Landmine Viking Press
Fads come and go and we’ve seen a lot of it that fizzled in the last decade. Remember seeing people wobbling on Bosu balls or balance boards while doing a set of curls? I never understood the long-term application of this training for the non-athlete. My clients would do 3-4 sets of good functional exercises before the bosu circus act was over.
My point is that you can do exercises thinking they have real world applications, but really you’re not training specific to your life. If you want exercises that help you recreationally, in sports, or on weekend excursions, functional fitness fits the bill. It’s been around for a good number of years and it shows no sign of slowing down. Walk into any gym and you’ll see a good number of people crushing such a workout.
Why does it work? Simple, it gets results fast – with strength, weight loss, muscle gain, balance, and confidence to go into most situations knowing your body will deliver the performance.
What is functional exercise?
A good functional routine consists of circuits of exercises moving you in every direction. It combining moves like lunges and presses which involve the entire body, with loads that produce growth.
Some examples are:
- Squat to press with dumbbells
- Plank with dumbbell row
- Dumbbell reverse chop
- Knees raised pull-ups
- Inverted rows
- Kettlebell swings
- Pushups
- Cross body cleans
- Step-up to overhead press.
Other instances where functional training excels is individuals who need to improve balance, stability, and neuromuscular coordination, as well as lose weight. Those who say it does not increase strength, speed, range of motion or cardiovascular/respiratory conditioning are stuck in a gym rut. It will always be an apples versus orange argument with them.
Results in real time applications (with trainers) have been astounding. It’s fun, it works and it’s great for most people who would never envision themselves a bodybuilder. The trick is to have fun with training and see consistent results for most, not a subset of society. Functional Fitness fits that bill.