Start working out in your home gym, how! Start with functional training! 

What is functional training?

Functional training is a form of exercise designed to help you perform functional movements you often do in everyday life a little better. An example of such functional movements would be lifting a child from the ground or climbing the stairs at work or at home. 

This form of training is relatively "new" in the fitness world and is actually somewhat derived from physiotherapy, where rehabilitated people train movements they use in their daily lifestyle. This ultimately with the goal of ''recovery'' in mind. Functional training in the fitness world is pretty much the same in that respect, as through various exercises you try to prepare your body as much as possible for the daily movements you make.

What are the benefits of functional training?

Functional training puts your whole body to work in many different ways. Functional training thus helps prevent body imbalance, which could possibly occur with other forms of fitness. With imbalance, certain muscles or muscle groups are better trained than others. In this case, your muscles can be loaded incorrectly or not equally, which can lead to injuries more quickly. With the help of functional fitness, this can be prevented in many cases. 

Besides preventing imbalance, functional training also ensures good posture. The focus is often on training the core. The posture during exercises should be good and because the core is also trained in the process, this ensures better mobility during movements in daily life. Functional fitness also makes you feel fitter as a person. Functional training focuses on balance, flexibility, fitness and strength. The daily movements already mentioned such as climbing the stairs or picking up your child will become a lot easier through functional training. By doing exercises, you will notice a big difference compared to the situation it was before you started functional training.

What do you train?

As mentioned earlier, functional training focuses on everyday movements involving multiple muscles and joints (such as a deadlift). Training is done in chains, not each 1 muscle group (like e.g. a biceps curl) is activated. 

Functional training trains these chains and increases strength, agility and mobility. Also, as noted earlier, it also contributes to improved posture. This in turn freely translates to the movements you do in daily life. 

What to do and what not to do?

With functional training, it is important to know what to do, but more importantly, what not to do. This can prevent injuries and ensure you notice results the fastest. 

What to do

Because you use several muscles and muscle groups simultaneously in everyday life, it is important that you do the same with functional training. The idea, then, is not to focus on a specific muscle group but to train the whole body. For example, push presses, deadlifts and squats are good exercises that directly take the whole body and thus do not focus on a specific muscle group. 

What not to do

Don't go straight to work without doing research. Determine your objective, find the right exercises and see if you need to buy materials to perform these exercises. That way you know where you stand and what exactly you need to do. Are you struggling or do you doubt your posture and/or correct execution? Ask for help from a Personal trainer or coach. Without correct execution or poor posture, you are more likely to run into injuries and your progress is slower than when the exercises are performed in the correct posture and number of times. In the end, you want movements in daily life to be easier and don't want to encounter more pain/trouble or injuries. 

Still hesitating to start? RXDGear can give you the right advice and help you make a correct, sporty start! Together, we will look at which exercises are functional for you, which gym equipment suits them and how we can set this up in your home gym. Let's start!