EJ Trainer Sean Tobin – FUNCTION JUNCTION (not the one in Whistler): All about functional training

There has been a lot of buzz about functional training over the past couple of years and while it may look a little different depending on your age and ability, it still stems from the same basic principal: to make daily activities of living easier to perform.

Human beings perform a wide range of multi-joint, multi-plane activities such as walking, jogging, running, sprinting, jumping, lifting, pushing, pulling, bending, twisting, turning, standing, starting, stopping, climbing and lunging…. need I go on?  Whether you’re 9 years old and wrestling with your sibling or 95 years old and trying to get out of your chair to reach a glass of water, all of these activities involve smooth, rhythmic motions in the THREE planes of movement:
1. Sagital (up, down, forwards, backwards)
2. Frontal (side to side)
3. Transverse (rotational)

Functional training enables you to receive real life benefits that involve movements that are applicable to real life challenges. The brain, which controls muscular movement, thinks in terms of whole motions, not individual muscles. Functional training will give you a better awareness and appreciation of your body in motion.

Incorporating this into your routine will enhance your overall well-being and fitness as well as help you to achieve your body’s full functional potential.

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FIVE general principles for functional training are:
1. Make every exercise a core exercise by challenging your core stability, balance and agility.
2. Focus on the range of motion, but also the speed and coordination of the movements.
3. In order to develop neuromuscular control and accuracy, emphasize function before cosmetics.  If you train for functional movement, you will eventually improve your performance and your appearance.
4. Master body weight movements before adding external resistance.
5. Incorporate rotational, spiral, figure 8, diagonal and other multi-plane multi-joint movements into your training.

When you increase your functional strength, you move about with greater ease and less effort.  Functional training is fun and interactive and the variations in movement combinations are endless.