What You Need to Know About Functional Fitness Training


Most people don’t exercise as a form of competition or sports training. Instead, they simply want to stay healthy and be able to perform day-to-day tasks safely and efficiently. Functional fitness is all about improving your quality of life!
Functional Fitness Training
The goal of functional training is to provide you with the flexibility and strength you need in your everyday life, and ensure that your body moves correctly. As a result, functional fitness exercises work on replicating the movements you normally make at home or work. These include using the muscles in your upper and lower body, and developing core stability.
One good example of a popular functional fitness activity is a squat. The movement uses the same group of muscles you would use bending down to pick something up, or getting in and out of a chair.  Multidirectional lunges and standing bicep curls are other good activities that utilize the muscles you use for other everyday tasks.
Tai chi, yoga, and other flexibility activities help increase your range of motion, which is another form of functional fitness.
Where to Train
Functional fitness training can be performed in your own home, or at the gym.  There are plenty of exercises you can do yourself without any equipment. A gym, however, often offers group classes or private training, which can help you stay on track. Gyms also have equipment you can use for more variety, such as fitness balls, weights, and kettle bells.
Benefits of Functional Fitness Training
Functional training doesn’t just train your muscles, but your whole body. Every motion is controlled by more than just a single muscle or group of muscles. Instead, movement is a coordinated effortthat involves your musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems. They all work together so you have a fluid movement. Functional training helps you practice these movements consistently so they become more natural and easy to perform.
Functional fitness also reduces chronic pain, such as back or joint pain. Functional fitness training helps bridge the gap between having a personal trainer and undergoing physical therapy. It also reduces the risk of injury.
Functional training makes completing tasks easier, and improves the quality of your life. By consistently exercising, you also reduce your risk of injury. Functional training is also easy to perform, and can be done anywhere such at home or at a gym near you.
This article was originally published on SharonGould.org. 

Location: Northbrook, IL 60062, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Many Mental Health Benefits of Functional Fitness

Image
Functional fitness doesn’t just help you physically. Exercising will also benefit your mental health! Functional fitness will help reduce stress, boost your mood, and much more. The following highlights just a few of the benefits. Why not start a functional fitness routine today? Reduces Stress Exercise helps reduce both physical and mental stress. Working out releases chemicals that help your brain moderate your levels of stress. Functional fitness exercises require you to put your body through routine physical stress. Through this, your body learns to adapt to physical stress. This adaptability and flexibility also carries over to how you handle mental stress. Mood Boost Functional fitness exercises also help make you happier. Exercise releases endorphins, chemicals that make you feel happy. When endorphins are released naturally through exercise, you’ll be  less at risk for depression  and more likely to have feelings of euphoria post workout. Opting to exercise outside
Read more

Functional Fitness for Older Adults

Image
It is a universal truth that humans need exercise for maintaining their optimal health. Take a look in nearly any gym, however, and it is common to see people exercising for a whole host of motivations, including the desire to lose weight, build endurance toward a particular fitness goal, or simply to “look ripped.” Older adults often have an additional motivating factor for working out: maintaining an adequate quality of life. Numerous everyday tasks can become much more difficult for older adults. Getting up from the floor, climbing the stairs, and lifting and carrying heavy things can present challenges as strength and coordination decline. Therefore, the concept of functional training for seniors should incorporate exercises that promote endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility. Ideally, individual exercises can address all four simultaneously. Here are some basic, yet extremely effective functional fitness exercises for older adults. Walking Walking is, without a do
Read more

Use Functional Fitness for an Age Proof Workout

Image
As people age, they lose the ability to perform at the same level of activity they could in their youth. They also become invested in other things such as their career or raising a family and a focus on physical fitness can sometimes fall by the wayside. The truth is, however, that staying active is important at any age and is a critical component of good health. Staying active as you age, however, can be a challenge for many as their stamina and endurance fade and energy levels decline. Here are three keys to functional fitness and how to create an age-proof workout. Do What You Enjoy There is a great deal of discussion over what the “best” type of workout is. The fitness world can be obsessed with what kind of workout burns the most calories or gets your heart pumping the fastest. The truth is, however, that all activity is beneficial in some way. The key is to focus on doing what you enjoy, which will generally provide motivation in and of itself. If you don’t like going to
Read more