Functional Training
What is Functional Training and do we provide it? We have been incorporating functional training into all of our clients’ sessions for a long time at the Studio. Some exercise enthusiasts might not even realize they are doing functional training. What is functional training? Simply put, it is an exercise regimen designed to help strengthen us for our daily tasks and activities while reducing the risk of or preventing common injuries.
Is Functional Training for Everyone?
Absolutely. More than likely, our everyday, repetitive activities cause injuries such as low back pain and neck stiffness. Tasks such as lifting laundry, picking up toddlers, swinging a golf club or unloading groceries require core strength, balance and mobility that many people do not have. Performing these activities over and over eventually can cause problems if you are not training properly. Although you may be very strong in your arms and legs, you could still strain your back lifting groceries out of your trunk due to lack of functional strength.
How does it Work?
Functional training utilizes multiple muscle groups in an integrated fashion. This is beneficial for many reasons. You challenge your body to work as a whole, rather than isolating individual muscle groups, which is how we move in most of our daily tasks. For example, when you perform exercises on a stability ball or an unstable surface, you have to recruit deep muscles from the abdominals, hips, back and pelvis. Therefore, potentially more muscles are strengthened and more calories are burned during one exercise.
Examples of Functional Training
Examples of functional training include Pilates, sport-specific training, balance, and core training. Sport-specific training is geared to the needs and demands of a particular sport and the individual challenges of the athlete. Each sport will vary in training protocol and each athlete’s needs and program design will be different, even if they are training for the same sport. Balance training takes traditional exercises to an unstable surface or could have the client balance on one foot while performing the exercise. Core training is more than just abdominal work. Your core includes the entire trunk and spine including your hips, abdominals and glute muscles. Strengthening the deep muscles of your core helps handle the daily tasks of bending, rotating, lifting and lowering. Lower back pain can be eliminated while posture also improves.
Equipment Used
Equipment used includes balance boards, exercise tubing or bands, medicine balls, stability balls and cable machines. These exercises may feel uncomfortable at first, but also offer variety, increase challenge and add fun to a workout. For example, the traditional lunge could include an added torso rotation, a bicep curl can be done on a BOSU balance disc and you might find yourself balancing on one foot. Not only are you still receiving the benefits of a traditional weight training program, you are now taking your fitness, health and daily performance to a new level. It is exciting and you can feel your every day strength improve. Let us help add the functional dimension to your fitness routine today.
Below is a list of fitness products we recommend.
