Athletes are not like regular people (at least a lot of them). They’re like gods that came down from Mt. Olympus to grace the people with the sight of their perfect bodies. Sometimes you may wonder how they came to achieve those proportions, as if everything was sculpted perfectly, when their sports shouldn’t be able to grant them that.
Why do runners, like Usain Bolt, have wide shoulders and strong arms, when they only need muscular legs? Why do swimmers like Tom Daley have rock-solid abs when they’re only supposed to be swimming? How come equestrian athletes need to be fit when all they do are ride horses?
Here’s the reason: in this industry, athletes need to perform a mix of exercises in their roster, even if they regularly perform the workouts of their sports. This keeps them from injury, as well as keep them fresh and renewed in their primary sport.
If you love running, for example, what other exercises would you need to do in order to get all your muscles pumped up, and not just your lower body?
WORKOUT TIPS IF YOU’RE INTO:
Running. Runners are encouraged to cross-train. When all you do is run, you do not get to have a regular strength training routine. In order to excel, you will need to develop flexibility, endurance, and muscular strength. You can only do this by doing other kinds of exercises.
Upper body workouts include overhead press, incline bench press, dip, pull-up, neutral-grip floor press, dumbbell row, dumbbell lateral raise, seated dumbbell clean, and Zottman curl. With these exercises, you are helping improve your form, your core, your glutes, and your hamstrings.
Cycling. When you think about riders, they look life office people who sit on their chairs and do the work at their desks all day long. Yes, they move their hips and their knees and their legs, but their upper bodies are more stationary than anything else. Just imagine yourself holding the handle bars for hours while trying to concentrate on the road ahead.
With their body positions, riders need to add flexibility training into their routine. If you have tight shoulders and back muscles, your movements could become inefficient and have an imbalance in your posture. Aside from upper body weight lifting, you could attend yoga classes. The moves you could do include Bharadvaja’s twist, revolved head-to-knee Pose, pose dedicated to the Sage Koundinya I, bound angle, head-to-knee forward bend, extended puppy pose, and many others.
Swimming. Swimmers are lucky because they get a full-body workout. They are able to strengthen their muscles and cardiovascular system. Since their exercises are not weight bearing however, their bones need to be toughened. They could add running, walking, and hiking to their routine.
The basic types of running you could do are recovery, base, long run, progression, fartlek, hill repeats, tempo runs, and intervals. Other exercises for strong bones include dancing, high impact aerobics, jumping rope, stair climbing, tennis, and weight lifting.
High Intensity Interval Training. This is an exercise routine that alternates short periods of high-intensity anaerobic exercises and low-intensity recovery periods. It is an exercise for the cardiovascular system that improves athletic conditions and capacity, fat burning, and glucose metabolism.
Even though it is a great program in many ways, it is not effective in treating obesity, hyperlipidemia, and does not improve muscle and bone mass. In this regard, you will still need to have steady-state cardio exercises, such as swimming, jogging, and walking. Lifting weights are also important if you wish to build more muscle mass.
Yoga. Yoga is an excellent exercise when it comes to strength and balance training. However, it does not provide the benefits that you can get from cardio exercises. The most you can get from a lot of these classes are cardio exercises similar to what you get from a light walk.
Some other things you can do are power skip, stair climb, high knees, inch worm, alternate leg bounding, butt kick, jumping jack, foot fire, mountain climber, plank to push-up, tuck jump, basic burpee, and plyometric push-up, among others.
IN OTHER WORDS…
You still need to hit the gym even if you are concentrating on a specific sport. You can visit one of the Crunch Fitness locations, where you could choose among a wide number of full-body workouts. You will not only be improving your physique, but you are helping yourself become a better athlete. You could get a personal trainer or you could join their various classes.
They have classes offered for all the needs of their members, whether you’re into action sports, dance rhythms, or mind body burn. Some of these classes include cardio Tai box, overdrive, retro-robics, cardio sculpt, barre bootcamp, and many more. Check out their website and see programs that might interest you.