Weights and functional strength training can enhance your mood and ability to burn calories while helping you gain strength and muscle [1]. Although, there are a few significant distinctions between the two in practice.
Quick sets of concentrated, specific movements are typically used in traditional strength training. Traditional strength training focuses on building strength while not really affecting other systems and is also used to bulk up muscles. It works by isolating individual muscles to gain muscle strength.
Functional training includes working out several muscle groups at once. It can be performed in sets, such as high-intensity interval training, circuit training, or a mix.
Functional training is about movement, not equipment. This phrase refers to any form of exercise that is not bodybuilding. Training various body parts to perform their functional movements is effective since it boosts your health and daily functioning.
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Learn More About Our Online Coaching ServiceQuick Summary
- Weights and functional strength training can enhance your mood and ability to burn calories while helping you gain strength and muscle.
- Functional training includes working out several muscle groups at once.
- Training various body parts to perform their functional movements is effective since it boosts your health and daily functioning.
- Functional training is easier to start because it requires no equipment or house equipment like dumbbells or resistance bands.
Is Functional Training Better Than Lifting Weights?
Yes, functional training is better than lifting weights. Lifting weights would improve one’s strength without having much of an impact on other systems. While a functional workout might raise a person’s efficiency at activities more quickly, it would not significantly increase their strength.
However, functional training might more effectively translate to your everyday life. Your body develops a strong core with exercises like lunges, squats, planks, and other functional strength training activities, making everything seem easier.
All different types of people can benefit from both styles: athletes and non-athletes can benefit from building strength and practicing more dynamic moves to help them with their everyday life [2].
Functional Training Benefits
Functional training enhances your capability to perform a wide range of dynamic exercises that can improve your everyday activity rather than concentrating on a single muscle group.
Performing functional strength training puts additional body parts to the test. Since you’re not sitting as you would on a machine, you’re more likely to be standing, kneeling, balancing on one foot, and doing other activities.
The following are the top three advantages of functional training:
Improves Stability
When it comes to being able to lift and even just move effectively, stability is crucial.
Primary movers and stabilizers are the two kinds of muscles that compose your body and contribute throughout all movements. The “large” muscles that carry out a movement are called primary movers. Consider your biceps/triceps, chest muscles, or quadriceps. On the opposite side, stabilizer muscles are minor muscles that help the primary movers while they carry out a movement.
In a more literal sense, while you’re lifting or dragging heavy objects, your shoulder’s stabilizer muscles keep your shoulder joint stable. The stronger your stabilizer muscles get, the smaller the risk of injuring your joints [3].
Here are some basic balance exercises to check your stability, such as:
- Are you able to walk from heel to toe?
- Are you able to touch your toes?
- Can you stand on one leg for 60 seconds with no difficulty?
Improves Function
Functional training can improve the overall function of your body. The human body best operates when it has to move consistently.
By boosting endurance and muscle strength, you can develop stability in your body, allowing you to complete your everyday tasks much more efficiently than before. These exercises offer an accessible and practical form of fitness since they center around the motions that can be done in day-to-day life.
Is this something that is appealing to everyone, even older people?
These workouts provide a practical style of fitness that is appealing to everyone. You all need to be able to move your body effortlessly, no matter your fitness level or age [4].
Injury Prevention/Reduction
Injury prevention is a significant benefit of functional training for everybody, even sports athletes [5]. Unlike exercises that require you to lift heavy weights, which may ultimately increase the risk of injury accruing, functional strength training may ultimately reduce the risk of injury.
“Strive for balanced pressing strength in which strength is developed at a variety of angles (incline, overhead) along with stability (using dumbbells). One angle or one action should not become dominant.” – Michael Boyle, Strength and Conditioning and Strength Training Consultant
The movement in training is functional, meaning it is in human nature to do such activities. This will integrate and teach all the muscles to work together in a perfect machine called the human body and not isolate them to work independently. Doing this may lower the chance of getting injured.
An excellent example is a squat, which works various muscle groups, including the smaller ones we require for stability, and which we perform regularly.
In your day-to-day life, you can see the benefits when cleaning the apartment and needing to squat down to clean the floor.
FAQs
Is Functional Training Better Than Bodybuilding?
Yes, functional training is better than bodybuilding. The main difference between these two is that functional training focuses on full body movement patterns, while bodybuilding focuses on isolating singular muscles when exercising.
How Many Times a Week Should I Do Functional Training?
You should do functional training at least 2-3 times each week. You can do functional training workouts frequently without worrying about damage because the movements match your daily tasks.
What Are 3 Examples of Functional Training?
Three examples of functional training are lifting weights(based on movement patterns), jogging, and biking. These three workouts help you with endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility.
Why Are Both Functional and Weight Training Important?
Both traditional and functional strength training promote muscle growth, full-body strength development, and the typical health advantages of exercise, such as boosting mood, improving metabolism and fat-burning capacity, and improving bone health.
As with hamstring curls or deadlifts, traditional strength training often involves repetitions with heavy weights or equipment to develop strength and mass in one particular muscle at a time.
Functional training uses more dynamic motions requiring little to no equipment, such as bodyweight jump squats to target numerous muscle groups and endurance simultaneously.
Start Building Your Dream Body Today
Ready to elevate your fitness game without falling into the trap of dull, repetitive routines that just don’t deliver? Imagine sculpting your ideal physique and boosting your health, all while still enjoying life’s pleasures, like those irresistible weekend getaways and your aunt’s legendary cheesecake. With our online fitness and nutrition coaching service, you don’t have to compromise. Dive into a personalized fitness journey that blends perfectly with your lifestyle, not against it. Book your completely free discovery consultation today, and take the first step towards a transformation that doesn’t require giving up the joys of life.
“I was skeptical about online fitness coaching, but Functional Body Savage completely changed my perspective. Vanja and Radomir’s personalized approach and attention to detail have helped me achieve goals I never thought possible. I’m stronger, more confident, and grateful for their guidance.”
Emily Thompson, San Francisco, CA
Learn More About Our Online Coaching ServiceReferences:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3578432/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450457/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3806175/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6873136/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8005292/
