What's new in exercise - part 1

Are you bored with the same old running on a treadmill or pedalling for endless miles on a stationary bike if so I’ll let you know the latest trends in the fitness industry which are going to keep you motivated for the months ahead.
Strangely enough in 2010 the fitness industry is taking a backwards step in time. Fortunately not back into the 80’s with lycra clad instructors. But back even further taking fitness to its primal roots. When humans first learnt to stand on two feet there were no treadmills, rowers or X trainer and they didn’t need to go the gym to get fit. They ran, jump, squatted, lunged, throw things, and picked up heavy objects and they were very lean and fit. Bring this forward to the 21 century we use the term functional training.
This basically means training the body in a way which serves a purpose. If you are a fire fighter you need to be able to carry heavy objects while breathing heavily. You could train for this by performing hill sprints carrying a weighted ruck sack. But what does that mean to the general population. Most people don’t have a physical job so why do you need to train functionally. Your body is designed to work as one unit so it should be trained that way. Working your body as a whole rather than isolating individual muscles on machines dramatically burns more calories as more muscles are being used at any one time, it’s great for improving cardio vascular fitness. Just try and dig a hole in your garden and see how out of breath you get. Not to mention the strength benefits you gain. Many people spend hours on the floor performing crunches trying to get the illusive flat stomach. Get up onto your feet adding a rotational movement whilst holding a weight is going to get you there a lot faster. Isolating the muscles leaves you open to muscular imbalances as areas of the body are neglected. Functional training leaves no muscles un worked therefore reducing the risk of injury Out goes the seated shoulder press machine in comes the single dumbbell clean and press (pick the weight up off the floor bending the knees with a straight back and lift it over head). In the next post I will give you the details in order for you to put functional training into practise.