What is it & why is it so important?

Functional training includes balance training, stabilization training, core training, and dynamic movement. Functional training improves reaction forces, which allow your body to compensate for changes in your center of gravity and move quickly and efficiently. The Core is considered to be the body's center, the entire torso area from the pelvis through the shoulders.  Every movement the body makes originates from the core. If the core is not properly conditioned, your physical abilities are more limited. Core training is different than just training your abdominals. Although the abdominals are an important part of your core musculature, true core training is a more integrated approach; it combines strength, balance, agility, and flexibility of the muscles that control the entire trunk and spine. Regular conditioning of the core muscles is essential to prevent injuries, correct posture and in making the body more efficient in all that it does. Imagine you lose your balance and begin to fall, if you have a strong core and a functional trained body, the body reacts quickly, meaning that you are less prone to injury!!!

Read below for a list of reasons functional exercises are important

• They promote maintenance and improvement in Active Daily Living tasks
• They promote spinal health and longevity
• They mimic motor patterns that translate into daily tasks, recreational sports, and work activities.

If people are not active in sports or physical education (in other words doing something that challenges their stability and ability of muscles to react), they start to lose balance at the age of 15 or 16. After the age of 70, nearly 85% of people die from complications due to breaking their hip.

Traditionally, when people exercise, they are working on “cosmetic fitness” – exercising to look good and working on surface muscles or those that we see. The problem with this is that it doesn’t help you in daily tasks. How often do you hear that someone hurt themselves reaching to the back seat of their car, turning quickly, or bending down quickly to pick up something? These are daily living tasks; therefore, it makes sense to train the muscles doing similar movements. You aren’t lying down most of the day doing crunches, yet your abdominal muscles are constantly working to stabilize your spine. So why not train them in a way that makes sense (i.e. standing, sitting, or twisting)?

We at Fitness Body and Balance believe strongly in the importance of functional training. Our trainers use a variety of exercises and tools to incorporate functional training in to each workout. After all “fitness” is not just about how you look but how well your body functions.

Functional Training is incorporated into all of our Personal Training Sessions.