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Health & Fitness

What is Functional Training? And How Can I Overdo it?

The straight skinny from your own personal trainer

If you belong to a gym or read any fitness materials at all, the term “functional training” is thrown all over and is overused, just like the colloquialisms you may recognize from the 90’s such as "synergy", "think outside the box", “game on,” and "bring it"!

Functional training is a classification of exercise which involves training the body for the activities performed in daily life.  It attempts to adapt or develop exercises which allow individuals to perform the activities of daily life more easily and without injuries, usually targeting the core muscles of the abdomen and lower back. 

Now working the core muscles is really great, but the first question you may want to ask at this point is, "So what?  How is functional training going to help me lose 20 pounds, or lower my cholesterol 25 points?"  And the answer is, "It may not."

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After all, do you need a training system that will help you walk to your car, or carry a bag of groceries, or paint a wall?  Those are daily activities.  And while they are pretty simple examples, the time when you may have a problem is when you sustain an injury and need rehabilitation or physical therapy to do these activities again.  

But because telling people you functionally train makes you sound hip and cutting edge, and while doing it is not always as exciting, the answer as always becomes to change it up a bit.  I’ve seen folks add a lot of balance training and esoteric movements so that functional training is now synonymous with “harder”.  And what does this lead to?  Guys doing push ups with both hands and feet on medicine balls!  People doing one legged deadlifts on flipped over BOSUs!  And the most dreaded of all….CROSSFIT!!! (Look it up if you don’t know)

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Result?  Lot’s of strange looks, thoughts of “He’s crazy. I’ll never do that, it’s too hard”, and a whole line of new sneakers (see New Balance’s Minimalist line) and honestly, smaller muscles and less power.  Not because using balance tools or destabilizing is bad, but because as usual, people take every possible positive notion to the extreme and go with the more is better approach.  There is actually an anti-functional training movement by some trainers and educators that asks us to keep balance training as one component of exercise, and strength training separately, especially if you are looking to change your body type significantly.  Remember Coach Mike’s credo: The old ways are still the best.  There’s not a lot of reason to add these toys to your workouts every single time, and if you do, master the basics first.  Check with a trainer you trust to discuss functional training and when it is appropriate to add into your regimen.  Happy fitness!!

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