If you’re trying to lose weight, I’ve got some good news for you: functional exercises burn more calories, too! That’s because a strong core is what leads to great balance-and balance can be the difference between falling and hurting yourself from a dip in the sidewalk or catching yourself before you fall.įunctional fitness exercises focus on building a strong core, training your body to react the correct way when something unpredictable happens, such as a tumble off the curb or a slip on a wet surface.īecause sometimes falls and accidents are unavoidable (I experience them all the time), and functional fitness can help you prepare your body for the unexpected. Know all that stuff you read about core training and how important it is for your body?
Functional training how to#
There are lots more… but you get the idea.Ĭheck out the 12 Minute Athlete workout videos for specific instructions on how to do these and other exercises. So not only will you be building greater strength, improve your day-to-day performance, and prevent plateaus… you’ll also boost your quality of life.īelow are some exercises that fall into the functional fitness category: That’s because not only will you be able to do all the things you love… such as playing catch with your kids, running around with your dog and planting your garden, you’ll also be better prepared for all the mundane tasks of every day life, like getting out of bed, carrying groceries home from the store, or walking up flights of stairs.įunctional fitness exercises train your muscles to work together and prepare them for daily tasks by mirroring common movements you might do at home, at work or in sports.
Unless you’re training to compete in a bodybuilding competition (which I wouldn’t recommend), functional fitness is going to be your best bet for everyday life. In fact, your own body weight can be incredibly effective, as can fun and challenging tools such as medicine balls, kettlebells, pull up bars and dip bars.Īnd now you see where the 12 Minute Athlete workouts originate from. The greatest thing about functional fitness? Since the training method emphasizes basic movements such as running, jumping, pushing, pulling, lifting and squatting, you don’t need fancy gym equipment to do it.
This means putting an emphasis on multi-joint and multi-exercise training-because triceps pullovers don’t often come in handy in everyday life. In short, this means that functional training focuses on building a body capable of doing real-life activities in real-life positions, rather than just lifting a certain amount of weight in a glorified posture created by a gym machine. “Functional fitness is any exercise performed to better enable the participant to move through normal life activities.” Because if you want to be truly fit… you have to be fit inside and outside of the weight room. This type of training isn’t necessarily wrong (it’s used by bodybuilders to pump up particular muscles so they’re big and puffy), but it won’t help you in everyday life.īecause in the real world, your muscles don’t work in isolation-they work together as a whole.Īnd that’s where functional fitness comes in.
Only to find you have trouble lifting a heavy suitcase above your head in a crowded airplane, or going up five flights of stairs when the elevator is broken?īecause the truth is that when most people work out, they focus on exercises that isolate individual muscles, such as the biceps, triceps, quads or glutes. Have you ever had a killer workout at the gym…īusting out the biceps curls, leg presses, and calf raises…
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