You may have heard of functional training, but do you really know what it is and the benefits? Simply put, functional training involves improving your body to better perform your daily activities. Human movement doesn’t usually use one muscle group at a time, whereas typical gym routines focus on one muscle group. Functional Training originates from rehabilitation when physical therapists set their patients exercises to increase their fitness and strength back to a level for them to return to their lives or jobs after their injury. Improvements of your everyday life With exercises designed for you and targeting movements you make every day, your strength and endurance will improve and will allow you to complete your everyday activities with more ease which in turn should increase your quality of life. Improves balance and posture As functional training doesn’t involve machines, you need to rely on your own balance and core strength to complete the exercises. With the exercises using multiple muscles to enhance your strength and balance, your overall posture will also improve. A good posture is important for your health, it will also decrease back pain and reduce stress on other parts of your body. Reduces injuries Do you find yourself struggling with injuries? With functional training exercises, not only are your muscles strengthened, but also the surrounding ligaments that can often become injured through tightness or weakness. As the exercises are low impact training, the chances of injuries during training are also decreased. Another advantage of functional training being low impact means it is a great starting point for new members because it improves your strength without causing too much stress to your body. Feel happier As mentioned, functional training involves improving your body to better perform your daily activities. Over time, your daily activities should become easier which should improve your quality of life. You will also become more motivated to continue with the training and become more confident to move on to different exercises or take part in our classes such as one of our kick boxing class. You can find out the benefits of taking up a new class in our previous blog here. Functional training and Combat Sports Many athletes competing in combat sports will train in their discipline multiple times a week, this can involve repetitive drills and will help improve strength, fitness, and functional strength. However given the repetitive nature it can cause imbalances, this is where functional training is important. Given most athletes need to control their weight, not all will want to get into a weight training programme which can lead to an increase muscle mass and thus increase in weight. A well formulated functional training programme can help improve strength, fitness and even out any imbalances created by combat training. An examples workout which can be completed at Fight City Gym This combines functional training with HIIT> complete each exercise for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds. As your fitness and strength improves you can increase the amount of time worked by 5 seconds but keep the rest at 10 seconds. Repeat 3 times.
- Bodyweight squats
- Burpees
- Kettlebell swings or snatches
- Push-ups
- Sprawls
- Bulgarian Bag Shouldering
- Mountain climbers
- Tuck knee jumps
- Pull-ups
- Walking lunges
- Sled sprint / Ball Slams
- Sled Sprint / Rope Climb
- Sled Sprint / Push-ups
- Sled Sprint / Monkey Bars
