Functional movements translate easily into your daily life. Carrying your groceries, walking up the stairs or getting up out of a chair might seem trivial now, but doing functional exercises today will help you be able to keep doing these activities with ease as you age.
According to WebMD, functional movements use large groups of muscles that work together across your body — as opposed to exercises that only target a specific body part or certain muscles. In other words, they aren’t movements that you only use at the gym.
Incorporating movements like these into your workout, also known as functional training, can keep you mobile throughout your life. Functional training is also much easier than it may sound, and most of these movements are quite common.
Typically, functional movements are characterized by six different types: squat, lunge, hinge, push, pull and carry. These are just the basics, and there are many different exercises you can do and increase in difficulty to achieve these movements. Here are a few workouts you can do to incorporate functional training into your life at home.
No equipment
You can do bodyweight movements like squats, lunges and push-ups to do functional training at home. Here is an example of a bodyweight workout to try:
10 burpees
10 curtsey lunges
20 squats
20 push-ups
30 lunges
30-sec. plank
Rest for 1 min. and repeat
Limited equipment
If you have a weight or two, like a dumbbell, kettlebell or resistance band, you can incorporate those into your functional training. Here are a few workouts with limited equipment:
Dumbbell workout (three rounds)
30 single-arm rows (15 per side)
30 overhead shoulder presses (15 per side)
30 goblet squats
Kettlebell workout (three rounds):
30 kettlebell swings
30 single leg deadlifts (15 per side)
30 goblet squats
Resistance band workout (three rounds):
30 banded good mornings
30 banded overhead presses
30 walking lunges (no band)
Gym equipment
If you are wanting to try functional training at the gym, you can add a barbell or a pull-up bar to your workout.
Three rounds:
10 back squats
10 pull-ups
10 deadlifts
10 push-ups
