Nearly any form of exercise will give you some strength and cardiovascular gains.
With the plethora of fitness routines and philosophies circulating, it can be hard to know where to start.
There are a couple of very compelling reasons why you should consider focusing your workout routine, at least in the beginning, on functional exercises.
What is Functional Exercise? Functional exercise is that which calls for movements that approximate movements we make in everyday life.
An example of this would be an exercise that requires you to squat or bend while lifting something.
We perform such activities several times a day.
Contrast such an exercise with a popular gym exercise: the bench press.
How often do you lie on your back and push something heavy up toward the ceiling? For most of us, the answer is never.
That's not to say that there is no point to the bench press; it builds massive chest and shoulder muscles.
Many machine and bodybuilding exercises are designed to isolate one or two muscle groups, work them hard and make them bigger.
Functional exercise, on the other hand, focuses on recruitment of several muscles to not only increase strength but improve coordination and cooperation between muscles that we often use together as well.
When various muscles of the body are trained to fire together, coordination is facilitated on a neurological level.
What Are The Benefits? There are two primary benefits of functional training, one of which is more widely-discussed: Functional training works stabilizer muscles, making us more balanced, less prone to injury and stronger all-around.
Stabilizer muscles (like the transversus abdominis and multifidi, which stabilize the spine and the gluteus medius, which stabilizes the pelvis) resist motion, unlike the larger mover muscles in the body.
The stabilizers help us to stay balanced and aligned.
Functional training suggests that we strengthen both movers and stabilizers at the same time to facilitate overall improved strength and function.
Another, often overlooked benefit of functional training is the improvement of body mechanics.
This is partly related to the first benefit above; when our body is stronger and our muscles coordinate better, we move better.
But functional exercise also improves our mechanics on the level of body awareness.
When performing functional exercise, as with all exercises, proper form is key.
Since the movements performed in functional exercise mimic those of everyday life, you leave your exercise session more aware of the proper way to move your body throughout the day.
This means 1) better posture when sitting and standing, and 2) more faithful adherence to standard rules of thumb when lifting, bending and twisting.
For example, after a couple weeks of functional training, you're likely to keep your back straight and your knees behind your toe line when bending.
For a sample functional training routine, see http://www.
sheknows.
com/health-and-wellness/articles/806681/top-functional-exercises-for-fullbody-fitness.
Though marketed for women, this routine is appropriate for men as well.
If you're just beginning your exercise journey, it's wise to do exercises without added weight at first; this is because you're learning to handle your body's own weight to start with, and added weight can lead to form problems and overtaxation of the stabilizer muscles.
Once you can balance your own body weight, add some light hand weights, preferably 3-5 lbs.
Work your way up to more weight and more complex exercises as your strength and coordination increases.