and why functional fitness training may be the answer.

Firstly, let me start by saying that anyone who makes the effort to get changed, pay for and travel to their local gym to lift weights or move their body in any way should be applauded and in no way am I criticising any of those who do that here. Instead, my hope is to try and radically increase the benefits one might get from spending an hour or so exercising by considering compound functional movements over machine-assisted isolated ones and circuit-based interval training over long-distance steady-state cardio. But let’s look at the challenge at hand…

Unfortunately, our desire to make things ‘easier’ for ourselves through machine-assisted gym equipment and attempts to attain ever more ‘extreme’ physiques (as witnessed from the reams of ripped and bootylicious bods that flood social media feeds daily) is potentially leading people down a path of disease rather than towards greater overall fitness. And here’s why…

For the first 15 years of my gym experience, my goal was always to get more ‘hench’ and more ‘shredded’ just like the Insta models. In doing so, I focused on isolated movements such as bicep curls, cable flies, tricep extensions to name a few - all with the goal to maximise muscle hypertrophy and land those ever elusive ‘gains’. And like many, I would scour YouTube and the internet to find tips on how to ‘build mass’ or ‘get shredded fast’. And I had some success. But at a cost. 

You see when my body started to fail me due to chronic levels of stress back in 2017, I came to realise that the gym routine I was following was inconsistent, unbalanced, overly-stressful and lacked any sort of mobility, aerobic or anaerobic training (i.e. little to no cardio). As a result, whilst on the surface I looked fit and strong, my legs and core were actually very weak, I had very poor mobility and my lungs and heart weren’t being stimulated for better overall health. This came starkly apparent when I visited my local CrossFit gym for my first functional fitness assessment. And even more so when I attempted to join in my first functional fitness workout. A very humbling experience indeed. 

Now, 4 years on. I have just completed my first CrossFit Open competition in the Rx category (which is the hardest one) and my body is in the best condition it’s ever been in. The ironic thing is that my physique looks better than it ever did before too. Most importantly though, I am more capable than I have ever been. The range of exercises I can perform unassisted is striking and that gives me this incredible feeling of confidence in my own physical ability as a human being. So why is the functional fitness training I perform myself and with my clients so effective in improving one’s overall health and fitness?

Well, firstly, it’s important to recognise that the human body has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to move in a range of very particular ways. These movements (at some point) would have been critical to surviving in our environment. For example, we used the lunge movement daily to help us spear and catch our prey. Nowadays, we are so fortunate to be able to complete an enormous range of different and complex, multi-joint movements. Also, known as compound exercises. These exercises employ multiple muscle groups as well as multiple joints and so are a much more efficient way of building overall strength and fitness when compared to isolated movements. 

Take, for example, the air squat. An essential functional movement that allows someone to erect their body fully from a seated position. This movement is so essential to your wellbeing that a trial, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology in 2014, revealed that people, aged 51 to 80, who could get up from a squat-like position without using their hands, were less likely to die within the next six years than those who couldn’t pull themselves up. So, in other words, learning to squat and squat properly could save your life!

Now, one could argue that the opposite is true for isolated movements such as bicep curls. This movement may help increase the size of your biceps and appeal to your ego as well as that of your friends and Instagram followers but there is almost no situation in everyday life that you will need to perform this movement. Also, how often in your life will you sit down with your legs fully extended and trapped between two foam blocks before contracting your lower legs beneath you? Absolutely never. Sorry hamstring curl machines, but you are simply not necessary for most of us.

Now, take the pull-up as an example of a key functional movement that enables someone to climb on top of a ledge or pole. This movement uses both your biceps and your upper back muscles as well as your core to perform it correctly. For policemen, firefighters or military personnel in particular, this is an essential movement and one that, in the right set of circumstances, could also save your life one day. But most importantly, it will have the same bicep-boosting effects as the more widely performed curl, but has extra side benefits of increasing your physical capability and saving you time by working multiple muscle groups in tandem. This increased compounded muscle gain also helps to increase your resting metabolic rate so one could argue that functional movements also helps you to manage (lose) weight when compared to isolated movements.

The other element to mention that’s essential to any properly structured health and fitness program is cardio. Again, the vast majority of people see long distance, steady state cardio as the holy grail of fitness but I would argue the opposite. It may offer you greater cardiovascular fitness in one very specific application but it does very little to improve your strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. If anything, it will likely lead to a decline in strength due to muscle atrophy (wastage) and often leads to injury and joint pain due to incorrect form and badly designed footwear. And as we get older, maintaining muscle mass is critical to maintaining our ability to stay mobile, independent and free from disease.

Instead, I recommend shorter burst of higher intensity circuits that use key functional movements to develop better cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy without the potentially damaging side effects of losing muscle and lowering the risk of injury (especially when done in a coached class or one-to-one environment).

So, that’s all great if you’re a Personal Trainer in Hove, but what if I can’t do a pull up or struggle with air squats? Well, the good news is that all functional movements are scalable. That is to say the movement can be scaled in difficulty from easy to hard. For example, if you can’t do a full air squat yet, then you can start by placing a bench or box behind you and try to just tap your bottom on the bench before driving back up with your legs to a standing position. In time, you can slowly lower the bench behind you until you can get your hips parallel with your knees and voila! you’ve now mastered an essential functional movement that will help you stay fit, independent and mobile into your later years (and possibly even extend your lifespan).

To sum up, functional fitness helps to:

• Increase mobility and flexibility

• Increase strength (more rapidly than isolated movements)

• Increase cardiovascular fitness (through aerobic and anaerobic circuit training)

• Increase muscle size (hypertrophy) and minimise muscle wastage (atrophy)

• Increase your physical capabilities

• Build confidence

• Help with weight management

• Increase healthspan (and possibly lifespan)

• Reduce chances of injury and disease

• Boost your immune system

• Make you feel great afterwards

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