A common question I’ve been getting is why should I participate in or start cross training or diversifying my training? The easy answer to that is injury prevention. This is especially important with the seasons changing.
I’m going to use my scenario for example. I am a big mountain biker and skier and I know a lot of people in South Lake Tahoe area are into some of the same activities. Biking and skiing are both predominately quad dominate activities, with the difference between a forward motion with biking and side to side for skiing. In a lot of cases there isn’t a lot of carry over between activities. So for this example, I would do a lot of side to side training during the summer for skiing and vice versa doing forward/backward motion during the winter. The other, and more important concern, is addressing those muscles that are not dominantly used with your regular activity. This is where the injury prevention comes into play. This same example would be doing more hamstring training, which would be supportive of the knee. Also, the side to side stability of the hip strengthening has been shown to benefit knee, hip, and low back concerns and a large prevention component. So cross training is good to address the areas that aren’t worked with your typical activity and get balanced in your strength.
The next way that cross training can help prevent injury is decreasing repetitive stress. When you perform the same activity day after day, you are causing repetitive trauma. This trauma, if repetitive and not allowed to recover, will result in injury eventually. The cross training will give you a little break in between bouts of repetitive trauma and allow for some healing time. This will also give you a chance to strengthen other muscles and now you are coming back with stronger balance in muscle groups and more repaired in your repetitive activity.
The last point would be young athletes and specializing in a specific activity. This does apply a little in older adults as well. Changing activities helps to develop young athletes to be better athletes and more rounded and also helps avoid those repetitive injuries as well. Again, this is even more important with the seasons changing and changing some of your seasonal activities.
Tahoe’s Premiere Sports Chiropractor
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