| Mason Murphy / CG Instructor |
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Perhaps you have overheard the phrase ‘functional training’ used in conversation around the gym, water cooler, or at Camp Gladiator. This is a phrase that has become quite popular over the past few years to describe a style of training that has been around for ages but has recently become popular amongst trainers in gyms all over the world. Stay with me for just a few minutes and I will explain why 99% of people who walk into a gym to workout are wasting their time with exercises and workout programs that lack efficiency, intensity, and practicality.
The large majority of us tend to walk into gyms across America and workout the same way. We start with a few minutes on a treadmill to ‘warm-up’ after which we begin a circuit of machine training where we, lethargically and mind numbingly, move from sit down machine to sit down machine in an effort to get stronger, healthier, and attain a more attractive body. The heavy and expensive machines that crowd gym floors and are used to try and attain this desired result are preventing the user from working out in a way that our bodies are built and designed for. The reason for this is simple. Machine training, and many forms of free weight training for that matter, are geared toward isolating a muscle group from others to make it stronger and bigger or more defined. While that sounds great, the problem is that isolation training does little to improve the way we move in sport and life. As a matter of fact, our musculoskeletal system is designed, instead, to work together as a functional unit to accomplish tasks, as opposed to working in an isolated environment. Thru scientific study, research, and application, we now realize that our central nervous system has no concept of muscles. Our brain does not ‘know’ triceps, abs, calves, pecs, or any other muscle in the body, but rather our brain ‘knows’ and understand movement patterns.
So what is a movement pattern? A movement pattern can be anything really. A golf swing, a lay up, a squat, the circular motion you use to brush your teeth (try using your non-dominant hand), typing your password to your email address (which you can do in half a second because you have perfected it) are all examples of movement patterns. It is the nervous system and muscular system working together in a way that, over time and with consistent repetition, becomes very comfortable, natural, and efficient. So, if all the body understands are movement patterns and we consistently train in the gym doing isolation exercise that rarely if ever occur in nature or sport, then we are basically getting stronger at that specific exercise on that machine but that strength really does not transfer to anything outside the gym. This is the very reason professional athletes do not train like bodybuilders. Bodybuilders utilize isolation training because they don’t have to use their muscles but simply have to show them off on stage. Bodybuilders need to look great but not move great while athletes must be able to move at a high level of skill, speed, power, and agility. To put is simply, bodybuilders are very one-dimensional while athletes not only look great but move great as well.
In general, functional training refers to training in a manner that mimics movement patterns that have a close relationship with movements that we commonly perform in daily activities and sport. Our bodies are built and designed to perform seven major movement patterns: squat, lunge, bend, twist, push, pull, and gait (our gait cycle as we walk and run). Those seven movement patterns are what we utilize to do nearly anything in life besides sitting down and checking your email or watching television. I have spoken with countless people whose goals are not to be a bodybuilder but rather to feel great, gain muscle mass, lose fat mass, move better, and be healthier and yet, they were all training like bodybuilders using primarily isolation type movements. Functional training utilizes movement pattern based exercise like push-ups, lunges, squat to presses, sprints, and dumbbell rows in a squat or lunge stance, to name only a few, that require the entire body to work together as a functional unit to accomplish the necessary task. Interestingly enough, these are also just a few of the exercises that we use at camp gladiator to help our ‘contenders’ build a body that not only looks great, but that also moves and works with precision and efficiency as well.
If you want to look great and move like a highly paid athlete, forget the machines with exercises like leg extensions and pec deck and stop wasting your dumbbell training time with exercises like triceps kickbacks and concentration curls. Get on a functional training program that challenges the muscles of the body to work together and while doing so, burns more calories than two hours worth of isolation training ever could. Better yet, leave it to us and simply come to Camp Gladiator to see, feel, and experience the difference of functional training.
If interested, email me at, mason@campgladiator.com for 10 functional exercise that you can use to replace related isolation exercise. |
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