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The benefits of a Functional Trainer

April 26, 2023
·
5 min read

What is a functional trainer?

A Functional trainer is a must-have for any home gym. It’s an all-in-one machine that allows you to work on your overall body to achieve a toned physique.

Functional training can help improve definition, burn calories, enhance aerobic capability and promote muscle growth. The basis of a functional training workout is simply moving to engage every muscle in the body.

It works to coordinate and train your body’s movement patterns for better overall fitness. A functional training session will strengthen you in a way that enhances your life outside of the gym, making daily activities more comfortable, and more natural. It focuses on movement patterns that reflect simple tasks that you do on a day-to-day basis such as carrying groceries, running after your kids or squatting down to pick something up. 

Functional training typically uses weight-bearing activities that work the core muscles in the torso, as well as multiple joint exercises known as compound movements. By comparison, most fitness plans focus on isolation training, such as upper body or lower body, or even more specific muscle training like biceps or hamstrings.

How does it work?

The complex mechanisms of this equipment allow you to pull its cabling in many different ways, each of which targets a specific body part.

Functional trainers consist of two independent cables, two independent weight stacks, pulleys and a pull-up bar integrated into the frame.

Each weight stack can offer you up to 90kgs of resistance. You can use either one or two arms to pull on the handles to raise and lower the weight. The cables and pulley provide a smooth, controlled movement and consistent tension. 

By pulling the cable system in different ways and with different muscle groups, you can implement any kind of routine you like.

For instance, if you are a golfer, you may pull cables on a functional trainer to improve your swing. If you’re a footballer you can use the machine to work on your coordination, agility and balance.

How can it benefit me?

Functional training focuses on movements, not muscles. Human movement doesn’t only use one muscle group at a time, when we move we use a number of different muscles and tendons. Functional training focuses on movement patterns like pushing, pulling, carrying, stepping, walking, crawling, jumping, and squatting. Which means it exercises your entire body, improving your range of motion.

Functional training for swimming

There are a lot of misconceptions about swimmers doing strength training. Some may think it’s a risky exercise that will injure or stress muscles, or that it will make you too bulky to swim. However, if strength training is done correctly, it can help swimmers take their technique to the next level, reduce the chance of injury, remedy muscle imbalances, and improve speed. 

Functional training techniques such as squats, deadlifts, push-ups and lunges are good for professional swimmers, therefore a functional training machine can be very beneficial.

6 Benefits of functional training

1. Improves core strength

Your abdominals, hips and scapulars are the muscle groups that need to be strengthened to maintain stability. So many functional exercises incorporate your core muscles - even if the focus is on another part of your body. Engaging your core is super important as it increases your stability, protects your organs and central nervous system, strengthens and reduces pain in your back, prevents injuries and improves your posture. 

2. Stability and balance 

Functional training promotes the use of your own body weight to perform various ranges of movement. Just like in the real world, there are no machines to support your body so you need to rely on your balance while coordinating your body. 

Because many muscles are employed in functional training, you tend to use multiple small muscle groups known as stabilisers to support the larger ones. By targeting various muscles all at once, you increase both your strength and your natural balance. 

3. Joint pain

Functional training helps with joint pain. If you regularly suffer from back, muscle, or joint pain, then functional training can be beneficial to manage your pain. 

The origins of functional training started with rehabilitation. Physical and occupational therapists, for instance, use functional training to help patients with movement, often following surgery or an injury. Therefore, functional fitness sits somewhere between physical therapy and personal training because the practice is regenerative and restores the body. 

Chronic pain in the back, knees, neck, and joints can be reduced significantly, giving you a more comfortable and broader range of movement in tasks that used to be painful or uncomfortable to complete. 

4. Reduces the risk of injury 

Functional training reduces your likelihood of being injured. As you train, it's not only your muscles that gain strength but the soft tissue ligaments surrounding the muscles as well. Strengthening connective tissue is good news since ligaments and tendons are often an area that can easily be injured. Because this training mimics common movement patterns, it allows you to cope with daily exertion and reduces the risk of injury.

5. Flexibility and mobility

Functional training involves a lot of movements that require you to incorporate flexibility and mobility. Full body movements include loosening body parts such as the hips, chest and back; or stretching out the extremities to create space within your body. Your muscles will be stretching and releasing tension through loosening and contracting.

6. Increases muscle strength and power

If you want to build muscle and stay fit then a functional trainer is for you. A functional trainer machine mimics exercises that develop speed and power including jumping squats, push-ups, lunges and deadlifts. While using the machine a combination of muscle control, balance, agility and coordination is needed. As you focus on these elements of training, you develop greater control and power in your movement while changing directions and changing speed more fluidly.

In Summary

A functional trainer has a multitude of benefits and is the ideal machine for athletes or those wishing to have optimal strength and performance for sports and everyday life. It incorporates weaker muscle groups which are often neglected and can correct bad posture and improve flexibility.

Whether you are training for a soccer match, a golf tournament, or a swimming competition a functional trainer will help you have the edge.

Danelle Claassen
Design & Digital Specialist
Danelle is a creative and also a fitness enthusiast. She has an active, sport orientated background and she's is on a journey of fitness transformation.
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