The concept of cross training first come to surface after studies showing that exercising one part of your body would benefit the other. If you have both arms in a cast they for 8 weeks they will atrophy some – get smaller. Now suppose you have one arm in a cast and you lift weights with the other arm, what happens is that the one in the cast will still get smaller but no where near as much as if you had not exercised the other.
This is called contralateral exercise and it prevents the lose of muscle in the opposite injured limb. Plus it stimulates the growth and strength in the opposite limb. It is thought that the nerves that carry feeling up one limb to the spine that it connects with nerves that carry to the other limb.
We usually associate cross training today with someone who does 2 or 3 different types of exercise activity for fitness or weight loss. The more trained a muscle is the more cross over response there will be.
When this comes to weight loss and burning calories you get the duel effect of much more efficient calorie burning. Your using more muscle that burns more calories plus you are elevating your metabolism to a higher resting heart rate that allows you to burn more calories doing normal activities.
This really hits home when it comes to elderly people. As we get older we will lose muscle mass. It just is a natural thing that happens when we age. We also have the tendency to gain extra weight. So then we go out and walk or cut down on calories to lose weight and we actually lose even more muscle.
Many doctors and physical therapist are encouraging older adults (60 and beyond) to incorporate some form of resistance training into there exercise routines. The key is to combine some form of aerobic systematic exercise to condition our hearts and cardiovascular system but also to strengthen our muscles and bones.
Not only do we lose muscle mass but we lose bone density also. The best way to attach both of these is with some type of weight bearing exercise. Resistance training is the best solution and can be accomplished with exercise bands, weight machines, or using some light bar bells to do exercises with each arm.
You could also throw in some body weight exercises like the push up, body squats, lunges, all these exercises are easy to do with your own body weight and will have an enormous impact of your muscle mass and increased bone density.