#FUNCTIONAL FITNESS HOW TO#

#FUNCTIONAL FITNESS HOW TO#

The more you train functionally, the better youвЂ™ll become at working your entire body as one system, says Salvador, ultimately helping you improve your coordination.ДЇunctional training also gives you an excellent kinesthetic awareness (awareness of how your body moves) and teaches you how to move safely, says Teakle.ДЄll of these skills are pretty important in everyday life and in the gym, allowing us to move purposefully and confidently and helping us stay sturdy, strong, and safe. Moving your body in a way that recruits multiple muscle groups at once requires a certain level of coordination, focus, and core strength (which is why compound movements are so good for building core strength and stability). It also improves coordination, balance, and body awareness, which will help you avoid unnecessary injuries. YouвЂ™ll squat and deadlift it from the floor, using your glutes and legs and keeping your back flat and chest up like youвЂ™re used to doing with a weight in the gym. But if youвЂ™ve been focusing on functional movements in your training, youвЂ™ll be way more comfortable lifting that suitcase properly: by using your entire body. You may even end up really hurting yourself by, say, rupturing a disc (an extreme but not unheard of result of improper lifting). If you do it incorrectly and just bend over instead of squatting or deadlifting, youвЂ™re likely to use-and potentially strain-your lower-back muscles. вЂњRecruiting multiple muscle groups is going to prevent strain injuries that happen from using one muscle group,вЂќ says Teakle. Part of that is because both your mind and muscles will learn how to recruit multiple muscle groups to get a job done instead of relying on just one. вЂњTraining to work together is going to keep you safe,вЂќ Teakle says. YouвЂ™re training it to be a system and not just individual parts that work independently. Functional training improves your bodyвЂ™s ability to work efficiently as one unit.Д«y training multiple muscle groups at the same time, you are helping your body function better as a whole, says Teakle. вЂњBut that wouldnвЂ™t be my primary area of focus.вЂќ Most peopleвЂ™s workouts-if youвЂ™re working out to be in shape and improve overall health-should consist mainly of compound and functional movements, with isolation exercises peppered in as needed to address a weakness or improve stability in a certain joint ( like your shoulders). вЂњIf a client came to me with an acute injury and I needed them to strengthen a particular muscle group, I might have them isolate that muscle group,вЂќ he explains. ThatвЂ™s not to say that isolation exercises donвЂ™t ever have a purpose, says Salvador. Now, how often do you squat to lift something off the floor? Or lunge to tie your shoe? Or push a door open? Think about it: How often do you simply stand in place and lift something from waist level with just your biceps? Probably rarely, if ever. Because of that, they typically mimic everyday movement patterns-like pull, push, squat, hinge, rotation-better than isolation exercises, like a biceps curl. A functional workout typically consists of compound exercises like squats, lunges, and deadlifts.Д¬ompound exercises require more than one muscle group to work together, like a squat, deadlift, lunge, or push-up. When you add social media to the mix, it becomes something people hear more about and decide they want to try. Henderson says that functional training has become more popular because вЂњa lot of studios and gyms are making it very accessible for the consumer to try this form of training.вЂќ Some fitness studios even have вЂњfunctionalвЂќ built into their names, like F45 and Fhitting Room (FHIT stands for functional high-intensity training). Increasingly, fitness studios are adding classes that can help people get stronger in their everyday movement patterns.

Functional fitness