So You Want to be a Fitness Trainer: Cross Training

There was a time when athletes were often multi - sport competitors. High school athletes might play football in the fall, basketball in the winter and do track and field in the spring. Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky used to enjoy the change from hockey to baseball in the spring. Hockey's Golden Jet, Bobby Hull was a high school fullback in football before the junior hockey season started up. In essence this was what is now known as cross training!
A more recent trend has seen school age athletes forsake the multi-sport experience for specialization in a single sport. This is usually done with the prodding of coaches and parents. Kids in hockey often play all fall, winter and spring and have hockey camps and summer league hockey in what used to be an off-season. This can often lead to mental fatigue, physical injury and a high drop out rate with an age demographic that already has issues with sedentary versus active lifestyles.

Cross Training is defined as the participation in other sports or exercise activities to supplement the primary sport. Cross training can be multifarious.

The running boom of the 1970's led to numerous runners suffering injuries from overuse or repetitive strain. Many took up swimming or bicycling to keep fit until they recovered.
This link between endurance running, cycling and swimming indirectly gave some innovator the idea to create the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii.
A shorter version of the Ironman has become the Olympic sport of Triathlon.
Cross country skiing is another supplemental activity often done by endurance runners. It is actually a more complete full body workout than running due to the intense pushing off with the ski poles.
Speed skating and bicycling seems to have a great carry over effect. Our most decorated Canadian Olympian, Clara Hughes scored medals in speed skating and cycling.
Sprint cyclists seem to transition well to sprint speed skating (and vice versa) and endurance skaters tend to adapt well to endurance cycling.
Cycling is a linear movement in a sagittal plane whereas speed skating has a great deal of lateral movement in a transverse plane. The commonality is in the energy systems used.
Even weight training for a particular sport can be considered a form of cross training.
Cross training is not be confused with CrossFit which is form of high intensity resistance training that has evolved into a sport of its own. However CrossFit can be used by athletes in other sports as a form of cross training.
Another unique cross training trend has seen speed/power athletes such as track and field sprinters take up Bobsledding in the winter.
MMA /UFC fighter George St. Pierre used to incorporate a day of gymnastics workouts into his training cycle.

An interesting cross training success story occurred with an athlete from my hometown of Ottawa, Canada. Mike Woods was a high school distance running sensation. He ran on a scholarship at the University of Michigan. However, severe recurring injuries ended his track career. Mike had always been a recreational bicyclist. To fill the void of not running he began cycling and realized that his exceptional aerobic endurance had a great carry over effect. Mike got serious about the sport and;

1. Competed in the Olympics in endurance cycling

2. Won a stage at the Vuelta a Espana as a pro cyclist.

3. Scored a 3rd place Bronze medal at the World Cycling Championships in the road race.

The Tour de France is next on his dance card.

What are the best ways to incorporate cross training into a fitness program?

Choose an activity that you enjoy. That way there is less chance of mental burn out.
Select an activity that uses the same energy systems (e.g. aerobic, anaerobic or alactic) but different movements. The energy systems recover quickly. The muscles recover more slowly.
An exception to the rule would be to replace running with aqua-running (running in water with a flotation vest). The movements are similar but the lack of ground impact in the water spares the body from physical trauma.
Perform the cross training on separate days to the primary sport or during the off season.
Sometimes the best cross training is rest! Even with cross training, more is not always better!

Now here is an example of cross training that was less than successful.During an early mid life crisis I decided to rekindle my amateur wrestling career which had ended in high school. I wrestled 4 days a week and played hockey with my work cronies on Wednesdays. Both sports use mostly the alactic and anaerobic energy systems. My misguided was theory that the carry over training effect would make me an unstoppable powerhouse on the ice.The sobering reality was that:

Hockey is stops, starts, short bursts of skating, and easy skating between bursts. Amateur wrestling is isometric grappling, sudden, dynamic reactions and almost constant muscle tension of one muscular system or another.
It is hard to play hockey when every part of the body feels like it has been pulverized with a hammer.
My hockey playing coworkers in those non contact hockey games were not adverse to accidentally making contact against my already pain sensitive physicality.

Despite my less than successful exception, cross training can be a useful tool to help avoid repetitive strain injuries, and physical or mental fatigue due to single sport over training. Like in the case of the runner turned cyclist, you may even discover your true calling.