Building and maintaining strength is an important part of fitness, but being fit doesn’t necessarily mean focusing strictly on muscle growth or lifting heavy weights. Functional strength training is a fitness approach that improves your ability to perform everyday actions. Functional strength training can be helpful for everyone, but is particularly beneficial as you get older.
Functional Strength Training Explained
Even if you’re not a gym-goer, you probably still move daily. Whether it’s getting out of bed, walking to the mailbox, or lifting a box down from a shelf, most of us perform hundreds of actions each day.
These basic everyday actions are combinations of seven different movements:
- The squat
- The lunge
- The hinge
- The push
- The pull
- The carry
- The twist
In a functional strength training program, trainers structure these seven movements into different combinations that mirror real-life actions. These could include activities like:
- Bending over to pick something off the floor
- Carrying bags of groceries
- Walking up or down stairs
- Getting off the floor from a seated or prone position
All of these actions involve multiple joints and muscle groups. Executing them in a “rep” (repeat) sequence as part of an exercise program helps activate and strengthen the muscles involved. Over time, this practice will make it easier to do each activity in real life.
While strength is a key focus, functional strength training also helps improve other elements of fitness related to daily actions. These include:
- Power
- Speed
- Endurance
- Agility
- Flexibility
- Coordination
- Balance
You can practice functional strength training using body weight, or you can add weights to make the exercises more challenging. Over time, you’ll get stronger, and the actions will get easier. You can continue to make them harder by gradually adding more weight/resistance or adjusting the movement. When you’re ready, you can rotate to a new movement to build up your ability to perform another action.
Functional Strength Training and Aging
Our bodies undergo myriad changes throughout the aging process. While nothing can stop aging, functional strength training can help us navigate these changes with more ease and comfort.
Improved Musculoskeletal Health
As we age, we naturally start to lose muscle and bone mass. Strength training improves muscle and bone health, especially if you progressively add more weight and/or resistance as you improve. Putting stress on your musculoskeletal system through targeted training stimulates your bones and muscles to get stronger.
Functional strength training also helps decrease pain and stiffness in your joints and muscles. When we have pain or stiffness, we often want to avoid movement. However, gentle movement actually helps relieve joint and muscle pain through increasing blood flow, lubricating joints, and stretching tight muscles. It may take some time, but engaging in training that moves and gently challenges your body can often help you feel worlds better in the long run.
Balance, Flexibility, and Decreased Fall Risk
Our vision, hearing, physical health, and medical conditions change as we age. Together, these elements can put us at an increased risk of falling unexpectedly. Functional strength training can dramatically reduce fall risk, though, helping us stay healthier and more independent for longer.
Not only does functional movement training improve strength, but it also improves balance and flexibility. All of these—strength, balance, and flexibility—decrease fall risk. If we do fall, better bone strength and more flexible joints and muscles decrease the likelihood of injury.
Cognitive & Mental Health Support
While functional strength training clearly helps our bodies, it can also help our minds. Studies show that moderate physical activity can reduce the risk of cognitive decline and/or dementia. Additionally, it can also reduce the risk of common mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression.
Multi-Prong Approach
As with any exercise program, you should consult your doctor or medical provider before starting any new activity. It’s important to make sure your body is ready for new challenges and to get professional medical guidance on what’s appropriate for you.
It may also be helpful to consider how you can support and/or enhance your functional strength training to address overall fitness. While functional movement is an excellent way to promote physical and mental health, you may also want to include walking, swimming, or other physical activities to get even more benefits.
The important thing to remember is that any step towards fitness is a win. Making choices that are good for your body and mind today will help set the stage for long-term health and well-being.
If you’re looking for functional strength training programs in Albany or the greater Capital District, reach out to Thrive Strength & Wellness today! Our personal training gyms offer 1:1 sessions and small group classes to help you improve strength, movement capacity, and quality of life. We prioritize customer care, and we’re committed to providing personalized attention to every client. Whatever your fitness needs and goals, we’re here to support you. Thrive Strength & Wellness—feel stronger and move better.