One of the most significant benefits of cross-training is the prevention of injury. However, while this is the most widely accepted benefit, it is certainly not the only one. Fitness enthusiasts can use cross training to improve fitness, promote recovery and rehabilitation, improve motivation levels, remove the predictability out of their workout, and rejuvenate, body and soul. The principles of cross training can be applied across a variety of fitness modalities, even alternative ones such as yoga and pilate. That is to say, cross-training is not restricted to traditional methods of fitness such as running, swimming or cyling.
If you are a yoga practitioner, chances are you won't be very motivated to try other things. Yoga by itself offers enough variety to pose as cross-training. Besides, it never creates the same issues in the body that, say for example running does. Therefore it cannot be measured by the same parameters used to evalaute other forms of fitness either. However, if you are practicing yoga for weight loss, then the chances are pretty high that you will hit a plateau with your weight, just like in any other fitness program. Although yoga is not strictly just a fitness program, it can be made fitness-oriented if that is what the practitioner needs. As a long-time yoga practioner who has even used yoga to lose weight after childbirth, I can say that the plateau does inevitably come your way. That is when I started to practice pilates as well, and the results were amazing. That was a kind of cross-training too. Eventually, I added cycling to my fitness plan and found to my surprise that I went much farther than I had expected - that is, the weight loss aspect was only one of the outcomes I was to enjoy. Moreover, I felt excited and motivated to further experiment with cross training. I did not want to give my body a chance to “get used to" my fitness regime, so I would “trick the body” into thinking it was a new fitness regime every few days. In keeping with my discovery of the benefits of cross-training, I would do yoga thrice a week, pilates twice a week and cycling once a week. Cross-training yielded results for me that surpassed my expectations and kept me agile, fit and energetic. It improved my body's efficiency on the mat, gave me more awareness of my muscles and their movements, reduced the scope for injury, increased flexibility and stamina and range of motion, while developing core strength.