WHAT FUNCTIONAL TRAINING IS & WHY WE SHOULD DO IT

You may have heard the phrase 'functional training' within the fitness industry, whether it may have come from a PT, heard it online or even from a friend. You may have never heard it before... but here is what it means and what the benefits are of incorporating it into our own training. 

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Functional training simply means training that has a purpose. It focuses on movements such as walking, pushing, pulling, squatting, lunging and much more... Training these movements helps day to day activities much easier to perform. An example of this could be performing some type of squat during a training session. This would directly translate over to improving your ability to sit in and out of a chair without difficulty. This is a very basic example but as this shows, movements we do within our training can drastically improve activities we do everyday. 

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Functional training can also be sports related. An example of this could be performing a lunge to improve a sport like football. Lunges would increase single leg strength, improve balance, build muscle, improve speed, and many other benefits... Your doing the lunge to benefit an activity your doing out of the weight room.

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Functional training has a purpose in everyone's training, no matter if it's to get better at a sport or improving a movement pattern in day to day life. It's important we maintain good strength & mobility throughout our body! 

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Next time your doing a squat, have a think - yes you may be doing it to build muscle and tone up your lower body - but your also improving your bodies ability to undertake simple movements we do numerous times each and every day.

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