What Is Functional Training?
Functional Training
"Functional" is one of the most overused terms in the personal training and fitness community, often slapped onto training styles that involve bodyweight exercises, animal-inspired movements, unstable surfaces, or kettlebells. Personally, I find it one of the most misused words in the industry, right up there with "holistic" and "high-end." In my experience, terms like "functional training," "holistic," or "high-end" are often just buzzwords thrown around to cover up a lack of solid fundamentals and real expertise. My advice? If a personal trainer starts bragging about how their studio is "high-end" or that their methods are "functional," run the other way. Chances are, they’re spending more on fancy soaps than on developing actual skills or delivering real results.
What Does Functional Training Mean?
The term "functional" refers to something designed to be practical and useful. In the context of fitness, training, and health, functional can be described as anything that helps you achieve your specific goals, whatever they may be.
For instance, a powerlifter aiming to improve their bench press might find it functional to incorporate triceps extensions into their routine if they lack triceps strength. Is this approach also functional for my 50-year-old client Bob, who wants to improve his golf swing? Probably not. Training stability on one leg or doing step-ups on a small platform might be functional for my 80-year-old client Stephany, helping her feel more confident climbing stairs, but would likely be a waste of time for everyone else. I think you get the point. Functional training doesn’t center around specific exercises but rather specific goals. What is functional for one person may not be for another.
What Do I Consider Functional Training For Most People?
For most people, the ultimate goal is to stay healthy and live a pain-free life without physical limitations. Dr. Peter Attia, an expert in longevity and optimizing health, performance, and lifespan, emphasizes that a truly healthy and functional body requires strength, stability, and both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. I could not agree more. Through my work as a physiotherapist, I’ve reached a similar conclusion: the healthiest clients, those with the fewest complaints and fastest recovery times, were always the ones who were the strongest and had the most muscle mass. On the flip side, those with lower muscle mass and weaker strength often struggled with issues like back pain, post-surgery complications, and chronic stiffness.
This observation led me to a critical question: what’s the most efficient and effective way to improve strength, muscle mass, and the four pillars of health that Dr. Attia highlights? The answer is simple – well-executed strength training. The most functional thing you can do for your body is to get strong and build muscle, which in turn enhances other crucial qualities like power, stability, and endurance.
When it comes to achieving this, there are many roads to Rome, just as there are many ways to get stronger and build muscle. But being the son of a guy working in finance, efficiency is my middle name. That’s why I always seek the most effective path to help my clients reach their goals. For building strength and muscle, this means focusing on simple, compound exercises like chin-ups, squats, overhead presses, bench presses, and their various progressions and regressions. Don’t get lost in the hype; stick to what works. If you want to be truly functional, get strong.
