Functional Fitness

Functional Fitness relates to the basic human movements of daily living. All day long we bend, lift, push, pull and twist.

 Young people do it as part of playing and they enjoy all of it. However; too many older people have an increasing amount of difficulty with the basic functional movements of daily living.

 Most gyms and fitness programs are based on body building programs with which we all grew up. We were sold all kinds of exercise equipment and training programs that claimed to help us become more fit. That has meant “build bigger muscles”, with the body builder image in mind.

 Did it work?

 I often wonder how many millions of pieces of equipment are sitting unused in basements, closets, and under beds, completely useless. Most of it owned by people that are overweight and unhealthy.

 In spite of all that equipment, many of those people are still experiencing:

1. A loss of muscle mass
2. A loss of strength
3. An increase in body fat percentage
4. A loss of aerobic capacity
5. An increase in blood pressure
6. More heart disease, cancer and diabetes
7. A lowered life expectancy

 Did it work?

These people should have focused on trying to prevent the frailty that is so common among our elderly. They should have focused on combating the biological changes listed above, they could have focused on avoiding many of the problems caused by disuse of their own bodies.

 This would have helped control many chronic diseases. They would feel better today, if only they could move better today.They are in their present condition because they don’t do anything. The average senior in North America watches approximately 39 hours of television weekly, and most seniors likely exceed that by a staggering amount.

 But, we still have to bend, lift, push, pull and twist every day.

 For far too many people, it is very difficult to bend, lift, push, pull and twist. For these people, the functions of daily living are getting harder.

 An exercise program that helps improve our ability to do these daily activities is ‘functional’.

 Anything else is dysfunctional.

That's a pretty simple definition, and in the real world it is not quite that simple.

Almost all movements will add something positive, some are just a lot more positive or more functional. It is a continuum. As I have aged I no longer want to spend as much time or energy exercising as I did at a younger age. I am now aware that I have limited energy and I need to set priorities for it's use. So, I want to get the best return possible from the time and energy I spend exercising.

When I was younger, I could work all day and play all night. Well, almost all night. Now, at 73, my energy window is quite a bit shorter. I cannot work all day, and I certainly can't play all night.

 When I was younger, I could exercise forever. Now at 73, I need to be aware of my energy window.  If I expend all my energy exercising, I won’t be able to do anything else that day.

 I must be mindful when I exercise. I must have a specific purpose, so my energy is spent on the most critical things.

 Today I am comfortable with the way I look, and I like the way I feel. Based on that my fitness goals are to maintain my existing levels of strength, flexibility, agility, aerobic capacity and body composition.

 I practice fitness, that means exercise and nutrition, both of equal importance. To do so, I engage in a wide variety of activities:

 My exercise time is spent walking, running, biking, rowing, lifting weights, stretching, boxing, skipping rope and doing yoga. My workout schedule depends on how I feel from week to week and always includes 2-3 sessions of high intensity workouts from the above activities. The variety keeps the boredom away and ensures I am working my whole body.

 When I look at each exercise, I try to picture where it may fit into my daily activities and how it will help me do something easier, better, longer, faster, or more efficiently. If I cannot see where I would use that movement, I discard it.

 A good example is the lying bench press. A sitting or standing overhead press is good because many core muscles are engaged as stabilizers. This doesn’t happen with the lying bench press.

 “I cannot think of any movement I have ever had to make where my back was fully supported, and I had to push away a heavy weight”. So, to me, that is a less functional movement.

 I look at every exercise with that in mind, and I encourage you to do the same.

 If we take better care of our body with nutrition, and keep it in reasonable shape with exercise, our body will look after us and we can enjoy life for a much longer time frame.

 If you have been to a seniors home, you have seen many people sitting around in wheel chairs, waiting! For what? Well...to die! and they take a long time to do it. Sometimes years.

 What a horrible quality of life that is. And many think that is normal. They just accept it. I do not!

 It is like the concept of obesity is being normalized and people are now being taught to 'manage their weight' which really means get used to it...NOT!

The most important thing I have learned is that I will get older, but I don’t have to get old! And I have some control over how I get older.

I am a retired Canadian male in my early 70’s. I consider myself reasonably fit and healthy. That means I am able to do the things I need and want to do during my daily life easily and safely. Accordingly, I choose to do exercises that contribute in a positive way.

Exercises should mimic the movements I find myself doing during my daily life. That makes my life easier and more enjoyable. If they don’t, I cannot think of a logical reason to do them and I consider them dysfunctional.

During the day I find myself pushing and pulling, bending and lifting, and twisting. Sometimes these are combined in the same motion. I might turn partially sideways, step out a bit, and lean over to pick something up, a grocery item for example. I might have to go up on my toes and reach overhead in the same grocery store.

If my exercises include these activities, then in my daily life the tasks will get easier and more enjoyable. That makes the exercises functional. Obviously, some are more functional than others. If your time working out at the gym or wherever you exercise, hasn’t given you the strength and stamina to do your daily tasks, whatever they may be, then it’s time for a new approach to working out.

If you are you into ballroom dancing or golfing, you may want special exercises to improve your aerobic capacity and leg strength or exercises to improve your trunk rotation. These would be more functional exercises for you, but not for everyone.

Benefits of functional fitness:

• Exercises help you develop strength and stamina for everyday activities
• Exercises engage multiple muscle groups and joints, which reduces the risk of injury
• Workouts are safe and particularly helpful for seniors and people with a history of injuries and joint pain
• Exercises develop balance, flexibility and strength

Examples of Functional Fitness exercises:

1. Squat to bicep curl: For help lifting your children, the laundry basket or a grocery bag.
   
   Begin with your feet hip-width apart, back straight, core engaged. Holding dumbbells at your side, slowly bend your knees and lower your body until your knees reach a 90-degree angle. As you return to standing, turn your palms facing up and curl the dumbbells in toward your shoulders.
   
   
2. Stair climb with bicep curl: For strength and balance while climbing stairs while carrying a load.
   
   Start at the bottom of the stairs with a dumbbell in each hand. As you go up each     step, curl weights toward your shoulders. Go back down the stairs without doing curls   and repeat the specified number of times.

3. Multi-directional lunges: For strength and flexibility while doing housework or yard work.
   
   Begin standing up straight. Keeping one leg in place, step forward with the other leg, to the side, or behind until your knee reaches a 90-degree angle. Your stationary leg should be fairly straight with the knee parallel to the ground. Repeat on both sides.
   
   
4. Diagonal reach with weights: For help reaching up to a shelf or in a closet.
   
   Use hand weights or a small medicine ball. Start in a standing position holding the medicine ball in your hands at chest level. Lift the ball above your head and to the right, extending your arms entirely. Simultaneously extend your left leg to the side. Your body should be in a diagonal line from toes to medicine ball. Return to start position and repeat several times on each side.

Perform these functional fitness activities every day or several times a week, and you will begin to notice your strength, balance, stamina, and flexibility increasing in your daily life!

As I have come to learn more and more about getting older, I find that what I want from working out is quite different than it was 10 or 15 years ago. And vastly different than 25 years ago when I was 48 years young.

Back then I didn’t realize how different this ‘me’ would become. The goals I had then just don’t seem to matter to me today. I do know that we can all be fit and healthy if we want to be.

I also find that while I was not really interested in understanding how my body worked or how I needed to provide fuel, both are now very important to me. I often wish I had studied kinesiology and nutrition a lot more.

I was in retail management and then financial services early in my career and often ran across the phrase, ‘Be Present in the Moment’. It meant, ‘pay attention to what you are doing’.

Today we hear the phrase, ‘Be Mindful’. It means the same thing. That phrase is so important at my age because of my shrinking energy window. I no longer have time to waste doing things that are not productive. I don’t think you do either.

This means that when you do your ‘Goal Setting Exercise’ in Ron’s 4 Step Fitness Plan, you need to be aware of your desired outcome. If balance is more important to you because you know someone who fell, broke a hip, and has since lived in a seniors home, then you will want to concentrate on balance improvement exercises. If your grandkids are into golf and you want to continue playing with them, them aerobic and torso rotation exercises will be your focus. That outlook will make it functional really quick.

There are many workouts in the program including various warm ups, strength building, aerobics, flexibility, both standing and floor work, core, agility, and balance. Balance is unique in that it is by nature built into most of the workouts.

Your first month will likely be spent getting familiar with the workouts. After that, if you are present, meaning paying attention, you might start to think about the variations you could do with each movement. They are endless and you will soon be adding some of your own movements to your workouts.

In each workout you can increase the level of difficulty by increasing the weight or resistance, increasing the number of repetitions or sets and adding your own exercises.

Increasing difficulty levels is known as progression. Your body will adapt to the load you place upon it. Once it adapts, the work will seem easier. That’s when you need to challenge yourself. Make the workouts harder or simply change them to work your muscles a bit differently. 

I am sure most of you have heard of high intensity interval training, (H.I.I.T.). The technical term is ‘excess, post exercise, oxygen consumption’.

It means after you finish exercising, you continue to consume oxygen and burn calories, but at a higher level than your normal rate. Some people refer to this as the ‘afterburn’, and the effect can last up to 24 hours. The higher the intensity during your workout, the greater the ‘after-burn’.

Lower intensity exercise burns a higher percentage of calories from fat than from carbohydrates.

Higher intensity exercise burns a higher percentage of calories from carbohydrates than from fat.

So, some people believe lower intensity exercise is better for fat loss.

 However; there is a point during HIIT workouts where your body, after burning carbs, decides to save carbs and burn fat. This cross over continues after you finish exercising and you more burn fat after exercising than during exercising. This continues until the afterburn ends.

You need to explore how this works for you. Pick one of the HIIT workouts in the program or use your favorite aerobic activity. Tips on using HIIT are included in the workouts.

I really like this approach. I find it makes my workouts shorter and more productive.

In my workouts I use the following activities:

1. Walking, inside on a treadmill, outside when possible
2. Running, inside on a treadmill, outside when possible
3. Biking, inside on a recumbent bike
4. Rowing, inside on a rowing machine
5. Swimming, inside and outside when possible
6. Weightlifting, in my home gym
7. Boxing, in my home gym but not very often
8. Suspension Training, in my home gym with TRX equipment
9. Stretching, anywhere
10. Yoga, in my home gym and classes
11. Skipping Rope, inside and outside

I like a lot of variety and these activities ensure I cover all fitness components, and muscle groups. I have several HIIT workouts that require very little equipment.