Ben Cox Elevation-Fitness
Posted by Benjamin Cox on Oct 10, 2009 - 5:56:10 AM
WEST HOLLYWOOD—What is functional Training and Why is it important to ME. Origins Functional training was utilized by the medical community as a means to rehabilitate injured workers to recover from an injury or surgery to return to work. Thus if a patient's job required repeatedly heavy lifting, rehabilitation would be targeted towards heavy lifting, if the patient were an athlete it would be targeted to the sport. Functional training involves weight bearing activities, which in addition to affecting the target muscles affects the core muscles as well. The core muscles make up the lower trunk and include the abdominal and lower back muscles.
Most fitness facilities have a variety of fixed weight machines, which target and isolate specific muscles. As a result the movements do not necessarily bear any relationship to the movements people make in their regular activities or sports. Functional training attempts to adapt or develop exercises, which allow individuals to perform the activities of daily life more easily and without injuries.[1] Elevation-Fitness in West Hollywood specializes in functional training.
Benefits Functional training leads to improved balance and strength. Through the process of weight training and the use of tools which require balance the entire muscular system is engaged in the performance of exercise. The benefits arise from the use of training that emphasizes the body's natural ability to move in all planes of motion. In comparison, though machines can often be safer to use, they restrict movements to a single plane of motion, which is an unnatural form of movement for the body and may potentially lead to faulty movement patterns or injury.[2]
In 2009 Spennewyn conducted research, published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which compared functional training to fixed variable training techniques; this was considered the first research of its type comparing the two methods of strength training. Results of the study showed incredible gains and benefits in the functional training group over fixed training equipment. Functional users had a 58 percent greater increase in strength over the fixed-form group. Their improvements in balance were 196 percent higher over fixed and reported an overall decrease in joint pain by 30 percent[3].
Elevation-Fitness utilizes functionally based equipment, ropes, kettle bells, elastic bands and more to establish functionally based movements. The fixed equipment and single plain motion of the past created bodies like Arnold Schwarzenegger attractive, but not desirable for most sports and activities due to being muscle bound and poor flexibility. Today’s athlete desires a body more like Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic basketball team. Equally attractive and definitely more suited to sports performance. Equipment Standard resistance training machines are of limited use for functional training – their fixed patterns rarely mimic natural movements, and they focus the effort on a single muscle group, rather than engaging the stabilizers and peripheral muscles. Preferred options include: ∑ Cable machines ∑ Dumbbells ∑ Medicine balls ∑ Kettlebells ∑ Physioballs (also called Swiss balls or exercise balls) ∑ Resistance tubes ∑ Rocker and wobble boards ∑ Whole Body Vibration equipment (also called WBV or Acceleration Training) ∑ Balance disks ∑ Sandbags Elevation -Fitness uses this equipment to get results! We are a results based fitness center and we use a whole body approach to health and exercise. We have Pilates, massage, chiropractic and physio-therapy in addition to a beautiful workout complex. Come in and let us show you why we get it!!!
