CROSS-TRAINING
Scioto Audubon Obstacle Course
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The GVWC holds urban cross-training at the Scioto-Audubon Obstacle Course every Thursday at 6:30pm during the summer. This 2-minute video demonstrates all the obstacles. As you can see, it's both fun and challenging. Join us any time!
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As you know, GVWC members are a creative and energetic bunch. In addition to the obstacle course, here are some cross-training activities. Some are classes while others are using the natural enviornment. But they all are activities that your fellow GVWC members pursue. Join them...or find your own. And let us know what you do so we can add it to the list.
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Running stairs
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Box jumps off park benches -- add burpees for extra credit
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Burpees, burpee broad jumps -- and over swings
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Push-ups after every mile
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Cycling
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Barre
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Yoga
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Pilates
Though it's an important foundation for physical fitness, walking is not enough for total health and fitness. In order to get -- and stay -- as healthy as we can for as long as we can, we must improve our mobility, strength, balance, and mental acuity through a variety of exercise. That is where cross-training comes in.
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What's cool about cross-training, though, is that there's not one way to do it. It's whatever, wherever and whenever we want it to be. The possibilities are endless; which keeps it fresh, changes it up, and ensures it's always challenging. And it doesn’t have to cost a lot, if any!
At the GVWC, we like to take advantage of our natural environment for cross-training. You don’t have to look very far -- the back yard, a neighborhood park, the sidewalk -- to find opportunities for outdoor workouts.
So, what is Cross-Training?
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Merriam Webster's definition:
Cross-train: intransitive verb - to engage in various sports or exercises especially for well-rounded health and muscular development.
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Variety is the key to well-rounded health and muscle development, which you are likely not able to achieve through any one particular training or exercise program (such as marathon training). Author Daniel Kunitz published an article in The Wall Street Journal, "Lift: Fitness Culture, From Naked Greeks and Acrobats to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors." Kunitz argues that the working out by isolating muscles (as in through exercise machines) is out, and that functional exercise is more appropriate. Here is an exerpt:
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"How had the machines been improved? They were devised to make exercise easier. They restricted your range of motion and put less stress on the joints. By isolating muscles, they did the work of stabilizing for you, fixing your joints in place and removing your core from the process. The problem is that functional strength demands the use of all those little stabilizing muscles that exercise machines take out of the process: When you and your spouse want to move a sofa, you won't have a machine to stabilize you when you try to lift it from a squat."
Another benefit of cross-training is that it can be done in shorter exercise periods, usually at high intensity. High intensity interval training (HIIT) has become very popular. One recent study referenced in Mens Health Magazine has shown that 10 minutes of cross-training acheives the same health benefits as 50 minutes of steady state cardio. Imagine: the same health benefits in less time!
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