After all this, a layout of movements has been put together along with why their important and what they represent in our daily life. Next, we will take a quick look into who’s trending around social media in terms of Instagram as an example to help whoever reads this with the knowledge to add advanced movements to match these 7 functional movements and add variety to basic movements. Finishing with the benefits that can be achieved by using functional movements as a way of training our body's to suit everyday tasks.
Testing functional screening
What is this you may ask, well take a seat and have a quick read? To start this screening is used by gyms and sports clubs all over the world, why, well to screen a person and understand their movement patterns, maybe even mobility flaws. Such clubs as Bayern Munich used this for testing players. So by looking at Functional movement screening we can see what movements are used and their standards for scoring this process. This movement screening can be done in a short period of time even at home with some help as not much equipment is needed to perform this test. Before starting functional movements as an exercise program, by performing this test you can understand any faults and repeat the test after an exercise block to measure the difference.
Verbal functional movement
The following article is comprised of information based on young players in a premier league team and shows the results based on FMS testing and why functional movements are so important even for sports players.
FMS testing in Elite young soccer players
- Deep squat
- Hurdle step
- In-line hinge
- Active straight leg raise
- Trunk stability push-up
- Rotary stability
- Shoulder mobility
7 essential functional movement exercises
- Squat
- Lunge
- Hinge
- Push
- Pull
- Rotate
- Walk
7 movements that match everyday actions
The movements to follow I have put together for the reading from my own personal coaching background of working with individuals that may have never been inside a gym before but want that active side to life to benefit from the awards of using such movements.
Lunges
Using bodyweight lunges to strengthen up our legs and core, to help us with doing everyday movements like tying our laces from getting in and out of this position. Yes, guys as it goes never skip leg day. These movements are easy to learn and can be done anywhere from home to the workplace, helping you pick up and put down objects safely. By keeping good posture and driving up through our legs.
So another lower body movement for the leg day lovers and squats are definitely a great exercise to add in. they hit all the major muscle groups in the lower body and can be a great method of keeping good posture while picking up and placing objects back into place. Weights can be added to making this movement more challenging from front to back squats or keeping it basic with the air squat for working on a good range of motion.
Aw, not another push-up! Says everyone in the class, but are they actually helping with the quality of life we live. For example, imagine falling and not being able to get back up well here’s where that one rep really comes into effect. So we all may not be the next Rocky in the making but, at least we can try for that one rep that counts.
So here's to the power of pulling literally!!! So maybe pull-ups are out of the question but how about the scaled-down version, to have the strength to pull yourself out of bed or pulling yourself off the chair after binging on too much Netflix's. This type of pulling power helps assist with the posterior and shoulder development and reduce the risk of injury but may not be a great chat up line like how many pull-ups can you do.
Now after looking at some upper and lower body movements here’s where we look at the part of the body that holds everything together the plank or in gym terms “has that been a minute yet. Coach: no only 20 seconds”. Queue the guy shaking waiting for the minute to be up. Well, this is where the plank brings all those muscles around the spine into play to strengthen up your posture. So this movement can help that person in the chair sit up nice and strong and proud.
Most may ask why do we use this well have you ever seen this person walking down the street maybe that’s because of a lack of hip/pelvis strength. So not just for twerking on the dance floor but these movements help strengthen the glutes that pull lower back muscles into place along with strengthening that spine. Not sold on this idea well why not check out this link to back up such method’s for fixing pelvic tilts and why they occur.
Why use the deadlift well this movement incorporates more muscles into action than the squat and when performed properly can improve strength in our posture. How you may ask well it uses our upper body muscles to pull, our lower body to drive through our legs and our core to hold everything strong in place while lifting. Where do we see this in everyday day life's maybe you work in a factory and need that strength for picking objects off the ground safely?
Benefits of functional movements
- Increase the ease of everyday life- targets movements that are a part of our daily, unlike most training styles.
- Greater muscle memory- the more you perform a movement that better your brain response to this movement.
- Low impact- by keeping the weights low and the movements less complex this allows these exercise easy for beginners to learn and perfect.
- Increases flexibility and coordination- as all the movements involved will cause a greater range of motion, this can result in the muscles being stretched longer and resulting in daily tasks becoming easier to achieve.
- Improve balance and posture- because these exercises tend not to be stabilized it means smaller muscle groups are recruited to support larger muscle groups and therefore build balance across all muscles to achieve better posture.
- Helps with joint pain- this can be seen in daily life’s people bending over to pick up objects. By using functional movements like squats and deadlifts we can better use our joints to support appropriate lifting mechanisms.
Author: Darren Sloan
4th Year Recreation and Sport Management Student