Functional Strength Training 101: Build Strength, Muscle, and Stability
Functional strength training trains for real-life movements through compound exercises, delivering benefits across strength, mobility, and balance simultaneously. This approach integrates multiple muscle groups, offering more comprehensive training than isolation exercises.
What is Functional Strength Training?
Functional strength training is an exercise approach that focuses on real-life movements. Instead of isolating a specific muscle, functional training incorporates multiple muscles and joints to execute a full, complex movement pattern.
As a term, functional training is heavily misused, overused, and oversimplified. There is no fine line dividing different training protocols, or types of exercises as functional or non-functional. Most ways of exercise have some goal in mind, whether that’s enhancing flexibility, muscle strength, or aerobic endurance, all of which have some function.
Generally, exercises that improve the performance in real-life movements are thought of as functional. These include carrying objects, climbing stairs, picking up heavy objects, maintaining balance, etc. For better understanding, splitting exercises into planes of complexity simplifies things.
- Level 1: isolation exercise like biceps curl
- Level 2: compound exercise like deadlift
- Level 3: complex exercise like explosive lunge landmine press
Level 1: Isolation
Even level 1, isolation exercise like biceps curl has function. It assists in muscle growth and pulling motions, however non-functional it seems.
Level 2: Compound
Compound exercises like squats or deadlift are higher on the spectrum of functionality, as they mimic executing a real movement, like getting up from the couch. This requires co-activation, stabilization, engages larger muscle mass, and increases strength.
Level 3: Athletic
The third level, as a complex movement pattern, puts more emphasis on coordination, technique, and execution. It teaches the body to stand up from a lunge, push a heavy object overhead, jump, and stabilize the landing.
The spectrum of functionality is debatable. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll define functional training as an exercise approach that improves one’s ability to execute real-life movement patterns.
Benefits of Functional Training
The efficiency in functional strength training lies in training multiple abilities at once, although suboptimally.
Let’s take the squat for example. It engages multiple muscle groups at once, increases CNS activation, improves joint mobility while enhancing coordination and balance to stay upright.
Here are the numerous aspects functional strength training can help develop:
Strength
Builds functional muscle strength in the specific movement, which is typically compound, translating to numerous movements that engage the same muscles.
Mobility
Emphasizes full range of motion in exercises, improving joint function and movement capabilities.
Cardiovascular Fitness
Many functional exercises involve continuous movement that elevates heart rate and improves cardiorespiratory endurance, partly due to a larger muscle mass being activated.
Balance and Stability
Challenges the body’s ability to maintain balance by coactivating numerous stabilizing muscles, improving overall stability during movement.
Coordination
Requires the integration of multiple muscle groups working together in a proper sequence, enhancing neuromuscular control.
Core Strength
Almost all functional movements engage the core muscles, improving posture and spinal stability.
Functional Movement Patterns
Functional training typically incorporates these fundamental movement patterns:
- Squatting: Mimics sitting down and standing up, strengthening the lower body while improving hip mobility. Examples include bodyweight squats, goblet squats, and split squats.
- Hinging: Involves bending at the hips while maintaining a neutral spine, similar to lifting something from the ground, or essentially extending through our hips to stand straight up. Deadlifts and kettlebell swings are common examples.
- Pushing and Pulling: Replicates movements like pushing open a door or pulling it closed. Push-ups, chest presses, rows, and pull-ups fall into this category.
- Rotating: Involves twisting movements essential for core stability, aiding in many, many daily activities and sports. Medicine ball rotational throws and Russian twists train this pattern.
- Carrying: Trains grip strength, holding, and moving objects while walking. Farmer’s walks and suitcase carries are excellent functional exercises.
- Lunging: Mimics walking up stairs or stepping over obstacles. Forward, reverse, and lateral lunges train this pattern.
These movement patterns can be combined or adapted, done single-side, double-side, or diagonal. There is no shortage of exercises, each with its unique function.
Traditional vs functional strength training?
Traditional strength training often focuses of isolation of compound movements, respecting the principle of progressive overload to gain muscle or increase strength, primarily. Functional movement training emphasizes building inter-muscular coordination to teach efficient movement, using principles of elasticity, force transfer and co-activation.
Is functional training the same as HIIT?
No. While both can be high-intensity, HIIT is primarily about cardio intervals with work/rest periods for cardiovascular benefits. Functional training focuses on movement patterns that translate to daily activities, regardless of intensity level.
What are the 7 movements of functional training?
The seven fundamental movement patterns are
- Squatting
- Hinging
- Pushing
- Pulling
- Rotating
- Carrying
- Lunging
Functional Exercises
The basic functional exercises important to gain fundamental strength and develop the basic movement patterns include typical compound exercises like the squat, deadlift, overhead or bench press, and vertical or horizontal rowing.
Squat
The squat is a fundamental movement pattern that requires multiple joint and muscle integration, primarily engaging your lower body and core muscles.
How it’s performed
- Stand with feet shoulder-width apart
- Push your hips back and bend your knees
- Lower your body as if sitting in a chair
- Keep your chest up and back straight
- Descend until thighs are parallel to the ground (or as low as mobility allows)
- Push through your heels to return to standing position
Squats target the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and core muscles.
Real-life translation: Squats mimic everyday movements like sitting down and standing up, climbing stairs, and picking up objects from the floor.
Alternatives: Front squats, goblet squats, box squats, Bulgarian split squats, and bodyweight squats.
Deadlift
The deadlift is a compound movement that involves lifting a weight from the ground to a standing position, primarily training the posterior chain.
How it’s performed
- until correct technique is mastered, doing it weight-free, or with a light kettlebell is recommended
- Stand with feet hip-width apart, with the barbell over mid-foot
- Slowly bend at the hips, developing tension in your gluteus and hamstrings
- Once at partially stretched levels, grip the barbell (or kettlebell)
- Keep your back straight and chest up, tighten the core
- Focus on driving through the full feet, extending from the hips
- Pull the weight up in a straight line until standing fully erect
- Return the weight to the ground with controlled movement
Hip extension is critical for lowering low-back pain, improving posture, and athletic performance. Most imbalances that increase the low-back arch come due to inability to activate the gluteus and hamstrings correctly, to extend through the hip.
The deadlift targets the glutes, hamstrings, lower back, traps, and core.
Real-life translation: The deadlift trains hip extension which is needed when standing, walking, hiking, or picking up objects from the floor. It’s the most functional on the spectrum, translating in essential daily movements.
Alternatives: Romanian deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, trap bar deadlifts, single-leg deadlifts, and kettlebell deadlifts.
Pulling
Rowing is an exercise that emphasizes pulling an object or weight towards your body, by engaging crucial back muscles that assist with pulling.
There is horizontal or vertical rowing, which slightly changes which pulling muscles dominate.
How it’s performed (two-hand horizontal row)
- Stand in front of a cable machine, cable at chest height.
- Grab the handles with a neutral grip.
- Feet shoulder-width apart, slight bend in knees.
- Hinge forward at hips, back straight, arms extended.
- Engage core, chest up, shoulders back.
- Pull handles towards lower ribs, leading with elbows.
- Squeeze back muscles at the end of the pull.
- Slowly return to start, maintaining tension.
Rowing typically translates in pulling motions, like opening a heavy door. It’s more multifaceted than that, contributing to shoulder stabilization, supporting various movements within the shoulder while also strengthening the back which helps one keep a straight posture.
It activates the back part of the shoulder, posterior deltoid, and numerous back muscles like latissimus, rhomboids, and lower trapezoid.
Alternatives: Cable rows, single arm dumbbell rows, TRX rows, inverted rows, and band-resisted rows.
Pressing
Pressing exercises involve pushing a weight away from the body. It can be done horizontally, like a bench press or vertically overhead, such as push press.
How it’s performed (Overhead Press example)
- Start with barbell (or dumbbells) at shoulder height
- Feet shoulder-width apart, slightly bent knees, hips extended
- Slowly press the bar overhead with the arms fully extending
- Palms vertically over the shoulder, not forward or on the side
- Lower the weight back slowly to shoulder height in a controlled manner
What it trains: Pressing movements target the shoulders, triceps, upper chest, and core. They develop upper body strength, power, and stability. As pulling motions, they help develop numerous aspects of shoulder strength and functionality, translating in anything from scratching your back to positioning a heavy object on a high shelf.
Alternatives: Overhead press, Single-arm push press, landmine press, and dumbbell shoulder press.
Anti-Rotation
Anti-rotation exercises focus on resisting rotational forces rather than creating them, training the core to stabilize the spine.
How it’s performed (Pallof Press example)
- Stand perpendicular to a cable machine or resistance band
- Hold the handle at chest height with both hands
- Step away to create tension
- Press the handle straight out, resisting the rotational pull
- Hold briefly, then return to chest
- Maintain a stable torso throughout the movement
What it trains: Anti-rotation exercises target the obliques, transverse abdominis, and other core stabilizers. They enhance core stability, balance, coordination, and functional strength by training the body to resist unwanted movement, and stabilize the spine.
Real-life translation: Anti-rotation strength is crucial for everyday activities like carrying uneven loads (grocery bags on one side), reaching for objects while maintaining balance, or resisting forces that could throw you off balance.
Alternatives: Pallof press, bird dog, single-arm farmer’s carry, plank with shoulder taps, and renegade rows.
Beyond these basic compound exercises, there are combined movements that tackle muscular deficit, improve balance and coordination, while training the correct movement technique. These are mainly done at lower loads, with more emphasis on technique and proper neuromuscular activation, or sequence.
Examples would include:
- Hip extension pulley
- Landmine Lunge Press + Jump
- SL deadlift + Push press
- Lunge Medicine Ball: Pick Up, Rotate, and Throw
Due to the technical difficulty, it’s ineffective to go into how to perform, as these need to be taught by a certified professional.
Gain Functional Strength
One can gain absolute strength, or functional strength. In the first few phases of training, when one trains with weights below 1-1.5 their bodyweight, typically for squats and deadlifts, the line between the two is blurred.
Gaining any strength for someone who can’t lift 30 kg on the squat, is functional strength, it translates in real-life movement. Progressions vary amongst individuals, but it is safe to assume that there is a certain set point of strength which is not worth going over. Excessive, or suprahuman loads do increase the pressure on the spine, knees, and hips to an amount that’s questionable, whether it is worth it.
Now this mainly applies to people competing in strength, or trying to lift suprahuman loads, being biased that more is better, and is essential for health.
Bilateral exercises require larger absolute weight which can increase pressure on the spine and the hips. One trains to be able to resist such weight, however, it’s important to note that is effective to some degree.
Humans are not made to lift excessively heavy loads, and once one progresses to weights like 1-2 their bodyweight on squats and deadlifts, it may not be smart, or needed to push over these levels. With higher weight the risk becomes higher, and the relative return on investment (ROI) lower.
If one seeks novelty, or different set of progressions in the gym, increasing the load is not necessarily the only idea. One can de-load and focus on technique, while slowing the reps down, increasing time under tension (TUT). Another option is integrating your strength into complex movements. Like a heavy squat is good, but can we jump from a lunge position explosively and switch stance?
So gaining absolute strength = gaining functional strength, in the first phases of training. Once one reaches significant strength via proper progressions, at a given set point of strength, increasing the load further reduces ROI while increasing risk of injury.
Can you build muscle with functional training?
Yes. Functional training engages multiple muscle groups through compound movements, stimulating muscle growth. While perhaps not as targeted as bodybuilding routines, functional training can result in increased muscle mass, provided progressive overload and calorie surplus is applied with sufficient recovery.
Is functional training better than weight lifting?
Neither is “better” – they serve different purposes, and lifting weights can be functional training.
Functional training is superior for developing real-life movement capabilities and integrated strength. Traditional weightlifting is better for increasing maximal strength or building muscle. The optimal approach depends on individual goals and can include elements of both.
