{"id":20582,"date":"2020-10-20T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T05:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/?p=20582"},"modified":"2022-08-18T16:21:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T14:21:50","slug":"what-are-functional-exercises-find-out-more-in-this-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/personal-fitness-training-blog\/what-are-functional-exercises-find-out-more-in-this-article\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Functional Exercises? Find out more in this article."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Functional training has been utilised as a buzz term for many years now. The idea behind functional exercises is that each exercise should become more natural and carry over into your everyday life. For instance, improving your squats could help you get up and down from a chair. Lunges would make climbing up stairs easier. Functional exercises have a tendency to activate more muscles and \u2013 as a result &#8211; consume more energy. These multidimensional exercises also tend to enhance your natural movement skills and improve your general mobility.<\/p>\n<p>Functional exercises require free weights and not machines. Weight <a href=\"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/blog\/5-affordable-exercise-machines-for-your-home-gym\/\">machines<\/a> require you to move in a very specific as well as rigid way. That doesn\u2019t simulate how your body actually moves in real life. For instance, think of the leg extension machine. You will never just use your quads. They are going to work with the glutes, hamstrings as well as the core. Instead, doing a functional movement like a squat is much more efficient from a strength-training perspective. In addition, this also allows you to train the <a href=\"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/blog\/five-simple-ways-you-can-strengthen-your-abdominal-muscles\/\">muscles<\/a> to work together seamlessly as these never really function alone.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Functional Exercises To Add To Your Workout<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3>Medicine Ball Squats With Overhead Lift<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Stand up tall and have your feet hip-distance apart. Hold a light medicine ball in front of you with both of your hands.<\/li>\n<li>Squat down while moving your bum back. Keep your knees over your ankles and then lower the medicine ball to the floor. While performing this movement, keep your head up and back straight. In other words, don\u2019t hunch.<\/li>\n<li>Return to your starting position. Lift the medicine ball over your head.<\/li>\n<li>Repeat the squat and then lower ball to the ground.<\/li>\n<li>Perform three sets of 10 reps. Use a heavier ball as you get stronger.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Thruster\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/41x2R0_HQaw?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Stair Climb With Bicep Curl<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Stand up straight at the bottom of a flight of stairs, holding a 2- to 3-kilogram dumbbell in each hand.<\/li>\n<li>Climb the stairs while doing bicep curls.<\/li>\n<li>Walk or run down the stairs while you are holding the weights, however, don\u2019t do curls.<\/li>\n<li>Repeat between five and 10 times.<\/li>\n<li>Increase the weights of the dumbbells as your arms get stronger. Mix up your climbs by taking two steps at a time for a flight or two.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Isolation Exercises Have Their Place<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Isolation exercises have a purpose. If you consult a <a href=\"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/blog\/how-a-personal-trainer-can-help-you-stay-well-in-stressful-situations\/\">personal trainer<\/a> with an acute injury, and they needed to help you to strengthen a particular muscle group, the fitness professional might have them isolate that muscle group. However, wouldn\u2019t be their primary area of focus.<\/p>\n<p>Most people\u2019s workouts\u2014if you\u2019re working out to be in shape and improve overall health\u2014should consist mainly of compound and functional movements, with isolation exercises peppered in as needed to address a weakness or improve stability in a certain joint (like your shoulders).<\/p>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/contact-us\/\"><strong>Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019re super excited about functional training and want to learn more about what it has to offer then you need to do our Personal Training Diploma. For more information about this flagship fitness course, please follow this <a href=\"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/courses\/national-diploma-of-personal-training\/\">link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/courses\/national-diploma-of-personal-training\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-19973 size-shop_single\" src=\"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/footer1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Trifocus Fitness Academy- Personal Trainer\" width=\"600\" height=\"96\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/footer1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/footer1-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/footer1-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/footer1-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/footer1-1.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NATIONAL DIPLOMA OF PERSONAL TRAINING - Trifocus Fitness Academy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5y8hCGEwFlE?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Functional training has been utilised as a buzz term for many years now. The idea behind functional exercises is that each exercise should become more natural and carry over into your everyday life. For instance, improving your squats could help you get up and down from a chair. Lunges would make climbing up stairs easier&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2116],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trifocusfitnessacademy.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}