Functional exercise is a term that gets thrown around loosely – it’s hard to know exactly what a person means when they say they practice functional fitness. In my case, the term functional exercise conjured up triggering images of balancing on one leg on a BOSU ball while performing a shoulder press for a long time. It wasn’t until I came to better understand what functional fitness is at its core that I began to appreciate why it can be so beneficial to those practicing it when done well.
What is Functional Fitness?
Functional fitness is defined as exercise designed to improve daily living. That essentially means that functional exercise is meant to prepare someone to perform day-to-day activities with greater ease and less pain, such as carrying groceries up the stairs, lifting boxes, reaching up to a shelf, etc.
Traditionally, functional exercises are multi-jointed movements performed in multiple different planes of motion. There are three different planes of motion:
Frontal: These are side to side motions such as lateral lunges, side bends, lateral band walks, etc.
Sagittal: These are forward and backward motions such as bicep curls, rows, walking lunges, running, etc.
Transverse: These are rotating motions such as russian twists, swinging a baseball bat, etc.
We live our life in three planes of motion all the time. For this reason, it doesn’t make sense that the exercise we perform at the gym is primary performed in only one plane. 90% of the exercises we perform at the gym are in the sagittal plane; this is where we feel most comfortable. It’s not surprising that the transverse plane gets neglected. Not only are rotational movements often hard to conceptualize, but they often feel very foreign. Taking traditional exercises like squats and lunges, and adding a T-spine rotation is just one example of how you can combine several major joints and planes of motion to better prepare your body for everyday physical stresses.
What is the Benefit of Functional Exercise?
The greatest benefit that functional exercise has over muscles isolation exercises is that it forces your body to work as full system, engaging several major muscles groups and working them simultaneously. This creates new neural pathways that aid the body in working as one complete system. This improves coordination and balance in ways that single-jointed exercises never will.
Why Single-Jointed Exercises Shouldn’t Be Overlooked
Single-jointed exercises typically aren’t included in the functional movement arena, however, I would argue that they have their place in functional movement programs. On one hand, multi-joint exercises are great because they work several major muscle groups at once. On the other hand, if one muscle group is weak, there are a handful of others working simultaneously to overcompensate for the weakness. If, for example, the hip is unstable, it is difficult to perform a weighted squat well. Although machine hip adduction is often touted as a non-functional exercise as it is performed in a single plane of motion, it may be necessary to perform them to isolate the hip adductors and target a specific weakness. If full body functionality is the ultimate goal, both multi-joint and single joint exercises should be used in tandem to overcome pain and weakness at every joint.
Take-Aways
Functional exercise prepares you for the movements you perform in everyday life.
It improves balance and coordination through movements that require the entire body to work as one complete system.
Both multi-joint and single joint exercises should be utilized together to overcome weakness at every joint.
For examples of functional exercises, check out our instagram @movewellri