“Functional Training” or “Functional Movement” is one of the most common buzzwords for many years now. You may have heard these words thrown around casually by your trainer or fitness instructor without being explained what it means and why they qualify as “functional” and what is their role in enhancing your overall wellness.
Lucky for you, that’s going to change. The ideology behind functional training is that these exercises are supposed to be natural and are something you can do in your daily routine. These functional training exercise regimes consume more energy and active more muscles in your body which makes them very popular.
These multidimensional workouts help to improve your natural movement skills and also enhance your general mobility. The finest part about these exercises is that you don’t have to hit the gym to start them- you can follow these exercises while you are home.
Apart from being incredibly convenient, these exercises only require your body as the equipment. So even if you are running short on time, you can easily sneak in a quick workout regime wherever you are.
If you are a beginner and starting with these exercises for the first time them, you must choose easy exercises which require fewer repetitions. Make sure that you follow these exercises at a higher intensity.
Essential Functional Movement Exercises
- The Bear
This exercise involves crawling on all fours very similar to how a bear crawls. When you work on different variations of the bear, you will develop strength in your back, arms, legs, and shoulders as well as enhance your calf flexibility and hamstring.
- The Monkey
These exercises involve you jumping from side to side in a squat position, and essentially you enter into a deep squat.
- The Frogger
These exercises comprise you of hopping forward and backward while in a squat position and then you enter into a deep squat as well.
Keep on reading if you want to build a home workout routine with functional movements.
How To Build Home Workout Routine With Functional Exercises
- The first step to building your own workout is to find the right exercises.
Since every functional exercise focuses on different muscle groups, you do not need to be very specific when choosing exercises. However, it is advised that you include at least one exercises from the groups mentioned below in your sessions.
The groups include:
- Core
- Full Body
- Upper Body
- Lower Body
If you wish to lose weight faster, then add in full body exercises that may focus on many muscles of your body and help you burn fat more effectively. Such exercises include Burpees or Star Jumps.
You can also include Pushups to increase strength on your upper body and focus on Squats for your lower body.
- The second step is to handpick the type of workout regime
Now there are numerous ways in which you can mix these exercises and create a full-blown workout routine.
You can take in any of the following exercises to help create you a workout routine:
- Plants
- Deadlifts
- Lunges
- Squat Presses
- Kettlebell swings
- Front squats
You can create your own exercises routine, or you can follow an easy but highly effective functional exercise workout routine that is known as Tabata Training.
This training is a popular form of HIIT that comprises of eight rounds of exercises that are high in intensity. Even though your work on each exercise for only 4 minutes but since you perform these exercises at your highest intensity this workout is very effective.
These functional exercises are entirely up to you. You can make your own exercise routine or follow the Tabata training and keep yourself fit at home.
