Functionality in Fitness and Everyday Life
“Train the whole, not the parts”
— Unknown.
What is it that makes Functional Fitness so important to every persons’ everyday life and health?
Lets take a step back and breakdown what exactly functional training is itself. What functional training is training and utilizing muscles that help you with everyday “functionality”. Usually these are full body exercises that train multiple muscles at once. Training for this will make everyday jobs such as carrying trash out to the street or groceries in from the car, a breeze! This also leaves you less prone to injuries such as leg or back strains from simple things like picking something up from a low spot.
Another benefit to functional training is because these everyday tasks are now easier to complete as you train and age that your longevity (how long you live) should increase with it, because you will need less assistance for a longer portion of your life. This will leave you able to move more freely for a long time into your old age. My grandma is a prime example of what functional training can do for the body. She is now aged 89 and still does not use assisted walking and actually still goes out and dances weekly. It’s truly amazing what exercise can do for the body’s health, especially late in life.
Another great benefit to functional training is that usually it requires most body weight or moderately light weight to use for exercises and almost anyone can do functional training immediately, even in their own home.
Some example of functional training exercises are the bodyweight squat, bodyweight stationary lunge, Wall sits (Bodyweight or using weight across legs), Planks for time, and Pushups to name a few.
Thanks for reading and I hope this educated you a little bit more on functional training.
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