If you don’t want to be cross, you’d better get training. Cross-training that is!

Cross-training can be a helpful addition to your Susan G. Komen 3-Day® training program. It allows you to build muscle endurance while decreasing overuse injuries. Remember the 10% rule: You should increase your activity 10% each week in order to give your body time to recover between your training walks. It is possible to do too much too soon, so pace yourself and pay attention to how your body feels at all times.

While walking is the most important preparation, other types of training that will help increase your stamina and strengthen walking muscles include:

• Using an elliptical trainer
• Bicycling
• Stair stepping
• Rollerblading
• Doing pilates

Strength training through resistive bands or low weights is also an important part of your training program because it can build muscle. Muscle increases your endurance and burns fat better than fat does. It does not need to be an extensive weight lifting program though. Interval or circuit training alternate aerobic activity with strength exercises. They can be an efficient complement to your training program.

Weight-bearing exercise is one of the three primary pillars of bone health, along with a calcium-rich diet and adequate amounts of vitamin D. Weight-bearing exercise is so important because of what this does to strengthen your bones.

When you increase the load on your bones, the stress slightly compresses the bone matrix and triggers cells to take in more calcium and other minerals, and ultimately increase bone density. The amount of weight that causes this response from the bone is called “osteogenic loading” because it takes a certain “load” to stimulate the bone-building cells. In contrast, “unloading” the bones — prolonged bed rest for example — can result in loss of bone mineral density. While normal daily activities are sufficient in preventing the harmful effects of unloading, significant “loading” appears to be required to increase bone density.

When we stand, gravity applies a load to our bones that equals our body weight. Walking briskly increases load and running or jogging adds even more load, but we need higher-impact activities like jumping, skipping rope, or strength training to improve bone mineral density.

While we are talking about exercise for bone health, here are some simple exercises that will help get you in gear for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day. Some of these exercises strengthen your ankles, knees and hips, while others target your core and posture — just what you need to walk tall for 60 miles over three days!

Straight Talk from the Pink Bubble – Walk/Life Balance While we spend a lot of time planning for a successful 3-Day walk, we also need to consider how we maintain a good walk/life balance. “I try to train three to four days a week. On weekends, I get out early in the morning, so I've got the rest of the day left for family, friends, etc.” —Beth Northman, 7-city 3-Day Walker and Co-Captain, BC Babes

Time for a pop quiz… well, survey!
Throughout this series, we’ve been talking a lot about bone health and what choices you can make to impact your bone health as you get older. Do you know how to build and maintain strong bones? We would like to know what you know — and what you don’t know — so we can better educate and empower people like you to build and maintain strong, healthy bones for life. Take the poll here now, it should only take 2-3 minutes of your time and we can’t make an impact without your feedback!

This email is a part of the Healthy Living: Preparing your Mind, Body and Bones for the 3-Day Series. To catch up on blogs and emails about Healthy Living, click here.

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