Looking at Triathlon as Cross-Training
Fitness professionals should promote benefits to adding more variety to an activity routine…
In regard to living a healthy lifestyle… functional training should be considered in the way the individual lives for the day to day and maintained for a lifetime. Training that adds stability, strength, range of motion, and cardiovascular health to the complete body. This will mean exploring more than one cardiovascular exercise and exercises that are removed from strength machines. This will mean thinking of what a person does now and in the future throughout their day.
There are many ways to develop a healthier lifestyle. This one is through adding up a variety of physical activity in a weeks’ time that would equate to a more comprehensive fitness experience.
In this article I explore the benefits of adding a variety of physical activity to an overall healthy life. It seems quite common to look for one solution that covers all issues and this also goes with the subject for fitness and health… I tried to find that when I studied the subject at university, but after graduating I quickly learned from clients that it is never that simple… each individual is just that. At the same time, I recognized how individuals develop their own opinions of what is ideal solution and what is detrimental. Or they simply have fallen in love with a sport… Walking/hiking, Running, Cycling, Swimming. I get this… at an early age in life I fell in love with running…
There should be a consideration for cross training on two parts… One is that it lowers the chances for the body to develop an overuse injury, second it adds the potential for the body to become more fully functional.
I believe there is a benefit in adding a bit of variety to an active routine Life at young and old requires a large variety of movement including the power to stand up from a chair and the flexibility to reach over our heads. A variety of activity helps us to keep a more fully functional body. They offer a variety of benefits and requirements Different activity requires different muscles being activated, different range-of-motions being reached.
In this process…. swimming, cycling, and Hiking/Walking/Running can complement each other to improve functional movements of day-to-day tasks.
Here is an example of 2.5 hours of activity.
- 30 minutes of Swimming
- 1 hour 15 minutes of cycling
- 45 minutes of walking/running
More advance could maybe go to 4.5 to 8 hours of training:
- 30-60 minutes of swimming
- 2.5-4 hours of cycling
- 1.5-3 hours of walking/running
Becoming good at a sport can require a lot of training… this also means a lot of work in the same movement pattern which could lead into over training… over-use injury. A common practice to avoid over training while maintaining or even increasing fitness for that sport is Cross-Training… training with a variety of additional sports (movements) to your main sports. The variety within “Triathlon” is a great option for Swimmers, Cyclists, Runners, and many other athletes. The parts of triathlon also complement each other to improve functional movements of day-to-day tasks. If the body is a swimmer, cyclist, or runner, adding two other activities should be considered to improve fitness and lower risk of injury.
Potential benefits
- Swimming:
- non weight bearing…
- shoulder range of motion
- Core/hip stability
- Cycling
- Supported weight bearing
- Core/hip stability
- Walking/Running
- Weight bearing
- Core/hip stability
- Supporting exercises
- Range of Motion
- Stability and Power
Triathlon should be synonymous with Cross Training