cross training

Cycling is a great pastime for your body: not only does it help strengthen the lower body, but it also helps raise the heart rate, power the lungs, and can calm the mind. But like any workout, cycling can lead to some unwanted consequences: hunched shoulders, tight hips, lower back pain, and a neglected upper body. If you're suffering from any of these, here are four workouts to complement cycling.

• Running: If cycling is your go-to cardio, then you may want to add running to your routine. Studies have found that cyclists may be at risk of developing low bone density or osteoporosis because of the sports low-impact nature. More load-bearing sports like running, however, will help strengthen bones. These treadmill workouts for all levels will help you start (or deepen) your running practice.
• Yoga: Focus on opening up the chest and hips to combat saddle posture by combining these yoga stretches for tight hips with these heart-opening yoga poses.
• Swimming: For a total-body workout that helps open up your body and gives the joints a break, try swimming. If you're looking for a workout to try in your gym's pool, then try this swimming interval workout.
• Core strengthening: Incorporating strength training that focuses on the abs will help protect your lower back when you're on the bike. Try this 10-minute ab workout that challenges balance and targets your deep core.

Maybe you love to swim but hate lifting weights, or maybe you'd never step foot in one of your gym's fitness classes because you'd rather be on the treadmill. We all have our favorite ways to exercise, but sticking to the same workout can lead to unwanted consequences, especially overuse injuries. Here are four reasons to cross train and what type of cross training you should be doing.

• You'll learn a new skill: You'll never know how good you are at something else until you try it out. You may find that you're a fan of Zumba or finally understand why everyone loves yoga once you expand your horizons.
• You'll beat boredom: As much as you love your sport of choice, workouts can get tedious if you rarely do anything else. Instead of sticking to your normal five-days-a-week run, add a few strength-training or stretching moves to keep your workout routine full of variety.
• You'll balance out your body: One of the most important reasons to vary your workouts is to ensure that you give all your muscles the attention they need so that your body stays balanced. An overdeveloped set of muscles can lead to injury since the stronger parts of your body will be overcompensating for the weaker parts.
• You'll have more endurance and speed: Making your body stronger overall is a good way to ensure that you'll perform better at your first exercise love. Not only will your body be balanced, but you'll be strengthening your muscles overall as well.

Ready to add some variety to your workout? Read on for some cross-training ideas for runners, swimmers, and cyclists.

The following post was written by North Face athlete and champion freeskier Kit Deslauriers.

Why bother with cross training
My first philosophy is to never get bored so it is important to me to mix it up as far as cross training goes. Secondly, to carry a big pack and still ski the things we do, the core of the body has got to be incredibly strong. Combining this concept of core strengthening with keeping it fresh is the most important cross training combination to me since power comes both from our core and our minds.

Mountain post meets the mountain
If you can guess a single workout that targets both the core and the mind you will discover what I call my secret weapon: yoga. A strong body is a flexible body. I first discovered yoga when I was in pursuit of my World Freeskiing Tour titles and I became fascinated by the concept of ‘embracing my stiffness because I worked hard to get it’ while full of enjoyment with the moments of mental clarity during the challenging poses, and well-rounded by the humility required to continue to practice at something that I am most likely not the best in the room at.

Beyond yoga here are some more cross training tips:

I find the elliptical a piece of necessary evil in my life. It's not my fave cardio workout, but it's convenient (we have one tucked into a corner of our home gym) and gentle on the joints. Unlike an outdoor run, where after 30 minutes you start to dread running but you still have to get yourself home, I can just hop off the elliptical. Dare I say it? Ellipticizing is boring.

Keeping all the pros of the elliptical (the graceful, low impact stride) and eliminating the cons (you just don't go anywhere on the thing) is the ElliptiGo ($2,200), an elliptical powered bicycle. I rode one around AT&T Park in SF the other day and I felt like a gazelle gliding along the Embarcadero, taking in the sights while playing hooky. Similar to a bike, the ElliptiGO has two wheels, but you stand rather than sit — so you burn more calories than cycling since you're weight bearing. The ElliptiGO is powered by the same motion as my home elliptical; you use the large footplates like pedals to move the chain, which powers the wheels. The incline is set fairly high so your hips and knees move through a large range of motion, similar to running. Working at a moderate pace on a flat road, I was going about 13 miles per hour and it felt great. I didn't climb any hills on the ElliptiGO, but I was told it is definitely doable, especially since it has eight gears.

The price tag is steep, but similar to a carbon fiber road bike. You can buy a stand, just like an indoor trainer for bikes, to use the ElliptiGo inside, which seems odd since the upside of the machine is you can use it outside. But the stand adds versatility to your investment and with the price tag over two grand I would call an ElliptiGO an investment. The ElliptiGO fits folks 5' to 6' 6" tall (it has a telescoping handlebar stem) with a maximum weight of 250 pounds. Perfect for cross training for both runners and cyclist, the ElliptiGO also challenges the core as you make micro adjustments as you cruise along.

Check out one in motion.

When it comes to working out, I like to be outside. For outdoor runs I wear my Lunar Glides, and when I'm trekking in the mountains I stick to my Nike Wildedge approach shoes. Unfortunately, getting an outdoor workout isn't always in the cards, in which case, I hit the gym near my office. Since I don't like lugging around a lot of stuff and I'm pretty non-committal about what piece of gym equipment I use, I wanted a light and versatile pair of gym sneakers. It also made sense that they shouldn't be too pricey since they weren't going to be my primary kicks. So when New Balance sent me a pair of its WX710 cross-trainers ($60), I was stoked to try them out.

These shoes are light, way light. At 7.6 ounces per shoe, they weigh less than any sneaker I've owned and I barely even feel them in my bag. Apparently, the cushions of the shoes are made with a patented foam that's 12 percent lighter than other foams on the market. Weight seems like a small point to make, but when you're lugging around workout clothes, a laptop, and stuff from the office, every ounce you can shave off counts. And with all the caps on baggage allowances these days, I'm definitely making these sneakers my go-to fitness shoes for traveling.

To see what I liked and didn't like about these shoes, read more

"I do my best thinking when I am running. I don't know why that is — everything seems to flow so easily. It's almost a spiritual thing for me."
— Apolo Ohno, Olympic Speed Skater

Even Apolo cross trains with running. Need a little more motivation to lace up your sneakers? Check out all of my words that move you.

Powerhouse Hit the Deck ($20) is a new workout system that you can do "anywhere, anytime, with no fitness equipment needed." It's made up of 35 color-coded cards and an interval timer. Each card has a strength/cardio exercise on it, and its color denotes the exercise's level of difficulty. The levels are broken down in a cute way — no sweat (easy), I'm glistening (medium), and sweating buckets (hard) — and there are five warmup/cooldown cards too.

Using the Powerhouse deck is pretty simple:

1. Set the interval timer to how long you want to do an individual exercise — I set mine to 30-second intervals.
2. Always start each workout by drawing the yellow cards; these are the warmup exercises.
3. Read over the first card, hit the timer, and do as many repetitions of the exercise on the card as possible until the timer beeps.
4. Stop the timer, draw the next card and repeat.
5. After getting through the warmup exercises, draw from the rest of the deck and continue the process for as long as you like.

To see what I thought of the system, read more

If you're training for a marathon and logging 40-plus miles a week, there is one physical activity you still do much, much more than running: walking. With every step you take, you can better prepare your body for running. Here's how to cross train with every step:

• Posture: The alignment of your spine, pelvis, and ribcage is an important element of being an efficient runner. While posture can be the last thing on your mind as you're running sprint intervals, you can pay attention to your torso alignment while moving at the leisurely pace of walking.
• Abs: When walking, just like when running, work on engaging your low and deep abs. Your low belly, about two inches below your belly button should be taut. This helps to keep your pelvis stable so your momentum keep you moving forward rather than wasting energy with side-to-side movement of your pelvis.

Learn two more tips.