WPH Wednesday Workouts: The Benefits of Cross-Training
WPH Press, 11/18/20
Each Wednesday the WPH features the WPH Wednesday Workout, designed to help you become a stronger, fitter, faster, and better handball player. From leg and shoulder strengthening exercises to HIT Training, biking, and rest, the WPH Wednesday Workouts focus on the areas that every handball player needs to reach their peak form.
On today’s WPH Wednesday Workout, we’ll focus on the importance and benefits of cross training for handball.
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STACK HERE states that focusing on just one muscle group or playing just one sport that focuses on a particular set of skills may limit an athlete’s capacity for growth. Cross training can enable an athlete to strengthen and train the muscle groups that may be neglected by playing just one sport or focusing on just one type of workout.
STACK lists five benefits of cross training:
- Less injury
- Greater aerobic capacity
- Stronger overall
- Develop dynamic flexibility
- Heal Faster
STACK believes that the varying exercises cross training provides will make you a more flexible, well-rounded athlete that will improve your performance more than playing just one sport could ever do.
The active times HERE believes that focusing on just one sport can lead to overuse injuries. In addition to overuse injuries, athletes can diminish the inevitable boredom that comes with playing just one sport that creates a plateau in performance by cross training.
Dr. Matthew Jepsen, MD of SportsMD HERE believes that teenagers that specialize in one sport are extremely high-risk for serious injury, as thousands of teenagers who pitch year-round undergo “Tommy John” elbow surgery from overuse. Dr. Jepsen believes that cross training allows for rest, while removing the load from bones and joints involved in playing just one sport. Dr. Jepsen strongly encourages multi-sport participation amongst youth athletes, citing that 29 of the 32 first round athletes in the 2019 NFL Draft played multiple sports in high school. Adult athletes are no different.
Many of Ireland’s top handball stars play multiple sports throughout the year. Paul Brady has played Gaelic Football throughout his two-decade run atop the sport, multiple-time Irish national champion Diarmaid Nash is a top hurling star, and WR48 #4 Fiona Tully is a Gaelic Football star.
Playing different sports and introducing new workout routines will not only make you more flexible, less likely to become injured, and make you stronger overall, but it will also make you more mentally fresh and less likely to experience athletic burnout.
Pick up a new sport or training exercises today and see your handball game improve!
David Fink
WPH Fitness Director