How can you follow functional training principles and guidelines?

1 Assess your goals and needs

Before you start any functional training program, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and what your current abilities and limitations are. For example, do you want to improve your strength, endurance, mobility, balance, or coordination? Do you have any pain, injuries, or health conditions that affect your movement? Do you need to focus on specific skills or tasks that are relevant to your lifestyle or occupation? By assessing your goals and needs, you can choose the right exercises, equipment, intensity, and frequency for your functional training.

2 Choose multi-joint and multi-planar exercises

One of the key principles of functional training is to use exercises that involve multiple joints and muscles, and that move your body in different planes of motion. This way, you can train your body as a unit, rather than as separate parts, and enhance your neuromuscular coordination, stability, and power. For example, instead of doing a simple bicep curl, you can do a lunge with a curl, which engages your legs, core, and arms, and moves your body in the sagittal and frontal planes. Some examples of multi-joint and multi-planar exercises are squats, lunges, deadlifts, push-ups, rows, planks, rotations, and jumps.

3 Vary your load and speed

Another principle of functional training is to vary the load and speed of your exercises, depending on your goals and needs. By changing the resistance, weight, or intensity of your movements, you can challenge your muscles, bones, and joints in different ways, and improve your strength, endurance, or power. For example, you can use bodyweight, dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, or medicine balls to add or reduce load, or you can adjust the number of repetitions, sets, or rest periods to increase or decrease intensity. By changing the speed of your movements, you can also train your fast-twitch or slow-twitch muscle fibers, and improve your explosive or sustained performance. For example, you can do plyometric exercises, such as jump squats or burpees, to develop speed and power, or you can do slow and controlled exercises, such as lunges or push-ups, to develop strength and stability.

4 Incorporate balance and stability challenges

Balance and stability are essential components of functional training, as they help you maintain your posture, alignment, and control during movement, and prevent falls and injuries. You can incorporate balance and stability challenges into your functional training by using unstable surfaces, such as bosu balls, stability balls, or wobble boards, or by reducing your base of support, such as standing on one leg, or lifting one arm or leg. You can also add external perturbations, such as pushing or pulling forces, or changing directions or levels, to challenge your balance and stability further. For example, you can do a single-leg squat on a bosu ball, or a plank with a partner pushing or pulling you.

5 Modify your exercises as needed

Finally, one of the most important guidelines for functional training is to modify your exercises as needed, according to your goals, needs, abilities, and progress. Functional training is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but rather a personalized and adaptable one. You can modify your exercises by changing the type, load, speed, range of motion, balance, stability, or complexity of your movements, to make them easier or harder, more or less specific, or more or less challenging. For example, you can modify a squat by adding weight, jumping, narrowing or widening your stance, lowering or raising your hips, or holding a rotation. You can also modify your exercises by using feedback, cues, or corrections from a trainer, a partner, a mirror, or a video, to improve your form, technique, or performance.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?