Functional training is fast becoming a popular alternative – and a fun addition – to traditional methods of weight training and exercise.
Although open to wide interpretation, functional training generally involves exercises that engage multiple joints and often mimicking a movement from a sport or daily life. Functional training is designed to improve your overall physical performance.
Above all, it is quite the opposite of bodybuilding, which generally involves isolated muscle fatigue. Whether you are a professional athlete or you’re simply looking for an interesting alternative to your regular routine, functional training offers many physical benefits.
Functional training has its roots in rehabilitation. When a person is injured and off work, registered therapists often use functional exercises to help prepare patients to return to work without re-injury. For instance, if a carpenter is off work, she might perform exercises that simulate lifting, hammering, and sawing.
A wood-chop using a medicine ball is a great example of a functional exercise that simulates the movement involved in swinging an axe. It incorporates upper body, lower body, and core muscles, while increasing heart rate and improving flexibility and joint mobility.
Because this exercise uses so many different muscles, gaining proficiency at it can make everyday activities such as grocery shopping, cleaning, and moderate lifting much easier. There are many other great functional exercises that use stability balls, wobble boards, exercise tubes, or traditional dumbbells and pulleys.
Another benefit of functional training is improved neuromuscular coordination. Beyond improving general balance and reflex time, we can actually train our muscles and joints to perform compound movements nearly automatically. This can be helpful, for example, for snowboarders who could use a wobble board to condition their body’s responses to different obstacles or to near falls.
Body building remains the best way to add bulk and get strong, just as distance cardio training is the best way to prepare for a marathon, but functional fitness training tends to improve overall quality of life. This can be very liberating for individuals who have struggled with performing simple daily tasks and it can give athletes the edge they need to succeed.
Karp Rehabilitation is an active rehabilitation program specializing with soft-tissue injury rehabilitation. For more information call 604.420.7800.