Archives for 2011

Here’s a very interesting article from one of the hardcore dudes at EliteFTS:

The Case Against “Functional” Training

Kasey Esser’s purpose distills down to this:

There is too much room for interpretation in functional training. It essentially has become a phrase trainers throw on to programs that require movements that look hard or require balance…

Instead of functional training, I think a better phrase would be “optimal strength training.” Just reading those words implies that some movements are better than others when it comes to working multiple joints and muscles through multiple planes of motion. Optimal strength then is not only a high absolute strength but the ability to take that absolute strength and apply it in the areas of coordination, flexibility, mobility, and balance in all three planes of motion. That is a mouthful, but it already is clearer than the multiple definitions for functional training because it can be classified!

What do you think?