A good number of people exercise to add to their quality of life, and that’s where the benefits of functional fitness come into play. Functional fitness does not focus on athlete level fitness; it is not meant to improve sports performance or offer extraordinary muscle development. What functional exercise does do is develop and prepare various muscles in the body to be able to execute everyday activities safely and comfortably.
Now your first thought might be ‘why do I need to work out for daily activities?’ The fact of the matter is that a regular person is more prone to injury from say, improperly picking up weight, or throwing ball with the kids, etc. This is where the benefits of functional fitness can make life easier for you.
There are plenty of exercise plans and so-called miracle workouts out there. The trick is to understand and choose the one which works for you. The great thing about functional exercise is that since it is general purpose, its benefits can be made use of by almost everyone.
Another huge difference between functional and other workouts is that most workouts generally target one type of muscle during each exercise. Functional exercises, on the other hand, works more than one type of muscle during each exercise. Although its premise is based on improving everyday functioning, functional training has been used extensively during sports conditioning and injury rehabilitation.
Some of the benefits of functional fitness include:
- The purpose of functional training is developing all muscles by focusing on movement patterns instead of individual muscle groups. If you’re leading a sedentary lifestyle, with much of the day spent in a cubicle behind a computer, functional training is your best bet to achieve fitness that is actually beneficial to you. Going to the gym and pumping iron when you are inactive throughout the day is of no real use and in fact, could be harmful to the body.
- Functional training focuses on flexibility, mobility, core stability, balance, and strength. This is more than enough to challenge your body and enable it to become stronger and fitter.
- The benefits of functional fitness are not confined to muscle building. It is known to be ideal for burning fat and losing weight as well. A lot of the functional exercises boost metabolism thus effectively burning fat and increasing endurance in the process.
- Since functional fitness focuses on muscle strength, stability, and movement, it is essential for older people who often tend to lose balance and fall.
- Another great benefit of functional fitness is that it adds agility to the body. This is great for injury prevention as well as faster injury recovery. When you think about injury prevention, functional fitness not only benefits the body by making it stronger, but it also allows it to react better when confronted with an injury causing situation thus reducing chances of the injury. So for instance, if you slip and are falling, functional fitness would help your body react in a way that reduces chances of serious injury. You may very well stabilize and stay on your feet when otherwise you could have ended up flat on your back.
- Functional training is all about building core strength. This is to say, that it builds the strength and stability of the spine. By making you go through a variety of different movements and positions, functional training readies your body to combat any strain that might be placed on your spine during everyday activities.
The more you make functional exercises a part of your lifestyle, the more you’ll notice an improvement in your general fitness and ability to do everyday activities without any issues. The benefits of functional fitness set it apart from other fitness regimens out there, making it a must for everyone to incorporate into their daily workout routine.
