Functional fitness ?

[kBrown]

What the heck is athletic performance and how do you define it... When people say we avoid power lifting and focus on functional fitness and movements it makes me wonder.... What is more functional than the squat, deadlift and bench ?

Are we defining function as athletic endurance ? Based on what push-ups, pull-ups, dips, running, sprints? General aerobic ability ? Or silly weird stuff that have little practical life application like a circuit of xyz and abc...

I hate when people say they are worried about function... And speak of that word in a way to degrade something else... Meaningless hogwash.

No matter what your sport You can take a different exercise show you that you suck at it and say boom.... Look your not functional.

Pick one thing and get great at it... No be ****ing awesome at it and that is your Damn function... Everything else doesn't matter. Because you can't be good at everything.

Anyway I'm ranting...

Cheers to functional fitness

I just wanna bench 500 and my non functional ass will be happy

 

[Abe Lincoln]

If a beams falls on you, lets see benching not help you push it off you.

 

[grinnell27]

This is aways an argument that had perplexed myself... 'functional strength' So being able to dealift 600lbs means I cant pick up my food shopping bags... Well guess I better start training 'functionally'.

 

[smshannon001]

I think it depends on what function you are talking about.

Take tackling in football. The breakdown position before making a hit and exploding through the tackle is a similar body position to a squat or a deadlift.
But not all power lifters would make great linebackers or tacklers.

Will doing a squat and deadlift help a linebacker ? Heck ya!
But adding in agility work, lateral strength (side lunges) and plyometrics will make them more powerful and explosive.

Just because they can DL 600lbs does not make them as explosive as a guy who can only DL 450lbs. Speed is twice as important in the power equation.

 

[grinnell27]

I think it depends on what function you are talking about.

Take tackling in football. The breakdown position before making a hit and exploding through the tackle is a similar body position to a squat or a deadlift.
But not all power lifters would make great linebackers or tacklers.

Will doing a squat and deadlift help a linebacker ? Heck ya!
But adding in agility work, lateral strength (side lunges) and plyometrics will make them more powerful and explosive.

Just because they can DL 600lbs does not make them as explosive as a guy who can only DL 450lbs. Speed is twice as important in the power equation.

Interesting take. When you look at it that way you can see another side.

 

[Rodja]

It's just a catchphrase that has been watered down and become meaningless due to a certain, ahem, cultish training philosophy. In essence, all it really means is focus on compound lifts and take care of the boring things (e.g. prehab, postural health, RC work).

 

[smshannon001]

Interesting take. When you look at it that way you can see another side.

Yeah, personally, I believe that everyone had their own definition of functional training.
In general it means doing compound movements that provide strength in basic body function/movement.

But in the trained individual we are looking to exceed the average function.

It's similar to the argument of "overtraining."
Overtraining to some people (those that worship at the temple of mike rashid and ct fletcher) means progressive overload and burning out.
To personal trainers and strength coaches "overtraining" is a physical condition characterized by muscle wasting, fatigue, strength decreases, etc.

It's annoying that there is not a firm consensus on the terminology, just makes the reader or listener ask a few more questions.

 

[juniorab]

I think it depends on what function you are talking about.

Take tackling in football. The breakdown position before making a hit and exploding through the tackle is a similar body position to a squat or a deadlift.
But not all power lifters would make great linebackers or tacklers.

Will doing a squat and deadlift help a linebacker ? Heck ya!
But adding in agility work, lateral strength (side lunges) and plyometrics will make them more powerful and explosive.

Just because they can DL 600lbs does not make them as explosive as a guy who can only DL 450lbs. Speed is twice as important in the power equation.

This is basically Louie Simmons 101. Force = Mass x Acceleration. As soon as I understood that this mathematical equation also applies to training, my training(for power, not hypertrophy) went to a whole nother level.

 

[Rodja]

This is basically Louie Simmons 101. Force = Mass x Acceleration. As soon as I understood that this mathematical equation also applies to training, my training(for power, not hypertrophy) went to a whole nother level.

To be fair, it's definitely not Louie's innovation. Bompa and Medvedev implemented these long before Louie.

 

[juniorab]

To be fair, it's definitely not Louie's innovation. Bompa and Medvedev implemented these long before Louie.

Very true. Louie took a lot(ok, almost all, lol) from the Soviet training techniques to put the conjugate system together, and he publicly admits it. I learned the principals from Louie, so I guess I just refer to him as my reference point.

 

[Rodja]

Very true. Louie took a lot(ok, almost all, lol) from the Soviet training techniques to put the conjugate system together, and he publicly admits it. I learned the principals from Louie, so I guess I just refer to him as my reference point.

What's really funny is that it's actually the concurrent system, which makes a lot more sense for a name when you think about it. The heart is to concurrently train all three phases throughout each week.

 

[kBrown]

Rodja you always have good info to share
Much appreciated