Whether you are a die-hard gym-junkie or a “start and stopper” (you start a fitness program, follow it diligently for several weeks or months, then stop), or somewhere in between, no doubt you’ve hit a point when you were either:

• Tired of exercise
• Tired of the gym
• Tired of your routine
• Tired of not making steady progress…

I could add more, but I think you get the point: at some point, your exercise routine, no matter how regimented (or not) it is, might get stale. Psst…I have a secret: An often over-looked, but very important, component of that plan is “recovery” time!

Recovery time is built into fitness plans to allow the body time to rest. During this built-in rest time, lots of good stuff happens. Muscles rebuild themselves and metabolic changes take place at a cellular level. There is a lot going on when we exercise that we may not feel or see. Without recovery days, the body can’t properly rebuild and repair. Miss these important rest days enough times, and several things may occur:

• Burn out
• Injury
• Lack of progress (you won’t see further adaptations – you’ll “plateau”)

Follow this “Rule of Thumb”: 1-2 days of rest per week, not necessarily in a row. For weight training, switching to a cardiovascular activity the following day, or training different muscle groups, will allow the muscles previously trained time to adapt and recover. The same goes for cardiovascular activity: after several days in a row of cardio, a day of rest or cross-training is a good idea. This will give you a chance to work different muscles and allow the muscles typically used a chance to rest. So if you are a runner, cross-training with cycling or swimming gives the “running” muscles a chance to rest. This is why Triathlon training is often called the perfect “triad” — cross-training is built in!

How do you like that creative title? Sometimes, all you need to say is all you need to say. More to the point…cross training is super important, and after a quick look at my post log revealed a glaring lack of information about this super important topic, thought I’d better hop to it and tell you why, CROSS TRAINING IS IMPORTANT!

Think about this for a minute – if you spent all of your day walking forward and that is all you did (no sitting, no bending, no lunging, squatting, or even stooping, no climbing…okay, you get the picture), what do you think would happen to the muscles getting perpetually used? Yep- they’d be over-worked. And the muscles not getting used? They would be under-worked, under-developed (i.e, weak). The end result? Muscle imbalance, over-use injuries, and a host of other problems. The morale of the story: mix up your movement.

The temptation to do the same type of workout (heck, maybe even the same exact workout), is strong, and hey, I get it. It is easier to do the same thing – it takes the thinking (and planning) out of it. But, alas, variety is the spice of life, and also the ingredient that will help you achieve the results you want to achieve.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you are training for a running race. Most plans call for 3-5 days of running at various distances and speeds with a day or two of recovery built in, as well as a day or two of cross-training. the purpose of cross-training in this case (and in all cases, really), is to balance out the program by providing resistance to the working muscles different from the normal method; to strengthen muscles not typically used during the training program; to stretch tight muscle groups; and to reduce impact to overused muscles. There are many other reasons, which I’ll circle back to in another post.

Examples of cross-training in this scenario (i.e, for a runner), might include: swimming, cycling, elliptical training, strength training, yoga or Pilates, dancing, or rock climbing. Once you break free of the idea that doing something different is hard, bad, a step backward (and it is NONE of those things), you’re free to experiment and have fun! Chances are very good, in fact, that you’ll improve at your sport because you’ll have balance in your routine. Odds are even better that you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite sport even longer, because cross-training truly does help prevent overuse injuries.

I’ll leave off here. Next post…the nitty-gritties of cross-training, how to do it, when to do it, and how often to do it.

Stay tuned…

I did a really, really dumb thing yesterday…I injured myself (while cross-training, of all things), because I listened to the instructor instead of the voice in my own head. Yes, you heard me right -I basically just told you to not listen to a fitness instructor.  Let me explain.

Maybe this was a premonition, or just a timely idea, but I found a bookmark the other day that said, “There is only one of me. There is only one of anybody. That is why steps look different on different people.” Judith Jamison said that. She was a well known dancer and choreographer, and obviously was aware that we are all individuals. Individually, we move differently because our bodies are put together differently. My range of motion is different than yours, yours is different than your neighbors, etc. Respect that. Know your limits.

I know, I’m usually encouraging you to push the limits…imagine NO limits…REMOVE limits. Those are “perceived” limits though – the kind of limits we place on ourselves such as, “I can’t do a triathlon, because I’m afraid to swim.” That is a fixable problem. The kind of limits I’m talking about are physical limits. Yes, there really are such things, and if you’ve ever tried yoga, you well know what I’m talking about. No doubt that first class felt awkward, hard, frustrating. Am I right? I doubt your body could bend and twist quite the same way as, well, any given person. Maybe you were more flexible. Maybe less. Alas, we are all different.

Now back to my dumb injury. I know my limits, and had been nursing a cranky piriformis problem for several months. Opting to attend a boot camp class I’ve frequented a few times this year (thinking the cross-training would do me some good), I did a stupid thing: I missed the warm up because I arrived late. Then, I did another silly thing: I listened to the instructor’s advice when she (not very tactfully, mind you) informed me that I wasn’t sprinting during one of her intervals because I wasn’t on my toes. A) I don’t sprint, and B) I don’t run on my toes. Ever. But, opting to prove to both myself and the instructor that I could, indeed, do it the “right” way, I badly strained my piriformis and part of my glute. Hurt like the devil, I tell you, but you know what? I’m the only one to blame. I knew better. The thing is, you might not, and I don’t want any of my readers to fall into this trap of, 1) aiming to please an instructor  (I could say more, but will take the higher road here), and 2) trying to prove something to yourself or anyone else, especially when you know your limits.

Listen to your body. Respect your physical limitations (you know what they are.) And finally, don’t assume that because someone is teaching a class, she knows your body. Only you know what your body can truly do – respect that, and don’t be afraid to tell an instructor, “sorry, I’m doing it my way, because I don’t feel comfortable trying something I don’t think I’m ready for.”

To your health, and SAFETY!