Functional Fitness
Joe Fleming provides an overview of functional fitness and the benefits of these workouts.
It may sound redundant because, technically, not all fitness helps you function better with increased endurance, strength, and flexibility. At its very core, functional fitness truly enables you to function. Practical fitness exercises aim to train your body's muscles to work together, mimicking actions you might do in your non-fitness life.
Functional fitness programs incorporate bodyweight exercises, strength training, coordination, balance, agility, and aerobics. Many yoga and tai chi practices naturally blend functional fitness movements with deep breathing, stretching, and bodyweight poses. Practical fitness activities may be mixed with circuit training and HIIT (high-intensity interval training) during a fitness boot camp or taught stand-alone in a class altogether.
Once you know some standard exercises, you can also do basic functional fitness workouts at home or in the gym and acquire helpful tools like resistance bands, medicine balls, dumbbells, exercise balls, and kettlebells.
Benefits of Functional Fitness
Functional fitness often plays a role in the exercise regimens of older adults. Still, it is gaining ground with even the youngest avid gym-goers as more and more people are seeing the adverse effects of sedentary lifestyles taking their toll. Benefits of functional fitness include:
Widespread muscle and joint recruitment—Functional fitness aims to engage multiple muscle groups and joints to condition the body for an active life, not necessarily for excelling in a specific sport. The development of muscular strength combined with joint mobility and coordination can help counteract musculoskeletal imbalances that develop over time from prolonged sitting, poor workout habits, etc.
Reduced body fat - a 2017 studypublished in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness found that functional training significantly improved the body composition and lipid profiles in postmenopausal women by reducing their body fat and cholesterol levels. By triggering the use of more muscles during functional fitness exercises, you naturally use up more energy (calories), contributing to healthy weight loss.
Reduced risk of injury - Functional fitness supercharges your ability to complete basic activities of daily living, reducing your risk of injury. For example, strengthening your movements to carry groceries or do yard work can safeguard you against muscle strains you might otherwise experience.
Improved quality of life - Imagine it: if everything you do in a day, from standing up to sitting down to carrying and lifting items, were easier and less stressful to your body (and brain), then life overall would be better, right? That is the ultimate goal of functional fitness. By empowering your everyday activities and bolstering your health, you can live a better and more active lifestyle.
Protects against falls - Functional fitness that addresses risk factors for falling is critical to the health and longevity of older adults. An estimated one in four adults over 65 experiences a fall every year. It is often due to difficulties like traversing stairs or getting in and out of the shower. Functional fitness strengthens a senior's strength, balance, and ability to correct their body in case of a slip or stumble to prevent a fall.
Enhanced mobility - Functional fitness can improve overall mobility by improving natural movement skills. It is multidimensional and reinforces the body mechanics that help keep you mobile, such as sitting down, standing up, climbing stairs, and walking or standing for extended periods.
Common Functional Fitness Exercises
The following are the common functional fitness exercises.
- Squats
- Standing bicep curls
- Single leg bicep row
- Kettlebell snatch
- Overhead dumbbell press
- Multi-directional lunges (i.e. forward lung, a reverse lunge with rotation)
- Kettlebell Turkish get-up
- Stability ball push-ups
- Breakdancer push-up
Ultimately, you want to master five movement patterns: pushing, pulling, squatting, deadlifting, and lunging. Your exercises will occur across three movement planes too—side to side (frontal), forward and backward (sagittal), and twisting/rotating around the centre line (rotational).
Your functional fitness routine may vary slightly from someone else, depending on your goals. For example, an older adult might focus on functional fitness that helps them get in and out of the car, carry bags, and climb stairs. A younger adult who works full-time as a nurse, on the other hand, may target more functional fitness exercises that help them with transferring and lifting patients and standing on their feet all day.
Functional fitness can also contribute to targeted pain relief, helping people recuperate after an injury and thus prevent injuries down the line. For example, if you wear a brace to help with upper back pain, functional fitness activities that purposefully strengthen the arm, back, and core muscles can relieve stress on your upper back.
Tips for Getting Started with Functional Fitness
If you do not exercise regularly, jumping into a new intense workout regimen, even if it focuses on functional fitness, can increase your risk of injury. Going from zero to Turkish get-ups could result in muscle strain or inflammation that sidelines your workout routine. Experts recommend always talking with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine, especially if you are over 40 or pregnant.
Like any other fitness methodology, functional fitness is most successful (and the safest) when guided by a knowledgeable instructor. It is a personal trainer, a class instructor at your gym, or an expert tutorial you stream online; always learn the best way to do functional fitness exercises before attempting them yourself.
Beginners should consider starting with bodyweight exercises, even utilizing a pool to reduce the initial impact on the joints. Over time, you can work towards incorporating equipment into your routine and progressively doing harder, more challenging exercises.
Page Reference
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- FLEMING, J. (2018) Functional Fitness [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article383.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Joe Fleming is the President at ViveHealth.com. Passionate about healthy lifestyles and living a full life, he enjoys sharing and expressing these interests through his writing. To inspire others and fight ageism, Joe writes to help people of all backgrounds and ages overcome life's challenges. His work ranges from articles on wellness, holistic health, and ageing to social narratives, motivational pieces, and news stories. For Joe, helping others is vital.