Do you need to carry a heavy bag of dog food off the ground and onto a wheelbarrow? How are you going to put that heavy bag of groceries on the top shelf of the cabinet?
When it comes to exercise, it is nice to have aesthetic goals like losing inches off your waist, getting bigger biceps, or toner legs. However, it is also important to gain practical strength as well. In life, it is crucial to move in ways our bodies are designed to move.
When picking exercises for your program, you need to think of whether the exercises are like the movements you would perform in everyday life. Take the leg press for example, is there ever a situation in everyday life where you lie on your back and push a heavy weight up with your legs? No, unless you’re lying on your back in a ditch and a giant boulder rolls on top of you. There is also no need to isolate muscles because you will never do any movement in sport or in life where you only use a single muscle group. Functional movement patterns usually consist of a group of muscles working together. Instead of doing bicep curls, try a pull-up or a variation of a pull-up if you are not strong enough. The pull-up is much more functional because it is the movement you would use for rock climbing. Furthermore, it will still hit the biceps as well as the major muscles in your back. So, unless you are executing a bodybuilder style workout and you really want your vastus lateralis of your quadriceps to pop out more, there is no need to do leg extensions. Do squats and lunges instead that work the same muscles but also gets you more functional.
If you are interested in learning how to properly perform functional exercises, consult a trainer at Kalev Personal Training to book an appointment and live better, faster!
