Strictly speaking, something is “functional” if it serves a purpose, role, or function. In terms of sports performance, I label an exercise as functional if it improves an athlete's ability to function in their chosen activity. This can be very sport-specific. For example, if you play tennis a chin-up is a highly functional exercise. Within a few weeks of beginning a chin-up program you will add significant speed to your serve and significantly improve your ability to “function” on the courts. For long distance road cyclists the same program of chin-ups would likely be very counter productive as the upper body hypertrophy could decrease performance.
If you train for general fitness and your sport is life, than evaluate things activities are challenging for you and determine what exercises can help improve your function in those particular activities. If you are eighty years old and have trouble getting up from a seated position a heavy dose of bench squats would be highly functional. If you travel for work and carry a heavy suitcase all over the country, farmer’s walk and suitcase deadlifts would be more functional choices.
That being said, certain tools are extremely versatile and can be used to improve function for many types of athletes and regular people alike. The following are some of my favorites in no particular order:
Kettlebells
The five minute kettlebell snatch test (along with hill sprints and Tabata protocol rower intervals) is one of the most demanding and time efficient anaerobic workouts one can perform. And life is an anaerobic sport. Think about it: running up the stairs, sprinting with you luggage in an airport to try and make it to the gate on time, moving furniture in your new house, even carrying your laundry basket from your laundry room to the bedroom are all anaerobic activities.
Swings, cleans, & snatches also increase glute strength and psoas flexibility, both common problems in our country. Correcting these common weaknesses can improve running speed, jumping ability, and lower back health.
Kettlebells can also be used to provide variety on almost any basic movement such as front squats and military presses.
Hex Bar
A Hex bar is an indispensable tool that will allow almost anyone to deadlift with proper technique. The deadlift is one of the most functional movements around. Everyone needs to pick something up off the ground at some point, and learning how to do this with proper technique and in good position to protect your back is crucial.
The unique shape of the bar helps keep the load centered through body’s midline, reducing stress on the lower back. And the two-handle option helps to accommodate taller people and people with poor calf, hamstring, and hip flexibility.
As either a tool to teach proper deadlifting technique or as a source of variety for a more advanced athlete, the Hex Bar can’t be beat.
Dragging Sled
The dragging sled is a particularly useful tool for increasing work capacity and rehabbing injuries. Because exercises performed using the sled involve only concentric muscle contractions there is virtually no soreness associated with sled workouts.
People with knee pain on squats and lunges can easily perform a backwards sled drag pain free. Most of the work is handled by the vastus medialis, the chronically underdeveloped head of the quadriceps muscle.
Some other more specialized tools we utilize at Kuzora Fitness are sand bags, strongman logs, an atlas stone, thick handled barbells, and my personal favorite, the half filled keg. Watch this video and you can easily see how lifting that over you head will build significantly more functional strength and core stability than the contra-lateral single arm DB overhead press standing on one leg on the BOSU!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q9-N_zNZlw&feature=player_embedded
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