gone alpine

Assuming you read the article on endurance training, now specifically you want to do better in a specific area. Here you will learn how to do a little...

Cross-training

 What exactly is cross-training, how can everyone use it and what are some things I can do to enhance my performance in specific events? And how can I improve my endurance with cross-training?

What is cross training and why should I consider it?

    Cross training* is a great way to increase your all over muscle tone and demand. If you want to just increase muscle in one area we will focus on that area. But as we do  we don't help the supporting muscles grow and keep up with the demand. By altering our workouts slightly we can help increase our overall muscle development and this will help increase your endurance. Good examples of cross training are listed for you:

* really anything that differs from your norm, should be something that keeps up pace and heart rate levels.

There are many different areas of consideration when it comes to endurance training. The areas of consideration are:

Strength: The best way to gain strength is by stressing the muscles to their maximum ability using strenuous repetitive resistance. This stimulates muscles to synthesize more contractile protein, thus increasing strength. Repetition is the key - This is the same principle weight builders use. Apply it to climbing, biking or whatever sport of choice. You can also isolate specific muscle groups by using weights, repeating  the activity or exercise in perfect form . Good form in key to proper muscle development and no injury to joints and muscles. Choose a weight or resistance that you can barely move five to ten times before your muscles give out. Do four sets of the exercise (of 5 to 10 repetitions). For optimum performance do these exercises three or four times a week. Target specific muscles and muscle groups - don't exercise for exercise sake. More muscle mass than you need is just additional weight. Add more weight if you can do more than 10 repetitions, take weight off if you can not do at least 5 repetitions. Faithfully and methodically continue this pattern. Your strength will improve after just a few weeks of training.

Burst-ability: Burst Training will develop your muscles capacity to provide "burst" power. Burst training will improve your ability to excel quickly and continue to have strength to continue your activity. Burst training is very taxing on muscles and should never be done without adequate warm-up and stretching. The principle to develop burst power or speed is simple: Train in maximum intensity bursts and completely recover before your next set. Glucose is converted to ATP and Lactate. Allowing a complete recovery will recharge the glycogen (glucose) in your muscles and give your body a chance to remove the lactic acid - preventing the aerobic system from fully kicking in, thus stressing the burst or speed function of your muscles.  Quadricep burst training will improve speed climbing. When you work out your quadriceps, make quick, strong movements, not slow straining exertions. You may need to lower the weight to a level less than that of strength training. Strong leg and thigh muscles capable of burst speed will increase your push off speed from the hold, lengthen your reach dynamically and improve your speed climbing. Since speed requires a high degree of coordination, you can make significant improvement by just improving your  technique in other sports. Repetition at the speed of the actual event will improve coordination and thus improve speed. Climbers can use the principles of assisted speed training to improve speed climbing. The principle of Assisted Speed Training is to improve muscle memory, not strength or burst. For example, a sprinter would sprint downhill to train his muscles to move in coordination at that speed, hence  muscle memory.

Endurance: Continuously repeating, low resistance exercises will promote muscle endurance. To gain maximum muscle endurance, you must exercise for close to two hours to deplete your muscles' glycogen and to stimulate new blood-vessel formation and maximum aerobic-enzyme development. You can, however, gain considerable endurance with shorter periods of exercise, particularly if you intensify the exercise. You need to exercise at less than maximum strength for at least 20 minutes, three times a week to see a benefit. The harder your workout, the quicker you will deplete your muscle glycogen. An all-out effort of 10 to 15 minutes on a riding/running steep hills, climbing difficult terrain or at almost your maximum efforts prior to your endurance workout should sufficiently deplete your glycogen. Once your glycogen is depleted, you will feel exhausted. This is not a comfortable feeling. Most people will want to take a break - but if you are going for endurance, this is the time to go slow, level and easy with unrelenting pain for increasing periods of time. It should be emphasized, however, that it takes a long time for most athletes to build up to 2 hours of continuous exercise. It doesn't seem to make much difference whether you work out in one continuous two hour stretch or if you split your two hours into two or three sessions throughout the day. Choose whichever schedule is best for your day.

Strength-Endurance: Your fast twitch muscles have a limited capacity to metabolize oxygen. You can improve the aerobic capacity of fast twitch muscles by conditioning. As the name of the training implies, you combine the two types of training into the same session. To gain strength-endurance, increase the duration of a specific exercise movement. For example, do your pull-ups slowly. Don't worry about a specific number of repetitions, go for duration, using heavier weight than normally used for endurance, but less than for strength training. In strength training you usually have four sets. For strength-endurance, you should increase the number of sets less weight. Six to eight sets using a lower weight than normal strength training, and using slow movements will provide increased strength endurance. Keep working it up for improved endurance, you can also modify an aerobic training method called Interval Training to promote strength-endurance.

Aerobic: For endurance and strength-endurance, you need to have a high aerobic capacity. Circuit Training and Interval Training are aerobic methods that can be easily adapted to improve your  endurance, strength-endurance and aerobic capacity. Circuit Training and Interval Training commonly are used aerobic training methods that provide a good balance between Strength and Endurance. 

Circuit Training: In Circuit Training, you have a predefined "circuit" or group of exercises that are repeated in a cycle. First define both a primary and secondary muscle group/function to work out. Then decide two exercises each that will work these two muscle groups/functions (so you have four separate workouts). Next, decide the order you will do the exercises so that you are exercising the primary muscle group (exercise 1), then the secondary muscle group (exercise 2), then back to the first muscle group (exercise 3), then the second muscle group (exercise 4).  As you go through the circuit, keep your heart rate above 60% or you will not gain much cardiovascular benefit, and keep your heart rate under 85% so you don't diminish the strength improvement. The circuit should last between 20 - 30 minutes. You should apply the principle to the specific muscle groups/functions that you personally need to improve.

Interval training: Interval training can be described as short bursts of less-than-maximum work, alternating with shorter periods lowered intensity work. The idea of interval training is to work at high-intensity to push your pulse to its target for a short period with an interval of partial recovery before working again. During the work phase, the heart rate should be kept between 60% to 85% percent of your maximum heart rate. The rest intervals should be long enough to allow your heart rate to drop within 60% to 40% of your maximum. To apply Interval Training to your sport increase your activity level hills, more weight etc for 10 - 15 minutes or just before exhaustion, then slow for 20 minutes. Before your heart rate fully recovers transition back to difficult exercise. Repeat this process increasing time and increments each week of training.

This kind of training is uncomfortable - it causes sore muscles! The increased lactic acid brings fatigue and discomfort. Some can take it and some can't. However, it will increase your heart stroke volume and help your body become more efficient at lactic-acid removal, thus increase your aerobic capacity. You should use exercise to target and improve a specific function of muscle (strength, burst, and endurance). High frequency, low intensity training develops aerobic enzymes in the slow twitch muscle fibers used for endurance. High intensity, high-speed workouts promote strength and burst and develop the fast-twitch muscles. You should continually analyze your performance and modify your training to target and improve specific muscle functions. Understanding how to target and train specific muscle functions will help you develop and manage your training plan.

Read these articles for specifics on Biking, Backpacking, Climbing, Cross-training, Hiking, Running, Snow-shoeing, Walking, and Nutrition.

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