fitbody
by Julie Kailus
cross
training
Workouts to complement a core sport.
You want to get faster, improve your swing, lengthen your stride, boost endurance … or
simply avoid boredom, while pounding the pavement for miles. Cross-training can do all
that, while helping you stay injury-free, so you can keep “just doing” the thing you love,
whether it’s running, cycling, hiking, swimming, tennis, golf or yoga.
W
hat kinds of cross-training best complement
Swimmers – Strengthen Your Stroke
your core sport? The experts we talked with
“If you want to get stronger, faster and more efficient at
say it depends on your athletic goals, physi-
swimming, you have to spend time in the water—and
cal abilities and challenges and the physiology of the
when you swim, you use only swimming muscles,”
core sport. Here, they share their top tips.
advises Wendy Mader, a Masters swim and USA
Go for Complementary Motion
Triathlon Level II-certified coach in Colorado. The
co-founder and owner of t2coaching suggests that
“Football players do ballet because they want con-
swimmers cross-train in ways that strengthen smaller,
sistent core strength and balance—to stay grounded,
opposing support muscles, through activities like
while also having to move in a variety of different
cycling, running or in-water strength training with
ways,” says trainer Patricia Moreno, who develops
resistance bands or cords. She adds that swimmers
classes for New York’s acclaimed Equinox Fitness
tend to overtrain, and says cross-training can help
Clubs and for her workout DVDs.
prevent burnout in the off season.
The point, she explains, is that the best way to
BalanceBall or stability ball exercises and
cross-train for your favorite sport is to complement
Pilates are also ideal cross-training for swimmers,
it with movement patterns that aren’t emphasized in
because they help engage the core, or “powerhouse,”
that activity. Runners, for instance, move in a repeti-
for a stronger stroke and more power in the legs,
tive, linear pattern, without much lateral (side-to-side)
says California personal trainer Tanja Djelevic,
or multidirectional movement.
who has a DVD on the subject and is an expert in
Moreno’s cross-training approaches include a
sport-specific functional training, as well as Pilates
dance cross-train routine that uses various pacing and
and yoga.
dance styles to improve ability in targeted sports in
Respected biomechanics expert and Cross-train-
specific ways. Fast, intricate steps improve coordina-
ing for Sports co-author Gary Moran, Ph.D., suggests
tion and agility in sports like soccer and tennis; big-
that to complement repetitive swimming movements,
ger, more fluid moves help lengthen stride in running;
cross-training should include a well-rounded weight
and lateral and rotational movements improve agility,
workout. This includes basics, like the lat pull-down,
flexibility and power for explosive moves in sports
alternate knee situps, tricep pull-down or kickback
like volleyball and racquetball.
and four-way hip exercises.
12 Northern & Central New Mexico
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