Functional Strength Training
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| Thu, 11-02-2006 - 10:16am |
With our busy schedules I saw this article and thought.....that's what we need to see-
Functional strength training simply means training our bodies to better perform the types of movements we use for everyday living. The time spent developing this specific strength, flexibility and agility have the optimum carry-over into daily activities.
Strength movements you perform on a day-in, day-out basis can be categorized into the following groups:
- Lifting: Laundry basket, Grocery Bags, child/grandchildren
- Reaching: Refrigerator or clothes dryer, Dishes on shelves, Grabbing objects on floor
- Power: Standing up from chair, going up stairs, walking up incline
- Balancing: Walking (Single leg activities), Moving while holding awkward objects
- Combinations of the above
Functional Exercises
These are four highly functional exercises you can easily add to your day to create a basic strength training program.
They form the foundation for daily strength movements. Performing these several times a day, several times a week will enable you to do more with less effort and with more confidence.
You can do them anywhere, anytime:
- Push-ups: Start with wall push-ups and progress to placing your hands on the kitchen counter. You can do 5-6 while waiting for the microwave to finish. These firm your chest, arms, abs and back.
- Squats or lunges: Most reaching, lifting or bending involves and element or squatting or lunging. Remember to push out your tush and don’t let your knees go farther forward than your toes. You’ll strengthen your knees, quads and hips.
- Grocery Bag Lift: Each time you go shopping strengthen your arms. Use each arm and lift the bag 6 times to the front, side and rear. You can also do a modified bicep curl. Just remember to keep your shoulders back and abs tight while working your arms.
- Lift: Pick-up that heavy pet food bag or laundry basket by squaring your feet shoulder width apart, squatting down, grabbing hold and pushing up with your legs. Put it down and do it again. If your knees hurt, practice lifting from a chair until you get stronger.
Functional Equipment
The recommended equipment will also vary from that used in traditional strength training. Recent findings in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning show that machine based strength training has limited carry-over in helping us perform our activities of daily living. There are many better equipment options for functional strength training that don’t involve going to the gym. They include:
- Dumb Bells: Begin with 3-4 pounds and progress to 8-10
- Body Weight: Combined with jump ropes or exercise balls, body weight is often challenging on its own, especially lunges and push-ups!
- Resistance Bands and Loops: Replicate the exercises on a cable machine in the gym.
- Exercise Balls: A fun way to combine balance work with other exercises
- Medicine Balls: Great for combo moves involving the shoulders
Just as athletes train for their specific sport, we have specific household or recreational activities to train for. Make your training count; make it functional!
http://exercise.about.com/cs/exerciseworkouts/a/functional.htm

