The Rise of Functional Fitness: How Training for Everyday Movements can Improve your Lifestyle
Traditional weight training involves isolated muscles and makes them stronger like bicep curls or lateral pull down or bench press. But functional training involves multiple muscles and mimics everyday movements. This helps one perform daily activities with much ease.
Most of these exercises can be done only using body weight but some additional exercises can be done using external weights as well. In this article, we will focus on the following:
History of functional fitness
Top benefits of functional training
Functional Fitness vs. Crossfit
Functional fitness exercises that you can do on your own.
History of Functional Fitness
In the form of exercise, functional training has been around from time immemorial. But the term actually emerged in the 1980s and 1990s.
We can attribute the beginning of functional training to Ancient Greece. The physician Hippocrates asked patients to toss balls to one another to relieve pain. Little is to wonder when some people credit Hippocrates for the invention of the medicine ball. Even Galen who came after Hippocrates promoted this practice. But after the fall of Greece in the 7th century, training and calisthenics were reduced to be practiced by soldiers and nobles.
In the 16th century came a book by Girolamo Mercuriale called De Arte Gymnastica. This reintroduced the idea that physical training can be used as treatment. Many physicians were inspired by this book and started prescribing calisthenics or gymnastics.
In 1790, Francis Lowndes created a contraption called Gymnasticon. This was not for athletes, but to exercise the joints and muscles of the human body. In 1834, Donald Walker published British Manly Exercises. He followed this with Exercises for Ladies. Both books have one thing in common, they talk about body weight exercises and club swinging for day-to-day movements.
By the mid-19th century, Indian clubs were being used in the USA as well for similar reasons. Pioneers in gymnastics like Pierre Henrik Ling rehabilitated bodies using calisthenics.
Two key pioneers of functional training are Dudley Allen Sargent and Gustav Zander. Sargent who was the director of physical training at the Harvard Gymnasium used cable machines to mimic movements found in sawing, chopping wood, pulling a plow, raking or mowing. Zander created prototypes of leg extensions, leg curls and ab machines. He did this to correct muscular imbalances, address postural issues and relieve digestive issues.
The Swiss ball was created in the early 1960s by Aquilino Cosani for gymnastics. But in the early 1980s when Dr. Mel Siff explained that a form of stretching is linked to greater flexibility. Many physical therapists began to prescribe exercise using the Swiss Ball or Pezzi Ball.
Benefits of Functional Training
Apart from the fact that functional training makes day-to-day activities like lifting groceries, picking things from the floor to bringing something from an overhead shelf down easier it also has many other health benefits.
Improves Balance: Functional training helps you improve your posture and brings a better sense of balance. So, whether you have a sedentary lifestyle or you are aging, it helps you balance better and reduces the risk of falling.
Protects against injury: When your muscles are trained to mimic the daily movements, there are lesser chances of you succumbing to injury.
Boosts fitness levels: Functional training makes you faster, stronger and more agile.
Burn fat better: You end up burning more fat than regular cardio or bodybuilding. It takes your heart rate up and lets your body burn more calories even after the workout is over.
Build more muscles: Functional training incorporates various muscles thus promoting their growth.
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Are functional fitness and CrossFit the same?
People easily get confused between the two since CrossFit is a brand name for a type of functional fitness. It comprises many different functional movements done at high intensity in order to build strength and conditioning. Hence, we can say that CrossFit is a type of functional fitness but all other sequences of functional training cannot be termed as CrossFit.
- Intensity – CrossFit is designed to be more intense and is physically more demanding. While functional fitness is designed for everyone like older adults, those who are new to any exercise regime or those recuperating from an injury.
- Exercise equipment – CrossFit programs are designed to be performed using gym equipment like weights or kettlebells. But functional fitness as such uses mostly your own body weights and sometimes additional weights.
Functional fitness exercises that you can do on your own.
Squats – This is a must in any functional fitness routine.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and you can keep your arms on the sides or raise them up in front of you.
Bend your knees and squat down, pushing back into your hips as you would sit in a chair.
Go up when your thighs are parallel to the ground. 2 sets x 15 reps.
Incline chest press – this works similarly to pushups but only friendlier.
Position the bench at a 45-degree angle. Hold dumbbells in both hands and lean back onto the bench. Extend your arms straight up.
Bend your arms, and gradually lower the weights toward your chest. Now repeat. 2 sets x 15 reps.
Plank – this requires mobility and balance that is needed in getting off the floor.
Be on all four limbs with palms planted on the ground.
Push up from your hands and feet and keep your core tight. Hold as long as possible. 2 sets.
Wall squat – good if you have lower back issues.
Stand with your back against a wall and feet a step out. Slide down into a squat.
When your thighs are parallel to the floor, push back to come to starting position.
Push back when your thighs are parallel to the floor. 2 sets x 15 reps.
Step downs – great to improve balance and stability.
Use a bench and keep one foot on the bench and one down.
Balance on the leg on the bench and push up to extend your leg fully. Then slowly come back to starting position. Do 2 sets of 15 reps.
Row – target your back and arms to stay strong.
Use a resistance band and attach it to something stable slightly above your head. Sit in a chair, and hold the handles till they’re taut.
Pull your elbows down and back, pause, then release. 2 sets x 15 reps.
Stationary lunge – strengthen your quadriceps and knee joints.
Form a triangle with your legs and the ground with one leg ahead and one behind. Lunge forward on your leading leg.
When your leg forms a 90-degree with the ground, come back. 2 sets x 15 reps on each side.
Step up – strengthen muscles for climbing stairs.
Use a bench and step up with just one foot. Tap your other foot to the surface and go back.
2 sets x 15 reps on each leg.
Single leg lift – this improves your balance.
Join your feet together as you stand straight, and bring your hands on your hips.
Hinge forward, raising any one leg straight back till it reaches a 45-degree angle. Return to start. 2 sets x 15 reps on both legs
Side plank – works on your obliques.
Lie down on your side with your legs stacked on each other. Let your weight rest on your forearm and bend the other arm at a 90-degree angle. Extend your arm toward the ceiling, pull your midsection up and hold till you can. Turn and repeat.
Downward facing dog
Start in a high plank position. Pike your hips up to form a triangle with the ground. Pause for 10 seconds. Repeat 2 times.
Single-leg deadlift
Start with a dumbbell in each hand resting on the thighs.
Hinge a little forward, and lift any one leg back. Ensure the wrights drop down in front and hold this till you can.
15 reps on both legs.