My training philosophy has pretty much been consistent throughout my professional career
as I am not a competing or recreational athlete or member of any amateur sport team nor do I have the desire to be, I use the much dreaded term "functional" to my philosophy
Functional means different things to different people, to me and in line with what I have always preached as my own personal philosophy functional means direct application to everyday life!
as the majority of clients I work with are everyday people from all walks of life who generally want to improve their strength, fitness, posture, body composition, some play sports recreationally i.e. tennis, rugby, boxing, badminton, some climb, hike, take tai chi classes, swim, but some do none of these things some only do physical activity during our training sessions,
the rest of the time they are slaves to the desk the car and the daily grind that is life for many people today
so what do you consider functional for this type of client?
basic movements that are found in every day life, the Squat, the Push or Press, the Pull, the Hip Hinge, and my favorite and what I consider the most functional of all movements the Weighted carry
Think back over your life since childhood carrying your school bag to and from school and classrooms, I know as a child I hated being dragged to the local supermarket with my mum to help carry the shopping bags home!
who would have thought that 30 years later I would be strapping a weighted vest on and carrying the heaviest dumbbells and kettle bells I could find for distance just for fun!
how many times have you had to walk through an airport carrying your luggage?
that is what I mean by direct application and to me that is functional and what falls under the banner of G.P.P (general physical preparedness) if implementing some kind of farmers walk or weighted carry into a clients program helps them to perform more efficiently in their everyday life and makes that life that little bit easier then damn I think thats just about as functional as it gets!
For years prior to this I trained body part splits following old tried and tested bodybuilding routines this is fine if size aesthetics and proportion are your main goals but as the years past and yeah I got bigger and stronger I didn't necessarily perform better! in my never ending quest for mass I gained significant muscle mass but also significant fat and became less agile, slower, dare I say it less functional!
which became all to clear to me the day I tested my home made sled for the first time
I boldly laid out the drill, "10 double KB squat's with the 20's
then grab the sled (60kg) and drag it across the park then repeat the squats"
Too Easy!
Off to a good start
"Houston we have a problem"!
The THING basking in my utter failure and the knowledge
that conditioning is everything!
"Across the park" my Arse! this is the photo taken at about 50ft in to my drag! I was a crippled gasping lactic acid filled wreck
a dark day indeed
so did all those years of body part splits help with my general physical preparedness "HELL NO"!
There's a reason the forces make you do bodyweight drills and run assault courses with full packs and kit, to get your body working as a single unit!
So why not train that way? if the people we depend on to fight wars for us don't train in a gym why should we?
I'll admit this is a kind of rambling roundabout way of saying what I have always said on this blog get outside climb stuff throw stuff jump, squat, swing, and use your body the way it's supposed to be used as a single multi functional unit
Use big compound multi joint lifts the more joints involved in any single movement the more overall muscle recruitment there is, this way of training is beneficial for multiple goals be it strength, fat loss or fitness/conditioning you just tweak the variables! weight, reps, sets, rest periods, calorific intake
too suit your desired goal.
