PENNY'S WORKOUT WORLD
Cross Training-Moderation In Everything
"Balance & How NOT to fall down
May 2,2008 Issue#38
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Greetings!
Let's just say you consider yourself to be in pretty good shape. Maybe you are a runner, racking up twenty or so miles per week.
Or maybe you like spinning and spend your weekday mornings in spin class.
Then let's imagine your friends invite you to go skiing for the weekend.
Since you're in such great shape, you readily agree.
But by Monday morning you can barely make it down the stairs.
\You are so sore, you can barely brush your teeth. What the heck just happened?
If you do the same activity all the time,
you develop a very narrow fitness level, meaning that you are fit just for that particular exercise.
Cross Training is a way to broaden your overall fitness base so that
not only do you prevent soreness when you try new activities but
you also prevent injuries by not overusing certain muscles, not to mention reducing boredom and burnout.
When exercise teachers come to me saying they want to give up a class,
I recommend that, first, they change it up. Maybe they can try teaching a new class format.
New exercises renew your interest as well as keep you healthy.
Cross training is a terrific way to shape up different muscle groups and cultivate a new set of muscular skills.
Cross training also allows you the ability to vary the strain placed on certain muscle groups and also on your cardiovascular system.
After doing the same movements over decades, your body becomes very efficient doing those movements.
The same is true mentally. Think the same thoughts over time and eventually you've worn a beaten path so well-worn that you cannot think different thoughts without getting a mental jigger.
Doing the same thing over time is perfect if you are a competitive athlete training for a race or event, but this limits your overall conditioning and makes it harder to get broader (smarter) benefits while training.
Your rate of return diminishes as you simply maintain a particular level of fitness.
Cross training will also keep you from tweaking a hamstring or your lower back.
Cross Training doesn't JUST apply to exercising.
It is also important to cross train your brain, by watching new sports.
Just three days ago I attended my daughter's first lacrosse game-her first game and MY first game-ever
and WOW, was it exciting!
I loved watching a game that was such a high skill sport but that also seemed very social.
There are so many sports options nowadays (I'm old enough now to use the word, "nowadays")
that there is no reason why a twelve year old can't find something to play
that he or she enjoys.
When I was in high school, not only did we not have lacrosse,
but we didn't even have tennis!
Back in the olden days (I'm liking this), we only had lafootball, labaseball and labasketball, in that order of importance.
My town was so small we had to ride two different buses, an hour each way, to get to school, but luckily,
no snowdrifts or walking ten miles to get there.
As I was getting scolded yesterday by my neighbor for daring to bring home my groceries in (brace yourself)
plastic bags
(I blame it on Larry. My husband, for some environmentally unfriendly reason,
always has the car with the canvas GREEN bags in it every single time I stop at the store)
Anyway, as she ran into her house to share some of her better bags with me so I wouldn't embarrass the neighborhood-
she takes care of me that way,
I was thinking that
(sit down, this is horrible)
I was thinking that,
as a kid,
I actually remember throwing an occasional piece of garbage
OUT THE CAR WINDOW.
And come to think of it,
I also hitchhiked.
I was no older than ten,
but I loved putting my thumb in the air, especially if I'd walked down Dump Run Road in the August heat to the strippin' pits
for a swim (this is where the coal had been stripped from the hills and before they reclaimed these giant holes- great for swimming and fishing-not to great for the land)and I'd made the fashion (and comfort) error of taping mason jar lids
to the heels of my sandals so that I clip-clopped along like a horse.
Nothing thrills OR tires a girl out like clip-clopping.
Of course, the thumbing was just from one end of the town to the other (13 houses total) and not only did I know every single car driving by, and the passengers in it
But, worse, or maybe it's better, they knew ME- And my whole life story, all the way back to my mom not knowing she was having twins until my sister popped out and the doc said "MaryEllen, you've got another baby in there", at which point my mom broke down in tears and fainted as I arrived.
Things have improved in this day and age. We've gotten smarter and have,
at our fingertips,
not only more knowledge,
but also more opportunity to
use that knowledge.
Not only do we have cross training,
but we also have ultrasound,
prenatal screening AND the Hummer,
oops!
I mean Cadillac, no maybe the Prius,
of sports-
Lacrosse!
My new favorite game.
I love this sport!
It seems smart, right down to it's sporty name and in it's organized neatness.
Even the emails from the team parents' inspire me.
Just last week alone, I got 42 parent emails about organizing snack/water duty-
you know, who will bring what healthy snack and when.
I was dizzy with visions of orange slices dancing in my head.
When it rained last week, instead of getting an email "Practice Cancelled", I got this:
" Although we can always use practicing time, with the weather forecast of rain most of the day, we will have to forgo practice today."
This team makes me feel like I can be a better person!
I believe that , just like a long car trip tests a marriage, in the same vein, a spring sports season tests a family.
I'm hoping that being on this lacrosse team can influence the quality of our life! Maybe I'll become the type of mom who has an ever ready packet of tissues, band-aids if needed and two spare bottles of water. Smart water.
I think Tori and I can even
cross train
our family lifestyle-
We can be better people.
In lacrosse, if you are twenty minutes early, you are just barely on time!
We are both inspired to, not only
plan healthy snacks
and be prompt,
but to put the game schedule on a calendar, for example
or to not forget the lacrosse stick,
to not let the dog on the turf (I'm not a total idiot)
or to look in the mirror to be sure we don't have Doritos in our teeth.
Nowadays, we all have more opportunities and every sport is smarter- no coaches banging helmets together or kids running until they toss their cookies-
that I've seen.
My daughter came home from her first game and said,
"Mom, not only is my coach GOOD at giving me tips that help me not look like a klutz,
he also makes it FUN"
and Tori never uses the word , FUN,when referring to adults.
Way to go, Coach!
I might take up lacrosse myself; I was so inspired, by her being inspired.
Do you suppose we will look back in another few decades and be embarrassed by our central air conditioning and our big SUV's and our zigzagging back and forth across town with not a carpool in sight?
Or maybe by our crazy repetitive fitness regimes?
Will hanging clothes on the clothesline
be the "new" dryer?
All I know is that, hopefully,
we learn from our mistakes and that we will be willing to try new things,
as well as to stop doing things if they are NOT working,
whether it's in your workout routine
or how you take home your groceries.
But no hitch hiking,
at least in this decade.
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QUICK LINKS TO PENNY'S VIDEOS
YOGA ON THE FOAM ROLLER
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REMEMBER,
GOOD HEALTH IS JUST THE SLOWEST WAY TO DIE!
Penny & My Workout World
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