FUNCTIONAL FITNESS
FUNCTIONAL FITNESS
"Functional fitness is a type of exercise that supports and mimics your everyday life. It includes movements such as walking, pushing, pulling, bending, squatting, twisting, reaching, lunging, and core. These exercises improve functional strength," says Campus.
Functional fitness is a type of exercise that supports your everyday life. It includes movements such as walking, pushing, pulling, bending, squatting, lunging, and core. These exercises improve functional strength.
Functional fitness is something that is rooted in all of us. Our bodies were developed with the intention of having all of our muscles work together and support each other to accomplish certain movements and tasks. Isolating certain muscle groups to add mass was not what our bodies were naturally made for.
Zeroing in on these aspects of your training will have numerous benefits that translate to your everyday life. Movements such as walking, jogging, running, sprinting, jumping, lifting, pushing, pulling, bending, twisting, turning, standing, starting, stopping, climbing, and lunging, according to the American Council on Exercise, will be made easier while training to improve functional strength.
What we know functional fitness to be today, or “modern functional fitness,” was developed on a foundation rooted in rehabilitation and therapy. According to Wikipedia, physical and occupational therapists and chiropractors often used functional training to correct and retrain patients with movement disorders. Whether it was through an accident, injury, surgery, or just basic movement inabilities, functional training was “prescribed” to patients to help them correct their weaknesses in order to live a more fulfilled life. For example, if a person under-go’s surgery that affects their hip mobility, exercises that mimic what they do at home or work will be given in order to help them successfully return to their everyday lives without deficits. If that person has a child, their training would be targeted towards moderate lifting and excellent mobility through the injured area. Wikipedia reiterates the point that this approach to treatment has always been based upon each individual person, not on a templated version of recovery.
Functional fitness, evolving from rehabilitation and therapy, enhances daily life through tailored exercises. Experts in physical, occupational therapy, and chiropractic fields leverage functional training for diverse movement challenges. This training addresses issues from accidents, injuries, or surgeries, aiming for a holistic recovery. For instance, post-surgery hip mobility regimens focus on home and work activities for seamless life integration.
WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL FITNESS?
Functional fitness is personalized, not one-size-fits-all, ensuring each routine meets individual needs for improved life quality
IMPROVES EVERYDAY LIFE
Being physically active can improve your brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities. Adults who sit less and do any amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity gain some health benefits.
GREATER MUSCLE MEMORY
Yes, muscle memory can be improved through deliberate practice and repetition. By performing a specific movement repeatedly, the brain can store the motor skill information more effectively, which can improve strength and skill over time
INCREASED MOBILITY
By performing regular functional fitness exercises, you're not just building muscle and core strength but actually exercising the brain too - effectively boosting your brain's memory.
IMPROVES BALANCE AND POSTURE
While you can try to correct your posture with a supportive brace or reminders to stand up straight, exercise assists with strengthening your core and upper back muscles. In turn, you develop the strength to keep your body in balance and avoid slouching
REDUCED RISK OF INJURY
Those who are more fit perform activity at a lower percentage of their maximal capability and so can perform the task for a longer period of time, fatigue less rapidly, recover faster, and have greater reserve capacity for subsequent tasks.Having poor or insufficient core fitness means that the body is physically less able to cope with activity. Fatigue and tiredness can also have a detrimental effect on technique which in turn can cause injury.
