Have You Tried Functional Fitness?

Functional fitness has been viewed as anything from a niche practice to an fad to a joke over the past decade. Functional training can be described as anything from pushups and lunges, to kettlebells or barbell work. Let’s deep into it and find out what exactly is functional fitness?

Functional fitness is more of a buzzword than it is a method of training. Ask anyone who coaches functional fitness and they will tell you it is about exercises that can help you in your daily life. Perhaps it’s farmer’s walks using heavy dumbbells to be able to transport all your groceries one-handed. Perhaps it’s hundreds of air squats to be able to reach your children. Perhaps it is balancing on a Bosu to make sure you don’t slip on icy sidewalks.

Conor Heffernan, a historian, traces the origins of functional fitness back to exercises that were meant for general health and not for strength or specific sports. These would sometimes use strange apparatus such as pulleys, weighted balls, or battle ropes or suspension training.

Functional fitness is often defined differently by trainers today than what they consider “regular” fitness. Some people think that regular training is a lot of single-joint exercises such as bicep curls. They will instead program compound movements that engage the entire body. Others consider regular training to mean you are using heavy weights. Functional training is a workout that uses only light weights. Functional training is different. You don’t need to do sets, but you can move the entire time.

Also, functional can refer to any type of exercise your trainer chooses.

Sometimes, functional fitness is a code term

It seemed like the trend for functional fitness, but recently it seems that more trainers and gyms are embracing the term. This time, however, as we believe is something different: “Functional”, which is code for CrossFit-type exercise but not the CrossFit brand, is code for “CrossFit”

CrossFit is a combination of cardio, barbell training, gymnastics, and calisthenics. Some workouts include skill practice, strength training and, most importantly, “WODs” (workouts that last a whole day), which require cardio fitness in order to be effective.

CrossFit’s name is trademarked and tied to a company. This company has had some unfortunate events in its past. What do you do if CrossFit isn’t for you? You call the actions something else.

Non-functional exercises are not possible

It is not bad to train to improve your everyday life. To be a human being, we all need strength and mobility. As we age, that number goes up. Do you really need to do this type of exercise? It’s not true. Although boring, monotonous barbell squats may not seem “functional” to some people, they can still help build leg strength that will allow you to pick up your children. Any exercise that improves your fitness will be beneficial to you in every day life.

You don’t have to be restricted to the stereotypes of fitness if you want to learn from the world of functional training. Balance training can be both fun and useful. Grip training, core training, interval cardio training and other exercises can all be fun and useful. It’s an exercise for your brain and your body. Even if you don’t find a practical use for handstand pushups, learning new skills can be a great exercise.