Functional Training

Origins

Functional training has its origins in rehabilitation. Physical therapists developed exercises that mimicked what patients did at home or work in order to return to their lives or jobs after an injury or surgery. Thus if a patient's job required repeatedly heavy lifting, rehabilitation would be targeted towards heavy lifting, if the patient were a parent of young children, it would be targeted towards moderate lifting and endurance, and if the patient were a marathon runner, training would be targeted towards re-building endurance.

Functional training involves mainly weight bearing activities targeted at core muscles of the abdomen and lower back. Most fitness facilities have a variety of weight training machines which target and isolate specific muscles. As a result the movements do not necessarily bear any relationship to the movements people make in their regular activities or sports. Functional training attempts to adapt or develop exercises which allow individuals to perform the activities of daily life more easily and without injuries.

Benefits

Functional training may lead to better muscular balance and joint stability, possibly impacting the number of injuries sustained and individual's performance in a sport. The benefits may arise from the use of training that emphasizes the body's natural ability to move in three anatomical planes of motion. In comparison, though machines can often be safer to use, they restrict movements to a single plane of motion, which is an unnatural form of movement for the body and may potentially lead to faulty movement patterns or injury.

Functional training for sports

Many athletes equate strength training with bodybuilding; accordingly, individuals involved in endurance or flexibility-based sports do not strength train for fear of gaining too much bulk and losing flexibility, or mimic the training of bodybuilders without adapting workouts to their specific sports. As a result, training can lack the performance benefits that strength training could provide.

Equipment

Standard resistance training machines are of limited use for functional training – their fixed patterns rarely mimic natural movements, and they focus the effort on a single muscle group, rather than engaging the stabilizers and peripheral muscles.

Preferred options include:

* Cable machines
* Dumbbells
* Medicine balls
* Kettlebells
* Physioballs (also called Swiss balls or exercise balls)
* Resistance tubes
* Rocker and wobble boards
* Balance disks
* Sandbags

Cable machines

Cable machines, also known as pulley machines, are large upright machines, either with a single pulley, or else a pulley attached to both sides. They are extremely useful for functional training as they allow allow an athlete to recruit all major muscle groups while moving in multiple planes. Cable machines also provide a smooth, continuous action which reduces the need for momentum to start repetitions, provide a constant tension on the muscle, peak-contraction is possible at the top of each rep, a safe means of performing negative repetitions, and a variety of attachments that allow great flexibility in the exercises performed and body parts targeted.

Components of a functional exercise program

To be effective a functional exercise program should include a number of different elements:

* Specific to the sport. Any program must be sport specific, working to develop and maintain sport specific strength.
* Integrated – It should include a variety of exercises that work on flexibility, core, balance, strength and power.
* Increases Core Stability – core stability is crucial for any sport or activity. A stable core allows for more efficient transference of power from the lower to upper body, and an increased ability to maintain correct athletic posture over long periods of time.
* Progressive – Progressive training steadily increases the strength demand from workout to workout. While most people are aware of the need for this in relation to traditional strength training, it is sometimes overlooked in functional training. For functional training is also means varying speed of movement to make it more sport specific.
* Periodized – for competitive athletes, their functional training needs to fit into their competitive cycle of competition. In broad terms this means that they will vary their program throughout the year to achieve optimal results, peaking for competitions or races and building in recovery time also.
* Individualized – An athlete’s program need to be designed for them. The only way to do this is to work with a coach or trainer who specializes in the particular sport and can custom design a program. A qualified personal trainer can easily include functional training in their clients' exercise programs, whether they are recovering from an injury or preparing for competition.


WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “BODYBUILDING TRAINING” AND “FUNCTIONAL TRAINING” ANYWAY?

Bodybuilding training, by definition, is “cosmetic.” In a bodybuilding competition, you are judged on the way you look, not by the way you perform. Whether you use light weights or heavy weights, slow reps or fast reps, long workouts or short workouts is completely irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that on the day of the contest, your physique is visually the best one onstage. This means having the perfect package of low body fat, muscular size and classical symmetry.

Bodybuilding is not aimed at increasing strength, flexibility, endurance, speed or other athletic factors as ends in themselves. In bodybuilding, these performance qualities are only sought to the extent to which they help the bodybuilder look better onstage. (Or as one functional training expert sarcastically put it, “The only athletic component bodybuilders encounter is having to walk across a stage and selectively spasm muscles to their favorite tune!”)

Functional training emerged primarily from the sports conditioning and rehabilitation world. By definition, functional training refers to a well-rounded program integrating exercises which contribute to better, more efficient and safer performance of real world activities or sports movements.

For example, functional training would help the average person develop strength that carries over into daily activities such as pulling open a heavy door, hiking up a rocky trail, starting a lawnmower, carrying a child, unloading heavy packages from the trunk of a car, or reaching up and pulling down a bulky box from an overhead shelf.

If you’re an athlete, functional training will help improve your performance: You will improve your swing, throw further, run faster or increase your vertical jump. Because functional training helps link your entire body together so it performs optimally as a cohesive unit, you’ll also decrease your chances of getting injured.

The terms “core training” and “functional training” are often used interchangeably, although core training is just one modality of functional training. Core training means doing exercises that activate the “core” muscles of the torso, neck, pelvis, lower back and abdominal area.

Basically, your core is everything except your arms and legs. Core training doesn’t just work the muscles you can see – it also works the deep muscles like the quadratus lumborum and transversus abdominus which are important in strengthening and stabilizing the lower back and torso.

The most common example of a core-training apparatus is the “stability ball,” which is used for full range abdominal work, resistance training and numerous other exercises to develop balance, stability, coordination and core strength.



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Anorectic Anabolism Training

We all know the pitfalls of 'yo-yo' dieting... ultimately what you struggle so hard to lose you almost inevitably end up gaining most of it back once you return to a so-called 'normal' eating pattern. But, here's the thing, what if you could take this same principle and use it to your advantage in your training schedule?

Now, I bet that is something that didn't exactly knock on your 'training wisdom' door! Truth be told, it was not something I ever considered experimenting with until fate brought it to my attention.

Just over a year ago I was diagnosed with mononucleosis (glandular fever) triggered by an ever-present Epstein Barr Virus (no doubt caused by years of overtraining).

This debilitating event led to me having to seriously reduce my workout sessions and the intensity I threw into them. Of course I knew that any form of strenuous exercise was not the RX for recovery, but I don't need to tell you how stubborn us lifelong muscle heads are when it comes to working out - no matter what malady we are suffering from or what crisis is going on in our lives.

I can guarantee that, in the event of a nuclear war, for every two people running to the fall out shelter there will be a bodybuilder running to the gym trying to sneak in one extra session before Armageddon!

So, rather than completely shun working out, I opted for the train less intensely and keep workouts shorter principle. I also increased my protein intake and significantly reduced my carbohydrate consumption - which was not such a good idea, but more of that later.

I must admit this was extremely difficult at first since I was used to pushing myself to the limits at every workout e.g. lots of sets, hitting the muscle from all angles, everything to failure.

However, every time I relapsed into my old training habits my glands reacted so badly I felt like I was wearing a weighted ankle bracelet around my neck - which is a further example of how much stress intense exercise puts on the body.

Anyways, I am straying from the point and the point in this case is the end result. After years and years of high-intensity training I was pretty much tired all the time and my muscles had reached a standstill when it came to growth.

Then, within one month of training by my new 'back-off a little' technique I had gained 7 lbs and reduced my body fat levels significantly. At that point I realized I was onto something... I had discovered the 'yo-yo' principle of anorectic anabolism.


Applying Anorectic Anabolism


So how can you apply this to YOUR training schedule and YOUR diet? Well, if you are anything like most bodybuilders and athletes you are probably already in a state of borderline overtraining and this is GREAT!

"Okay," I hear you cry; "now you have gone too far! How on earth can being borderline overtrained be an asset?"

Well, I grant you, in a normal case scenario this suggestion would seem a little on the crazy side. However, we are not talking 'normal' here, we are talking 'survival' and, being in a semi-overtrained state is a great place to be when it comes to activating the survival instinct in your muscles.

For the purposes of this experiment though, I want to push you a little bit further so for the next month I want you to work out five days (even six if you want to throw in some extra work for abs and some cardio on one of your 'days-off').

If you have reached the level where you can use 'instinctive selection' then use that when it comes to deciding which exercises and how many sets to use per session.

By 'instinctive selection' I mean just letting your mind take over the direction of your workout, bearing in mind the fact that you want to hit each muscle group from as many angles as possible and your workouts should be at least 1 hour long for larger body parts.

Phase 1

For those not sure that their instinct is a reliable road map to the ideal workout here are a couple of examples of 'survival set up' training for major body parts. Take a look at them and you should get the idea:

Legs:

+ Leg Press - 4 sets x 15-20 reps
+ Narrow Stance Hack Squats - 3 sets x 15-20 reps
+ Hamstring Curls - 4 sets x 10 - 12 reps
+ Leg Extensions - 3 sets x 10 - 12 reps
+ Wide-Stance Squats - 3 sets x 15 - 20 reps
+ Calves - 5 sets x 20-25 reps

Back:

* Wide-Grip Lat Pulldowns - 4 sets x 8 - 10 reps
* Close Grip Pulldowns - 4 sets x 8 - 10 reps
* Dumbbell Rows - 3 sets x 8-10 reps
* Dumbbell Pullovers - 3 sets x 12 - 15 reps
* Straight Arm Pulldowns - 3 sets x 10 -12 reps

Now bear in mind that ALL these sets are taken to failure and the rest periods between sets are kept to a minimum (no sitting around for 2 - 3 minutes gazing around the room!).

The main thing is to try and go by instinct. If you feel like adding a set here and there to really knock a muscle out... go for it! Remember, this is all about activating the 'survival response' in your muscles.

Stick to this training program for 4 - 6 weeks at least and split body parts so that you are training five days a week. A sample of this would be:

o Monday: Shoulders
o Tuesday: Legs
o Wednesday: Chest
o Thursday: Back
o Friday: Arms

Just split your workouts according to your own schedule. After this training period is over I guarantee your body will be screaming for a rest in the same way as your stomach would be screaming for a slice of apple pie after a pre contest diet!

Phase 2

If you have followed the plan though you should definitely have primed your body for the next stage, the stage I will call 'Anorectic Anabolism'.

This is when you bring the final principle into training, this is where you 'back-off' and allow your body to begin the overcompensation process (so that it is prepared, should you decide to do this program again).

For this phase you will want to cut back your training to four times a week (either two days on, one day off or training every other day). For example, if you go for the two on, one off option you will be working out Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and taking the whole weekend off.

The exercises in this case will be limited. You will stop just before you reach failure, and you will keep your workouts to around 30 minutes (40 max).

Once again here are a couple of samples. I will stick to the same body parts to give you a better idea of the difference between the two phases.

Legs:

o Leg Press/Squats - 3 sets 12 -15 reps
o Leg Extensions - 3 sets 10- 12 reps
o Hamstring Curls - 3 sets 10 - 12 reps
o Calves - 3 sets 20 reps

Back:

o Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns - 3 sets 10 - 12 reps
o Close Grip Lat Pulldowns - 3 sets 10 - 12 reps
o Pullovers - 3 sets 12 - 15 reps

The main thing is to try and keep total sets performed to around 12 sets for larger body parts and 8 - 10 for smaller body parts (as low as 6 for biceps and triceps).

This will allow your body to recognize the relative 'down-time' as a chance to prepare for the likelihood of another all out attack on your muscles.

Diet

As for your diet, try and keep your ratios at around 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat and your calories fairly constant throughout the program. Your main aim is to initiate the survival mechanism in your muscles, not your metabolism.

After all, your metabolism is given the shock treatment every time you go on a diet, so give it a break and let your muscle take the impact of this experiment.
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