Build a Strong Foundation with Functional Strength Training

By: Gabriela Murza, MS, MCHES, Professional Practice Extension Assistant Professor, Health and Wellness/HEART Initiative

Women Lifting Weight

If exercising or getting physically fit is one of your 2024 goals, you’re not alone! Forty-eight percent of respondents indicated on a poll conducted by Forbes Health/OnePoll that improving fitness was at the top of their list (Lloyd & DiGiacinto, 2023). A comprehensive fitness plan includes exercises that help build strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility because they build upon one another to improve our ability to do daily tasks and can improve overall health (National Institute on Aging, 2021).

Results from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey found that 31% of respondents aged 18 and older met muscle-strengthening guidelines while 47% met aerobic guidelines, both as part of a comprehensive fitness plan or as a solo focus (Elgaddal, Kramarow, & Reuben, 2022). The most recent Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend including muscle-strengthening activities at least two days a week (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). One way to work it into your fitness plan is to consider functional strength training.

Functional strength training helps improve the body’s natural movements so you can accomplish tasks safely and easily, like carrying groceries, picking up a child, putting luggage in an overhead bin on an airplane, and walking up and down stairs (Kamb, 2023). These foundational movements are pushing, pulling, picking up and putting down something, stepping up and down, hinging at the hips, rotating, and gait/walking (Mahaffey, 2022). All exercises are a variation of these movements and either incorporate multiple muscles (compound exercises) or specific muscles (isolation exercises) (Spratt, 2022).

If you are new to strength training, experts suggest starting with functional strength training using compound exercises because they work multiple muscles at the same time, provide a full-body workout, show benefits even when performed using body weight, and are less likely to lead to injury as can occur from overworking one muscle with an isolation exercise (Hopes, 2022; Spratt, 2022).

What would a functional strength training routine look like? The authors referenced in the article provide example routines and exercises that can be done using body weight, free weights, and weight machines. If you’re new to strength training, starting with your body weight is ideal because it’s easier to learn how to perform exercises correctly, which minimizes injury, and then you can add free weights (Lawler, 2023). If you are going to use weight machines at a gym, ask an employee or fitness trainer to walk you through using them correctly so you know how to adjust the movable parts, like the seat, back rest, leg rest, and weight plates. You can also start working with a personal trainer who will create an exercise plan that’s right for your abilities and goals.

Check with your medical provider to make sure it is safe to start a strength training program. They can provide guidance if you have certain injuries or needs that prevent you from doing specific exercises.

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