Guest Post by Sarah Scrafford

Hello all Sarah recently emailed me about an interest in guest posting here on my blog to fine-tune her writing skills and to begin marketing herself as a writer to a larger audience. Being of the writer sort myself I promised to help her out. Below please find her article about cross training and then go check out her site for yourself by following the links. Good luck Sarah!

Train Your Sight on Cross Training: by Sarah Scrafford

I’ve been working out for at least 8 months now, and although my stamina levels have gone up and I’ve lost quite a number of pounds, my overall fitness was not anything to write home about. It’s not like I was slouching off at the gym – I jogged for half an hour on the treadmill, cycled for another 20 minutes, and did a few abdominal crunches. But it wasn’t enough, and I didn’t know what I was doing wrong until a new trainer came along and introduced me to the world of cross training.

For the uninitiated, cross training involves a fitness routine that works every part of your body. While jogging and cycling are good exercises, they are cardio workouts that improve your stamina and help burn calories and decrease fat. You need to build your strength with lean muscle mass and also increase your flexibility and balance with techniques like yoga and tai chi.

When you lift weights, do squats and lunges, and get involved in other exercises that tone your muscles, you improve the way you look. You lose sagging flesh, your butt firms up and your breasts become perky. Your skin becomes tighter and your posture improves. Yoga, tai chi or other similar exercises help you relax and improve your mood and overall well-being.

Cross training also helps you avoid injuries, especially the repetitive ones that are caused by strain to your body parts that are used regularly when you exercise or play a sport. You also prevent falls and accidents that happen because of muscular imbalances – when you workout without training all your muscles equally, some become more developed than others, and this causes you to lose your balance and sustain injuries.

If you’re worried about packing in all these exercises into the one hour you spend at the gym, cross training is not done in a day. And that’s the best part of this workout – you break the monotony of the gym by doing different sets of exercises each day. If it’s jogging and leg workouts one day, it’s the cycle and hand exercises the other. You work on your quads and hamstrings one day and your biceps and triceps the next.

Remember though, not to ignore your cardio workouts. They’re very important if you’re trying to lose excess weight and improve your stamina. Cross training is invaluable when it comes to training for any sport, be it running marathons or playing tennis. Rather than exercising just the muscles you use for the game, you need to improve your overall fitness and boost your stamina. And when you cross train for a month or so, you’ll find your energy levels going up and your tiredness quotient coming down. So try it today, and feel the difference.

By-line:

This article is contributed by Sarah Scrafford, who regularly writes on the topic of online pharmacy technician schools. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.