Losing weight, toning-up the body, relieving stress are three reasons most people want to join a fitness club. But people can also become fitter by merely incorporating a few techniques into everyday activities. This technique is called "functional training".

People use basic functional movement patterns in everyday life: pushing, lifting, pulling, hinging, squatting, rotating, walking and running are such movement patterns. Functional training incorporates exercises that improve peoples proficiency in these movements giving them an edge and helping them reach their health goals.

The idea behind functional training is that each exercise should be natural and carried into daily life. Functional training is used by physical therapists to rehabilitate patients.

Rehabilitation exercises are designed to help patients regain normal functioning and return to healthy living. Thus, activities that make up functional training are not new, but their incorporation into fitness regimes for ordinary healthy people has only recently become trendy. Some fitness training exercises that are a part of functional training are: squats, deadlift, wall ball, rowing, push press, push jerk, plank and stepups.

Fitness studios around the country are integrating functional training into their offerings. There are thousands of functional fitness workout videos on YouTube, many of which have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. The popularity of functional training gives rise to the question of why it is beneficial to health. The answer to this question is provided below.

SIMPLE AND SAFE FOR EVERYONE

Functional fitness when performed strengthens muscles, thus making it easier for practitioners to complete daily tasks and activities. Participants use their bodies and mostly free weights to exercise, which is simple and very safe. Functional training works on the entire body; it does not act on isolated muscles. It produces compound movements by engaging every part of a body efficiently. Because the whole body is trained, the body becomes prepared to deal with stress and impact as a single unit. Unlike some exercises which exert few muscle groups, functional training makes the whole body fitter.

STRENGTHENS THE CORE

Functional training makes the bodys core stronger! Muscle groups like abdominals, hips, and scapulars must be strong for the body to maintain stability. Several functional exercises work on core muscles even when they are exercising another part of the body. Also, functional training eliminates modern everyday problems such as neck and back pain, poor posture and ensures a balance between the bodies two halves.

MANY FUNCTIONAL EXERCISES BURN FAT

Even though functional training emphasises training movements, not muscles, is the most less useful exercise in making you leaner and stronger. For example, gymnasts do functional training and hardly have an ounce of fat. They use their body weight to perform gravity-defying movements that sculpt their physique.

LIFTS UP YOUR MOTIVATION

The final reason functional training is ideal for becoming fit is it increases participants motivation, formats like CrossFit believes in building a community around fitness. When people see a clear purpose behind each exercise in their programme, it encourages them to continue doing so as long as possible. It is an effective and extremely safe way to become fitter, stronger, and healthier.

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Functional is the way for fitness - India Today