Cross training… just hearing about it makes me feel cross!
It’s like doing a hurdle race, finally jumping the last hurdle and then finding out someone put up a néw hurdle! That’s how I felt when I heard running isn’t enough. You have to do cross training too!
I blame my mom
Luckily I have found a way to fit cross training in! As (bad) luck would have it, we’ve got this huge garden. And during Spring en Summer this garden requires a lot of work. I’ve never liked gardening, for which I blame my mother of course. When me and my sisters were children, she made us help out in the garden. I was a terrible help, and quite lazy. And now I’m getting my come uppance!
But I’ve found a way to combine two things I don’t want to do: cross training and gardening. Because it turns out gardening is a form of cross training!
Cross training by gardening
I was delighted to find out that by gardening you’re working all your major muscle groups! Think legs, buttocks, arms, shoulders, neck, back and abdomen! Like with every work out, you have to keep at it for at least 30 minutes. So 30 minutes of gardening is 30 minutes of cross training.
The benefits of this form of cross training are:
- Increased flexibility
- Decrease blood pressure and cholesterol levels
- Lower risk for diabetes
- Lower blood pressure
- Gardening keeps your weight nice and balanced
- Stronger joints
- It’s relaxing and quiet, as long as you stop cursing the weeds
And I’ve looked it up, and found that assuming a body weight of 70 kg, you burn 280 calories per hour.
Cross training: biking
Another way I’ve found to fit cross training into my daily life is by using my bike instead of our car. Every Thursday I ride my bike into town, to visit the library and treat myself to a cup of coffee. I don’t particularly like riding my bike, but the thought of that nice, hot cup of coffee keeps me going. That, and knowing that the coffee will taste that much better because I got it by doing cross training!
So if you’re like me, and you are totally turned off by having to do cross training, do what I do: just fit it into your daily life! Do what you have to do anyway, and use it as a cross training opportunity.
That way it’s not such a hard cross to bear. (sorry, about the terrible puns)
