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What is Functional Strength?


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I reference functional strength on my Instagram and in other posts quite often, so i thought i would explain it in more detail.


Functional strength is similar to the principle of specificity, in that the physical activity or exercise you are engaging in, your body will respond to. For a general example, if you want to be able to increase your running endurance you will walk, jog and/or run. If you want to gain muscles you will lift weights.


Functional strength relates to our ability to do activities throughout the day; walking, twisting, reaching, standing, squatting, etc. Training your functional strength involves incorporating movements like the ones you use throughout the day as well as the muscles used during the movements.


For movement specific, a deadlift is great for mimicking picking things up off the ground. You can them choose exercises that focus on your hamstrings and your back.


Benefits of functional strength training:


Training for functional strength is a multi-dimensional way of training. Meaning you need to be incorporating several different things for it to be beneficial and for your training adaptations to translate.

  • Coordination

  • Types of muscular contractions (eccentric, concentric, isometric)

  • Range of motion

  • Speed of movement


You want to create a mind and body connection (coordination between your nervous and muscular systems).


If functional strength training is something you either want to start incorporating into your strength training or this is where you would like to start, here a few tips:

  • Use either just your body or free weights- machine exercises tend to limit the range of motion you can work in and sometimes the speed

  • Focus on compound movements - using more than one muscle at a time

  • Remember you are training movements not just muscles - think about the movements your are doing throughout your day, break them down


Some Examples of exercise based on original movement


Reaching and Pulling

  • Prone swimmer

  • Overhead Shoulder Press

  • Dumbbell Pullover

  • Renegade row

Squatting

  • Lateral lunges

  • Deadlift

  • Single-leg Romanian dead lift

  • Sumo squat

Rotation

  • Woodchop

  • Dumbbell rotation

  • Reverse lunge with rotation


I advocate for functional strength training, because I find it is the most applicable to the general public. We aren't training for a competition. We just want to be able to move through our days and our lives easier.












 
 
 

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