HELP....I can't get up!

Despite age, physical capabilities, mobility or financial circumstances, exercising should be a top priority for everyone, particularly among elderly adults - it’s a crucial element to keeping them active, thriving, and independent throughout the aging process. The World Report on Ageing and Health (WHO 2019) focuses on function as a key element, because loss of functional abilities significantly impacts life quality. Having a chronic health issue, like diabetes or high blood pressure, is manageable, but if one can’t stand up or get off the ground, everything changes. What’s driving the relevance of functional training? (1) Older adults are a growing demographic, and (2) people are living longer. By 2030, the number of adults aged 65 or older in North America is predicted to nearly double. A man reaching age 65 today can expect to live, on average, to be 84, and a woman can expect to be 87. If you’re looking for the best type of workout to benefit your everyday activities, and to keep you active and agile for years to come, you may want to give functional fitness training a try. Here’s what, why, and how to get started.

What is functional fitness training?

Functional fitness refers to exercises that mimic everyday actions—for example, lifting a child out of a car seat or squatting down to pick something up off the floor. Typically, functional fitness workouts emphasize core stability and may incorporate balance, strength, multi-directional movements, and plyometrics. Many functional fitness movements rely solely on bodyweight, while others include dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine balls, and other equipment.

Why should I try functional fitness training?

Think about everything you do that requires some combination of strength, flexibility, and coordination. Things like getting out of bed, walking up flights of stairs, carrying heavy grocery bags, and reaching for items on a high shelf. Or perhaps pushing open a heavy door or lunging to tie your shoe. By strengthening the muscles in the same way you would need to use them for certain tasks, you reduce your risk of injury and increase your quality of life. You can go throughout your day without worrying about straining or pulling something. Functional fitness programs can benefit every person regardless of fitness level, age, exercise experience or time available for training. Functional training programs can help improve definition, burn calories, enhance aerobic capacity, and promote muscle growth. The key component of a functional training workout is simply moving; more specifically, to move in multiple directions, at several different speeds and using a wide variety of exercise equipment to engage every muscle in the body.

Whether you realize it or not, your everyday activities involve all sorts of compound movements—movements that utilize multiple muscle groups. Functional fitness training is a way to target these types of compound movements to help make your everyday activities easier, safer, and more efficient. With a focus on functional fitness, you’ll become stronger in your day-to-day activities, and in turn, you’ll be less likely to suffer injuries like sprains and strains. This type of training will serve you well now and help keep you fit, active, and independent later in life.

How can I incorporate functional fitness into my training routine?

You’re probably already familiar with many functional fitness movements. These are compound exercises like squats, lunges, and push-ups (in comparison to isolation exercises like leg extensions and biceps curls). Squats, for example, primarily target the quadriceps, but they also recruit the hamstrings, glutes, calves, and core muscles.

It’s easy to understand how these compound exercises are the most like our everyday activities. Isolation exercises have their place, but our normal movements nearly always rely on multiple muscle groups. For similar reasons, functional fitness exercises are generally performed with body weight, free weights, cables/cords, or other props instead of on weight machines that isolate individual muscles.

You can incorporate functional fitness into your workout in any way you like. Mix up your gym time with a combination of compound and isolation exercises or do a HIIT circuit focused on functional movements and cardio. Chances are, you may already be training with some functional movements. Here are several of the most common:

Glute Bridge

Squat

Goblet Squat

Front Squat

Split Squat

Lunge

Lateral Lunge

Reverse Lunge

Reverse Lunge with Rotation

Low Planks

High Plank

Side Plank

Woodchop

Renegade Row

Single-Leg Dumbbell Row

Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

Burpee

Push up

Now that you understand what functional fitness is and why it’s important, you can ensure it becomes a part of your regular fitness routine. And if you’re already doing plenty of functional fitness movements, you’ll have a better understanding of why they’re critical and the ways in which they benefit your everyday life.

We are experts at programming for functional fitness and are always  available to help if you need that extra push, here’s to staying fit and feeling good, both in and out of the gym!