills are very tempting things if you want to lose weight, especially if you have tried several conventional weight loss plans without success. The side effects and dangers of some diet and weight loss pills can vary enormously because many of these pills contain a cocktail of ingredients and because dosage instructions may be inadequate. Possible side effects include: nervousness, tremor, diarrhea, bulging eyes, racing heartbeat, elevated blood pressure even heart failure.
There are some instances when diet pills can be helpful. Usually these are indicated in the truly obese person. For the person wanting to lose 5 or 10 pounds, they usually aren’t necessary. So you may ask, how does the diet pills work to cause weight loss, while I continue to eat the same amount? In recent years, it seems everyone has the PERFECT answer to help with your weight loss. There are almost as many weight loss methods and diet pills available as there are people who want to lose weight.
There are diet pills that stop your hunger so you eat less and burn more fat. There are diet pills that cause the body not to metabolize all the food you eat, so it’s passed out of your system and not stored as fat. There’s combination of these two. As you begin your search for the perfect diet pill, be careful as some can have harmful effects on your body. Diet Pills work by shifting levels of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) that control satiety (fullness) and desire for food. Some also slightly increase your metabolic rate – the rate at which your body burns calories.
Examples of weight loss diet pills include:
Diethylpropion hydrochloride (eg. Tenuate)
Mazindol (eg. Mazanor, Sanorex)
Phendimetrazine tartrate (eg. Bontril)
Phentermine hydrochloride (eg. Adipex-P, Ionamin)
4. Monitor/Increase Your Activity – Regardless whether you’re taking diet pills or not to help with your weight loss, it’s still important to maintain a regular exercise program. This is beneficial not only for your weight loss, but also for your overall health. In many ways we in the developed country have a much more sedentary lifestyle than our bodies need. Obviously it’s easier for us than in the era when people had to be very active simply to survive, yet it’s not necessarily healthy for us not to be active. Start and maintain some sort of exercise plan no matter what your age. Especially for the middle-aged and older people exercise play a very, very important role in the quality of health and staying within normal weight ranges.
5. Develop a Plan for Maintenance. Even if you’re taking diet pills to help with your weight loss it’s important to keep in mind, that once you stop the pills, unless you maintain a balance between your activity level and the food you eat the weight will come back. While it may take some time to become accustomed to a change in diet and activity, the rewards are well worth the time and effort spent to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
Hilda Maria is a freelance writer with 5 children who knows the importance of a balanced diet for them. She enjoys providing useful knowledge about weight loss and regular exercise to her readers as well as to her children.
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