functional criteria > back to functional training

An exercise performed in the gym or at home using exercise equipment can be considered functional if the following can be said of it.

  1. When moving across any object, whether stable (the floor) or unstable (a wobble board, surfing etc.), the body will maintain you in an upright posture using reflexes. These specific reflex responses can be targeted with exercises to improve what is known as the "comparable reflex profile".
  2. Maintenance of your centre of gravity over your own base of support. Whether this is bending over the kitchen sink doing the washing up (static posture) or performing a walking lunge (dynamic posture), if you cannot maintain your centre of gravity over your base of support (generally your feet) you will fall over and possible injure yourself.
  3. Functional exercises must have a high carry over to every day activities or sporting movements. The co-ordination of the muscles that contribute to the overall movement is essential, and similar exercises may have completely different muscle timing. For example and squat is very similar (in terms of timing) to standing from a seating position, where as the leg press has almost no similarities. Therefore, if you need to improve your lower body strength to make getting out of a chair easier, the leg press will make little difference.
  4. If you push against an object and can not move it, the muscles and joints that make up the system used to perform the movement (known as the "chain") is closed. If the object does move, the chain is open. For example a press up is a closed chain exercise whilst a bench press is open chain. The exercise selection must be task specific; if the task is open chain (for example throwing a shot put) then training with closed chain exercises (such as press ups) will not be functional.
  5. An exercise is most functional when the movement patterns most closely approximate the ability lacking in the individual, or when it most closely resembles the task being trained for.
  6. For a long time there has been a tendancy in gyms for individuals to isoloate muscle groups. This means that muscles are trained on their own rather in groups as they are designed to do so. Examples include bicep curls, arm extensions, front raises and leg extensions. Strictly speaking there is nothing wrong with these exercises, and if performed correctly they will indeed lead to an increase in muscle size. However, the muscles must also be adequately integrated into more complex exercises that replicate "real life" movements. Paul Chek