Beyond Buzzwords: Demystifying Functional Training for Everyday Success
What is Functional Training
Functional training has become the best thing to be doing in recent years. If an exercise is not labelled as functional then what is the point in doing it as it will not benefit your everyday life or your athletic abilities?
The word functional training means to train in a way that has a direct correlation or is near enough to the movements you do in your everyday life. From my experience working in public gyms, I have seen many different exercises performed with the argument of them being ‘functional’ with most of them leaving me wondering.
Each person trains with a different goal in mind. Some train to get stronger, others to look better naked, and some to be better at their sport. No matter what your motivation to train is, all of them involve one thing, movement.
Being a better mover will allow you to
Perform heavier lifts
Be better at your sport
Improve your mobility
Reduce muscular imbalances
Make everyday life tasks easier
Functional Training should encompass the foundation of making you a better mover as well as adhering to your goals for training. When training there is something called the risk: reward ratio, which weighs up the reward of what you are about to do with the risk of injury.
Before partaking in an exercise that has been labelled ‘functional’ you should think about how much benefit are you going to receive from it and what is the likelihood of you doing more harm.
How To Make Training Functional
First, you'll need to step away from the idea of your exercises directly mimicking the movement you want to improve. This is especially true if you are new to training or a year or two into your training journey. Being strong should be the first foundation before looking to make things fancy, and this is something I emphasise with all my online coaching clients.
Build the skill to lift and control your bodyweight through different movement patterns such as the squat, lunge, hinge, pulling, pushing, and rotational movements. When the body can be in control during movement, it makes tasks with resistance much easier to learn as your body already has the foundational competency.
Also, functional training is about matching exercises to your everyday life tasks. When performing these life tasks, you are doing them with your body weight most of the time, so it makes sense to be skilled at controlling your body weight.
The best form of functional training you can do as an everyday person and everyday athlete is to add jumping, landing, and power-based movements. You may think that you don’t jump in your daily life, so why should you train it?
But you need to realise the number of small jumps you do within the day that comes in the form of running, running for the train, running for the bus, running to the meeting room, and running after your child who decided to test how roads work. Running is jumping in a timed, rhythmic pattern.
By practising jumping and landing, you strengthen the tendons at the ankle and knee, reducing the likelihood of tendonitis. You are also strengthening the bones at the joints as well. Your bones like to be loaded, and it has been stated in research that Weight-bearing impact exercises, such as hopping and jumping and progressive resistance exercises, alone or in combination, can improve bone health in adults (Hone et al., 2018)
Healthier bones Reduced the likelihood of arthritis, reduced chances of breakage, reduced chances of falls, twists, and sprains.
Benefits of Functional Training on Life and Performance
Being physically able to cope with life's demands is more than just picking up boxes or carrying something weighty up and down the stairs. Other factors come into play which make general training functional.
I have a client around 6’4 and has been in and out of training. We train 1x per week for 60 minutes, focusing on a range of different things within the session, but the underlying focus is constantly getting stronger. We had a session recently, and he told me he lost his footing and fell.
But when he fell, he caught himself with his arm just like any person would. The part that he was most surprised about was that he fell and caught himself, and the arm that took the weight was completely fine, with no ache, no pain; it was as if nothing had happened.
Due to our training together and the training he does away from me, he built up the strength around the wrist, elbow, and shoulder to withstand the impact and leave no adverse effect on his body. That sounds very functional to me!
If you do not partake in sports, you still face obstacles in life that will require you to be in awkward and untrainable positions. But through the bone and muscle resilience that strength training brings, you will find yourself either able to meet the demands or, if it is a situation that could leave you in harm, it will help reduce the potential amount of injury.
Functional Training Exercises & Carryover
Carrying your suitcase.
Carrying heavy shopping bags.
Walking up the stairs pain-free.
Walking down the stairs backwards when carrying an object.
Putting something high up.
Being able to sit down and stand up with
no support.
Build wrist, elbow, and shoulder strength.
Build strength in the lower back. Can walk and run for longer without the lower
back tiring.
Build strength around the ankles and reduce the likelihood of rolling the ankle when walking.
Being able to hold something or use the arm for long durations, i.e. painting, whisking, doing hair.
Conclusion
Functional training does not require performing movements directly related to the activity you want to improve. Training provides benefits that will enhance your lifestyle and movement, whether in sports or everyday activities. Focus on building your strength, and you will see the benefits of it.
I hope this helped.
Till next time,
Myles
Bibliography
Hong. A, and Wan Kim.S, Effects of Resistance Exercise on Bone Health (2018), National Library Of Medicine, 33(4): 435–444.
