Cross Training Poll for USMS Magazine

Cross-training means the exercise is intended to improve or supplement your swimming. Hmmm... Various times a major motivation for me to swim was the fitness helps me dance better (swing dance, contra dance, in the younger days modern and African). Swimming is mostly crosstraining. I dance for fun. So because I swim to dance better and dance for fun, I shouldn't list "dance" as crosstraining? Seems backward. I don't own a car so I walk and cycle a lot. That "so" in this case implies intention. A major reason to avoid car ownership is that getting around by walking and cycling keeps me fit far more consistently than the on-again-off-again regimens that I've had in swimming (or any "exercise" program). Getting around in a car would just make me old. What would I do? Ride to the Gym? (HAHAHA) Even in the last 3 or 4 months, when I've been averaging 4000 500 yards in the pool, I get more exercise doing other things. I do yoga just to do yoga. So of the five things I checked, three of them have nothing to do with swimming (except that they do, in fact, improve my fitness which affects my ability to swim. Sometimes dramatically.) Sometimes for the other two items - stretching and dryland calisthetics -I do to help my swimming. OTOH, I would still do those things with no swimming, and sometimes I do calisthetics during periods of time where I haven't been swimming much - instead of swimming. If I've been a couch potato for a few months, I usually hit the track with squat-thrusts, jumping jacks, jump rope and similar things. But it's because I haven't exercised, not to improve swimming. Sometimes I do those things because my swimming "fitness" is becoming so specific that it isn't improving my dancing, so I need to do calisthetics to cross train for fitness that I'm not getting through swimming. I had a conversation once with my boss about this, once. She said I probably wasn't fit because I don't work out. (I was going through a phase where I wasn't swimming regularly). If I rush to a dance by biking 8 miles from work, dance for a few hours, then bike 5 and a half miles home, it isn't a "workout." But it isn't sitting on the couch, either. It isn't a "workout" - but it's way more exercise than I get in a 2500 yard swim.

Cross-training means the exercise is intended to improve or supplement your swimming. Hmmm... Various times a major motivation for me to swim was the fitness helps me dance better (swing dance, contra dance, in the younger days modern and African). Swimming is mostly crosstraining. I dance for fun. So because I swim to dance better and dance for fun, I shouldn't list "dance" as crosstraining? Seems backward. I don't own a car so I walk and cycle a lot. That "so" in this case implies intention. A major reason to avoid car ownership is that getting around by walking and cycling keeps me fit far more consistently than the on-again-off-again regimens that I've had in swimming (or any "exercise" program). Getting around in a car would just make me old. What would I do? Ride to the Gym? (HAHAHA) Even in the last 3 or 4 months, when I've been averaging 4000 500 yards in the pool, I get more exercise doing other things. I do yoga just to do yoga. So of the five things I checked, three of them have nothing to do with swimming (except that they do, in fact, improve my fitness which affects my ability to swim. Sometimes dramatically.) Sometimes for the other two items - stretching and dryland calisthetics -I do to help my swimming. OTOH, I would still do those things with no swimming, and sometimes I do calisthetics during periods of time where I haven't been swimming much - instead of swimming. If I've been a couch potato for a few months, I usually hit the track with squat-thrusts, jumping jacks, jump rope and similar things. But it's because I haven't exercised, not to improve swimming. Sometimes I do those things because my swimming "fitness" is becoming so specific that it isn't improving my dancing, so I need to do calisthetics to cross train for fitness that I'm not getting through swimming. I had a conversation once with my boss about this, once. She said I probably wasn't fit because I don't work out. (I was going through a phase where I wasn't swimming regularly). If I rush to a dance by biking 8 miles from work, dance for a few hours, then bike 5 and a half miles home, it isn't a "workout." But it isn't sitting on the couch, either. It isn't a "workout" - but it's way more exercise than I get in a 2500 yard swim.