How To Lose Fat With Cross Training
The goal to lose a greater amount of fat and weight may drive you to look for different exercises and different nutritional programs. Remember that fat loss and weight loss are a combination of both exercise and nutritional intake. However, doing one thing over and over again can get boring and definitely will reduce the amount of fat your body burns for fuel.
This is because your body and muscles will get used to doing the same motions. This repetitiveness will reduce the efficiency of calorie burn as your body becomes accustomed to the way in which it is being used. This repetitive muscle behavior will also reduce the amount of muscle that your body develops over time.
Instead, it is important to change what you are doing over a period of time to keep your muscles confused and burning calories and fat consistently. And one way of doing that is to use cross training. Cross Training is a method of usine two or more sports in order to improve your fitness and performance. But cross training is also important without performance to reduce repetitive injuries to your joints and increase the benefits from the fitness programs.
Reducing your fat requires both cardiovascular work and strength and weight training. You can cross train between kettlebell workouts to get both cardiovascular and weight training or CrossFit to achieve the same thing. Incorporate dumbbells or weight machines once a week and mix up the other cardiovascular training you are doing during the remainder of the week as well.
Walking, at a fast intense pace that increases your heart rate and breathing, is a good way to reduce the workload on your joints and reduce your risk of injury. Biking is non-weight bearing on your hips and knees but will still work the legs and heart. Rowing has the same benefits but may be more stressful on the knees than biking or walking.
One of the problems with consistently doing the same program is mental boredom. Mixing it up during the week, including team sports such as basketball pick up games or volleyball, will improve your mental outlook about your fitness program and therefore your motivation to keep going to achieve your goals.
RESOURCES
ACE Fitness: What is cross training and why is it important
http://www.acefitness.org/acefit/healthy-living-article/60/36/what-is-cross-training-and-why-is-it/
Active: The Best Cross-training for Runners
http://www.active.com/cycling/articles/the-best-cross-training-for-runners