What exactly is “functional training?” If you perform a web search on the term, a plethora of definitions will show up in your search results. To save you the time and effort of searching through multiple explanations, we spoke to clubs to discover how they define and implement, the sometimes broad, and elusive term.
Definition & Benefits
Vic Spatola, the director of personal training at Greenwood Athletic & Tennis Club, admits that there’s confusion in the health and fitness industry over what exactly functional training has encompassed. “For some, [functional training] may mean multi-plane movements,” he explained. “For others, this means lifting odd and shifting weights, or this means simply moving. We as a fitness industry have become so enamored with the term ‘functional training,’ we now classify almost every form of training as ‘functional,’ as long as it is not on a machine.”
At Greenwood Athletic & Tennis Club, Spatola explained, “Functional training for me is defined as ‘any training that aids or enhances the person in performing activities they engage in on a regular basis.’”
Sports Club/LA has a slightly different interpretation of functional training. According to Kelvin James Everitt, the national director of fitness for Millennium Partners Sports Club Management, LLC — “Functional training is based on movement first, and load second,” explained Everitt. “In functional training, the body should move in multiple planes, while being progressively loaded; variables such as speed and direction are manipulated to produce unique workouts.”
Bottom line? “Functional training provides members with the opportunity to develop strength and endurance that directly translates into their everyday lives,” continued Everitt. “Ultimately, the benefit of functional training should be a more functional and active lifestyle.”
Although the definitions of functional training may differ, there is one thing that all clubs can agree on when it comes to functional training — the purpose is to train for a better quality, everyday life. “The benefit of functional training is in equipping the body to deal with the unexpected, as much as it is in enhancing the body’s ability to perform designated tasks,” said Everitt. “I like to think of functional training as preparing the individual to be multifunctional.”
“Functional training not only makes you sweat, but brings a neurological adaptation component to your workouts,” continued Spatola. “By this, I mean it gets you to think and react in ways traditional machine or dumbbell training does not. By having to adjust your body in space quickly or react to an unpredictable outside influence, your nervous system adapts to these new stimuli.” In turn, better preparing members for activities they participate in, in daily life.
Education
Adam Wharton, the director of personal training at Sport&Health, interprets functional training by “training movement, not muscles,” he said. He explained, “If you imagine the development of a human as a child — raising and lowering your body, rotating, walking, standing, etc. — we recognize that as we get older we get used to sitting in cars, in offices. In general, a lot of those fundamental movement patterns we developed as children get lost.”
To assess fundamental movement patterns in its members, Sport&Health puts members through the “Smart Start” program, which includes a functional movement assessment. The assessment includes the National Academy of Sport Medicine (NASM) Overhead Squat Assessment, which according to Wharton, measures a member’s ability to perform this standard functional movement. As the member performs a squat, trainers observe from an anterior, lateral and posterior view, and search for wrong knee placement, excessive leaning or back arching, etc. “Observations we make, based on their ability to perform that movement, can then help trainers design an ideal program for our members to build a solid functional foundation, and a corrective exercise program when dysfunction, limitation or asymmetry are observed,” explained Wharton.
Everitt explained the importance of educating members in the benefits of functional training. “Because movement quality is promoted throughout our clubs, training sessions and classes, we’ve seen an organic growth in functional training among our members. Members who understand the ‘why’ are much more committed to improving the ‘how.’ Members are eager to learn, asking the right questions and intelligently working towards better quality movement. It has led to a stronger sense of community and curiosity, and helped foster better relationships and trust between our trainers and members, and it has produced some amazing results.”
Not only should members be educated in functional training, but personal trainers should be as well. “Learning functional training at the professional level — trainers or group exercise instructors — requires not only certification, but actual participation,” explained Spatola. “There are many training modalities that do not require active participation from trainers. But when you are tossing around a varying weight apparatus — [for example] a Kettlebell — you had better know how that is going to react so you can tell your client. If you can’t do it, neither should they.”
According to Spatola, certifications in functional training that personal trainers and group exercise instructors can acquire include TRX, a Russian Kettlebell Certification, RIP™ trainers, Cross Core, Sandbells and ViPR certifications.
Tools and Workout Space
The education of trainers and members has resulted in an increase in members participating in functional movements and programs, which in turn, has influenced the design of some clubs. Sport&Health has installed jungle gyms, TRX stations, monkey bar stations and functional training tools to accommodate for the growing popularity of functional training. “We’re noticing our members are becoming aware of the need to train in a functional manner,” said Wharton. As a result, “We’re creating more floor space for them to do so on their own, or with personal trainers.”
At Sports Club/LA, functional training has made an impact on club design as well. “All of our clubs have a lot of open space for functional training,” said Everitt. “Many have reinforced walls for medicine ball slams. We have TRX suspension systems in all our clubs as well as kettlebells, battle ropes and various unstable surfaces. We have pushing sleds in a couple of our clubs, and a full line of FreeMotion cable machines in all facilities.”
In addition, Sports Club/LA has plans to open clubs with even more functional training options for members. “We are opening a new club in early 2013 and we are building in a designated functional training area, complete with custom-made monkey bars,” explained Everitt. “We are installing indoor turf to enable sled pushing and movement drills, and have found every opportunity to install bars for pull-ups and suspension trainers. When going through the decision making process, we were very cognizant of what would be required to create a program built on the quality of movement.”
According to Wharton, specific tools that are great for functional training include TRX suspension cables and kettlebells. However, “One of the best tools to use is the human body,” he said.
Over the past two years, Sport&Health has started promoting a “Move of the Month,” which they encourage members to perform. The move provides an introduction to basic movements with functional roots. “I think the members enjoy variety,” said Wharton. “We see members trying the movements in our clubs.”
Programs
According to Everitt, a typical functional training regiment includes workouts such as multi-plane “step and reach” exercises, bear crawls, single leg squats and presses, and medicine ball tossing — all of which can be implemented during personal training sessions, functional training programs or classes, or by the members themselves.
Sports Club/LA’s main approach to training members in functional training is through one-on-one personal training with ADVANTAGE trainers, which according to Everitt, are top-tier trainers that “incorporate multi-plane movements with gravity, ground reaction force and momentum, to produce tailored workouts that improve a client’s quality of movement,” he explained. “This in turn improves [members’] quality of life.”
“We communicate the main benefit of our ADVANTAGE Training Program as the potential it has to give clients results in the most efficient way,” continued Everitt. “A better quality of movement allows for longer, higher intensity training, which in turn gives members the quickest route to results.”
Functional training isn’t just for improving the quality of life of your average member — it can improve the performance of athletes as well, from the young to the elite. Sport&Health has an Explosive Performance Program (EPP) that does just that — training athletes in movement and performance. “The Explosive Performance Program improves inefficiencies in human movement,” said Wharton. “If you have poor functional movement, as an athlete, your career may be shorter.”
According to Wharton, during the EPP, trainers use Gray Cook’s Functional Movement Screen to measure a client’s ability to perform seven different functional movements and score the movements after review. “This assessment helps our trainers prioritize exercise selection within their programs to improve function, efficiency, performance and results.” Cook’s Functional Movement Screen information can be found at http://www.functionalmovement.com.
Greenwood Athletic & Tennis club offers functional training programs and group exercise classes based around kettlebells, sand bell training, TRX, martial arts-fused workouts and Pilates. To market these programs, Spatola stressed that member education was important. “Member education is key when it comes to marketing functional training,” he said. “Most members think if they sweat that’s enough. We as exercise specialists need to espouse to members the inherit benefits of functional training.”
“We are seeing more and more people understanding the benefit of functional training, and at least 80 percent of all training sessions involve an element of functional training,” said Everitt.
“Our ultimate goal — to improve more lives by delivering on our promise to our members,” said Wharton. “They will get results and be able to perform daily movements and activities better, more easily and more often-with less chance of injury.”
By Rachel Zabonick
