Functional training has much more value to our sport than most weight programs. It engages core, brain- neural connection and balance.
Ha!..My point exactly…Nowhere did I make any reference to functional training in general, yet this one piece of equipment has become a standard bearer for an entire training methodology?
Is there any other type of training we should do than “functional” training? I certainly don’t think dysfunctional training sounds like a good idea!
Problem with most of the stuff passed off as “functional” is that it has devolved into a collective circus act with coaches/trainers creating absurd exercises that most triathletes with horrible movement dysfunctions have no business even attempting. Its like giving a graduate level physics curriculum to a group of high school students…mentally engaging? Yes. Neurally stimulating? Sure. But the high school kids would make a mess of it, which is what happens when people are assigned “functional” exercises beyond their underlying movement skill level. Most need to learn movement fundamentals, not go swinging off a set of ropes.
The discussion shouldn’t even get to the level of weights vs. “functional” training…in terms of fundamental movement skill, triathletes are on the level of learning algebra…not college physics. Most of the functional training protocols as applied to most triathletes is like trying to teach a high school algebra class out of a graduate level physics text.
Find dysfunction. Cure dysfunction. Add proficiency. Add load. If you can do so with the TRX, great. If you want to use other tools that’s fine too. If you want to use no tools, just bodyweight, you can make that work as well. But the TRX, or any piece of equipment, is just a tool and not a methodology.