This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

The Benefits of Cross Training During Minnesota Spring

Brigitte Koepke, Lead Instructor at Fusion Yoga in Eagan, talks about the ups, downs, ins and outs of practicing yoga in today's often-hectic world.

With spring upon us many folks in Minnesota turn to the great outdoors for their place to work out, either running or biking, taking advantage of our warm season.  We are energized by the longer days, more sunlight, and warmer temperatures which make outdoor workouts more appealing than our days spent indoors.  Despite spending most of my time indoors in a heated yoga studio, I too feel the draw and each spring I put on my tennis shoes and start running again.  I have found that alternating runs, yoga and strength training has kept me injury-free.  This idea of incorporating a few ways to workout is called cross-training, and is truly the most effective way to improve one's overall health and fitness level.


Inevitably, a person may gravitate towards one type of workout, improving form or working to perfect a stride or posture, or perhaps settling into a routine that feels comfortable and consistent, but I would encourage you to mix in a few different ways to work out to keep your body fresh and muscles free from injury.  Cross-training is the very best way to work out for a number of reasons.  The first benefit is that you will likely have fewer injuries.  When you are only performing one type of workout the chance of overusing muscles repeatedly is greater, and likely you will underdevelop other muscles.  By mixing up your routine you give your tired muscles a chance to recover and the under-used a chance to strengthen and catch up.  The second thing to note is the idea of active recovery.  If my legs are tired and fatigued from a long run, joints achey from the high impact, but I still want to work out, another run could do me in.  I could instead take a hot yoga class, to flush out my joints and to sweat without the high impact from running outside.  Perhaps most important is that mixing up how you sweat should feel refreshing and mentally stimulating.  Your body is meant to move and should be excited by it.

Find out what's happening in Eaganwith free, real-time updates from Patch.


To begin your cross training routine, start easy.  If you are currently a runner, perhaps add in one yoga class a week and see if your lower back, hips and hamstrings recover faster than before.  Or try a class with some resistance training, such as yoga sculpt or incorporating some free weights at the gym.  If your goal is to become stronger, leaner, more excited by your own capabilities I encourage you to try a few types of movement - alternating your strength days, with cardio and yoga classes, or finding a class that can do some of both.
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?