“Cross training” My Personal Approach for Total Integrated Fitness

In this post I wanted to speak more specifically about my own training rotation. I thought some folks might be interested in seeing how at least one personal trainer trains himself. :)

I think that I represent what a lot of people might be looking for in that I'm not a bodybuilder or a professional athlete. I'm a middle aged man with a wife and family and my program is geared towards overall fitness and maintaining a healthy level of lean body mass.

One day is devoted to a full body strength circuit at the gym using reasonably heavy loading. I rarely do isolation work (such as biceps curls or triceps presses) but rather focus on compound movements.

I start each of those strength workouts with about 10 minutes of warm-up. Sometimes I use full body calisthenic type warmups but occassionally I use an elliptical or rowing machine. I just try to get a nice sweat going without expending too much energy. The total time between warm-up, workout and cooldown is usually between 45 minutes and an hour on the gym days!

About every 5th week I have a "recovery week" which means I still exercise every day but I don't do the heavier strength workouts. I still do different types of routines among the various modes of training I will discuss below. After the recovery week I will then pick a different pushing, pulling and isolation exercises as well as different leg exercises. So I am working in 5 week cycles (4 weeks plus 1 recovery week)

The other days of the week I devote to various other types of workouts such as full body medicine ball workouts, kickboxing, aerobic stepping, BOSU training, Pilates, Yoga and a variety of other workouts that contain elements of Pre-habilitation (for example working on smaller muscles such as rotator cuffs among other critical stabilization musculature) using various types of exercises and devices such as stability balls, elastic resistance etc.


I generally have one day per week devoted to metabolic strength circuits using body weight as well as resistance bands/Powerbase . With these circuits the resistance isn’t particularly high but you are moving quickly from one exercise to another and it’s extremely challenging.

This overall Cross training approach has really served me well in terms of maintaining lean muscle mass (combined with a very clean nutrition program) and has made me feel very strong and athletic in terms of how my body functions as an integrated unit.


I only do the pure strength work to help promote some muscle hypertrophy (i.e. muscle growth) and strength, but there are times where I forgoe that type of training altogether and just concentrate on more full-body functional strength workouts where the loading isn't extremely high but they integrate the body from the ground up (ex. split stance one arm cable rows and presses). They are, in my opinion, the most important types of workouts for maintaining a high level of overall fitness.

Because I exercise daily I like to devote my training, on any given day, to one of the many training disciplines that are part of my overall program (for example a day where kickboxing or medicine ball work might be the focus of that day). This allows me to really immerse myself in one particular discipline for that training session.

In the bigger scope of my training approach, this overall cross training style not only keeps my body fresh, but my mind as well. By incorporating many different styles of exercise your body isn’t always doing the “same old thing” which helps prevent overuse injuries as well as overtraining.

There are also times that I will go through periods where I may do workouts mixing a variety of elements into a single workout using moderate intensity and alternating those workouts with days devoted to Yoga just to give my body some extra recovery time.

With my personal training clients I use this mixed approach because they generally don’t have the opportunity to work out as much as I do. Because there are less total workouts per week, I feel that it’s important we incorporate many elements so they can get the benefits of a variety of disciplines.


I spend a lot of time designing each and every workout for my clients to make sure they are appropriate for where they are physically and also to make sure each workout compliments the previous workouts. Also it’s critical that the workouts flow smoothly as well as build from one section to the next. I will also rotate various types of cardio as well as strength work among several sessions.

So, if you find that you are bored with your own workouts or have hit a plateau, I highly recommend using more of a cross training approach. It’s not only highly effective from a results standpoint, but it’s a lot more fun as well!

2009 Scott Fishkind Time4You Fitness


Please visit my website at   http://www.time4youfitness.com/