Functional Fitness

Health and Fitness Series
Dr. Kallie

A few years ago I stumbled upon these two words an it felt like the fitness universe finally came together.  It all made sense and almost everything was right in the world...almost everything.  Now people just need to start embracing health and fitness as a way of life instead of letting the days of their lives slip away from them as unhappy and unhealthy people. 

The definition is simple: functional fitness is a personal fitness program that will help you function at a higher fitness level in daily activities. Helping to function more efficiently and safer.  Training your body to handle real life situations. A huge emphasis on core strength and stability, balance, endurance, flexibility, and overall strength.  It can enhance the coordinated working relationship between the nervous and muscular systems of the body.  Below is a basic list to recognize the benefits:

-Improves balance and coordination
-Is designed to optimize movement
-Enhances athletic performance
-Increases strength and endurance
-Helps your muscles recover faster from injuries
-Strengthens your core muscles
-Involves compound exercises that mimic real life movements
-Suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels
-Restores posture, muscle imbalances, and dynamic stability
-Burns fat
-Relieves stress

So what are we talking about with all this?  Really it's a mixture of training programs that focuses on exercises that are going to help you in you everyday life.  What I enjoy the absolute MOST about functional fitness is that it can be yours to own.  You can decide yourself, or with the help of a trainer/professional, what you really need to focus on in your workouts.  Someone in the military, police, fire dept, etc may choose to focus their workouts on strengthening movements with the added bonus of stability, mobility, etc.  Where someone that is in their senior years will have a primary focus of balance, then strength, posture, stability, etc.  The exercises are even great for young athletes to get started on strength/core training.  This is why I love functional fitness so much, it's adaptable to your personal preference.  When utilized correctly, your muscles learn how to engage properly and that decreases personal injury rates immensely.  The majority of functional exercises use compound movements.  Movements that incorporate multiple muscles and joints at the same time are compound movements.  Now, if you are a bodybuilder and want to increase your bicep peak, by all means have at the billion bicep curls you are doing.  Not going to lie, I love the feeling of a good pump in my biceps by doing curls.  On that note, I will do those cute little bicep curls at the end of my full body workouts if I am not already blasted and I have enough time.  The same goes for leg extensions.  These work on primarily your quad strength and aesthetics, but do very little on the "transfer effect" of daily living strength.  Instead, walk past that machine and do some squatting. 

Time management, the key word being TIME!  If you are trying to get into better shape whether it is losing weight, heart health, getting stronger, etc, your time management plays a pretty big role.  Not everyone has 2 hours to spend at the gym 6 days a week.  I think I am speaking to the majority here when I say it would be darn nice to get a killer strength workout in while doing cardio at the same time in under 45 minutes 3-5 days a week.  Functional training programs put all of this together.  They hit almost all beneficial levels of fitness in a time manageable way for the average person.

Before I glorify this too much, let me pull back and clarify some things also.   Just like a lot of the trends in the fitness industry, this came in as the latest and greatest explosion recently.  It's actually been around for many many years from physical therapists.  Their job is obviously to get you to heal from an injury to get back to your activities of daily living with less pain.  Then the crossfit revolution hit around the year 2000.  These seemed to somewhat mesh together in my opinion.  So why not promote crossfit you may ask...I will never tell you that I don't promote crossfit.  I happily promote anything that helps our society find health and fitness.  I personally do a lot of crossfit, just not in a box (crossfit facility).  This is because I have taken years to tweek my own personal workout programs that I enjoy doing at my schedule and my pace.   As you read last week, I tailor my workouts on how I feel.  I like a mix everything up to keep challenging myself.  My only 2 cents on Crossfit is this: push yourself against yourself, not your gym crew.  Too many injuries are made from coaches that aren't paying enough attention to keep you safe.  Not that it is the coaches fault, but know your limits and stay safe.  A great coach will know how to start you slow, get the patterns/moves correct, and strive to keep you safe.  I know a lot of people that love crossfit because they don't have to plan their own workouts.  It's one less thing they have to think about, and that's great too. 

If you hop online and do a little google search about Functional Fitness, you do get a little bit of a variety and some not so optimal training ideas.  Every industry has their idiots (true statement #sorrynotsorry).  When you take the functional fitness people trying to promote stabilization and strength, with a few dim light bulbs that see an exercise ball, you get some idiot that tries to barbell squat while standing on an exercise ball.  Please use sense when lifting, it may save your life. 

I'm going to put ideas together along with a list of types of equipment for functional training, but there is one last VERY important point to make first.  It is not recommended to jump right into a functional fitness program that you might see on YouTube or a google search.  If you do not currently workout or are not familiar with compound lifting, you need to spend some time finding your weaknesses if you have them (and we all typically do).  This is where injuries happen frequently.  Often people initially exceed their own physical capabilities of the average exerciser and this leads to injury. 
         Stability  Stability Stability

The most important foundation of any training program. 

The three key groups in need of stability training are:

1. the deep abdominal (transverse abdominal and internal oblique),
   
2. the hip abductors and rotators
   
3. the scapula stabilizers.

Lower Back and shoulder injuries are by far the most common lifting/fitness related injuries.  Often times, the injured individual has no idea that the majority of the injuries are caused by weakness of the stabilization muscles of that area.  For instance. without strong scapular stabilizers, the shoulder is subjected to serious injury.  The muscles holding that shoulder are directly linked to the shoulder joint - makes sense since it is nicknamed the shoulder blade.  Similarly, your deep core muscles have a huge effect on your lower back integrity.  Research has proven that both the transverse abdoninals and multifidus muscles experience rapid atrophy  after a low back episode. (Multifidius, Transverse Abdonimals, and the pelvic floor muscles function together to stabilize the lower back before movement begins)

*As always, consulting with your primary care physician is recommended before the start of any workout program. 

Besides the above that I have to mention, my personal recommendations for a someone exploring the idea of functional fitness is 1 of 2 things.  One option is starting very slow as a beginner and focus only on body weight exercises.  Basic air squats, planks, pushups, assisted pullups, etc are a great foundation to build strength and stability to carry over into the more difficult exercises.  Having a mirror or now days a selfie video is a great way to assess your body while doing these exercises.  Examples: while squatting: lower yourself so your thighs are parallel with the floor or below, back straight, shoulders up, heels down.  Planks and pushups: body a flat line without sinking or bridging of the pelvis.  Pull-ups: start in the completely lowered position, retract scapulas first, then pull body weight up (assisted with a long band if needed). Secondly, find a gym or fitness trainer to work with that can help you get started.  They can help you with form, addressing weaknesses, and give you exercises to help get you started and avoid injury.
 
My 2 cents about gyms...I can't tell you how often I hear people complain about not being a "gym" person, but seconds later say that they can't find the discipline to workout at home.  You can't say these two things in the same conversation!  Yet, I hear it ALL OF THE TIME!  So I understand the discipline factor of having trouble working out at home, especially in the winter.  I have a home gym myself, but you are likely going to find me at my regular commercial gym.  I too struggle with this, especially as a mom.  If I'm home, I'm doing laundry, picking up the house, making food, putting list together for shopping, etc.  Before you know it, time is up and you need to run and get kids from something, then boom your day is gone and you didn't work out.   Knowing you have to make time to LEAVE and go to the gym for an hourish is easier (for me), it's scheduled in just like the rest of the important stuff.  Summertime has the added bonus of longer day light hours and more workouts outside even with the family, like biking, hiking, paddling, and running.  Now back to not being a gym person...my question is why aren't you a "gym" person?  If you have ever stepped into a gym, then you know there are all kinds of makes and models sort-a-speak.  Not everyone in a gym is a week away from a bodybuilding show, it's actually quite the opposite.  A small amount of people may be ripped up, but I can almost guarantee you that those people are likely to be some of the nicest and happiest that you are there working out too (as long as you have good gym etiquette of course.)  Do you feel uncomfortable about the machines?  If yes, then either spend some time scoping those machines and users out while doing some cardio nearby, or just simply ask.  The people that work at these gyms and even own them are typically very happy to help.  Some trainers even offer up a free training session upon your initial signup, just ask.  Do you feel not strong enough in comparison to others?  This one I know is very common, especially for the men.  They are afraid to walk into the squat rack and squat 45 lbs when the  last dude just squatted 300+.  Believe it or not, that dude that just finished the 300+lbs, once squatted 45 lbs also, then worked his butt off to get to 300+lbs.  Please don't ever feel intimidated by people judging you at the gym.  Nobody knows if what you are benching that day is your true maximum bench.  Maybe you went wakeboarding or wall climbing the day before and are still sightly fatigued, so you are lifting light that day, honestly do you really truly care what someone might think?  What you are doing in the gym is not affecting their life, but it is affecting yours so don't be nervous about others.  I guess that was a long 2cents, but I have been wanting to say that for a long time.

Okay.....my lists for Functional Fitness

Equipment: You may not even need equipment to get started, but below is a list of suggestions to keep things interesting and challenging.

1. Barbell : by far my first on this list.  (my favorite price of equipment)
2. dumbbells
3. fitness rubber bands - multiple sizes
4. medicine balls (multiple weights)
5. exercise ball
6. wooden box (18in, 24in, or 36in)
7. sandbag
8. TRX bands

All of the above are "ideal" but definitely not mandatory to start.  I will say, most gyms already carry all of the above for you to use.  As a beginner, dumbbells are a great starter to just slowly add weight to body weight exercises.

Basic Body Weight Exercises

1. Squats!!: regular squats, sumo, close stance, pistols, split, jump (JUST SQUAT!)
2. Pushups (keep those elbows tucked in or at the most 45 degrees out)
3. Pull-ups (banded if needed)
4. Lying hip raises/hamstring bridges
5. Lunges: All the kinds, front, back, to the side, switch jump
6. Planks: on elbows, on hands, one arm, one leg, leg extensions with one arm reaches, rotating hip touches
7. Burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, jumping rope, knee high running in place

Weighted Exercises: The weights can be the barbell, dumbbells, kettle bells, or sandbag

1. Squats: All varieties
2. Deadlifts : many varieties
3. Lunges
4. Cleans and Presses
5. Step ups (box step ups)
6. Farmer Carries
7. Bench Press
8. Rows
9. Thrusters
10. Get-ups

Workout example: Let's take the lunges with a kettle bell or dumbbell in the front rack position.  As you go into the lunge, your core is stabilizing your entire body.  Your feet, ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, and arms all work together to make this movement.  These types of compound movements build strength and stability.  Multi-planar movements produce power, strength, stability, and improve reaction time.
How do we put this all together?  Make a goal for how many days in the week you want to incorporate a function fitness workout.  They can be pretty demanding so maybe start with 2-3 days a week.  Aim for at least about 30-45 minute workout.  If you have a time restraint, you can bust a hard workout in under 25 minutes, but you better make it worthy and difficult.  DO NOT try to go all out your first couple of workouts, no need for heart attacks or the inability to function the next day.  You can do these as just body weight at a tempo similar to Tabata.  Your phone likely has a tabata timer app to help you time yourself.  If you are going to push yourself with weights, you can tone the timer part down and/or just shoot for "cycles".  By cycles I mean pick 3-5 exercises to do in a particular order, then repeat them 4-8 times.
Example of one of my cycles: 

1. Barbell Squats (light) x 10-15
2. Jump Squats (15lb-20lb dumbbells) 12-15
3. Barbell Bench (light)10-12
4. Sandbag Get-ups 45lb sandbag on shoulders Left x 10 and Right x 10

Do 1-4 above in order to make cycle #1, then repeat for as many cycles as you set your goal to.  Sufficient breaks between cycles.

Example for a Beginner:

1. Air Squats x 10
2. Push-ups x10
3. Mountain Climbers x 10
4. Lunges Left x 10/ Right x 10 or 5 left and 5 right
5. Burpees

Do 1-5 above and cycle 4-8 times.  Take a 1 minute break between each cycle.

Example for Intermediate:

1. Thrusters (barbell or Dumbbell)
2. Sandbag Row
3. Weighted jump squats (dumbbell)
4. Pushups
5. Planks

Same idea, 1-4 for 10 reps each, break, and cycle for 3-5 more times.

The idea is to build strength while also getting your heart rate up to get some great cardio work in.  You can always add in a slower run or bike ride to for more aerobic aspects to your workouts, or just do those things on our active recovery days.  The first few weeks, you may simply want to write all of the exercises down, take a sneak peak on youtube how to do them if you are unsure, and then just practice form and flow before you make them into a full workout.  Like I mentioned earlier, building a strong core and posterior chain (back, booty, and legs) is far more beneficial to every day living than a little 2 mile elliptical stroll and bicep curls if you are really looking at getting healthier and stronger.  Not saying the elliptical and curls are bad, because they are way better than your couch and curling a beer to your lips, but I think you know what I am getting at for this segment.  I have seen some pretty cool animations of proper lifting form.  If I find the links, I'll definitely try to put them together.  Maybe next week I will go into form.  Form is Key in the fitness world, and the absolute foundation to a healthy program.

If there is interest, I can start throwing a few workout programs on here to help everyone.  They will basically be my workouts and you can tone them down or go harder, your preference.  My weeks do incorporate these functional fitness days, but I also mix in many pure strength training and cardio specific days into my schedule.  Together they hit all aspects of training.  Even though I am approaching forty, I still consider myself an athlete.  I will continue to work hard to keep myself worthy of that title. 

Check out this link below.  The initial video just gives you an idea of what functional fitness is about, plus gives you a little extra motivation.
f45training.com/

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