If you are an athlete or make a regular effort to stay active, chances are you like one sport or activity more than others. But branching out occasionally, aka cross training, is necessary.

If you aren’t in the habit of doing any cross training, you might be wondering why it is so beneficial. Really, it boils down to this: Humans aren’t machines. While a machine might be able to run well for a long time with only a little tune up and an occasional oil change, human bodies don’t work that way. 

In a nutshell, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it and that’s why you need cross training. If you don’t use the different systems of your body regularly, they won’t function they way they should when you need them most.

Movement is the best way to keep the neuromusculoskeletal system in prime working condition. When our body is stuck in a position for an extended amount of time it will start to lay down tissue and basically grow itself together. An indication of this is when you wake up in the morning and you’re feeling stiff, but once you get up and move your body loosens up and it reverses this process. 

But if you always go to the same fitness or yoga class, or do the same run, ride or strength routine over and over again, that won’t work. Check out our last blog on “The 411 on Fascia,” which goes into the “why” in more detail.

You need to go out and move your body in new and interesting ways every day. Go play with your kids, have a tug of war with your dog, get on the floor and roll around with your cat, go for a swim, hike, take a gymnastics class or a dance class. We could go on, but you get the point.

So, if you’re struggling to even find time for what you already need to do on a daily basis, what can we do? Start by making an effort to change up your workouts and activities and instead of adding time, add variety. If we only do what we are good at, we’re just stressing the same patterns in the body and setting ourselves up for possible injury.  By all means, do what you love but change it up when you can. This will also have a positive effect on your brain as it builds and strengthens new pathways to that area of the body. Basically, it will help build and improve motor control, or coordination.

If many of your workouts involve moving in the sagittal plane, or just moving forward and backward (running, walking, muscle-specific weight training, etc.) you’re going to want to participate in activities or workouts that involve rotation and side to side movement, or a combination of the two such as tennis, basketball, soccer, or check out our previous blog on Twisting and Rotation in February.

Just know that you have the entire world out there as your gym, the variability of the open environment that is the outside. We humans are more honed into variability, not repetition. Your body is meant to move and work; don’t take it for granted.

Beacon Physical Therapy

At Beacon Physical Therapy, we want to keep you healthy and pain- and injury-free. We encourage cross training to our clients. If you are having an issue, make an appointment today. We’d love to meet you and get you excited to make some positive changes to your movement patterns.