Round Out Your Routine With Functional Fitness Training

Have you noticed that reaching for a can on the top shelf of the pantry, zipping up the back of a dress or picking up a bag of groceries from the floor has become more difficult, maybe even more painful over time? When your kids ask you to play tag or shoot hoops, do you worry about pulling a muscle or other injuries? As you get older, simple daily activities can become more challenging or even dangerous if you aren't strength training regularly, and more importantly, doing the right kind of strength training exercises. Functional fitness, or training specifically designed to improve balance and power as related to everyday routines, is rising in popularity. Adding it to your strength training routine could mean the end of the everyday aches and pains.

What Is It?

Functional fitness is a specific type of training which incorporates movements designed to mimic real-life activity. According to the Mayo Clinic, "Functional fitness exercises train your muscles to work together and prepare them for daily tasks by simulating common movements you might do at home, at work or in sports. While using various muscles in the upper and lower body at the same time, functional fitness exercises also emphasize core stability."

For example, instead of doing triceps kickbacks and exercising only the triceps muscles, a better option might be dumbbell rows, which target the shoulders, upper back and biceps. Functional exercises target multiple muscles at a time, while also mimicking movements people do regularly. The rowing motion simulates the daycare worker lifting a baby out of the crib, the person picking up a bucket of water to mop the kitchen floor or the plumber lifting and moving heavy pipes. When you strengthen your muscles in the same way you actually use them, you decrease your risk of injury and make everyday activities easier to perform.

This doesn't mean that targeted exercises (such as the aforementioned triceps kickbacks) have no place in a well-rounded exercise routine. If you know that your triceps are significantly weaker than your biceps, adding a triceps-specific exercise to your routine will help correct that imbalance. A good strength routine will identify areas of weakness and focus on them—whether that's through targeted or functional exercises.

Who Does It Benefit?

Functional fitness training can help improve balance, decrease the risk of falls and increase strength—all of which become more of an issue as you age. In order to maintain independence, these exercises become an especially important part of an older adult's regular exercise routine. Although it isn't a substitute for medical diagnosis, an at-home senior functional fitness test is a good place to start. This test can help identify areas of weakness you may have. Of course, before starting any exercise routine, you should get clearance from your doctor.

Jamelle Bowers, an internal medicine physician with Mercy Health, says she sees the impact of functional fitness training on a daily basis. "Patients often struggle after an illness with activities of daily living (ADLs) such as toileting, cooking, brushing their hair and getting dressed. Our top priority is to help patients return back to their previous level of function and to try to return to their home environment," she explains. "We tend to order physical and occupational therapy very early on in a hospital stay so that patients can continue to at least mimic these basic functions while in the hospital. Having patients who are already familiar with muscle strengthening and conditioning in ADLs and have a previous level of functional fitness prior to getting sick seem to have a less difficult time returning back to their home environment. Even after seemingly minor illnesses, some older patients really struggle with basic activities."

It's not just the elderly or inactive who benefit from functional fitness, though. Even those who exercise regularly risk injury if they aren't training their body to deal with real-life movements. For example, your buddy at the gym might be able to leg press hundreds of pounds, but that same guy could just as easily pull a hamstring trying to kick a soccer ball across the yard. He might have been gaining strength through his workouts, but he wasn't necessarily training in the way the muscles work normally throughout the day.

Where Do I Begin?

Getting started with functional fitness exercises is fairly simple, and in many cases, can be done using just your own bodyweight. By incorporating even a few of these exercises into your regular strength training routine, you will notice a difference in your ability to perform daily tasks. As you become stronger, try increasing the intensity of the exercises. For instance, if traditional squats are no longer challenging, do them on one leg or with dumbbells in your hands. Move from pushups on your knees to pushups on your toes. By modifying to make the exercises more challenging, you'll continue seeing progress and results from your hard work.

Each exercise below lists the muscles worked, along with the daily movement the exercise simulates. This routine can be performed two to three times per week, with one to three sets of each exercise and eight to 12 repetitions per set.

Squats
Muscles worked: Quads, glutes
Real-life movement: Sitting down or standing up from a chair, getting in and out of the car

Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Muscles worked: Shoulders
Real-life movement: Putting a box on a high shelf, picking up a child
T Stand
Muscles worked: Abs, lower back, hamstrings
Real-life movement: Picking things up from the floor, tying your shoes