The Complete Guide to Functional Training

552 Pages·2012·13.21 MB·English

by  Allan Collins

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
FUNCTIONAL
TRAINING
Allan Collins
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 The basics of functional training
Chapter 2 Squat pattern
Chapter 3 Lift pattern
Chapter 4 Press pattern
Chapter 5 Pull pattern
Chapter 6 Rotation pattern
Chapter 7 Smash pattern
Chapter 8 Moving and carrying load pattern
Chapter 9 Gait and locomotion pattern
Chapter 10 Supplementary exercises
Chapter 11 Applied programmes
Acknowledgements
Footnotes
References
Introduction
The concept of functional training has been floating around the fitness industry
and among those involved in the strength and conditioning of athletes for many
years. It is one of the most dominant fitness concepts of the last 20 years, and
shows little sign of diminishing. Every manufacturer and retailer wants to
describe their products as ‘functional’, every instructor wants their personal
training sessions to be ‘functional’, and every training provider wants to teach
their concept of ‘functional training’. The definition of ‘functional’ refers to
something being able to fulfill its purpose or function, and so in relation to
exercise prescription or fitness, functional training could then be described as
training that means you are able to fulfill your purpose or function. A more
complete definition of functional training is:
The execution of specific exercises that have a positive carryover
or benefit to health or the performance of the person’s daily tasks,
their occupation or their sport, or for improved resilience to
injury.
Having studied the training methodologies popular today, it soon becomes clear
that there are still questions regarding functional training and there are many
conflicting opinions among the various training gurus including:
• Are bicep curls functional?
• Should seated leg extension and leg curl exercises be included within a
functional training programme?
• Do stability balls improve functional ability or not?
• Is the barbell bent over row one of the best pulling exercises?
• Should I squat all the way down, only to 90 degrees or with thighs parallel to
the floor?
These questions and many more will be addressed throughout this book to allow
the reader to truly understand what functional training means and how it is
effectively applied.
‘It is not the acquisition of knowledge that is important, it is more
the application of knowledge.’
1 The basics of Functional Training
There are many forms or methodologies of training that all claim to be
functional, yet they vary tremendously in exercise selection and programming.
These will all be discussed in greater detail further in this section but here are the
main types:
®
• Unstable surface training (using stability balls, BOSU , discs, foam pads,
etc.)
• Multi-planar training (such as the Gray Institute method of training, and the
various duplicates of this method)
• Olympic weightlifting (exercises such as the barbell snatch, clean and jerk,
modified Olympic lifts, Olympic pulls and assistance exercises)
• Unconventional training (using sandbags, conditioning ropes, hammers,
Indian clubs)
• Traditional resistance training (including freeweights and fixed path
machines)
• Modified strongman training (using sleds, log bars, super yokes, Atlas stones
and tyre flipping)
• Many other methodologies including kettlebell, medicine ball and bodyweight
suspension training.
In order to gain an understanding of how we should train, we need to understand
why we train the way that we currently do. There is a phrase that encapsulates
this notion: ‘to understand where you are going, you need to know where you
have been.’
A HISTORY OF TRAINING
‘Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’
George Santayana, 1905. The Life of Reason, Volume 1
GREEKS AND ROMANS
Functional training is not a new concept, in fact it has existed for thousands of
years. Fitness training originated from the need to improve the athletic
performance of soldiers. Ancient warriors and soldiers needed to combine both
strength and skill if they were to survive. They had to have the ability to fight in
hand-to-hand combat, to throw deadly weapons, to run towards battle or to ride
into battle. An unfit soldier who could not perform these skills in battle due to
lack of strength, power or endurance was not likely to survive for long out on the
battlefield. Therefore, fitness and strength endurance events were created to
provide the training necessary to survive long battles. This, in turn, led to the
creation of the ancient Olympics.
The ancient Olympians, such as Milo of Kroton, were not just professional
athletes, but were successful warriors foremost, whose notoriety in battle earned
them the right to compete at the Olympics. The ancient Olympics consisted of
very few events in comparison with the modern Olympics that we are all
familiar with. If a method of training did not improve a soldier’s ability to run
fast, jump high, fight or throw weapons, there was no reason for its inclusion.
The following list highlights the link between the events included in the ancient
Olympics and the skills needed for combat:
• Boxing
• Equestrian events (chariot racing, riding)
• Pankration (a type of ancient mixed martial arts)
• Pentathlon (a combined event of discus, javelin, jumping, running, wrestling)
Many of the fitness methodologies invented by the ancient Greeks and Romans
are still in use today.
VINTAGE TRAINING AND PHYSICAL CULTURE
Fitness did not change for many centuries, until the concept of physical culture
emerged in the late 1800s and early 1900s (what we now commonly refer to as
Vintage Training). Physical culture is a term applied to health and strength
training regimens, particularly those that originated during the 19th century, and
schools were founded in many countries including Russia, Germany,
Czechoslovakia, Sweden, England, America and Australia to name a few. The
schools developed as a result of the growing issues stemming from the Industrial
Revolution and the subsequent inactivity of proportions of the population
(particularly the middle classes), which was leading to an increase in sedentary
conditions and diseases.
Each school utilised a slightly different system of training, with influences
from dance, gymnastics, sports, military training and medical calisthenics
(bodyweight exercises for health improvements). The influence of Greek and
Roman models of strength and conditioning was still apparent.
The many physical culture systems also influenced today’s health and fitness
industry outside of the training methodologies, as practitioners began to promote
their methods through the sale of books, journals, equipment and nutrition
products. This helped to promote the benefits of physical culture to a mass
market. People were suddenly able to see physical culture as a means to
improving health, vitality and physical appearance and preventing disease.
Schools of physical culture became the template for today’s gyms and fitness
centres, and the common tools used by many of these systems were the key
ingredients in today’s concept of functional training, including dumbbells,
barbells, ropes, kettlebells, medicine balls and Indian clubs.
Figure 1.1 Example of Vintage Dumbbell and Kettlebell Designs
Combat training using boxing and wrestling still formed part of the fitness
systems practised. Probably the most famous of these methodologies was
invented by strongman Eugen Sandow and at the turn of the 20th century his
system enjoyed considerable international popularity. Sandow was an
accomplished gymnast and wrestler and under tutelage of Professor Attila he
became the father of modern bodybuilding. A pioneer in his field, he was
probably the first athlete to make a comfortable living through displaying his
muscular physique and considerable strength – he could perform a one arm bent
press of 269lbs and a one arm snatch of 180lbs. (Most athletic people today
cannot lift 180lbs (83kg) with two hands above their head in a snatch, while he
could lift and hold it with just one!)
Figure 1.2 Eugen Sandow, the father of modern bodybuilding.

Sandow created the Institute of Physical Culture, a gymnasium for
bodybuilders, in London in 1897; he trained King George V; he wrote a monthly
magazine and a number of books; he invented patented exercise machines and
had his own range of dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells; and he even produced
his own fitness drink called Sandow’s Health & Strength Cocoa! His physique
was considered the epitome of masculinity and strength, and he was
photographed many times and replicated in statues, mimicking the ‘ideal’ male
proportions of statues created by such classical artists as Michaelangelo. Since
1977, the International Federation of Bodybuilding & Fitness (IFBB) has
celebrated Eugen Sandow’s contribution to the sport by presenting his trophy,
the Sandow (a foot-high statue in his image), to the winner of the largest
international bodybuilding competition, the Mr. Olympia.
Over the years the concept of improving health through lifting weights,
demonstrating integrated strength and power with ‘feats of strength’ and a
principle of lifting weights through specific movement has come to underpin the
basics of functional training. Rather than training by muscles (arm, hamstring
exercises, etc.) all of these muscles would be trained if all the movement patterns
were worked, therefore allowing the muscles to take care of themselves. The
principles, equipment and methods that worked so well in improving the health,
physique and performance of clients a hundred years ago can still achieve results
in athletes today.
Over this period the exercises used in lifting competitions (bent press, side
press, one arm snatch) have been replaced by what we see today in modern
Olympic Weightlifting competitions – the two hand clean and jerk and two hand
snatch.
BODYBUILDING AND POWERLIFTING
Two of the main influences on how we exercise today are modern bodybuilding
and powerlifting. Massive progressions in scientific understanding and applied
knowledge have arisen from these disciplines and without them our ability to
train clients for improved strength, size and power would be diminished.
However, these disciplines can be considered in part to have also had a negative
impact on modern functional fitness. Although modern bodybuilding and
powerlifting may have brought us techniques like progressive resistance training
(chains and bands), the development of fixed path machines for isolation of
muscles for development, and a wealth of scientific research, some of these (like
an overreliance on fixed path machines) have brought us away from some
effective, basic ideas that were used for hundreds if not thousands of years since
the evolution of strength and conditioning.
Bodybuilding has evolved a great deal since the first strongmen and
bodybuilders such as Sandow, Charles Atlas and Arthur Saxon trained primal
movements with basic freeweights, bodyweight and wrestling. The sport again
gained in popularity during the seventies when Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou
Ferrigno and Franco Columbu reigned supreme, and it has continued to attract
attention in recent decades with stars such as Dorian Yates and Ronnie Coleman.
Over these years though the physiques have changed from what is possible with
diet and freeweights to today’s exaggerated development with fixed path
machines and the proliferation of steroids in professional bodybuilding.
During the 1960s and 1970s, bodybuilders’ training regimes consisted of a
staple of those foundation exercises known to improve physical development:
squats, deadlifts, presses and pull-ups. However, the development of Nautilus
resistance machines changed the face of bodybuilding. These fixed path
machines allowed for a greater neural drive to a particular area, meaning
bodybuilders were able to isolate a muscle for increased hypertrophy. Neural
drive relates to the number of motor units activated by the nervous system – on a
fixed path machine less neural energy is required by stabilisers or balance
muscles (because you are seated) and therefore more energy can be focused on
the agonist muscles (the prime movers) for greater motor unit activation and to
allow more weight to be lifted. This is commonly seen with the barbell bench
press and Smith Machine – although the exercises seem identical, more weight is
lifted using the Smith Machine because there is less shoulder stabilisation
required and no balancing of the bar. This is great to overload the agonist
muscles, but not so great for function, which usually requires the agonists to
work with these other muscles for functional movements. Unfortunately many
trainers and gym users overrely on these types of machines, and cannot
understand why this type of training does not improve the body’s (integrated)
functional ability.
In photographs for many fitness and bodybuilding magazines, certain
isolation and fixed path exercises were found to show bodybuilders’ muscles at
their best, meaning these particular exercises gradually became known as being
the best for hypertrophy, whether they were actually used in training by that
bodybuilder or not. This skewed the opinions of the average exercise to believe
that these exercises were superior to others for the development of strength or
size, such as the leg extension being preferable to a barbell squat.
The concept of isolation, split routines and selecting certain exercises to work
individual muscles have become fundamental principles in fitness training today.
Gym instructors and personal trainers are trained to write a resistance
programme that works the muscles of the chest, back, shoulders, arms, core,
legs, hips and calves, with exercises selected to specifically target these muscles.
This method, although common practice, contradicts many of the early fitness
concepts. Arthur Saxon wrote The Development of Physical Power in 1905,
noting in the introduction: ‘I shall teach you to judge a man by his capabilities as
an athlete, whether a weightlifter, wrestler or not, and not by the measurements
of his biceps and chest… My idea will be, and always has been, to leave the
muscles to look after themselves.’
In addition, many male gym-goers place an emphasis on the development of
chest, shoulder and arm muscles, usually via an overreliance on bench pressing,
and not on a well-rounded development of muscle mass (the symmetry that is
usually sought in bodybuilding). Excessive overreliance of the Barbell Bench
Press to develop the pushing muscles seems to have a correlation with anterior
shoulder problems, and will affect the normal biomechanics of gleno-humeral
movement while pressing. Standing Overhead Pressing requires leg strength, hip