When we enter a gym, we mostly see people working out a certain group of muscles or joints. They use machines and heavy weights to only focus on any one muscle or joint at a time. This definitely strengthens that particular muscle or joint but doesn’t necessarily help you outside the workout area. With functional training, you can make daily activities much easier to perform like bending, twisting, lifting, loading, pushing, pulling, hauling and squatting,
So, we can easily say that functional training consists of multi-joint movement patterns that involve and strengthen your knees, hips, elbow, wrist, shoulders and spine and improve the entire range of motion.
With this article, Yoactiv wishes to give you an entire low-down on functional training. Let’s see what you can expect from this article.
1. What are functional training exercises?
2. Who should do functional training?
3. Why you should do functional training?
What are functional training exercises?
There are sets of exercises that use multiple muscles and even your whole body and emphasise on core strength and stability. You can either take the help of a personal trainer or perform these functional training exercises on your own in a gym.
Suitcase squat
This is similar to the squats you do, except that you would keep your feet at shoulder-width apart. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms resting along your sides with your palms facing inwards. Bend your knees to lower into a squat as you push your hips behind. Come up as you squeeze your glute muscles.
Push-up
This is the regular push-up with your palms on the floor and hands would be shoulder-width apart.
Lateral lunge
This is a variation of the regular standing lunges. All you need to do is take your right leg out towards the right in a diagonal and your left leg towards the left about 2 feet away. You may alternate legs or focus on one leg at a time, whichever is more convenient.
Bent-over row
Hold weights in both hands and keep your feet slightly apart. Hinge forward, push your butt back and bend your knees a little. You may not be fully parallel to the floor and now pull the weights towards your chest while your elbows are close to your body. You must feel a squeeze in your shoulder blades.
Deadlift
Keep your feet as wide as your hips, bend your knees a little and keep a dumbbell in both hands in front of your quads. Try to maintain a flat back as you hinge forward. Lower the weight along the shin while keeping your body almost parallel to the ground. Come up straight with the weight as close to you as possible.
Single-leg deadlift
This is similar to a deadlift, except that you keep the dumbbell in one hand. Keep the other leg grounded and lift the other leg so your body weight is only on one leg.
Medicine ball rotational throw
Hold a medicine ball with both hands and keep it in front of you. Twist your torso and turn to any one side of your body. Throw the ball such that it gets stuck against the wall behind you. Turn to the other side and catch the ball. You can also do this with another person.
Walking lunge
This is similar to the lunges you do while standing, except that you can walk and lunge down with every step as you move forward.
Step up
You can take an elevated plank – like a flat bench used for bench press or a stool. Keep one leg and go up as you squeeze your leg muscles. Come down and go up again. Alternate this with both legs.
Is functional training for everyone?
Absolutely, people from all age groups can perform functional training. Even if you have a sedentary lifestyle and long sitting hours, performing functional training helps your posture stay correct and strong. It also improves mobility through your hips and shoulders required for those with long hours of a desk job.
For older adults, functional training is extremely useful as it mimics the everyday movement and helps them with stability and safety from injury. For younger people, these movements can be altered for ability level via heavier weights, more reps and speed.
Why should I do functional training at all?
Mostly, functional training can be done anywhere as it doesn’t really require much equipment. So, even if you’re stuck at home or are travelling, you can always do effective workout. It also strengthens the entire body and improves its ability to work efficiently as a single unit.
Balance & coordination
Since it makes different parts of your body move together smoothly, it gives you an improved sense of balance and coordination. It helps in preventing falling especially in senior citizens and helps people recover from injuries by re-instilling a sense of balance.
Injury protection
Since functional training helps you mimic daily life, it helps you prevent injuries. For example, if you lift something heavy from the floor, you might have back pain, but if you are already doing this as an exercise, it will avoid any accidents while picking up heavy objects at work or at home.
Improved performance
Athletes improve their performance and flexibility with functional exercises. For example, a basketball player may leap from one side to the other and drastically improve their agility and speed. A person who does rowing may do squats and train the leg muscles that they use while rowing.
Time-efficient
When fitness or weight loss is concerned, functional exercises are far more time-efficient than weight training as that focus only on one muscle at a time. With this, you can add shorter, more intense full-body exercise sessions and automatically boost the calories you burn.
Strength and endurance
Apart from improving speed, muscular strength, power, balance and agility, functional training also improves endurance and flexibility.
Reduced muscle loss
Functional training increases muscle mass, bone density and strength and reduces neuromuscular and functional capacity aging. These help in strengthening joints and muscles and improve the ability to perform daily movement and thus is beneficial for deconditioned people.
Keep these tips in mind when doing functional training
- Try the simpler movements before moving on to complex ones.
- Train for stability first. For example, start by doing push-ups on the floor before moving onto a balance board.
- Perfect form before you add weight and speed.
- Follow safety and patience and stay away from haste. As that can lead to injury.
Find a fitness studio or gym near you that offers functional training here: