9781422286968

maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The positive effects of exercising are just too good to pass up! Entering the world of exercise can be intimidating at first. There are so many different exercises to choose from, and so many fitness goals to achieve. Running can help with weight loss, for example, but lifting weights can improve muscle strength. How can you choose which of them is the best exercise for you? Fortunately, you don’t have to pick just one. Exercising in more than one way is actually better for the body overall. EXERCISE PLANS People who are new to regular exercise often make some mistakes when getting started. The first mistake they make is not exercising enough. Researchers have found that an exercise is not effective unless Make Connections: Fitness Plateau Athletes who focus too much on one area of f itness can reach what is referred to as a f itness plateau. Reaching this plateau means they are incapable of getting any better at the particular exercise they have been performing; they are as good as they are going to get. Reaching a f itness plateau can take months and months of strenuous exercise, but once it is reached there is really nowhere else to go. Athletes who train more than one way will never reach that plateau because they do not focus solely on one area; there is always another goal to reach. This is one more reason cross-training is a more eff icient use of an athlete’s time.

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Cross-Training