3, Aprill 2017

Functional Fitness

Written by Duncan Maxwell, Fitzapp Coach/Creator

The goal of functional fitness, as opposed to simply training for aesthetic gains, can be anything from increasing the quality of one’s life, to an enhanced capacity during recreation or sport, meaning the goal is similar whether you’re a mum or dad playing with your children, teenager indulging in a game of football or a grandparent hiking a mountain.

Functional training has come to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people and is often confused with high skill techniques. For instance, if your job requires you to function while the ground beneath your feet rock and rolls, like a fisherman on a boat in high seas, then training on a wobble board or Bosu ball might be considered functional. However, if you don’t, then it very likely isn’t really of that much value. Meaning the outcome is likely not the best way to enhance your physical experience of life on a daily basis, not to say that these tools don’t have their place.

"Train as smart as you do hard"
Duncan Maxwell, Fitzapp Coach/Creator

Functional training can be defined as a mimic or adaptation of a series of exercises that facilitates the body’s improved performance. That is, we need to include drills that improve skills. Functional Fitness can thus be thought of as a means for improving attributes, such as; range of motion, speed, balance, coordination and other forms of proprioceptive awareness, to name a few. We could also look at it as implementing improvements in the 6 facets of movement, namely push/pull, twist, gait, squat/jump and bend. Either way, the outcome is better quality movement and capacity for the participant.

One of the easiest methods in developing a functional athlete or participant is starting slow and developing a strategy that improves movement awareness and flow rather than simply relying on improvements in strength or flexibility. A well-designed program will have you developing a myriad of different movement attributes that will allow for improvements in both function and skill rather than simply how you look.