Training for Functional Fitness

Training for Functional Fitness

Imagine that you just got through working out and you feel more pumped than ever, literally. You could pass for Popeye after eating his spinach. Using the bench press and free weights, you’ve never seen yourself lift so much before. Thrilled with your accomplishments, you drive home. When you arrive you notice a package at your front door. As you bend down to get the box, which weighs much less than you just bench- pressed, you throw your back out. How could this be? You’re quite strong and you’re muscles are proof of that, right? Not necessarily so. You may be strong when it comes to lifting but what about strong in everyday functional fitness?

Lifting is one thing, but training your body so that it is capable of doing real-life daily activities in real-life positions is altogether different. Weight training isolates muscle groups but it doesn’t teach and allow the muscle groups you’re isolating to work in an integrated way with other muscle groups. The key is to teach all the muscles of the body in a way that causes them to work together. For instance, think about whether you have ever been walking along and you slip on something such as ice. Your body must work in unison in order for you not to fall. Functional fitness is really about activating your core stabilizer muscles or the stabilizers of your arms and shoulders without having a workout machine do it for you. The BEST type of functional fitness exercises are when you are standing on your own two feet supporting your own weight and using visualized or self-resistance. Most people can not balance their own weight, much less add actual weight to them and try to keep their balance. Try a one-legged squat and you will see what I mean. How was your balance?

By integrating and working muscle groups together at the same given time you will cause the elimination of isolated weakness. If you don’t address integration, strong muscles will get stronger while the weak ones stay weak. This will cause a pattern of compensation (strong muscles assisting with the weak) which can lead to injury over time. When you use functional exercises, such as my Visibly FitTM program, you will not train until failure and exhaustion. Instead, you will train until you can no longer perform the exercise with perfect form. This will be a new way of thinking for many but it is very effective for not only creating the body of your dreams but also allowing for functional fitness for life. nnnn