FUN-ctional Training
By Ollie Martin

"The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play."
Arnold Toynbee

Fitness training should be fun and relevant to life.  If your training achieves this, your general health and body aesthetics will come naturally.

Functional exercise is any exercise that works to achieve a chosen goal or objective. This is relevant because we use movement every day to interact with our environment. Goal-directed movement (i.e. functional) is important for an individual to survive, to adapt and to learn within the environment. When movement is inhibited, we may be less able to meet day-to-day needs.

Functional exercises are focused on seven movement patterns: squat, bend, lunge, push, pull, twist and gait. These movements come from our ‘hunter/gatherer’ ancestors but are now translated into modern life and sports.  Squatting when you are lifting heavy object or getting out of the car.  Bending when picking up children or a golfer preparing to hit the ball.  Lunging when throwing or walking up stairs.  Pushing and pulling used in most sports and everyday life like pushing trolleys.  Twisting – the most common source or back injuries today is the movement that combines twisting and bending – therefore if you are not twisting you are not building up the muscles for back pain prevention.  Gait is walking, jogging and running, while most of us walk, some might jog very few of us run.

Gym resistance machines (weight machines) are not functional.  They evolved from the bodybuilding era of fitness where it was beneficial to isolate specific muscles in order to make them bigger.  However, muscles do not work in isolation they work together as a unit to produce movement patterns.  This is both energy efficient and enables the generation of considerable force.  During movement some joints will be fixed as muscles contract isometrically to stabilise body parts while others will be moved at speed to drive the movement.  The body also functions as a unit to distribute stress over as many joints as possible.

Therefore in personal training we train ‘functionally’ using integrated body movements as opposed to isolating muscles with machines.  This enables us to make training relevant to individuals’ lives.  As the movements are natural they place less stress on the body helping prevent injury and are more fun and dynamic than isolation exercises.

Tips for functional training:

• Make every exercise an abdominal exercise.
• Honour the play ethic: play is the foundation for quality movement.
• Be an opportunist: be alert for movement possibilities in daily life.
• Be a good animal: exercise outdoors whenever possible and make yourself vulnerable to the elements.

References:

Eat, Move & Be Healthy
by Paul Chek

Movement Based Exercises
by Premier Training International

Exuberant Animal
by Frank Forencich

Functional Movement Development.
By C. Martin