Spillover Benefits of Cross-Training
Written by Kyle Ligon - MovementLink.FIT Head Coach
By strategically combining core components of workout programs, the results don’t stop at the direct benefits driven by the core components. Training in each of these areas spills over into enhancing the training in all the other areas, compounding on one another, generating more and more results. Let’s look at one of many examples of a specific stimuli’s ability to compound benefits - What is called Lactate Zone 2 Training targets exercising at a specific, low-intensity effort level in which the lactate produced as a byproduct of muscle contractions is sustainable over long periods of time. At this low intensity, lactate is produced at or below the amount that can be removed from the blood as it’s recycled back to produce more energy. Surprising to me, lactate is not just a waste product and is actually a preferred fuel of many cells in our body. Training in Lactate Zone 2 improves our mitochondrial ability to pull lactate out of the blood and reuse it for fuel. This is extremely beneficial for Endurance/Stamina, but the benefits don’t stop there.
Now, let’s say we are doing a high-intensity workout which will produce tons of lactate as a byproduct. If we have been participating in low-intensity, Lactate Zone 2 training, because we have become better at pulling lactate out of the blood and recycling it back into usable energy, we are able to sustain higher intensities for longer, making each single training session potentially that much more impactful. If we structure workouts and choose reps and exercises in strategic ways, these high-intensity workouts can be designed to have incredible carry-over back into endurance/stamina further boosting it while simultaneously carrying-over into boosting our strength/muscle and speed/power training. So, when we focus on the core ~20% of training programs, those efforts do not exclusively produce the 80% of potential results within that area, but spills over and pushes the other areas past their 80%. When strategically organized, this can result in an extremely time- and effort- efficient style of exercising…which is the MovementLink Method.
