Functional Training : What it really Means

Functional Training : What it really Means

Functional training has become a very popular throughout the last decade, but there is still a lot of confusion in what functional training actually is. As is often the case in health and fitness, once an interest becomes popular, such as with functional training, marketers jump on the bandwagon and start using the term to promote as many products or exercises as possible. This results in many exercises being defined as functional when the term does not really apply, which naturally just leads to confusion and questions about which exercises should be considered functional and why.

Another problem with the term "functional training" is even people in the fitness community cannot acknowledge what it means. Some people have followed the philosophy that functional training simply means doing non-traditional exercises using equipment, such as exercise tennis balls or balance devices, which work muscles in a variety of ways than traditional training. These types of exercises are allowed to be more functional than traditional types of training, particularly when compared to training with machines.

On the other hand, there are other people who say that every exercise is functional and the term functional exercise is essentially meaningless. Both opinions have a little bit of truth, but they also miss the whole point of what functional training is supposed to mean and what it takes for an exercise to be considered functional. To get rid of this confusion, the first thing to do is to take a look at the definition of functional. WordReference. com specifies functional as "designed for or capable of a particular function or use" and "involving or influencing function rather than physiology. inches

In fitness related terms, functional exercises are created to improve specific areas of function, such as a basketball player using a particular exercise to improve his or her top to bottom jump. Therefore, any good exercise can be functional, as long as it improves the precise function you are targeting with your training. The important thing to note is the functionality of an exercise depends on the situation, not the exercise itself. If an exercise improves the precise function, skill, or ability you want to improve, then it is functional.Lauftraining

Truthfully, exercise functionality is not a black or white issue and instead of thinking of an exercise as either functional or non-functional, it is advisable to think about each exercise as being on a selection with extremely functional on one end and having very little practical use on the other end. Also, the same exercise can be functional or non-functional depending on the situation. For example, baseball players avoid their hands much, so an exercise to improve grip strength would not be very functional in that situation. On the other hand, performing grip strengthening exercises would be at least somewhat functional for wrestlers who need to be able to grab and preserve their opponents.

To help promote separate exercises that are somewhat functional from exercises that are very functional, you have to look more closely at the specific situation. This means you need to evaluate the specific benefits given by an exercise and see how much they will benefit the particular function you want to improve. When thinking about wrestlers, properly squeezing your plant object is somewhat functional, because it can improve overall grip strength, allowing the wrestler to hold on smaller.