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?
Functional is a word that has been so overused in the fitness word that it is meaningless. I have a friend who is a trainer and we constantly get into arguments over what is ‘functional’. He has his clients doing weird balance things on Bosu Balls. When have you ever found yourself out in the woods standing on one foot on a Bosu Ball with a 50 pound bumbell in your left hand? When I think of functional exercises I try and think of moments that could save my or someone elses life. Climbing trees and ropes, scaling walls, throwing and carrying rocks and sandbags, crawling, jumping, sprinting, carrying someone big up a hill on your shoulders and training Krav might be the most functional thing that I do.
Some of the equipment you find in a typical gym could be tools in functional training. If I understand the point of the writer Patrick quotes he is attempting to more clearly define ‘functional training’. He is absolutely right that some exercises are much better than others. Bicep curls and bench presses don’t engage a fraction of the muscles that a simple deadlift does.
mmm funtional training. Its funny how the S&C world always seems to want to throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak! Functional training to me means making sure that the carry over to the sport is a high yield. Trap bar deadlifts for example have a high yield strength gain to most sports. One legged training also has a high yield as many sports require power through one leg whilst the other is acting as a supported leg with little weight carried through the limb.
I don’t know much about training. Functional training sounds like something that can be applied to everyday use. I believe dumbells help me because they work my grip the whole time as well as dead lifts. I work with tools and move a lot of things all day. Grills, a/c units, fertilizer, sand, paint, it goes on and on. Whatever can best help me I do. When dave says balancing with balls and weights it may make sense for other people but not me. It actually makes me smirk. Functional doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to work. WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!