How do you communicate the value and purpose of functional training to your clients or athletes?

1 What is functional training?

Functional training is a type of exercise that mimics the movements and demands of everyday life, sports, or specific tasks. It involves training multiple muscle groups, joints, and planes of motion, as well as enhancing core stability, balance, coordination, and mobility. Functional training can help your clients or athletes improve their performance, prevent injuries, and adapt to different situations and environments.

2 Why is functional training important?

Functional training is important because it helps your clients or athletes develop the skills and abilities that they need for their specific goals and activities. For example, if your client is a runner, functional training can help them improve their running efficiency, endurance, and speed, as well as reduce the risk of common running injuries. If your athlete is a soccer player, functional training can help them enhance their agility, power, and reaction time, as well as prepare them for the unpredictable and dynamic nature of the game. Functional training can also benefit your clients or athletes who want to improve their general health and fitness, as it can boost their metabolism, cardiovascular health, and functional capacity.

3 How to assess your clients' or athletes' functional needs?

Before you design a functional training program for your clients or athletes, you need to assess their functional needs and abilities. This means identifying their goals, current fitness level, movement patterns, strengths, weaknesses, limitations, and preferences. You can use various tools and methods to perform a functional assessment, such as questionnaires, interviews, observations, tests, and measurements. A functional assessment can help you determine the appropriate exercises, intensity, frequency, duration, and progression for your functional training program.

4 How to choose functional exercises?

Functional exercises are those that mimic or enhance the movements and demands that your clients or athletes face in their everyday life, sports, or specific tasks. For example, a squat is a functional exercise because it simulates the action of sitting down and standing up, which is essential for daily activities. A lunge is a functional exercise because it resembles the motion of walking, running, or jumping, which are common in many sports. A plank is a functional exercise because it strengthens the core muscles, which are involved in stabilizing the spine and transferring force between the upper and lower body. To choose functional exercises for your clients or athletes, you need to consider their goals, functional needs, abilities, and preferences, as well as the equipment, space, and time available.

5 How to structure a functional training program?

A functional training program is a plan that outlines the exercises, sets, reps, rest periods, and frequency of your functional training sessions. A functional training program should be tailored to your clients' or athletes' goals, functional needs, abilities, and preferences, as well as the equipment, space, and time available. A functional training program should also be progressive, meaning that it should challenge your clients or athletes to improve their fitness and performance over time. You can use various methods to progress your functional training program, such as increasing the resistance, speed, complexity, or range of motion of the exercises, or decreasing the rest periods or increasing the volume or frequency of the sessions.

6 How to monitor and evaluate your functional training program?

Monitoring and evaluating your functional training program is essential to ensure that it is effective, safe, and enjoyable for your clients or athletes. You can use various tools and methods to monitor and evaluate your functional training program, such as feedback, logs, scales, charts, tests, and measurements. Monitoring and evaluating your functional training program can help you track your clients' or athletes' progress, identify their strengths and weaknesses, adjust their exercises, intensity, frequency, duration, and progression accordingly, and celebrate their achievements.

7 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?