Why Functional training?

Functional training originates from rehabilitation training. Injured athletes and training individuals once  injured must go through rehabilitation training with a physiotherapist or Biokinetisist, where they were given exercises that mimic their daily activities and motions. Therse functional exercises aim to strengthen the specific muscles used to perform specific tasks, eg lifting a box from the floor and placing it on a high shelf.

 

The word "function" has a specific meaning in the context of physical training and conditioning

Put simply, function refers to the movement of your body through space in ordinary daily life. Functional exercise recreates and strengthens the way your body executes daily physical activities and stores those functions in your muscle memory.

 

Functional exercise recruits multiple muscle groups all at the same time, synergistically, and allows you to work out more productively. functional training challenges the stabilizer muscles of the abdomen and back and incorporates multi-plane movement and unrestricted range of motion in every exercise. The result is a full body workout that increases functional strength and performance.

 

When you increase your functional strength—as opposed to linear or brute strength—you experience improved coordination, balance and stability. You move about with greater ease and less effort.

The benefits of functional training are:

• One burns more calories as more muscles are activated during the movements compared to training on machines which only isolate 1 or 2 muscle groups. Functional training exercises usually use every muscle in the body.
• Improved core strength and stability, Functional training places much emphasis on the core muscles as you have these muscles are engaged durning all of the movements. This core activation leads to improved posture and balance as well as shaping and trimming the waist.
• Functional training is very effective for improving specific movements in athletes eg Golfers and tennis players can be trained with cables, and practice their exact sporting movements and thereby strengthening those specific muscles and improving performance.
• Improved mind/muscle co-ordination