Increasing Functional Strength

While it might be impressive to see someone bench press 350 pounds, that isn’t the kind of strength that gets you through your day, through your football game or even through the rest of your workout. By contrast, functional strength exercises are designed to improve fitness and performance during everyday activities and sports. Functional training focuses on balance, flexibility and injury prevention as much as on strength, endurance and speed. These are the qualities your body needs to work in the garden and pick up furniture, as well as enjoy exercise and life injury-free.

  1. Multiple Maneuverings

    • One of the best ways to improve functional strength is to avoid isolation workouts like bench presses. Instead, do compound exercises that involve multiple joints, such as kettlebell swings, which use the ankles, knees, hips, shoulders and elbows. These types of full-body movements not only strengthen many muscles at once, but also teach those muscles to operate in unison, which improves coordination, timing and functional strength. In sports and everyday life, you use your whole body to do even light activities, and the more your strength training reflects that principle the more functional it will be.

    Motion Matters

    • Completing a full range of motion with each movement is an element of proper form common to all strength training, but it is especially necessary for functional workouts. Certain joint angles, such as when the elbow is almost fully extended at the bottom of a bicep curl, make it difficult to generate strength enough to finish a repetition. Avoiding these positions by not completing the range of motion will hinder functional strength gains because the entire muscle cannot develop evenly. Performing the entire movement will help your muscles reach their full potential, even if you have to use less weight.

    Stay on Your Feet

    • Many exercises people do are performed on their backs, and while bench presses can increase the size and strength of your chest and crunches can define your abs, neither is very functional. Lying down limits the work of important stabilizer muscles. When you are moving, whether in sports or in the backyard, you rely upon balance and coordination to keep us safe and uninjured. Core exercises, such as the steam engine, not only use a higher range of motion than crunches, they also keep you on your feet to improve balance, which is what core strength is for.

    Train with Purpose

    • The simplest way to think of functional strength training is as preparation. Designing your strength routine with specific activities in mind can not only make them more functional, but may also increase motivation and the reward of seeing the effects of your workout more clearly. For instance, if your job involves a lot of bending over, it may be a good idea to strengthen your back and legs with deadlifts and barbell good mornings. If you play a sport with lots of sprinting, you can improve the explosive strength of your legs with box jumps, squat jumps and power cleans.