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Cross
Training and Making Exercise More Effective
Steve
Daisey MPT, CSCS
A
common question arises in many people who exercise in order to lose
weight.
I go to the gym every day and use the [fill in the blank – treadmill,
bike, stairmaster or whatever] for [30-60 minutes]. I lost weight
for the first few months but haven’t been able to keep losing weight.What
am I doing wrong?”
What often gets lost in our understanding of exercise is why it all
works. It works by an amazing phenomenon called “adaptation.” Your
body recognizes something it hasn’t ever seen before (or hasn’t in
a while) and attempts to adapt to it.
This is why exercise works.Your brain recognizes that you are being
made to walk fast, run, ride a bike or whatever. It then improves
your entire system (more efficient heart, less body fat, more lean
muscles mass, improved performance, etc) to allow you to adapt to
this new activity.
This process, frankly, is a miracle. Unfortunately, people forget
this, and after doing the same thing for a while, their body just
isn’t impressed with what they are doing to it anymore. The adaptation
has occurred and no more weight loss, for instance, is necessary.
At this point, you often get frustrated. What you need to do now is
vary their routine.Switch to something else for 6 weeks. Throw something
at your body it hasn’t seen in a while.Studies support this as well.People
who engaged in cross training using a bike, walk/jog and arm
crank routine vs. people just walking/jogging showed a much better
ability to utilize oxygen after 10 weeks, showing that their cardiovascular
system had to adapt to a much higher degree than those doing just
one activity(1).
The best thing to do to continue to make gains is to keep your body
system guessing all the time. Throw different things at it. Walk for
3 weeks, ride an elliptical bike for 3 weeks, hit the stairmaster
for 3 weeks, do an aerobics class for 3 weeks then repeat the process
all over again. It breaks the monotony of doing the same thing over
and over again. But more importantly, it forces your body to have
to constantly adapt to something new.
REFERENCES:
1. Rathnow KM;
Mangum M: J Sports Med Phys Fitness 1990 Dec;30(4):382-8
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