“Variety is the spice of life!” This famous proverb can be applied to almost everything we do in our daily routines, including how we move. Diversity in movement not only makes your workouts more fun, it also makes you more balanced, stronger, flexible and less likely to get injured.

Movement Repetitions Can Cause Strains

If you are consistently doing one type of motion or pattern, you are more likely to develop a repetitive strain or create an overcompensation. By cross training, you can create more muscle balance to avoid overworking one muscle group or building too much muscle memory for one particular activity. For example, if your main sport is a rotational sport like baseball or softball, avoid playing golf or tennis as well. Maybe opt for swimming or weightlifting because those are going to work completely different muscles in the body and force your brain and body to make different connections.

Doing the same thing over and over again is not good for our overall health. Our bodies need flexibility and mobility, strength, and cardiovascular health to be in top performance, and no one sport can provide a balance of all three. Just like we need diversity in our diets, we need diversity in our workouts and our sports. When we overuse some muscles while ignoring others, that’s when injuries can happen.

How Different Movements Benefit Our Bodies

It is important to know what exercise benefits what area of the body. For example, cardio is great for your heart and lungs, but not good for building muscle. On the other hand, strength training is great for our bones and our muscles, but not as great for enhancing flexibility and mobility.

Also, it is important to note the difference between flexibility and mobility.

  • Flexibility is how much your muscles will lengthen during a particular movement or stretch
  • Mobility is how much your joints will move

If you can bend at the waist and touch your hands to the floor, then all those joints from your hips to your ankles have to have mobility. Often, people make the mistake of thinking it is a flexibility issue (e.g. “My hamstrings are tight.”) when it may actually be a mobility issue. Your stiffness could be the result of your hip joints being locked up because they don’t have the mobility.

How to Plan Diversity in Your Movement

Start with a Goal

The best way to create a plan or a workout with diversity in the movements is to have a goal or a focus. For example: Get Stronger; Build Strength; Run 10 Miles. Start out by focusing on your goals using body weight training and building to weight training. Work towards the goal, but don’t set unrealistic expectations by trying to get to the goal right away.

Mix it Up

Mix up your days so that you incorporate cardio and balance training. For example, do three days of strength training with one day that has lighter weights and more reps so you get your heartrate up to incorporate some cardio. Then have two days of rest, or active recovery, where you work on mobility through yoga or gentle stretching. Lastly, add a cardio day that could be walking a hill, running, hiking, swimming, biking, or even dancing! Get your heart rate into that window where you are huffing and puffing, but let it be doing something you enjoy.

Warm-up and Cool-Down with Mobility

Another good trick is to warm up or cool down with mobility rather than having it be a different day or workout completely. If you can add the time to your regular workouts, this can be a great way to get diversity of movement without feeling like you have to drastically alter or add more to your already busy schedule.

Cross Train

If you already do a pickup game of basketball, don’t add a co-ed soccer game to your schedule. The running and cutting are very similar in these two sports. Instead, see if there is a game of pickleball or tennis you can join. You can work those rotational muscles that are underused in basketball and all the running and cutting your body is used to will come in handy for the start/stop motions required in tennis and pickleball so you don’t injure yourself.

Diversifying your movements and making sure you get a good balance of flexibility and mobility, strength, and cardio will not only increase your overall health and reduce your risk of injury, it also makes movement and working out more fun!