If you’re stuck in an exercise rut (or even if you’re not) it’s a great way to change your routine to challenge your body to improve and grow stronger, work different muscle groups and get the best overall conditioning effect.

Functional Training is exercise that involves simultaneous use of multiple muscles and joints to train the body to perform daily life activities more easily and without injuries.

You use basic functional movements like pushing, pulling, hinging, squatting, rotating, carrying and walking and running every day – think of bending down to pick up a child, carrying grocery bags, playing with the kids, washing the car etc.   Functional Training helps provide you with the strength, endurance, power, stability, mobility, and flexibility that you need to thrive as you move through your life.  If performed correctly, Functional Training will lead to better joint mobility and stability and more efficient movement patterns to help your body become the strongest it can be and to move in the way it was intended to.

It may sound bizarre that we even need this method of exercise to go about our daily lives.  But we need this BECAUSE of our current daily lives – because we are no longer working out in the fields all day, using all of our muscles as we plant and sow and reap and harvest nor are we walking 4 miles to school or town through the sun and wind and snow (as our parents remind us they did in their day). We need this because most of us sit for most of the day, in the car, then at the office and then we go home and sit some more. (Sitting may be one of your worst enemies and contribute to not only back pain but actually increase your risk of dying prematurely.) To compensate for long hours spent sitting down, you could incorporate Functional Training exercises, powerful simple structural movements that help strengthen and realign your body posture. For those who have more active jobs, Functional  Training exercises will strengthen and assist you in your daily physical tasks.

Functional Training focuses on your core.  Your core is anything that connects to your pelvis, whether above or below it, this includes your hamstrings, glutes, and adductor muscles. Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability. Functional exercises train those muscles to work together through integrated chains of movement, which is how you’re structurally designed to move.

A few pointers for effective Functional Training:

1. A Functional Training programme should be based on functional tasks directed toward everyday life activities.  It should be individualized and tailored to your specific goals and individual state of health.
2. Train in an unsupported manner as much as possible. Resistance training should be done while standing or balancing – not being supported by lying on a bench or sitting at a machine.  Support has no effect on core or peripheral muscles.
   1. Train using primarily free weights.  Free weights are unstable and don’t isolate individual muscles.  Using free weights not only improves strength, but also promotes muscle balance and increases range of motion.  Examples include:  Kettlebells, Cable machines, Barbells, Dumbbells, Medicine balls, Physioballs/Swiss balls or exercise balls, Bodyweight training, Resistance tubes, Rocker and wobble boards, Balance disks and Sandbags.
3. Do explosive training in each workout. Explosive or jump training is beneficial and can improve your overall strength and power, increase metabolism, and improve fitness, balance, range of motion, and flexibility.
4. Use compound exercises (or exercises that combine more than 1 group of muscles) for building strength and burning calories.
5. Additionally, you should push and pull in both vertical and horizontal planes, perform rotational movements, do knee- and hip-dominant exercises, and train both limbs together (bilaterally) and one at a time (unilaterally).

Functional Training offers a challenging, effective and fun full-body workout as you prepare your body for everyday, real-world activities.

Your fitness trainer can help to develop a Functional Training programme together with you.

Be prepared to discover muscles you never knew you had and build a stronger, better, more functional you!

Both personal training & large group classes are great choices; however, the experience offered differs greatly. For example, personal training creates a tailored, adaptable and more focused fitness experience but is usually higher in price. On the other hand, large group classes lack the same degree of attention but are generally lower in price and more motivating. However, there is an increasingly popular alternative that combines the advantages of both of these options; small group training.

Simply put, small group training is a session where one trainer instructs a small group ranging from four to ten clients.

5 benefits of small group training

1. Motivation

– small group training provides a culture of motivated people with the same purpose (it is easier to lose motivation by yourself than it is with multiple people cheering you on)

2. Better results

– In a small group training setting, you will push yourself a little bit harder, which will help you and your partners achieve better results.

3. Creativity

– There are many exercises you can do in small group training that you cannot do in one-on-one training. For example, partner exercises that incorporate two people are a great way to add flavor to a workout.

4. Accountability

– In small group training, you are not only accountable to your trainer, but to your partners as well. Remember – you don’t want to be the weak link in the chain.

5. Cost efficiency

– Small group training is affordable for the clients and financially lucrative for the trainer.

So in conclusion, small group training presents a cost effective, inspiring and fun experience. It all depends on personal reference, but given all of the positive attributes, why not give it a try the next time you are at the gym?

Taken from: technogym.com

When the proper program is established and implemented, genetic predisposition will determine an individual’s rate of body composition change and the amount of work necessary to achieve his/her fitness goals.

Regularly changing your exercise program challenges the body in new ways on a continuous basis, thus allowing the loss of body fat, while sustaining or building lean muscle tissue.  In this way, it is possible to favourably alter body composition.  However, once the body adapts to the new diet, exercise and supplementation program, it must be altered again to encourage continued improvement.  If the program is not altered, the body will reach a plateau.

E.g.: If your body has adapted to your current routine but you wish to continue to decrease body fat, it may be necessary to manipulate your aerobic and/or anaerobic activity.  However, in order to perform an increased level of exercise, the body will require additional energy and nutrients.  If you wish to continually increase lean muscle tissue, it is necessary to increase your caloric and nutrient intake concurrently.  It is important to note that one must avoid over-training*, as this may also cause the body to reach a plateau.  All five steps (Resistance, Cardio, Nutrition, Supplementation, Personal assistance) are necessary components of an effective diet, exercise and supplementation program.  If any of the steps are omitted or improperly manipulated, the body will reach a plateau.

Your personal trainer has the necessary knowledge to assist you with adapting your program in order to optimise your results (prevent plateaus).

Refer to our Personal Trainers

Mike Heyns

Paul Els