Collection: Functional Training

One of the main reasons functional training is so widely used is because the movements are similar to the movements you do in everyday life like picking up heavy objects, standing up from a chair, carrying shopping bags etc. Training in these movements allows you to improve your performance in real-world situations and performance goals in functional training are incredibly motivating.

Functional training focuses on building strength and improving balance and stability. HIIT focuses more on speed, endurance and boosting your metabolism to help shed weight. Functional training uses free weights like kettlebells in exercises that work many muscles at once, including your stabilising muscles. These movements help build power and strength throughout your entire body. HIIT workouts often use cardio machines like treadmills and rowers and fast-paced movements to get your heart rate up. In HIIT you will usually use your body weight or light weights because you're trying to go as fast as possible. It’s common to use functional training equipment and movements in a HIIT workout. HIIT involves set intervals, with short bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by a period of rest or low-intensity movement to recover in between. Functional training workouts have constantly varied exercises that can go for various durations, and may or may not have periods of rest.

There is a lot of crossover between Functional Training and Strength Training and ideally, you should incorporate both. While the same exercise equipment is often used for both forms of training, they achieve different goals. Functional exercises target multiple muscle groups at once and can be performance-based movements, often but not always, using a lighter weight, while strength training focuses on specific lifts and are weight oriented e.g. how much you can lift. For example, in strength training, you may be aiming to bench press 100kg, while in functional training you may be aiming to jump higher on a Plyometric Box.

No matter where you are in your fitness journey, functional training is great to incorporate into your weekly workout routines. Regardless of your fitness level, there are functional movements that you can incorporate to challenge yourself.

Functional training involves lots of different functional exercises using a variety of gym equipment in one session. Some functional movements include:

1. Slam ball slams

2. Kettlebell swings

3. Power snatch or single-arm dumbbell snatch

4. Pull-ups or Chin-ups

5. Box jumps

6. Bench dips

7. Wall ball throws

8. Front squat

Yes, since functional training equipment can help to improve daily movements, functional training can be very helpful to the elderly. For example, squats can help make getting up from a chair easier. Functional training uses multiple areas of your body at once which helps to improve balance and can reduce the likelihood of falls.

Some functional movements use body weight, but many involve some type of fitness equipment as you won’t get the same results if you’re not progressively making the exercise harder with increased difficulty (progressive overload). We'd recommend investing in some bumper plates, a barbell, resistance bands, gym weights like kettlebells and dumbbells, and a plyometric box for starters.