Why Cross-Training

Written By Kyle Ligon - MovementLink.FIT Head Coach

Epiphany: Every World-Class Athlete Cross-Trains (Dig deeper with my article on this here)

In digging into world-class athletes’ training programs, I began to see that every world-class athlete cross-trains, just not in an all-around fitness kind of way. To explore this, let’s look at some details of an elite powerlifter’’ workout program. For context, a powerlifting program specifically targets strength performance in the sport of powerlifting - A competition where each competitor gets 3 attempts at a one rep max in back squat, 3 attempts at a max bench press, and 3 attempts at a max deadlift and the athlete’s best successful lift from each gets totaled up. Just a note that will be useful here: although “power” is in the name, powerlifting is much more of a strength sport than a power sport. A majority of the strength results of a powerlifting program come from a core amount of strength-specific sets using variations of their 3 core lifts. Out of the entirety of their workout program, most elite powerlifters only perform heavy strength sets on variations of these exercises once a week. You read that correctly, the best in the world, even those who are taking performance enhancing drugs, typically only do strength work on each of these 3 lifts once a week (Their core ~20%). It’s not even whole workouts dedicated to strength, it’s about 5-10 strength sets that usually take up about half of a 1 hour workout that also includes sets of accessory work. The majority of their program (the remaining ~80%) is spent doing exercises selected to enhance their strength work.

I have realized that powerlifters cross-train for a very interesting purpose - they can develop more strength by cross-training than performing only strength work. It turns out that elite runners, cyclists, and just about every professional athlete understands this too. To maximally improve in their sport, they cross-train. It only seems to be the amateurs who participate in single modality exercise programs.

Powerlifters, instead of adding more strength sets beyond that core once-a-week amount (which would have high diminishing and eventually negative returns), have learned that they can produce more strength results by developing the things that improve their strength training and give them more strength potential, like building more muscle and better neural connections. I like to think of an elite powerlifting program as two separate programs done together: 1) A core strength program (~20% of their effort and produces about 80% of their strength results) and 2) a cross-training program that increases their performance in their core strength program (~80% of effort). The majority of powerlifters work typically involves improving speed, power, and building muscle because those areas will help improve their ability to strength train. Speed and power helps them recruit more muscle fibers faster. Larger muscles, give them more potential for strength. Some of the best in the world will even include some cardio, so that they are more capable of sustaining energy and intensity across their workout sessions. So, even though their only priority is maximal strength, powerlifters do not only work on maximal strength, but instead spend the majority of their time cross-training outside of the strength relm in a way that carries over to maximizing their strength results. It also turns out that the best marathoners in the world, also sprint and lift weights and the best sprinters perform a lot of weight training and long slow runs.

By cross-training, we are able to avoid diminishing returns that inevitably come with one style of training while simultaneously taking advantage of spillover benefits that occur. Cross-training becomes an intertwined game where the work you put into speed and power boost your strength, muscle, lactate thresholds, VO2 max, endurance, and stamina training and where each of those also has positive impacts on all the other areas making for incredibly efficient and effective uses of your time and energy.