Everything that we train is Functional Fitness. All of the training we offer is aimed at making you better, safer and stronger at whatever you do in your life outside the gym. It will also improve your brain function, appearance, posture, and confidence.
In its simplest form, functional fitness training means training your whole body in coordinated movements that emulate the things you do at home, work or outdoors, from gardening to sports.
If you fit into any of the following categories, then functional fitness is for you:
- Over 50, and mostly sedentary
- Deskbound, for hours a day
- Physical laborer
- Suffering from injuries, aches or pains
- Still doing active stuff (pushing a lawnmower, skiing, fishing/crabbing, SUP, house projects…)
- Very interested in living a longer, healthier, and active life
We think more in terms of training movements than muscles. You could say that there are five basic human movements that are the foundation of functional training, all of which have practical application (these are the things you do with your body in the physical world):
- Squat
- Push
- Pull
- Split (lunge or step-up)
- Whole-Body (with proper core engagement)
As you train these movements, in different planes and combination, you develop a kind of strength and musculature that is practical and effective in life, and pleasing to the eye.
The exercises we select or create train your body to move well, under load, in multiple planes. You get training and practice at engaging multiple muscle groups, while maintaining proper alignment, through safe and efficient movement patterns. This is what your amazing human body is made for, and it enjoys it.
This is functional fitness and strength training that prepares you for life. You gain core stability, joint alignment, balance, mobility, and neuromuscular efficiency. You become less prone to falls, injuries, and diseases. You move with more poise, purpose and grace.
This kind of training has as much to do with t’ai chi or power yoga or chopping wood as it does with traditional weight training.
A proven result of functional fitness training, especially after age 50, is that it reduces, delays, or eliminates decreases in mobility, loss of strength and muscle mass, lack of energy, pains in your joints, loss of cognitive function, and other maladies associated with aging. It basically slows the aging process, significantly.
Focus, intensity, and an attitude of kindness and appreciation toward yourself and your body are also an important part of what we train.
Movement and breath are what distinguish the living from the dead. The more you move and the more you breathe, the more alive and vibrant you are.