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Functional fitness can be defined in many ways, but pure and simple, it is a way of training your body to perform multiple daily tasks, such as walking, bending, lifting, pushing and pulling in a pain free manner to prevent injuries.
We perform our daily tasks in a wide multitude of functional planes throughout the day.
Functional fitness routines or exercises are designed to integrate various biomechanical functions to achieve endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility and balance. They are different than traditional weight room exercises because they incorporate a wide variety of multi-directional movements and muscle groups into a single exercise or movement
pattern.
One of the benefits from functional fitness is its easy carryover into daily tasks. If we train a movement pattern that we perform every day, the more we train that movement pattern, the more efficient we will be and the greater application we will have with it. If we strengthen a muscle in a single plane, the muscle group will get stronger, but it will have limited carryover into our daily tasks.
An example of this is leg extensions for strengthening the legs. It uses resistance to strengthen the quadriceps in a single plane isolated movement pattern, but it is not a typical function we perform on a daily basis because we don’t usually walk around with weights on our ankles.
A functional alternative exercise to strengthen the quads and lower extremities is the squat. This exercise not only strengthens the quadriceps, but also the gluts, hamstrings, core and hips.
It is also an exercise that we incorporate into everyday activities with getting up from a sitting position, lifting something up from the ground or jumping up over something. The basic mechanics are the same with all of these activities, except the physical demands are increased for the latter exercises.
A second key concept with functional fitness is its prevention in overuse injuries. In order to progress an exercise, a functional baseline needs to be established to figure out a starting point.
Some people have no problems performing a wide range of functional tasks, while others must be started on the basics. And that is OK! If the proper mechanics are not accomplished, then the task needs to be scaled back to ensure proper form until one is able to perform it correctly. Once proper form is obtained, then it is OK to
progress the exercise. It is much better to scale back to ensure proper form then to push through the exercises compromising form and leading to increased risk of injury. This is an important training concept because overuse injuries accounted for more than 14.8 million lost duty days alone last year across the Department of Defense.
If interested in attending a functional fitness workout, try looking into your local unit-led PTL Total Fit sessions or local Services Hardcore classes offered through the
fitness centers. The key with starting any of these programs is to start slow, stay within your functional limits and have fun. For more information, call the Physical Therapy Clinic at 480-1559.
