Functional exercises are exercises that train your muscles to work together and prepare them for daily tasks by simulating common movements you might do at home, at work or in sports.
While traditional strength training isolates one muscle group at a time, functional training aims to build overall body strength by engaging multiple muscle groups simultaneously. This makes the exercises more practical for enhancing your performance in real life activities.
In this post, we’ll cover what functional training is, the benefits it provides, sample functional core exercises you can incorporate in your routine, proper form tips, and how to progress the workouts over time.
The goal is to explain what functional fitness is and how you can add these total body movements to your training sessions to improve not just core strength but balance, stability, and posture as well. With a mix of functional exercises and traditional strength training, you can get fitter, stronger, and feel better performing day-to-day physical activities.
What Are Functional Exercises?
Functional exercises are physical exercises that replicate or mimic everyday movements and work multiple muscles and joints at once. These exercises focus on training your muscles to work together and prepare them for daily activities by simulating common movements you might do at home, at work or in sports.
Unlike isolation exercises that only work one muscle at a time, functional exercises train your body to move in an integrated way and strengthen your core and improve coordination and balance. Almost all functional exercises require stabilization from core abdominal and back muscles to perform the movement properly.
Some examples of common functional exercises are:
- Squats – compound movement that engages multiple muscles including quads, glutes, core and more. Doing a proper squat motion like you would to sit in a chair builds strength for daily life.
- Diagonal side chops – great for improved stability, functional strength and injury prevention. It helps strengthen the muscles you need for rotational movement
- Planks – Planks engage your core, shoulders, arms and glutes to stabilize your body. This exercise builds core strength crucial for daily functions like getting out of bed, lifting objects or picking things up from the floor.
So in summary, functional exercises train your muscles to handle real-life movements in an integrated, balanced way. They help prevent injury and give you full-body strength for daily activities.
Benefits of Functional Training
Functional training offers numerous benefits beyond traditional strength training and cardio workouts. By mimicking natural movements and engaging multiple muscles at once, functional exercises train your body to work as an integrated unit and become better equipped for daily life. Here are some of the top benefits of incorporating functional training:
- Improves balance and coordination – Functional movements like lunges and squat variations require control, stability, and coordination. Regularly performing these exercises enhances balance and body awareness. This is useful for sports, fitness, and everyday activities like walking up stairs.
- Builds core strength – Exercises like planks, diagonal side chops, mountain climbers and hollow holds force you to brace and stabilize your core. Developing core stability provides a strong foundation for strength and prevents injury. It also helps with posture and back pain.
- Prevents injury – Doing moves in multiple planes of motion that engage diverse muscles and joints helps make your body more resilient. Strengthening important yet often neglected areas like hips, glutes and rotator cuffs via functional training can help prevent common injuries.
- Functional for daily life – Since functional exercises mimic natural movement patterns, they prepare your body for real-world demands. Squatting to lift objects, twisting to look behind you, and balancing on one foot are all functional motions. Training your body to efficiently perform such actions makes daily life easier.
By incorporating functional training into your routine, you can build full-body functional fitness and experience gains beyond just aesthetics. The coordination, balance, core strength, and injury resilience you develop will benefit you both in and out of the gym.
Sample Functional Training Routine
A strong core is the foundation for all functional training. The core muscles include the abdominals, lower back, hips and glutes. These muscles stabilize your spine and pelvis, allowing you to generate and transfer force from the lower body to the upper body.
Here is a sample of functional core routine focusing on key exercises like squats, side lunge with clean, around core with slingshot, pallof presses. Perform each exercise for 8 to 12 reps for 4 rounds.
- 12 Back squats
- 8 Single ar deadlift with upright row
- 12 Around core with slingshot
- 8 Diagonal side chops
- 8 Balance side lunge with clean
- 8 bridge hold palloff press (for more challenge single leg bridge)
Video with all exercises https://youtube.com/shorts/dVXaGDMRtFI
Functional Training Tips
When getting started with functional training, keep these tips in mind:
- Start simple – Functional exercises can be more challenging than traditional strength training, so start with simpler bodyweight moves. Master the basics before progressing to more advanced exercises that require balance and coordination.
- Focus on form – Proper form is critical with functional training to build a strong foundation and prevent injury. Go slow and focus on correct posture and technique rather than speed.
- Listen to your body – Take time to learn which functional exercises feel right for your body. It’s normal for some movements to feel awkward at first. Don’t push through pain or discomfort.
- Train muscles equally – Functional training works multiple muscle groups at once. Make sure to target all the major muscle groups to develop balanced strength. Avoid overworking some muscles while neglecting others.
Starting functional training doesn’t need to be intimidating. Build up gradually while emphasizing quality over quantity. Proper form and technique will allow you to progress safely.
Conclusion
Functional exercises are a beneficial addition to any fitness routine. By focusing on movement patterns and multiple joints and muscles working together, functional training helps improve core strength, balance, coordination, range of motion, and posture. It provides a more well-rounded, real-world approach to exercise compared to isolation exercises like bicep curls or hamstring curls.
Some of the key takeaways and benefits of functional training include:
- Develops full-body strength and stability
- Improves balance and coordination
- Prepares the body for daily activities
- Helps prevent injury by strengthening muscles, tendons, and ligaments
- Can be scaled for any fitness level
When starting out with functional movements, go slow and focus on proper form. Gradually increase the load and challenge over time. Do not sacrifice form just to lift heavier weight. Pay attention to muscle imbalances and work both sides of the body evenly.
Stay healthy and happy,
My fitness corner
