If you frequently work out at the gym, chances are you’ve seen functional training sessions crop up. But what exactly is Functional Training? Simply put, it’s a workout targeting the full body rather than training specific parts.
These exercises help you perform everyday activities and tend to use movement patterns that mimic how you naturally move. Think squats, overhead presses and pulls; these might initially seem constricted to the gym environment, but compare this to sitting and standing from a chair, putting something on a shelf, or pulling a cart and you quickly begin to see the similarity.
What are the benefits of functional training?
- Improves Function
Functional training can improve the overall function of your body, boosting muscle strength and endurance. It helps develop stability in your muscles and your body, allowing you to complete everyday activities more efficiently.
By targeting the movements we do naturally, functional workouts offer a practical and accessible approach to fitness that suits everyone, regardless of age or fitness level. Functional training helps with activities like lifting the kids out of the car, playing on a weekend sports team, or carrying home heavy groceries.
- Increases coordination, balance, posture and flexibility
Functional exercises emphasize a wide range of motions, and each move makes you start and finish in a position where your muscles are working in their natural range. The combination of resistance and flexibility fosters mobility. As you work on your training, you will be boosting your body’s functional strength, your overall flexibility, and your coordination.
Your range of motion will improve as you train, making day-to-day activities easier.
Because functional training engages various muscles,, you tend to use multiple small muscle groups known as stabilizers to support the larger ones. By targeting various muscles all at once, you increase both your strength and your natural balance. By developing these in tandem, your overall posture can improve too.
- Helps manage joint pain
If you often experience back, muscle, or joint pain, then functional training can be beneficial to manage your pain. It sits somewhere between physical therapy and personal training because it is regenerative and restores the body.
Chronic pain in the back, knees, neck, and joints can be significantly reduced, providing you with a more comfortable and extensive range of movement for tasks that used to be painful or uncomfortable.
- Reduces the risk of injury
By enhancing your body’s ability to cope with physical stress, functional training reduces your chances of injury. Because this training mirrors common movement patterns, you are better able to cope with daily exertion.
As you train, it’s not just your muscles that gain strength but the soft tissue ligaments surrounding the muscles as well. Strengthening connective tissue is especially important since ligaments and tendons are often an area that can easily be injured.
- Builds functional muscle
One of the significant advantages of functional training is that it doesn’t isolate one muscle group at a time but works to train several muscle groups simultaneously.
Since these are compound movements, you can build strength holistically, helping your body learn to function as a single unit. This approach means training for movement, not for aesthetics or bulk.
In conclusion, functional training offers a practical approach to fitness by improving strength, flexibility, coordination, and mobility for everyday tasks. It helps reduce pain, lower the risk of injury, and builds overall body strength by targeting multiple muscle groups at once. Whether you’re looking to enhance your performance or simply improve your daily movements, functional training is a valuable addition to any fitness routine.
*Disclaimer:
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
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