Functional training is a type of training that mimics everyday movements. These type of exercises are great for our everyday activities. If your job requires a lot of lifting or you are experiencing pain in areas such as the lower back (very common for many people), then functional exercises can develop the weaker muscles around the area you are experiencing pain, thus relieving strain and pain.
Functional training is very common in rehabilitation. If you’ve ever had to go through physical therapy, you may know that the exercises you performed helped with what you would do on a day to day basis.
Other benefits of functional exercise include
- Injury prevention from doing routine movements
- Improve your form when doing daily activities
- Strengthen weaker muscles needed in everyday movements
Interval training works out great for functional exercises because many of these types of exercises only require your own body weight to perform them. When you are deciding which functional exercises to perform, just think about your everyday movements.
Sample functional exercises
- Squats
- Lunges
- Push-ups
- Step-ups
- Resistance bands exercises
- Hill running (particularly for runners)
Video samples of functional training exercises
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