Top athlete advocates cross-training to prevent running injuries

Many runners don’t do much, if any, cross training. Mega-endurance athlete Dean Karnazes reckons that one of the benefits of cross training is that it helps strengthen the muscles that support proper running. He tells Runners World that a runner with good overall muscles strength is typically able to maintain proper form during longer workouts, thus avoiding some of the trauma caused by sloppy running technique toward the end of a hard training session.

Julie Fingar, renowned trainer and running coach, is another supporter of cross training for endurance runners. She relates being able to improve her client’s performances, as well as helping them avoid many common running related aliments, by having them run less and incorporate cross training as part of their workout routine in exchange.

The answer seems to be to find something you like and incorporate it into your training and running fewer miles. Why not trampolining, as its known to be great for flexibility and conditioning the smaller muscles as well as the big ones?