Most of us spend the majority of our time indoors sitting. Be it as a businessman, student or IT expert most our time is consumed sitting on work table allowing little movement to our body. That’s one of the basic reasons we feel stiffness in our muscles, neck pain, back pain, and what not else. Yes, we know you don’t have time for the gym and regular exercise. So what to do? This is the place where functional training comes in. In this article, we will discuss what functional training is and how it is different from traditional strength training.
To remain healthy and fit, keep in mind that it’s essential to be physically active. Functional training can be a good way to combat restlessness and keep your body moving.
What is Functional Training?
The focus word in the term “Functional Training” is “Functional.” So the functional training means a training that has a function or purpose. It refers to exercise that helps you with day-to-day activities like climbing up the stairs, carrying heavy objects, pushing and pulling a door, jumping from a ditch, or preparing for any sport. Functional training is simply one that strengthens you in a certain way that directly translates to outdoor activity or daily life work.
Functional Training vs Strength Training
Traditional strength training focuses on building strength in one muscle group at a time. Functional training, on the other hand, focuses on large body movements that stabilize certain muscle groups and move others to simulate activities of daily life.
Why Functional Training is Important?
By strengthening the muscles in the same way you would need to use them for different tasks, decreases your risk of injury and increases your quality of life. You can enjoy your whole day without worrying about strain or soreness in your muscles while doing everyday activities.
Almost all exercises can be functional depending on the context because, in reality, increasing strength will naturally help you become more functional in daily life.
While increasing your overall strength will help you move better, combining strength training with exercises that reflect the movements of daily activities can provide an even more effective training program.
Unlike traditional strength training that focuses on a specific area, you are training multiple muscle groups at the same time; you are helping your body work better as a whole. You’re training it to be a system and not just individual parts that work independently.
Benefits of Functional Training
The prime benefit that functional training offers is more prominent sports performance. Many sports do involve rather practical movements and with functional training, you’ll be strengthening the muscles involved in these.
Second, functional training is also useful for reducing your injury risk. You might have noticed that the worst injuries are often the most expected and occur when you’re doing the most random of movements? Functional training fortifies all the ligaments and tendons in the primary muscle groups and regions, so you’ll be less likely to pull, strain, or tear these as you perform your lifestyle activities.
Last but not least, functional training also helps to strengthen your motivation for fitness and health. In functional training, you will start seeing results in a few days. You will feel lighter, flexible, and smooth. When you see the purpose and the results for doing each exercise in your program, this is going to go a long way towards increasing your desire to keep going.