I know that I can be somewhat alone with this among professionals in the fitness industry, but I have my issues with the phrase, “functional fitness. It is my humble opinion that all training is functional (or should be). Now, of course, there may be some reason for adding a functional component to one’s training—specifically, I think of firefighters, police, and military personal. A big issue with doing so is opportunity cost. For such “athletes” (and I think there is more than a bit of an athletic component that goes into such work—the phrase “tactical athlete” is often used), traditional exercise training—e.g., squatting until the legs feel like Jello—is often not ideal. Tactical athletes, after all, can be deployed and must be ready to “go” at a moment’s notice. For these athletes, training the energy systems for fast recovery and managing MRV (“maximal recoverable volume”) are crucial. For most of us….
I was inspired to write this after seeing an advertisement for a treadmill that had the added feature of loadable weights for farmer carries. I assume the idea is to be able to train to carry things for very long distances?? Now, one of my initial responses was: dumbbells. Why not just carry dumbbells on the treadmill—if this exercise is so necessary. (A friend noted that if the weight got too heavy one could just “let go”—point taken.) Another thought was back to walking a good half-mile uphill (it was Pittsburgh, after all) with groceries with my mom as a kid—“functional training”. Why must we drive to the gym (and, let’s face it, most gym-goers drive to the gym) to walk on a treadmill and/or do things we commonly do (or should be doing)? This treadmill may have a place—e.g., firehouses and combat units—however, a little bit of innovation is probably warranted. Of course, I don’t want to crush “some young entrepreneur’s dreams”, and I trust there will be a market for the product, so let’s focus on this idea of “functional training”.
First, if we go to the health-related components of physical fitness—cardiorespiratory, muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, and body composition—the principle of specificity applies and these are covered, quite simply, with the basics: traditional cardio exercise, the ‘basic 5’ (squat, deadlift, bench, overhead press, and rows), and energy system management (i.e., varying repetitions and recovery to specific needs and goals). Anything else must then apply to motor skill-related physical fitness—speed, power, agility, balance, coordination, and reaction time. Want to be functional? Much of this comes with sports conditioning or other specificity-driven exercise. So, unless your sport or job demands it (and I would argue that, if it does, you are already applying the health-related exercise in doing the job), simulating the sport or labor task as a component of “conditioning” is unnecessary. In other words, rather than swing a hammer on a truck tire, chop wood. Rather than walk on a treadmill carrying weights, walk around the neighborhood with weights—or better walk to and from the grocery!
Let’s not over-complicate exercise and life by trying to be too creative. Up the demands of your activities of daily living and progress your exercise to meet these demands. “Functional training” should mean to train to improve function, not train by doing things that should be normal functions.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow!
Carpe momento!
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