Functional training

Functional training helps you to:

Upgrade how your body functions and moves
Improve your strength over specific movement patterns
Improve your body’s physical performance

Functional training is designed to help outside of just your workout time. So, if you want to train for a specific sport or to take part in a more active lifestyle, everyone benefits

Injury Prevention

By improving your strength and stability, functional training helps you perform a variety of movements better. So, your joints are better protected, and your muscles are more resistant to injuries like sprains and strains. The balanced nature of the training makes sure you don’t develop weak areas, which is a typical reason why active people get injured.

Increased Mobility using Functional Training

Functional training across a variety of movement patterns makes sure your joints move through their full range of motion and that you build strength throughout that entire range. This is key to the maintenance of proper joint function. As you improve your core stability, you also improve your mobility.

Building Strength for Real Life

Functional training transfers well to life outside the workout room. Your ability to manage everyday tasks improves, like mowing the lawn, carrying kids, and lugging groceries up the stairs. It also makes a difference with sports and recreation activities like playing football, basketball, tennis, hiking, climbing or riding a bike.

Functional training improves your overall athleticism because it improves your whole body strength, movement quality, and stability. You become more resilient to injury, too. All of this translates into better athletic performance. The training works out your whole body, focusing on multi-joint exercises in a balanced way. So, it is more likely you’ll continue with the activities and will see improvements in the short and long terms.

What is Functional Training?

Functional training may not have a clear definition, but there are some defining characteristics to the exercises.

Fitness activities have been heavily influenced by bodybuilding. The problem with that is a focus on targeting your muscles in isolation. And that’s not how your body functions. So, free weights and body-loaded exercises in functional training prioritise improving coordination, strength and stability as compared to your body weight. This will enhance your functionality and athleticism. Building a strong, stable core enhances your physical performance, and it is pivotal to protect your low back. Your core’s purpose is not to bend and twist your spine. It is to resist motion. Your core keeps your spine stable, allowing you to transfer force through your arms and legs effectively and efficiently.

There are 3 planes for human body motion.

Saggital plane, which is forwards and backwards
Frontal plane, which is from side to side
Transverse plane, which is a rotation

Most traditional workout training methods stay in the saggital, forwards and backwards plane. But to truly carry over into better real-world functioning, it is critical to work in all 3 planes.

But What About Cardio?

Functional training is critical when it has to do with resistance training. Still, it is also important to remember that to truly function as a healthy human being, you need to balance this resistance training with some cardio activities, too.

Cardio helps to improve your heart health, resistance, and overall fitness level. Cardio will make sure you have the energy to workout hard and make sure you recover quickly. That way, you won’t burn out from exercising and can always make significant gains. So, for the best possible results, include both functional training and some cardio exercise in your regular training program. This will help you upgrade your body’s performance and increase your quality of life.