Support your walking and running with some Cross Training – guaranteed to reduce the risk of injury, make you stronger, and mentally provide a nice psychological boost.
What is Cross Training? Almost any activity that increases your heart rate qualifies as cross training for walking or running: water running (utilizing a runwalk action to stay afloat in deep water) is the most runwalk specific, but try skiing (both cross-country and downhill), cycling (low resistance and high rpm’s), swimming, in-line skating, ice skating, hiking, climbing, circuit training (light weights, high repetitions), dancing and aerobic exercise to music are all excellent ways to stay fit and improve your runs and walks. Personally I’ve truly improved the strength I’ve gained from doing yoga on a regular basis…
By taking part in one of these activities in addition to running or walking, you can maintain or increase your overall fitness, flexibility, as well as build strength, and particularly core strength. It’s fantastic to gain fitness while resting other muscle groups utilized when you walk or run.
Variety is the spice of life! Perhaps the greatest benefit of cross-training as a supplement to your walking and running is to give you that variety and relieve the boredom factor of doing the same activity all the time…Suddenly you’ll find you enjoy your walking and running more, simply by adding an additional day of different activity!
Lynn Kanuka
SportMedBC’s RunWalk Coach
Inspiring through physical activity: visit www.everywomanintheworld.com for a fantastic weekend of activity for women up at Whistler May 22-24th.
