I was recently asked by a new personal training client during the initial consultation whether I also offer functional training?
Me: “What does functional mean to you?”
She: “Well, training with your own body weight, the ‘TRX’ (sling trainer), resistance bands, … things like that.”
Me: “Yes, of course I offer that too. But that doesn’t mean it’s more functional than other training methods. Functional training should aim to train the functionality of your body depending on your goal. In other words, if you can tell me what your goal is, then I can tell you which exercises and which approach are functionally necessary to achieve your goal?”
She: “So my goal is to lose weight and build up a bit of muscle, especially on my thighs and bottom.”
Me: “Then, in addition to your diet, barbell squats and/or split squats, deadlift variations and good mornings would be good exercises to build muscle in these areas and lose total body fat.”
You: “And can’t you just train with your own body weight?”
Me: “Of course you can, but it will take much longer to get closer to your goal as you will always train with the same resistance, which will eventually be too low for you. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to make any progress relatively quickly.” Your muscles need a sufficiently high stimulus in order to develop and make lasting progress.”
We then started with a training program designed for her goal. With additional weights to provide sufficient training stimuli and thus achieve progress. But now back to functional training.
The definition of functional training
It is basically determined by training in a closed muscle chain over at least two joints. This requires a connection to the floor or resistance, which closes the muscle chain. Examples of this would be squats, lunges, pull-ups or bench presses. Unfortunately, very few people manage to use their own body in everyday life without any problems or pain because this functionality has been forgotten and lost over the years.
For this reason, it may initially make sense to proceed according to the principle of “isolation before innovation”. This means first training the muscles in isolation in order to build them up before they are used again functionally in the muscle chain. These isolated exercises certainly serve their purpose in training. They make sense if the muscles are weakened and the exercises in the muscle chain cannot be performed correctly, or if there are imbalances and dysfunctions.
If you have had knee surgery, for example, the primary functional goal should be to restore complete knee joint mobility (complete flexion and extension) and the stability of the muscles required for this.
However, as soon as the necessary stability and strength have been built up through the isolated exercises, you should switch to functional training as soon as possible in order to increase your effectiveness and performance in the future.
The difference to athletic training
By definition, the word athletic means powerfully built, muscular and has been associated with competitive sport since ancient Greece. However, each of us has an individual idea of what athletic means for us and our sport or discipline. The basic prerequisites for carrying out athletic training are that we
have a functional musculoskeletal system, see Functional Training. If this is not the case, our performance suffers on the one hand, as it cannot be called up 100%, and on the other hand the risk of injury increases enormously.
An athletic training program should be sensibly and appropriately examined and created in coordination with the sport-specific skills required for the athlete. This results in an individual, systematic and functional personal training program to achieve the athlete’s maximum performance.
Conclusion:
Functional training should always be individualized and tailored to the needs and goals of the trainee. If injuries or imbalances/dysfunctions are present, the necessary mobility and stability should be established with targeted exercises in order to be able to train functionally in a closed muscle chain. This functional musculoskeletal system is subsequently also the basic prerequisite for a successful training program, including for athletes.
Do you also want to train functionally and with the right guidance to achieve your goals? Then get in touch with me for a non-binding and free initial consultation!