Exercise is more than just a tool to help you look good. Exercise physiologist Andrew Cate explains how functional training can help to boost your physical performance where it matters most.
What is functional training?
Put simply, functional training is about movement, not muscle. Functional exercises replicate natural movements that boost strength for practical purposes, including sports or everyday life.
This makes it a valuable training tool for everyone, from mums to students, to desk-bound workers and athletes.
Functional training for your core
In the past, it was thought you needed to perform repetitive sit ups to improve your abdominal strength. Now, as our understanding of functional training has improved, the focus has shifted towards core strengthening and planking exercises.
This offers a more balanced approach to providing trunk stabilisation and spinal support. A strong core will not only help you lift heavier weights at the gym, but it can stabilise your body in different directions on the tennis court.
It can support your back while using gardening tools, or allows you to safely lift babies, heavy shopping bags, or a back pack full of text books.
What is the kinetic chain?
Functional training is about movement – which means it’s about kinetics. Kinetics is the study of motion and the associated forces and energy involved.
The kinetic chain is a concept that helps us better understand movement, and how the body and all of its parts work together. It suggests our movements are kinetically linked, where movement at one joint affects movement at another joint. And as the saying goes, a chain is only strongest as its weakest link.
The kinetic chain helps to understand the importance of functional training, with its focus on variety, instability and relevant movements and speeds combining help you get the most out of exercise.
Essentials for a successful functional training workout
Apply these three functional training principles to your workout routine.
1. Variety – Work your muscles in a variety of different ways to best prepare them for movement that is relevant.
For example, the chest muscle (pectoralis major) has a primary role in the tennis forehand. If you just perform chest exercises on a pin loaded weights machine, your chest will become strong for a specific movement pattern. But the ball comes towards you at varying speeds, heights and angles, so you won’t hit exactly the same forehand shot every time.
It’s better to also include additional chest exercises that develop strength through a variety of movement patterns and speeds. This could include push ups, chest flyes, incline and decline bench press, and fast rubber strap chest exercises.
2. Instability – Training muscles while placing your body in an unstable environment helps to improve balance, prevent injury, boost core strength, and target the stabilising muscles around your joints.
Practically speaking, this means performing exercises while lying on inflatable fit ball, standing on a bosu (inflated half ball) or standing on one leg. Instability can also be added by equipment that distributes weight differently, such as kettle bells, rubber straps, or TRX suspension straps.
3. Mimic the speed of your movement - The speed of movement is also important. Many people perform traditional strength training exercises at a slow, controlled speed, but that rarely translates to the type of movement seen on a sporting field.
Most sporting activity involves, explosive, high-speed muscle action, so it’s important to replicate that type of movement when training for a specific sport. For example, slow and deep squats may boost thigh strength, but jump squats holding a light pair of dumbbells would help you jump higher on the basketball court.
Please also note that explosive and fast movements can make you more susceptible to injury, and are certainly not suitable for beginners. Seek expert guidance if you have any concerns or injury history.
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