Functional fitness training refers to compound exercises you can perform at home to increase the effectiveness of how you everyday life activities.
Functional fitness workout focuses on core stability and core strength while using the entire body.
Building functional strength can enhance your life quality and reduce your risk of injury by imitating everyday activities and functional exercises like squatting, walking, and even carrying a heavy object.
Keep reading to uncover 7 functional training exercises at home for a full-body workout.
Functional Training Exercises at Home
Functional Training Exercises at Home: Full-Body Functional Fitness Workouts
We want to provide you with 7 great functional fitness workouts to choose from that will enhance your functional movements, body awareness, and all-around power.
You can argue about the order of the full-body workout, but implementing the functional fitness exercises on this list into your training will make you fitter and healthier.
“Many people assume you need complex equipment and heavy weights to get into shape.” – Adam Sinicki, AKA The Bioneer, author of the Functional Fitness and Beyond
1. Squats
The squat is an excellent functional fitness exercise for legs that belongs to the squat movement pattern.
It activates muscles such as the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes, which are necessary for every serious functional strength workout.
Read our detailed guide on performing squats correctly to avoid back pain and knee problems.
How to Perform a Squat
- With your feet shoulder-width apart, stand tall. Your toes, knees, and hips should be pointed forward.
- As if you were going to sit back on a chair, flex your knees and extend your buttocks rearward. Make sure to keep your weight on your heels and your knees behind your toes.
- Repeat by standing back up.
2. Lunges
Lunges are an excellent exercise for legs that belong to hinge and squat movement patterns. It activates muscles such as the quads, hamstrings, glutes, hips, and calves.
How to Perform Lunges
- Start in a standing position with your feet hip-width apart.
- Take a longer forward step than you would while walking so that your front leg is in front of your back leg. As soon as your foot touches the ground, it should stay flat. Your back heel will start to lift off the ground.
- Lower yourself while bending your knees to around 90 degrees. Do not forget to maintain an upright posture and a tight core.
- Push off hard using your front leg to return to the starting position.
3. Push-Ups
Push-up is an excellent functional strength training exercise under the horizontal push movement pattern category. Push-ups work the triceps, pectoral muscles, and anterior deltoids. The sole purpose of this exercise is to increase upper-body strength.
How to Perform Bodyweight Push Up
To perform a bodyweight push-up:
- Place your arms a little wider and below your shoulders. As a beginner, the angle between your elbow and body should be around 45 degrees.
- Slowly go down(eccentric phase) and aim to touch the ground with your chest.
- Push through the palm of your hands and lift yourself up.
4. Mountain Climbers
Mountain climbers are a powerful bodyweight exercise that simultaneously works multiple muscle groups, enhancing your stability, agility, coordination, strength, mobility, and blood circulation.
Mountain climbers are an efficient technique to build your arms, back, shoulders, core, and legs because they work several muscle groups across your entire body.
How to Perform a Mountain Climbers
- From a plank posture, bring your right knee to your chest while maintaining your right foot up.
- Resuming the plank position with your right foot, touch the floor with your toes.
- Reverse the movement quickly, keeping your left foot off the ground and bringing your left knee to your chest.
- Lift your right foot to repeat step 2 while you bring your left foot back to a plank posture with your toes touching the ground.
- Quickly switch sides for one minute or as many reps as you decide.
5. Farmer’s Walk
The farmer’s walk is a loaded carry strength training exercise that involves walking while holding free weights at your sides. Your upper and lower body muscles are engaged during the farmer’s walk. The farmer’s walk, when done correctly, will emphasize core strength, burn calories, and speed up your heart rate.
How to Perform Farmer’s Walk
- Grab a weight in each hand while squatting down.
- Stand back and assume an upright stance by engaging your core and pulling your shoulder blades down and back.
- Start moving with your arms straight. Maintain a proper posture with your shoulders back and your abs tight.
- Walk as far as you want to, or for however long you want to.
6. Single Leg Deadlift
Single leg deadlift is a great functional exercise that belongs to deadlift movement patterns. It activates muscles such as the glutes, hamstrings, lower back, and core muscles.
How to Perform a Single Leg Deadlift
- Start by standing with your feet parallel and hip-width apart. In front of you, hold a kettlebell in your hands.
- Leaning forward with your hips, place all your weight on one leg as the other engages and begins to extend behind you.
- Lift the extended leg after your body is in a position that creates a “T” shape. Your arms must be hanging straight down while you are holding the weight. Maintain a slight bend in your standing leg.
- Slowly return to your starting posture with your extended leg. Do the same with the other leg.
7. Dead Bug
The dead bug is a core exercise that combines flexion and extension in the hips and shoulders. The purpose of this exercise is to teach you how to activate your abdominal muscles and stabilize your core.
Dead bug activates muscles like the pelvic floor, transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, and internal and external obliques.
How to Perform Dead Bug
To perform dead bug exercise:
- Lie on your back, arms in a straight line pointed towards the ceiling, and knees bent 90 degrees and placed right above your hips.
- Extend your left leg and flex your right arm
- Come back to the starting position and repeat with left arm and right leg.
Functional Training Exercises at Home With Special Equipment
Apart from bodyweight movements, many types of equipment are great for functional training, and none of them include machines that isolate movements.
Suspension Training
Suspension training involves a system of ropes and cables that enables you to use your body weight against gravity to provide resistance. Rings and TRX accessories are standard suspension equipment.
It attempts to develop your strength, aerobic endurance, balance, coordination, and power in a single workout.
Still, it may also make any exercise more challenging because it offers an unstable platform that demands considerably greater core activation.
Bosu Balance Training
The Bosu balance training is excellent functional workout for developing motor skills, kinesthetic awareness, and proprioception. It improves a static and dynamic balance.
The core immediately activates and contracts when exercising on an unstable surface to keep the body upright.
The Bosu forces people to develop their power and balance simultaneously. Before using the Bosu ball, beginners should have good balance.
Medicine Ball Training
A medicine ball training uses a small, heavy ball that you can use for many fitness activities.
Like a stability or exercise ball, medicine balls are an excellent way to work every part of your body.
You can use them for strength training, balance, or rehab exercises.
Using a medicine ball adds a new dimension to your training by taking you through all planes of motion.
Kettlebell Training
Kettlebell training is resistance training, with the kettlebell providing resistance.
Cardio, flexibility, speed, power, strength, balance, mental toughness, and other objectives can all be accomplished using the kettlebell.
Kettlebell training can get a bad reputation because many people pick them up and fling them around, not realizing that there is a skill to be developed step by step.
Related Articles:
What Is the Best Functional Equipment for a Home Gym?
The best functional equipment for a home gym is dumbbells.
Dumbbells are a type of free weight that will build your stabilizer muscles, induce hypertrophy, and allow a full range of motion.
They are great overall for building a fully functional body and don’t take up much space.
Read our guide on the 10 best dumbbells for the home gym in 2024 to pick a high-quality and durable dumbbell that will last you for ages.
Let me know your favorite functional training exercise at home and why.
