FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

Functional training is all about creating, maintaining and/or increasing the capability of your body to do its daily tasks pain free.

I am often asked what kind of exercise do I follow. When I say, “Functional Training” people are a bit confused. They often turn around and reconfirm, “Means yoga right?”

Functional training encompasses 4 different aspects of physical activity. It is also based on each individual’s personal needs and requirements. Like one can’t have a blanket diet for all, similarly the requirement of exercise depends on the goals and lifestyle of a person.

A home-maker, an athelete, an actor, a CEO of a company will all need different training for each of their physical activities. Ofcourse the individual goals of each of them might be to push their training to the next level depending on their enthusiasm. But taking into account the general perspective that a basic amount of exercise is needed to remain moderately flexible, have good mobility and strength to perform our daily tasks without being dependent on anyone, we all need functional training.

The 4 aspects of Functional training are:

1.Yoga : Basic yoga asanaas help in calming the mind, understanding the breathing process which help in controling various movements. Holding the poses over a period of time increase flexibility.

2. Pilates : Most movement in Pilates concentrate on building the strength of the core. Using the centre of your body well enough to be able support rest and balance of the body. The core includes your not only your abdomen and obliques but also your lower back and your glutes. The core is important for stability and also for any dynamic movements of your body such as, pulling, pushing, lifting etc.

 3. Calisthenics : These are exercises that help your build strength using your own body weight to build on various muscle groups giving you a lean muscle mass. When you perform the calisthenic exercises the chances of injury are greatly reduced as you yourself are monitoring how and when to increase the load. They basically put the larger muscle groups to use rhythmically. The movements require grace and fluidity in their structuring. So one gradually build ups on flexibility, endurance and strength together.

4.Weight training &weight lifting : As we age we lose bone density and muscle mass. It is therefore important that we do a little bit of weight training other than our own body weight to increase or at least retain bone density. It is like the grease in any machine that supports your skeletal system.

So no matter who you are, functional training works for everybody and can be programmed to each individual. It helps you understand your own body better. I do a lot of workouts personally without any equipment at all, which you can easily follow on my Instagram and my youtube. Check it out.

Happy training.