Functional strength training is a type of exercise that focuses on training your muscles to work together and perform real-life movements effectively. It helps improve your balance, coordination, and the ability to perform daily activities with ease. For example, exercises like squats, lunges, and planks are common in functional strength training. Do you think you need to incorporate some functional strength training into your fitness routine?
“functional strength training,” a popular phrase in the fitness realm, but precisely what does it signify? Here’s what you must know about functional strength training and the crucial part it can play as a component of a rehabilitation program or a fitness routine that yields outcomes.
Functional training is merely training that fulfills the purpose for which it was intended. For a bodybuilder, the aim of exercise is simply to increase muscle mass. There’s no other sporting performance or skill involved, so in theory, traditional lifting could be regarded as “functional training” for a bodybuilder. For a high-performance athlete, the objective of training is to enhance sporting performance. This is a far more intricate goal to achieve, as athletes carry out movements across multiple planes that demand extraordinary concentration, stability, coordination and balance. We require an entirely distinct approach to strength training customized for each individual athlete. The functional strength training utilized by athletes is devised to enhance the simplicity, efficiency, strength and control with which they are capable of carrying out specific activities. This kind of training emphasizes whole body exercises across multiple planes, with an emphasis on movements that imitate daily and sporting activities rather than exercising specific muscles or muscle groups. This type of training employs no external supports. It demands concentration and enhances proprioception, balance and coordination. Patients of all kinds can also profit from a functional strength training program as a component of a rehabilitation program. Functional strength training can assist patients in carrying out daily tasks and activities that they undertake regularly at home or work more effortlessly after an injury or surgery. For instance, if the patient’s job involves heavy lifting, it’s feasible to develop for them a functional strength training program with a focus on lifting.
Most conventional gym-based resistance training programs give emphasis to exercises that target individual muscles or muscle groups. A few instances of these exercises comprise the bench press, preacher curl, leg press, leg extension, leg curl and triceps extension.
These exercises are carried out using benches or machines, which offer external support. Commonly performed by bodybuilders, these exercises don’t require a great deal of stability. They don’t imitate daily or sporting activities and don’t pose a challenge to coordination, balance, proprioception (the ability to determine your body’s position in space) or overall motor control.
While this kind of training can be beneficial for increasing muscle mass and strength, it does very little to enhance your overall capability to carry out daily activities or specific sporting actions.
Functional strength training that places an emphasis on movement can be an excellent choice for rehabilitation and the prevention of injuries as well as the enhancement of overall functional capacity, ranging from the simplicity of movement in daily life to recreational and sport performance.
Ensure that your program is tailored to your requirements by consulting a qualified expert who can identify any functional movement dysfunctions.