UK CROSS TRAINING
ASSOCIATION
What is Cross training at its highest level
Cross Training is the most extreme of all sports requiring an unprecedented combination of fitness, strength and endurance. Athletes compete against one another by doing high repetition exercises with heavy weights that test all the major muscle groups and they have to alternate this with demanding cardiovascular sessions on the Bike, Rower, Treadmill, etc. They do this flat out from one exercise to the next and the result is that the heart has to work at maximum efficiency in order to get enough oxygen to the muscles and to clear the lactic acid build up. Only the truly fittest do this the best.
The top competitors are athletes who have honed their bodies levels of ability far beyond even those of the Olympians.
To do well at cross training you need to train accurately and correctly. You will need to develop extremely high lactate threshold levels as well as having built up a strong VO2 base in order to win these events. The trouble is these two do not go hand in hand well, as working one too long, leads to the detriment of the other. Welcome to the new world of Cross Training. It has single handedly taken sports science to new limits of understanding in what a body can do.
Cross Training competitions have been going on for the last 14 years in the UK with participants from gyms all around the country competing in national and recently international competitions of which we have in the UK the Men's World Champion - Hywell Davies. The top UK competition is the Best of the Best which has for the last two years featured on the TransWorld Sport program. Some of the country's fastest, fittest and strongest Triathletes, Iron men, Rowers, Royal Marines and even Olympians have all competed in these types of competitions.