The world of exercise has changed dramatically over the last decade, and there’s been a real shift towards the concept of functional training. But what does that actually mean? I get asked all the time. I have been working with the Functional Training Institute, co-founded by Dan Henderson, a leader in functional training education in Australia, and one of my mentors. I caught up with him for a couple of minutes to ask him what his definition of functional training was.
Dan, what is functional training? What’s all the hype about?
I was really drawn to functional training because it was training that really enhanced my quality of life. Functional training is training function centred around movement. It’s not focused around muscles or anything like that, but rather it’s focused around movement patterns. And how it translates is, you’re going to feel better, you’re going to move better, you should have less niggles, you should have less incidence of injury, but you also feel stronger in the day to day movements that you do. Whether that’s a physical activity in sport for example or whether it’s just picking up your kids, so you can really feel it throughout everything that you do. You’ll feel stronger, you’ll feel fitter, you’ll feel more balanced, more coordinated. That’s what functional training is to me, and it’s the only way that I like to train.
Words from the expert! My favourite thing about functional training is that it’s fun, it’s dynamic and you can get really creative with it. Try our functional training workout and start reaping the benefits!