What Is Functional Training and Why Does It Matter?
Most folks exercise because they want to (1) lose weight, (2) maintain their weight, (3) tone up, and/or (4) relieve stress. Those are all valid reasons to commit to a fitness routine, but you can also exercise to simply improve the way you move throughout the world. There’s even a name for better-at-life forms of exercise: functional training.
Functional training helps provide you with the strength, stability, and mobility you need to thrive in your life and sports. You use basic functional movement patterns like pushing, pulling, hinging, squatting, rotating, carrying and gait patterns—walking and running—every day. Functional training utilizes exercises that improve your movement proficiency in these primary patterns to give you an edge so you can achieve your goals safely and with good health. Seems smart, right?
Fitness professionals typically recommend functional training to pregnant women or clients recovering from injuries or illness as a replacement for standard endurance or strength training. The reasoning is that it’s best not to push a person’s body to engage in exercise that it can’t currently handle.
In the case of pregnancy, that could mean substituting upper or lower body exercises for core work. It makes sense: an expectant mother may not be able to execute a plank or a crunch, but she needs to strengthen her glutes and legs to help her walk and climb stairs with a baby bump.
While functional training for pregnant clients often happens at the gym, the foray into functional movement usually starts in physical therapy for clients recovering from injuries. Consider a patient who had knee surgery. Before he can run, he has to re-teach his muscles to do less demanding activities.
Five Steps to Creating a Functional Training Space in Any Facility
Step 1: Designate and Clear Space in Your Facility
Swap out products that only allow for one or two movements per machine for pieces that offer more training options, such as soft-sided plyo boxes and lifting racks.
Step 2: Determine How Much Space You Need
The floor space you dedicate to functional training can depend on a number of variables, including how large your facility is, how high the demand for functional training is in your facility, and more. To simplify determining the amount of space you need, a good rule of thumb is allotting for a minimum of 50 square feet of space per person you would like to have working out in the space at a time. For example, if you expect to have a class of 10 people training at a time in the space, you would want to plan for a space of at least 500 square feet.
Step 3: Create a Functional Feel
Training zone with turf creates a performance training feel and a clear distinction between other areas of your facility.
Step 4: Choose the Right Tools
Now that the vision of your functional training area is coming to life, it’s time to fill it with the right tools to engage your members and keep them coming back for more. Unlike traditional pieces of equipment such as selectorized machines, bars and bumper plates, etc., each of the tools in the following list take up very minimal amounts of space while providing endless training options. Aim to include pieces that offer a wide variety of usage and are intuitive to the end user. Some tools that fit this criterion are:
- Slam Balls
- Medicine Balls
- Wall Balls
- Dumbbells
- Kettlebells
- Stability Balls
- Combat Bags
- Suspension Training Straps
- Pull-up Bars
- Suspension Training Bars
Step 5: Utilize a Functional Storage and Suspension System
One of the biggest perceived obstacles when it comes to incorporating functional training into an existing facility is how to store the various tools and keep the space feeling organized. Because many of the functional training tools such as kettlebells, combat bags, and medicine balls, are smaller, loose items, facilities often struggle to find a home for them within their facility and as a result, training areas can become cluttered and feel messy. This is where incorporating a functional storage and suspension system comes into play.
No comments:
Post a Comment