I’d suggest talking to a good strength and conditioning specialist who understands function al training and can show you a few good exercises. Functional training is a buzzword that everyone uses today, but few understand. Function can easily be defined as “a normal or characteristic action of anything - a duty, utility or purpose.” Function is what works. Therefore, functional training would train the body, or body area, for the movement it is intended for, or “exercise that trains a normal or characteristic action.”
Functional training is not a new concept. It has been around since the beginning of time. If one wants to get better and stronger at an activity, one would instinctively rehearse the activity, or at least parts of that activity. In sports, the best functional training for a particular sport is that sport! ( i.e.: to be a better climber, you must climb) Although this is an oversimplification of the concept of functional training, it is its essence. “Functional Training trains movements, not body parts!” Functional training is a return to what is natural and effective. It integrates the best of all training methodologies in a simple safe and fun manner.
Functional training revolves around two very basic principles. First, the body never moves a single joint in isolation. Rather, it moves as a “kinetic chain”, a series of joints working in cooperation with each other. Rehearsed, multi-planar movements, such as a golf swing, are engraved in our brains’ “patterns”, not isolated muscles. By design, we are functionally integrated beings, not groups of isolated muscles.
The second principle of functional training describes the physical world we have to prepare our bodies for. Our environment is composed of elements such as gravity, momentum and ground contact forces. These three physical factors act upon all movement and should be considered in a training program. Functional training addresses these elements of our existence and trains the body how to utilize them to its advantage.
Here are seven criteria that I use with my clients that I train when using function: They are the basic criteria for functional training, although the explanations may vary from coach to trainer etc, the basic principles are the same. Progressive– progress through gradual safe effective steps Multi-planner– training must take place in all three plans Specificity- activity specific to human movement Velocity specific– speed and power of movements are based on activity Balance dominated– patterns become reflexes Integrated– acting on muscle systems, not individual muscles Trains controlled chaos- life is not composed of 3 sets of 10 repetitions, so why should your training be? Variety is the spice of life!