What Is Cross-Training?

Like cooking, cross-training is one of those formerly precise terms that has been used in so many ways that it has come to mean pretty much whatever the user wants it to. Just like people call popping a frozen dinner in the microwave cooking, you’ll hear people say that they’re cross-training when they’re mowing their lawn, shoveling snow, or heading out for a night of dancing.
I want to use a narrower definition. For the purposes of this chapter, cross-training means aerobic exercises that you plan as part of your regular running program. With this tighter definition, I think that most runners, especially beginners, can benefit from cross-training.
Cross-training doesn’t mean anything that you do physically in addition to your running. Household chores, walks around town, and so on should be seen as part of your everyday activities, not as cross-training. Doing yoga or lifting weights doesn’t count as cross-training either. Although these stretching and strengthening exercises are important for runners to do, they don’t provide the aerobic benefits that crosstraining activities do.