TRAINING TIPS:

Cross Training
To enhance your game, you might want to consider cross training. Think of it as a total body tune-up that increases the benefits of your training. Cross training provides the opportunity to condition alternate muscle groups that might otherwise be neglected in your sport of choice. It’s a great way to balance your workout, increase aerobic fitness and flexibility, decrease muscle fatigue, and reduce body fat and injuries.

When training for a particular sport, athletes often hit plateaus. That means even though they’re working on skill and strength, progress slows to a stop. The way to avoid this is adding new exercises at different levels of intensity. This can maximize your performance and take you beyond your plateau. Conditioning your other joints, muscles and tendons will allow you to strengthen your whole body.

The Basics
Cross training usually consists of adding two or three different activities to your regular workouts. For example, you might want to add light weight lifting and stretching exercises and other cardiovascular exercises like swimming, biking, or wind sprints at least once a week. Training this way increases your overall strength, endurance, and performance.

It’s important that you consult a coach or trainer who is familiar with cross training to assess your personal level of ability before starting on a cross training regime. For optimal results you will want to do these additional exercises at least twice a week for 15-30 minutes, depending on your fitness-level. It is important to start slow to prevent injuries. So, substitute one of your regular workouts with the new cross training workout once or twice a week. Later, when you become stronger, you can add cross training to your daily workout.

Training Regimes
With the right cross training regime, you will increase flexibility, muscle mass, and aerobic fitness. There are different types of cross training workouts: Aerobic, Anaerobic, Muscle Strength, Muscle Endurance, Isometric and Flexibility:

Aerobic activity is referred to as cardiovascular exercise. This includes jogging, swimming, and biking. This is especially important to add to your workout if your sport relies mostly on specific skills, such as baseball or softball. It is vital not to let your endurance falter during skill driven sports.

Muscle Strengthening workouts include lifting weights and plyometrics. Focus on your entire body when lifting weights, not just the ones you rely on for your sport. For example, soccer players use their lower body for everything, but still need to work their arms and back.

Muscle Endurance is similar to strength training, but the object is to build lasting energy, not to lift as much weight as possible. To achieve endurance, lift lighter weights with high repetitions. For example, lift 50 pounds in 3 sets of 15 repetitions, instead of 150 pounds in 2 sets of 8 repetitions as you would when strength training. Activities that repeat small movements many times, such as kickboxing, are also very effective for building muscular endurance.

Flexibility workouts go beyond the stretching you do before and after every workout. Those stretches prepare your muscles for activity, but do little for overall flexibility and agility. Doing workouts such as yoga or pilate's can greatly change the way you move. These workouts are not just for girls! They also increase strength, and give you a better understanding of the way your body moves and reacts.