Your Workout Might Be Backfiring. Let's Fix It!

Exercise Shouldn't Be a Punishment! Has the pain been stopping you?

What you are doing may not be suited to you and your specific needs.

When I work with people, I listen to their most important targets and then work with them on those issues. Often, it's weight loss. However, after identifying the "why" of it, we discover that their bodies' freedom is the goal. That's where I bring in functional training. All roads lead to Rome, though, right?!

WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL TRAINING?

The key word here is function. Functional training is just training that has a purpose and an intention. More than that, functional training is focused on movement patterns that have a purpose and play significant roles in your everyday life.

A functional workout typically involves compound exercises like squats, lunges, and deadlifts. Compound exercises require more than one muscle group to work together, like a squat, deadlift, lunge, or push-up. Because of that, they typically mimic everyday movement patterns, like pull, push, squat, hinge, and rotation.

WHY I TRAIN WITH A FUNCTIONAL FOCUS

The purpose can be different for everybody and is related to getting better at everyday activities—like walking, squatting to pick up something heavy, pushing a revolving door, or getting in and out of a chair or off the toilet (it's a real thing!) It could also be preparing to compete in sports like soccer, football, netball, or tennis. A functional workout is simply one that strengthens you in a particular way that directly translates to an activity outside the gym or for general daily activities that may have become challenging. For most people, the practical application of functional training is to make daily activities easier to perform. These results can often be life-changing for that individual, and therein lies my why. Nothing excites me more than seeing the lit-up face of a client who can perform a simple move they have been struggling with.

THE BENEFITS OF FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

Moving your body in a way that recruits multiple muscle groups at once requires a certain level of coordination, focus, and core strength. The more you train functionally, the better you'll become at working your entire body as one system. This will ultimately help you improve your energy levels, balance, and coordination, even reducing pain in joints that sleepy muscles have not supported. This will allow a better quality of moving and living, enabling an energetic, pain-free life. It also assists in maintaining healthy body fat levels.

Moving more throughout your day dramatically benefits your overall health and well-being. You can enhance those benefits by adding specific training 2-3 times weekly. I recommend that training be tailored to what you want to achieve. There is no point in walking for hours on a treadmill or doing spin classes if your posture is off and you have joint pain. Focus on what will take you to the best version of yourself and the life you want.

Feeling stuck? I got you.

You can book a 30-minute complimentary breakthrough session HERE

PS: Speaking of pain.?

Join Helen Jackson, an Egoscue practitioner, for a FREE workshop, Reframe Your Pain, on Wednesday, March 20th, at 6:30 PM in Lower Hutt. Learn about the Egoscue Method, identify and address postural imbalances, and do simple self-care exercises at home to improve your posture and movement. Space is limited to only 10 spots, so reserve your spot today and register HERE.