The 7 Most Important Training Moves You Should Be Doing
If you want to adopt healthier habits, especially as the new year approaches, exercise is a great option. Exercising comes with a host of great benefits, but perhaps the most important is mobility. As we get older, it becomes harder for our bodies to carry bags of groceries, bend down to pick up children, and even get in and out of a chair. While you can’t completely avoid these changes to your body, there are a few key exercises you can do at least once a week to help you stay mobile and strong for decades to come.
Functional fitness refers to a form of training that prepares people for everyday life, with the aim of keeping you healthy, strong, mobile and cardiovascularly fit for as long as possible, even as you age and become more susceptible to injuries and degenerative diseases.
A big part of achieving that goal is incorporating functional movements, movements that translate into things you do regularly – like picking up a heavy box from the floor, getting in and out of your car, going up and down stairs. walk and jump over a puddle of water. Functional movements also translate into actions and activities that you may not encounter very often, but the strength will really come in handy when you do encounter them – such as pulling yourself over a fence or playing a sport.
Below I outline the seven most important functional movements that everyone, including yourself, should master. Then, if you want to take it a step further, consider one of these training apps to help you get started.
Read more: The most effective workouts to get in shape in the shortest time possible
Functional movements make life easier.
Elements of a functional exercise
A certain group of properties makes a movement truly functional. These exercises usually include:
- Use more than one joint (they are compound movements, not isolation movements).
- Recruit multiple muscle groups.
- Integrate movement in multiple planes (forward, backward, sideways, up and down).
- Use free weights (barbells, barbells and kettlebells) instead of machines.
- Builds strength, coordination and balance.
- Improve body awareness and joint range of motion.
Functional exercises train you to use your body as a system, as it is intended. That’s different from isolation exercises, like the leg extension machine, where you sit in a chair and isolate your quadriceps to shift weight. You’ll never mimic that movement in real life—your quads move along with your hamstrings, calves, glutes, and core.
Isolation exercises have their place: strengthening individual muscles can help people recover from injuries or correct muscle imbalances. However, functional movements are the most important, applicable and useful exercises to master.
Read more: Lifting Heavy Weights vs. Light Weights: Why One Isn’t Better Than the Other
The 7 functional movements you need to get strong
If you’re ready to get stronger, make daily activities easier and generally feel more capable in life, add these nine functional exercises to your gym routine. You can try them alone or as a circuit in any combination you like.
Keep in mind that if you are new to exercising or you are unsure about your form, it is always best to seek the help of a professional or an experienced friend who can show you how to do these movements safely execute.
One option is to try different functional fitness programs, such as CrossFit, F45 training, Barry’s Boot Camp And Opex Fitness if you don’t want to train alone.
Read more: How to create an exercise routine that you will actually stick to
1. Deadlifting
A personal trainer helping a client set up the deadlift.
Deadlifts are the most functional of all functional movements. Think about it: how often do you bend down to pick something up? Probably more than you realize. Every time you bend down to pick up a box, bag, child, small dog, or anything else, you are doing a deadlift. Or at least you should be.
Many people lift objects off the ground incorrectly, pulling solely with their back muscles instead of their legs and core. Getting started with weightlifting is easier than you might think. By practicing deadlifts in the gym, you can learn to pick things up with good form — hinging at the hips, keeping your core tight and flat, and recruiting your leg muscles. This reduces the risk of injury during a basic activity, such as packing your heavy suitcase at the baggage carousel at an airport.
Read more: These 20-minute HIIT workouts are all you need to get in shape
2. Squats
The back squat with the barbell.
Squats are second only to deadlifts as one of the most important functional movements. Squatting is a natural position for humans to achieve (think toddlers sitting in a perfect crouch), but unfortunately, most people lose the ability to squat with good form due to poor posture, too much sitting, and a lack of joint mobility.
When performed properly, the squat strengthens your quads, hamstrings, glutes, lower back and abs. If you perform poorly, you risk injury to any of these muscle groups. If you’re having trouble with squat form, you can start with assisted squats: Hold a Suspension Trainer or a sturdy object, such as the back of your bench, as you practice descending to full depth.
3. Overhead press
The overhead press strengthens your shoulders and protects your shoulder joints.
Also called “strict press” and “military press,” the overhead press involves extending your arms fully overhead with weight. You can use a barbell, dumbbells and even kettlebells for this. Some functional training plans want to take the real-life aspect even more seriously by having people press real-life objects, such as a sandbag or tree trunk, above their heads.
Just like with the deadlift, you probably perform the overhead press pattern more often than you think. Every time you reach up to put something away or take something down, you are pressing above your head. This movement not only translates substantially into everyday life, but also strengthens the major muscles of your shoulder, protecting the vulnerable joint underneath (your shoulder joints are very prone to injuries due to the highly mobile ball-and-socket structure).
4. Pull up
Pull-ups train your back, arms and core.
Pull-ups: Seemingly simple but notoriously difficult. While pull-ups don’t directly translate into a movement pattern that most people use in real life, the functional aspect comes from the fact that pull-ups are a multi-joint exercise that strengthens many muscle groups at once.
When performing a pull-up, you move through your shoulders, elbows and wrists and contract the muscles in your forearms, biceps, upper back and mid-back. Because pull-ups involve retraction of the shoulder blades (pulling the shoulders back and down – think of squeezing your shoulder blades together), they can help improve posture and reduce posture-related pain.
Additionally, many recreational activities benefit from pull-ups: You use your back and arm muscles when performing rowing or pulling movements, so mastering the pull-up can help you with hobbies like swimming, kayaking and rock climbing.
5. Pushups
Push-ups build strength in the chest, shoulders and core.
Another surprisingly difficult bodyweight move (who knew pushing your own body off the ground could be so difficult?), pushups mainly build strength in your chest, shoulders, triceps, and core.
This translates as pushing a heavy object, but the greater benefit comes from the ability to support your core in a vulnerable position, protecting your spine from unnatural and potentially damaging positions. If your hips sag or your back hyperextends during a pushup, it’s a sign that you need to work on core stabilization and strength.
If you can’t do standard push-ups (just toes and hands on the floor), start with modified push-ups on your knees. It’s best to practice with an easier version until your muscles, especially your core muscles, are strong enough to support your spine and maintain good form.
6. Falling out
Lunges translate to everyday activities, such as climbing stairs.
You might think of lunges as a good way to build muscle mass in your legs, and that’s true, but they offer more benefits than tight thighs. Like squats, lunges recruit the quads, hamstrings, glutes, core and lower back — the big difference is that lunges are a unilateral movement, while squats are a bilateral movement.
Unilateral is just a fancy way of saying “single-sided.” Lunges involve working one leg at a time, unlike squats, which work both legs at the same time. Plus, lunges recruit your calves, which plays a big role in translating to just about any activity that involves moving your legs.
Lunges can help you build strength for any activity that requires single-leg strength, or in general any time you find yourself needing to take a big step, such as standing on a platform or walking on a boulder steps. They also help with balance and stability, because working on one side of your body forces you to activate the stabilization muscles to keep your spine aligned.
7. Loaded carriers
Are you tired of having to make two trips to get the groceries? Add kettlebell carries to your gym routine.
Loaded carries, also known as farm carries, can prepare you for any question that requires you to carry heavy objects in your hands. You can perform loaded carries with dumbbells, kettlebells, or foreign objects, such as buckets full of water.
The advantages of loaded transport? Improved grip strength, upper back strength, shoulder stabilization and core stabilization. Another benefit that is sometimes overlooked is rotational resistance, or your ability to resist the weight of an object pulling your core in a certain direction. And of course carry all the groceries upstairs in one go.
