Monday, February 4, 2019

Functional fitness training: Is it right for you?

Functional fitness exercises train your muscles to help you do everyday activities safely and efficiently. Find out more about functional fitness exercises — and what they can do for you.

Chances are you don't live to exercise. For many people, exercise is a way to maintain or improve their quality of life. And that's the focus of functional fitness.

Functional fitness exercises are designed to train and develop your muscles to make it easier and safer to perform everyday activities, such as carrying groceries or playing a game of basketball with your kids.
What is functional fitness training?

Functional fitness exercises train your muscles to work together and prepare them for daily tasks by simulating common movements you might do at home, at work or in sports. While using various muscles in the upper and lower body at the same time, functional fitness exercises also emphasize core stability.

For example, a squat is a functional exercise because it trains the muscles used when you rise up and down from a chair or pick up low objects. By training your muscles to work the way they do in everyday tasks, you prepare your body to perform well in a variety of common situations.

Functional fitness exercises can be done at home or at the gym. Gyms may offer functional fitness classes or incorporate functional fitness into boot camps or other types of classes. Exercise tools, such as fitness balls, kettlebells, and weights, are often used in functional fitness workouts.
What are the benefits of functional fitness training?

Functional exercises tend to use multiple joints and numerous muscles. Instead of only moving the elbows, for example, a functional exercise might involve the elbows, shoulders, spine, hips, knees, and ankles. This type of training, properly applied, can make everyday activities easier, reduce your risk of injury and improve your quality of life.

Functional exercise training may be especially beneficial as part of a comprehensive program for older adults to improve balance, agility and muscle strength, and reduce the risk of falls.

What are examples of functional fitness exercises?

Comprehensive physical movements found in activities such as tai chi and yoga involve varying combinations of resistance and flexibility training that can help build functional fitness.
Other examples of specific functional fitness movements that use multiple joints and muscles include:
  • Multidirectional lunges
  • Standing bicep curls
Multidirectional lunges help prepare your body for common activities, such as vacuuming and yard work. To do a lunge, keep one leg in place and step out with the other leg — to the front, back or side — until your knee reaches a 90-degree angle and your rear knee is parallel to the floor.
How do you structure your functional training program?
1. The exercises should have gradation. They should start from the exercise that’s most demanding. Thus, when the trainee is most refreshed, they’ll start with the most challenging movement and get the most out of it.
The most demanding exercises are usually deadlifts and squats. That’s why I always start with them. In cases where I start with a unilateral knee dominant movement — Bulgarian squats, Pistol Squats, Lunges — I don’t include deadlifts or squats in that workout.
2. The exercises should be applicable to the particular person. A challenging exercise for one lifter might be a piece of cake for another.
3. The body moves in different planes — this means that the movements we include in a workout should cover all the planes.
You should rotate the movements – in one workout in a horizontal plane, next time a vertical plane and so forth.
For example, pull-ups, one-arm crossover pulldowns, and lat pulldowns are in a vertical plane. Renegade rows, dumbbell rows, and horizontal pull-ups are all in a horizontal plane.
4. When the first movement is knee dominant, the second lower body movement should probably be hip dominant and vice versa.
This means that when you have squats, Bulgarian squats, or lunges as the main exercise, the second lower body movement should be something like hip thrusters, good mornings, kettlebell swings, and so forth.
Conversely, when the first exercise is a deadlift variation, the second should be a knee dominant unilateral movement, such as lunges, pistols, or Bulgarian squats.
5. Exercises are either unilateral or bilateral. Unilateral exercises are performed one limb at a time and bilateral are performed both limbs simultaneously. Clients will often present with some sort of an imbalance between their left and right side. When they perform bilateral movements, they instinctively push or pull more with their stronger limb.
That’s why it is really important to include both types of movements. Military presses, push-ups, and dips are bilateral. Side presses, landmine pushes, and lunges are unilateral.
Considering that most people train 2-3 times a week, I usually rotate the main exercises as follows: one workout starts with squats, the next with deadlifts, and the third with a unilateral movement. This ensures everything is included for optimal development.
6. Exercises included in one workout should logically complement one other
If you have a renegade row in your workout, you don’t need to perform a plank. Both exercises load the torso in the same plane, requiring stabilization. You’d be better off substituting the plank with a twisting movement like the full contact twist or Paloff press.
7. You should choose the exercises based on the mobility and level of physical preparedness of the trainee.
The exercises should be modified accordingly. For example, the deadlift might be performed from bumpers or blocks so the ROM can match the trainee without compromising technique.
The military press might be performed with a different grip or dumbbells.
8. You should consider the imbalances of the particular trainee.
If somebody has serious back issues, meaning his or her back muscles haven’t a clue how to work, it’s better to skip some of the pushing movements and include two pulling movements.
In this example, you’d be better off using more unilateral upper body movements as they allow for stricter technique, so the trainee can feel the load better and thus learn to activate his sleepy muscles.
You (or your clients) should never feel like they have to choose between excellent health and career success. A great functional fitness workout doesn’t have to be a time consuming or complicated endeavor – just a commitment to hitting these 8 key steps.




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