Cross Training: The Best Workout Combination

When people decide that they want to exercise, they often focus on one discipline or sport. They decide to only lift weights, or to only exercise on the field playing soccer, or they start running to compete in a half marathon, but rarely do people engage in serious cross training. This is much to their detriment, as our bodies need to be challenged and pushed in a variety of different ways, and just following one pursuit will never help you realize your body's maximal potential. Toward that end, this article will illustrate four different kinds of workouts that you should combine for maximum benefit. Check it out!

The first kind of exercise that you should be doing about three times a week is swimming. Nothing will help develop your cardiovascular and muscular strength with zero impact to your joints. You should aim to swim at least twenty minutes, breaking down that time into whatever pattern of lengths and styles that work for you, aiming to do so at least every other day. You will develop incredible stamina while growing lean and strong. Perfect!

Second you need to compliment this with some strength training. Hitting a gym and lifting a barbell is absolutely crucial to your long term health, as resistance training does wonders for your bone density, muscular density and other benefits. You should again aim to lift weights about three times per week, doing a combination of barbell compound exercises such as the squat, dead lift, bench press, shoulder press and pull-ups.

From there, you should add yoga. Nothing is as key for your body as you age as maintaining your balance, your flexibility and core strength. Yoga is a wonderful way to challenge your body and work on the deep internal core muscles that allow you to retain your health like nothing else. Again, you should try to take three yoga classes per week for maximum benefit.

Finally, you should add in some kind of intense interval training cardio workout. This should be brief, about forty minutes or less, and should help you break into a vicious sweat. You should seek to do this three times per week, and really jack your heart rate into the anaerobic zone.

The ideal schedule would thus look like this: swimming and yoga in the mornings on alternating days, and resistance training and interval training on alternating days in the evening, with Sundays off as a rest day. That will definitely get you in shape!

 

About the Author

Try the <a href="http://www.getmovingcatalog.com/shakeology.html">Shakeology Meal Replacement Shake</a> or the <a href="http://www.getmovingcatalog.com/p90x-recovery-drink.html">Insanity Recovery Formula</a> today!