Ha ha m’yeah. Some people think that functional training is all about striving to be the best at working out. What was your score? Did you do it RX? Blah blah blah. They believe that working out is more of a recreational activity rather than a committed lifestyle. They show up to the gym to do what they have always done and when it gets challenging, they stop or worse – they give up. And when I say challenging, I mean dealing with new movements that you might not be so good at or being at weights that might make you actually work for the form and technique you’re going for. Challenge and complacency cannot co-exist. If you don’t continue to challenge yourself – there is no growth. That applies to everything in the gym and in life.
So, do you want to be the best at working out? Sha maybe, but the fact is that functional training is literally training you for real life. Functional training will improve cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. All of which you cannot get sitting at a machine.
Being functionally fit also allows you to be able to respond and react to life under intensity because let’s face it, when something goes wrong in life – a slip, trip or fall – how much notice do we actually get? I saw a trainer on TikTok the other day talking about how burpees were bad for you because you are throwing yourself down to the ground onto your chest (first of all that’s a major exaggeration – burpees are definitely a controlled decent) and I literally gasped out loud watching. Sha, burpees suck but they are literally you falling and getting back up. How many of you have seen that commercial with the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”. Hm? We all have and if you can do a burpee, chances are you’ll be able to fall and get back up with little to no repercussions.
Functional fitness will make you better at any other sport because of that simple fact that it trains you in all 10 modalities mentioned above.
Want to be a better runner? Functional fitness.
Want to be better at yoga? Functional fitness.
Want to be a better powerlifter? Functional fitness.
Want to be better at any sport or activity? Functional fitness.
Want to be a better you? Functional fitness.
Funny thing is, training the other way around – reversing the equation if you will – is almost certain going to lead you to injury.
Runners need to maintain strength and flexibility.
Yogis need to maintain mobility and strength.
Powerlifters need to maintain flexibility and mobility.
We maintain those other modalities through functional fitness, through cross training.
If what you are doing with your current routine isn’t getting you the results you want or you’re finding yourself feeling more aches and pains than you think you should, then try functional fitness. I’ll be honest and share with you that there will be a learning curve when you first start out, but I promise you that once you see the benefits of it in your everyday life, there will be no going back. You’ll no longer accept the excuses you tell yourself about why you don’t feel the way you want to. Instead, you’ll know what it takes to get there and you’ll want to be there everyday for the rest of your life.
Let’s get fit.
