What is functional training? It is exercising to train the body so that when you need to physically do an activity in daily life, you’re able to do it without injury. I always ask my athletes: if you only look good and can’t perform in real life, why workout? You want workout in the gym to help you, not only in your sport, but also in every day life.
Every year I put in my parent’s pier in for them, and it is physically challenging. I workout to be able to perform activities such as this. If I did not workout daily, I would struggle with this type of activity and be sore for days after. This is exactly one of the reasons you need to train all of the systems in the gym (strength, power, endurance, mental toughness, etc.). When I don’t have a specific goal I want to be able to do anything off the couch. Over the last 20 years only once did I really struggle with putting in the pier. That was the year I was training for Cycling. I performed at an extremely high level cycling but when it came to functional strength I had no upper body muscle to throw pier sections around. I could ride for 8 hours at a high speed, but I looked like a question mark and lost all of my upper body muscle. I remember struggling so much with the pier and being extremely sore the next day. The point is that specificity is needed to be great at something but you must be willing to give something up. Everyone wants the glory and sees what they want to see but behind the scenes there is sacrifice, failure, and suffering. So if you don’t have a specific training goal why not be good at everything instead of great at one thing….and for sure be functional in everyday life.
