FITNESS TRAINING: ARTICLES

Functional Fitness and Core Stabilization
By John Hoeber, MS, RD

These days every fitness trainer you talk to mentions functional fitness and working the core muscles. What do these latest buzz words mean? Why should you be interested in them, and what kind of exercises should you do?

Functional fitness exercises are those that train movements rather than the muscles. We need to move our bodies in four basic ways: standing and locomotion, getting up and down, pushing and pulling, turning and rotating. All of these movements take complex interaction between many muscles and muscle groups. Some are primary movers, some secondary movers, while others provide stability and/or balance.

The simple act of opening a door is an example of a functional movement that requires constant communication between many muscles. The muscles of the hand and forearm must squeeze the hand just enough provide a stable grip on the handle; the biceps and rear deltoid muscles act as prime movers to bring your arm back; other back muscles stabilize your arm to keep it from pulling the opposite way (off your body); while the trunk, hip and leg and foot muscles to provide a backward lean and twist to move the door more easily.

Traditional strength building exercise programs do not work the muscles in a coordinated fashion, but just the opposite. Movement is segmented into its component parts and the muscles are worked in isolation on machines or with weights. To make matters worse traditional strength training works muscles slowly, and biomechanical form is tightly controlled – two things that never happen in real life. Do you swing a tennis racket or golf club slowly? Can you have perfect neutral spine position getting a child into a car seat? No, so why train that way?

Football players lift enormously heavy weights to increase strength, especially the bench press exercise to provide strength in the arms and chest to push away opponents. Unfortunately building strength lying down on a bench doesn’t build functional strength because that’s not the way the motion is performed in real life. In real life the motion is done standing and requires strength in the trunk, hips and legs. Football players who train in a standing position with pulley, spring or band resistance can double the amount of force generated without vast improvement on the bench press exercise.

These improvements are made because the core muscles are being developed to be more forceful. The core muscles are the ones that coordinate movements between the hips and shoulders. Ironically the least important core muscle is the one that most people work the hardest, the rectus abdominus, or the one that gives you the “six pack abs.” An important group of muscles for core stability create what’s called the sarape effect, named for a South American scarf worn around the neck, then crossed over the front and tucked into the pants. In this case the muscles wrap around the upper back (rhomboids and serratus anterior), cross over in front and attach to the hips (the external and internal obliques).

Working the muscles of the core to enhance balance, stability, function and performance requires getting off of strength machines that isolate muscle groups. These machines are good tools for muscle strength and size, but don’t train functionally. We use medicine balls, sport bands, steps, body weight and other tools. Training mimics real world movements that require balance, speed, power and endurance.

People come into our fitness center usually with vague goals of “getting into shape.” They want to be a little stronger and leaner. They want to recapture or prevent the loss of youthful abilities. They want to feel better about their fitness. With functional strength training people gain just that. They gain strength without concentrating on physique, confidence in their abilities to do things ea sily without pain and injury, and they have fun doing it because the exercises are creative and engaging.