Functional Training

Hi there

Today i want to talk about "functional training" since i have been "accused" and find "guilty" to be too much functional in my training programs. 

Obviously this open sentence is just a provocation to get your attention but, yes, the truth is that i like and apply the ideas of f.t. for the simple reason that my body and my job need extra attentions and solutions.  F.t., like some other training styles or methodologies, helps me find some missing links between human biomechanic and sport performance and connecting them with a "classic"  strength training, which is still a big foundamental part of the physical training.

But the thing is that even though f.t. nowadays is a very trand topic in the sport and fitness industry, it is still not very clear style or method of training like body building, pilates, cardio, hiit, power lifting....because it doesn't include a specific list of exercises and intensity like the others. So it is subject to different interpretations and sometimes misguided informations from both trainers and fitness enthusiast.

For instance, people often think that functional training is soft and easy training based on strange and complicated movements yet not able to build muscle:

-Fency exercises

-Weird exercises

-Light kgs

-Cables

-Unbalanced surfaces

-Trx

-Water or Sand bags

-Indian clubs and mace

-.......

these are possible definitions and equipments we can relate to a classic view of f.t. but they just show what there is over the surface of the sea, not what there is underneath. F.t means more than that, it means train intentionally either you choose healty side (balance some individual skeletal/muscolar disfunctions), or a more performance side (hypertrophy, strength, power following physiology and biomechanics) 

That's why i think "for what?" and than "how?" are the main questions we should make when we choose one specific path of training or exercise, especially with f.t.

Generally the main reasons behind f.t. are:

1) help people perform activities in everydays life easily with integration of primitive functional movements (crawling, climbing, giating, throwing, squatting, rolling, pushing);

2) improve full body awareness, movement control, kinetic chain connections, mobility/stability system, body alignment, coordination, strength.

3) targeting what  are the main human body disfunctions that appear down the road (aging, gravity, posture);

4) For atlethes especially, is recognize and improve some weak links, restrictions or imabalances in the kinetic chain and skeletal/muscle system in relation with biomechanic and sport Model of Performance.

Every work-out or exercise has a different levels of functionality in itself but, of course, knowing human body (anatomy, biomechanic, physiology..) and training science will make us able to create specific movements or exercises with a specific goal in mind by incorporating the characteristic porperties of f.t.

Here is the list of f.t. main characteristcs:

Neuro-muscolar control

Full body awareness

Improving joints orientation with muscle activity

Improving some specific weak or dysfunctional link

More focus in the biomechancial aspect than metabolic

Multiplanar training integrastin

kinetic chains connection

Fascia connection

Polyarticular movement

More deep muscle involved

Core stability

Customize programs

Behave like a binary for strength training

As you can see the main distinction of f.t. is this body and mind engagment in a complex movement, but f.t. can mean also the opposite if the desire goal is just to improve some specific muscle or joint orientation in the space.

Said that, we can find functionality not only in the movemennts or exercises selection, but also in the manage of  training programming. This aspect may include the Cronology, Volume, Tempo, and Range of Motion of the work-out, which they play a crucial rule in the quality of the training as well.

 For example prioritazing preparations drills like mobility/stability at the beginngin of the work-out may be a smart set-up; too much Volume can bring some exhaustion into the neuro-muscolar system control (which means less or no control in the last part of the training), or, at contrary, too less Volume can't bring enought neuro-nuscolar adaptations; too high Tempo can result in a wrong muscle syncro activation time; an excess of Range of Motion at that specific moment, can result in losing the alignment or control because of lack of mobility/stability system.

If we want to put it down in a much more practical way, considering a full training methodology spectrum, we can positioning f.t. at the opposite side of fitness machines training. 

In this more guided style of work-out you are mostly sitting on them performing mostly a single joint movement guided from the machine, without big involvment from the neuromsucolar system and without the need of deep muscle body engagment. Oppositly with f.t. you will  have all of these aspects at a top level which ultimately means better transfer in our daily life activities and better possibility of address training at your needs.

Said that, machines training can also be adjusted into more fucntionality if this is your goal, and it can also be used when you don't actually want to involve too much your nervous system because it is, for example, overstress from previous work-out or life in general.

Summing up, functionality can be find everywhere, it is a mindset not a close disciplinne; in a classical way of categorize it, f.t. has specific characteristics which are absolutly true and important, but in the way i see it, it is more using biomechanics to improve and restore your body either this will require a complex movement in a cross chain reletaion or a single joint movement that is fixing one small detail inside the big picture.

Search what you need not always what you like.

Thank you for reading.

Stay tuned