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What is Functional Training?
People exercise for various reasons. Some want to shed fat; some want to sustain a healthy weight; some want to improve stamina while some might do it just to flaunt a toned body. Whatever be your reasons; does it improve your performance in daily life?
The fact is; working out may make you fit and stronger but you may still have difficulty in performing daily activities. What you need is some life-improving workouts and that is exactly what functional training offers.
All about Functional Fitness Training
Explained simply, it is a type of exercise that trains your body for different everyday activities that you perform in your daily life. Surprised? Yes, you do need to make your body go through the drill if you want to avoid injury performing simple chores like lifting or climbing stairs.
Your body loses its flexibility and suppleness as you age (or maybe due to some injury) and you may find it difficult to perform everyday tasks smoothly. Even adolescents may need a few sessions of this workout to develop a correct posture and a straight spine.
There are many ways you can perform functional fitness training, my favourite is with kettlebells. Kettlebell training is extremely effective at burning fat and building lean muscle.
Studies show it’s 10 x more effective than standard cardio training in your local gym. There are many kettlebell instructor certifications that teach personal trainers how to train their clients with this great tool, I recommend the Functional Fitness Academy.
In fact, there are several benefits of undergoing this type of training and more and more people are checking it out.
How it Works
Fundamentally, this type of training simply imitates what you do throughout the day and focuses on improving them so as to give you a better experience.
For example; if you are sitting at your office desk throughout the day; functional training will include workouts to correct your posture; straighten your spine and strengthen the muscles involved. This helps you to avoid backaches or shoulder aches which are commonly associated with sitting at once place for hours.
As explained; you go through a gamut of movements throughout the day that involves muscles in your entire body. So the focus of this type of training is always on all the muscles involved rather than specific muscle groups or body zones. Doing these workouts regularly will improve your entire range of motions such as walking, running, jumping, lifting, pulling, pushing, bending, turning, climbing, lunging and so on.
Who is it For
Everybody should do some type of functional fitness training so that everyday chores do not become hazardous. Even then, there are people with specific conditions who can derive more benefit from such type of training.
Trainers typically recommend this training to pregnant women as they cannot do just any type of workouts such as crunch or planks. However, such women would still want to strengthen their leg muscles and glutes so as to move around comfortably with that additional weight. Flexibility of feet and ankles is also important as these tend to swell. This type of training is ideal for such women as it mimics their real-life movements so as to improve their strength and comfort.
For those recovering from injuries, functional fitness can expedite the rehab process. Through this training, you can once again learn how to use your injured zone optimally.
Athletes too can benefit immensely as they can learn how to perfect their moves for best impact. The training focuses on repetitive motions to enhance performance and confidence.