What is Functional Fitness and Why is it Important?

Chasing personal records is popular among professional athletes and gym enthusiasts. Who doesn’t like to share when they’ve lifted more weight or run faster than ever before? Functional fitness is a more subtle, yet more powerful, way to measure your achievements.

The point of functional fitness is to increase your mobility and strength so you can embrace life to the fullest. Instead of trying to lift more or run faster, you pay close attention to what you are doing and try to keep perfect form. This focus helps you build a strong foundation that you can use to chase those personal records.

Everyone can benefit from functional fitness. Young people just starting out with athletic training need to be flexible and fully mobile so they can achieve their full potential. Seasoned athletes need it so they can sculpt their bodies for the specialized skills of their craft. As you get older, functional fitness is a useful tool to help you avoid injury and maintain independence. In short, functional fitness may be the most important thing you can do. 

Join me today as I explore what functional fitness is and how it can help you improve your life. 

How to Stay Healthy

Sports and recreational activities lead to at least 8.6 million injuries in America each year. Muscle strains, tears, and tendonitis are among the most common injuries, and athletes also have to look out for ACL and PCL injuries.

Most of these injuries could be avoided through the practice of regular functional fitness. 

Bad things happen when you push yourself too far or try to do too much, too fast, or don’t pay enough attention to your form. Functional fitness can help you better understand your limits and improve your form at the same time. This will drastically reduce your chance of injury and improve your awareness of your body and what it is capable of doing. 

Proper diet is often overlooked when thinking about injury prevention. Eating right not only helps you maintain a healthy weight, but it also ensures that you have plenty of energy and the ability to maintain focus. Protein supplements like Hush and Hush are a great way to get all the protein you need without eating too much sugar or fat.

Getting injured can be very discouraging. Most of the time it only takes you out of the game for a short while, but sometimes it can turn into a serious disability or chronic complaint. It’s much easier to avoid injury than it is to heal, and once you’ve been injured, it can be hard to get back into the game. Many people report that an injury is what made them stop exercising in the first place, and then they never got back into the habit. That’s why it’s so important to train right and plan ahead. This just goes to show the old adage was right: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” 

Fitness Tips

It’s never been easier to get into shape. Personal trainers can be expensive, but AI fitness technology is cheap or, in many cases, free. You can get almost all the benefits of exercising with a trainer without any of the costs. 

It’s more important than ever to stay physically healthy. The coronavirus pandemic has turned most of our plans upside down, caused lots of insecurity and stress, and put millions of vulnerable people at risk. Proper diet and exercise will boost your immune system and overall health in profound ways, giving you an added layer of protection against disease.  

Getting in shape is supposed to help you live your best life. As you age, your ability to work declines. These declines sneak up on you slowly. Functional fitness exercises help you combat these declines. When done right, you will slow down as little as possible while maintaining a high activity level with superior strength and flexibility. 

When you focus on exercises that support the activities that are most important to you, you will be able to stay independent and in charge of your life. 

Professional athletes do a lot of functional exercises. Their drills and workout routines are honed to give them every possible advantage in competition. You can learn from the pros and take advantage of the lessons they have already learned. 

This means that your workout plan should help you look better, feel better, and improve your ability to live your life. 

The last sentence there is key. Your fitness routine should help you live the kind of life you want to live. 

When your exercise routine focuses on making your daily tasks easier, it turns your daily tasks into part of your exercise routine. If you can merge the two well enough, exercise and fitness will be so integrated into your life that you won’t know where your workout routine ends and where your “regular” life begins. 

Functional Fitness Workouts

There are many different kinds of functional fitness exercises. And if the links I have provided aren’t adequate for your needs, you can find many more on YouTube or with other free online resources. You may want to consult with a personal trainer or a sports specialist, depending on your needs.

Many of us are so focused on weight loss or our next PR we forget why we are working out to begin with. Fitness is supposed to help you live healthier and make everyday tasks easier so that you can stay more independent as you age. Functional fitness is one of the most important things you can do to stay fit as you get older!

Strength training doesn’t just help you build muscle. Lifting weights protects your brain and boosts your memory. When combined with mobility exercises and functional fitness, a good strength training program can be fast, fun, and very rewarding. People who have a strenuous workout schedule also live longer lives and report greater increases in happiness and satisfaction.

Once you’ve completed a few weeks of regular functional fitness exercises, you’ll understand better why they are so important. You’ll be more flexible and coordinated and have a better idea of your body’s capabilities. 

I recommend doing at least an hour of functional fitness per week. Take a look at your schedule and see where you can add some in. Better yet, get your workout clothes on and do 15 minutes right now!