Ultimate Cross Training Thread

A couple of questions.

1) Why do you specify martial arts only as standing? Wouldn't combining wrestling, judo, boxing, and standing martial arts be a worthy addition to your list? Not sure what to call it though. :-)

2) And why would hiking be 80 and rock climbing be 65. Hiking is what you often have to do to get to the rocks - not always I know - but it is also what rock climbers often do if they are forced by age and injury to quit climbing.

I welcome debate on all ratings posted by me or others, as well as additions to the list. I will add MMA to the list. The Martial Arts entry was meant to cover Asian martial arts -TKD, Karate, Kung Fu etc.The wrestling is meant to cover ground sports like BJJ.

Rock climbing uses legs for sure but is mostly about grip and upper body strength. You'll generally take more breaks as well. Hiking is basically like hill running at easy pace. That would be my argument.

Fair enough. My argument would be to look at the physique of a serious rock climber compared to that of a serious hiker.

I completely agree that rock climbing is far more difficult than hiking. But as this is about crosstraining, doing this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhCx9E8wi68

is going to get you better running results than this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=569mfULmkXs

simply based on specificity

I misunderstood. I thought you meant for general fitness, not to help your running

I misunderstood. I thought you meant for general fitness, not to help your running

You forgot the most important one.

CrossFit -- 105.

It's better for running than running itself.

Some cross training is more beneficial in the sense that it can strengthen weak muscles and prevent future injuries. A good example would be yoga for example. It does nothing to make you faster, though. How do you rate that? In that sense, all the lateral movements in football and basketball could be very good beneficial. More so than the aerobic gains

Science time!

Plyometric exercises increase your running efficiency, thus making you faster. Same goes for strength training.

Source:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mikel_Izquierdo/publication/248384281_Effects_of_Plyometric_Training_on_Endurance_and_Explosive_Strength_Performance_in_Competitive_Middle-_and_Long-Distance_Runners/links/02e7e52c70e39c3f37000000.pdf?origin=publication_detail

Cycling is roughly equivalent for VO2 Max, compared to running for the same amount of time. But cycling isn't going to improve running economy nearly as much. Therefore, if two athletes train for the same amount of time but one cycles and one runs, they'll have the same relative VO2 max but the runner will be faster at running. I believe this is usually understood to refer to stationary bikes, since riding a bike for 45 minutes downhill and riding a bike for 45 minutes uphill are very different lol.

Source:

https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/f/Honea,%20David_2012_Thesis.pdf

I think the elliptical was slightly less effective than cycling but I don't know if it was significantly so.

So, unsurprisingly, cardio workouts are good for VO2 max but strength type workouts are better for economy (explosive type strength, not sure about endurance type strength). You might think that VO2 max is more useful, but for many running it may be more beneficial to improve running economy. There are many recorded cases of athletes getting significantly faster despite a slight decrease in VO2. In the studies looking at explosive strength, the subjects doing the explosive training normally perform better than the control group, but their VO2 max decreases while the control group's either stays the same or increases.

There was a study that showed bike sprints (very hard effort with short recovery) to be effective for improving times, if you want to combine the two. I'll post the link to the study when I find it.

In one of the studies of explosive pyrometric training, the control group spent very little time doing pyrometric training but significantly more time doing circuit training (core and leg exercises). They did not improve their times significantly. I would agree that this type of training is better for injury prevention than actually getting faster. I don't think this type of training is useless but I'm not sure what it's most effective for.

I don't have any science for soccer, but whenever we have a soccer player try out for track they're normally varsity level or close to it. So anecdotally, soccer is great for running.

This was an old post, but still try to bump it up for more inputs.

I am currently just on the (stationary) bike due to a hip injury, and cycling seems not to provoke it.

May I ask for the study you have mentioned regarding bike sprints, because I want to maintain my aerobic fitness (and weight) as much as I can while taking time off running. Thank you in advance.

And btw, why would you think cycling is a little more beneficial than elliptical for running? Isn't the locomotion of elliptical more similar to running than cycling? Even though I do recall reading a study stating that cycling is better at maintaining running shape than does elliptical, just quite don't it and I forgot where I found the study.

George213 wrote:

And btw, why would you think cycling is a little more beneficial than elliptical for running? Isn't the locomotion of elliptical more similar to running than cycling? Even though I do recall reading a study stating that cycling is better at maintaining running shape than does elliptical, just quite don't it and I forgot where I found the study.

Found it after some digging on google. Btw, the thesis was led by David Honea., who as I recall, once challenge the answer on "Who Wants to be a Millionare" and was an A-standard Trials qualifier.

https//

Updated based on the responses. I also put in some numbers just to have a baseline. Let's hear some more input?

Also, I realize there is a difference between supplementing running and replacing running. For the purpose of this, the numbers will be talking about replacement.

Basketball - 90

Boxing - 50

Circuit Training - 65

Core Training - 60

Cycling - 70

Elliptical - 70

Football - 80

Gymnastics - 65

Hiking - 80

Lower Body Strength Training - 45

Martial Arts (grappling) - 65

Martial Arts (standing) - 50

Plyometrics - 60

Rock Climbing - 65

Rowing - 55

Soccer - 95

Skiing - 85

Skateboarding - 50

Skating (Ice, Roller) - 55

Snowboarding - 70

Sprint Drills - 65

Swimming - 60

Table Tennis - 50

Tennis - 75

Upper Body Strength Training - 25

Walking - 35

Yoga - 50

What do you rate yard work/manual labour/shovelling snow??

Gotta be 70 at least