CROSS TRAINING FOR OPTIMAL PHYSICAL FITNESS
You might walk into a gym and find a few brave souls trying a new exercise.  Most often, if you look in the stretching area you will find flexible people, if you look in the weight lifting area you will find strong people, and if you look in the aerobic fitness area you will find people with great cardiovascular fitness.  What would happen if we switched everyone and the weight lifters were in the stretching area, the runners in the weight lifting area, and the flexible people running on the treadmills?  The kind of cross training introduces us to the importance of complete physical fitness.

The American College of Sports Medicine’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription states that physical fitness includes cardiovascular endurance (cardio), muscular strength (weight resistance training), and flexibility.  When we address all three areas of physical fitness we improve our health and lower our risk for development of disease.  In addition, we take great strides toward optimal health.

CARDIOVASCULAR FITNESS

Cardiovascular fitness is related to the ability to perform moderate to high intensity exercise for prolonged periods of time.  The heart (plus our entire cardiovascular system) works with the lungs so that our muscles can receive enough oxygen to keep us moving.  Cardiovascular fitness is important for the following reasons:

• Low levels of cardiovascular health are associated with an increased risk of premature death (all causes) and specifically from heart disease.
• Increases in cardiovascular health are associated with a reduction in premature death from all causes.

Here are examples of how to increase cardiovascular fitness via moderate physical activity as follows:

Moderate physical activities

• Walking briskly (3 to 4 miles per hour)
• Hiking
• Dancing
• Yard work
• Bicycling (slower than 10 miles per hour)

Your cardiovascular fitness increases as you bring more and more physical activity to your life.  Cardiovascular exercise helps to improve your mood, lower your blood pressure, and reduce your risk for heart disease and diabetes.

MASCULAR STRENGTH FITNESS (WEIGHT RESISTANCE TRAINING)

Muscular strength refers to the maximal force that can be generated by a specific muscle.  Muscular strength is a component of optimal physical fitness because improving muscular strength improves overall health.  Muscular strength can be improved by the following:

• Resistance weight training
• Resistance exercises like push-ups
• Specific weight bearing poses from disciplines like Pilates and Yoga

Weight resistance exercises force muscles to contract against resistance.  This simple action builds muscle, stimulates bone growth, and in addition helps to increase cardiovascular endurance.  We increase our lean muscle mass and we increase our resting metabolic rate.  This helps us burn 300-400 extra calories each day.

We improve our health by strengthening our muscles.  It is true that the number of myofibrils (fibers that make up muscle) decreases with age, but evidence suggests that myofibrils can regenerate in response to resistance training.  We improve our strength and we decrease our risk of injury.  Weight resistance exercise makes us healthier at every age and increases our self esteem because of our increased ability to carry out the activities of daily living.

FLEXIBILITY

Flexibility is the ability to move each joint through its complete range of motion.  Flexibility is important in optimal physical fitness because it increases our ability to carry out our full range of motion and use of our bodies.  We maintain and increase flexibility of all joints in order to facilitate movement and prevent injury.  Any activity (exercise, or just screwing in a light bulb) we do our joints involved so it’s important that our flexibility is addressed in our physical fitness regime.  Activities that help us improve the range of motion of our joints include the following:

• Stretching
• Yoga
• Pilates
• Tai Chi

We increase our flexibility in order to ensure safety when we engage in healthy physical activities.

Cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, and flexibility together make up a complete package for optimal physical fitness.  Each component brings great health benefits and in turn helps the other perform at its peak.  Cross-train and enjoy the very best of physical health.