Train Your Body Naturally in The Functional way

We must train our bodies to work in the most natural way, the way in which we would move in every day life and in our chosen sport. 

Working in a functional way, training your body to incorporate exercises that allow your body to move naturally with full range of motion this will boost  your metabolism and tone your entire physique.

Performing isolated exercises like bicep curls and tricep kick- backs will not get you any significant results, these one muscle at a time moves do not stimulate enough muscle fibres to build lean muscle or in fact use enough energy to maximise your calorie burn and even more importantly isolated exercises are NOT natural. 

So we must look at compound moves, these are moves we perform naturally a compound move is a multi joint movement that works several muscles or muscle groups at one time. A good example of a compound move is the squat, this exercise engages many muscles in the lower back and core, including the quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes, lower back and core.

Expensive seated  weight machines might make the gym look high end, but to be honest the only thing they are good for is sitting down on while you watch the TV. Machines alter the way your body naturally moves and restrict your range of movement. This severely limits your ability to fully activate all your muscle fibres, this means less fat burning and less muscle definition. Even worse, machines can cause excessive strain on your joints, leading to nagging injuries later on down the road. If you want fast results, it's important that you incorporate exercises that allow your body to move naturally with full range of motion so you can boost your metabolism and tone your entire body.

So how many sports are played sitting down ? Only a few sports, such as rowing, are performed from a seated position. Therefore training muscles in a seated position is not functional for most sports. Another important question is how many sports are played in a ridged environment where stability is performed by outside sources ? I would say none. Most sports are played on fields, courts or track or trail. The STABILITY is provided by the athlete and not by some outside source. 

Reasoning again tells us that most machine based training systems are not by definition functional because the load is stabilised for the lifter by the machine and not by the user. 

Proponents of machine based training systems argue that machine based  training is safer, but there is a clear trade- off.

Although machine based training may result in fewer injuries in training the lack of proprioceptive input, (Internal Sensory Feedback about position and movement) and the lack of stabilisation will more than likely lead to greater number of injuries during sport. Functional training focuses on multi joint movement as much as possible. 

Training in the Functional way,  using your own stability means you are not guided by a machine so the weight, or source of resistance being used must be performed using the correct technique, this means using the correct weight or resistance. So there must be a full range of equipment available for the user in different weight increments. So weather it's a sandbag, gym hammer, kettlebell, or resistance band there must be various weights or resistances available for the user to perform the correct technique. If functional training is performed in the correct way it will out way machine based training by far and its Natural.