What the Heck is Functional Fitness?

If I were to ask you to name the “types” of workouts, you would probably name the top two: cardio and strength. And if you’ve been hanging around me long enough, you may even add mobility and flexibility… But what about functional fitness? Despite having been around for over a century in various forms, the term “functional fitness” still isn’t on most people’s radar, though we should all be doing it. 

What is Functional Fitness?

The simplest definition of functional fitness is that it prepares your body for everyday activities and movements. It teaches and strengthens your muscles and joints to work together and builds strength, mobility, and stability. Functional fitness exists to help your body perform at its best, no matter what you’re doing. Does this sound familiar to you? It should, because Pilates is a form of functional fitness, too. 

Functional fitness isn’t a new thing, though it seems to be making a comeback of sorts. Modern gymnastics began in the 1800s and calisthenics in the early 1900s. Both of these use bodyweight exercises to get stronger and more flexible. Then in the 1920s came Joseph Pilates and Contrology, which is now just known as “Pilates”. Finally, you may have already experienced functional fitness training if you’ve worked with a kinesiologist or physiotherapist. It was a combination of learning Pilates and meeting a specific kinesiologist that helped me understand the importance of functional training for everyone.

Before Functional Fitness

I started teaching aerobics classes in 1992. This included HiLo classes, TBC (Total Body Conditioning), Body Sculpt, FatBurner, Step, and combinations of all of them. There were a lot of “fitness rules” to follow then, and (of course) they changed over time. I was a rule follower and did what I was taught, mostly because I was young and still had a lot of learning to do. I recall being told not to squat past 90 degrees, to not lower our hands behind the head when doing a lat pulldown, and even to not do high knees past 90 degrees. 

These rules were meant to prevent injury but think about sitting on the floor. How can you get down or get back up if you don’t have the strength or mobility to bend your leg past 90 degrees? Functional fitness helps us to keep doing all the things our bodies need to be able to do in the day, like reaching the top shelf at the grocery store. This might require you to step up on the bottom shelf, and reach above your head. You’ll need balance, a strong core, shoulder mobility, and grip strength. I love a good cardio workout, but doing aerobics every day won’t help you reach that cereal box on the top shelf. 

How I Found Functional Fitness

Learning Pilates opened my eyes and taught me so much about how the body moves and how to help it move better. It also helped me to discover the new-to-me way of strength training called functional fitness around 2009. This is when I met a trainer who had a Kinesiology degree. He’d spend years helping to rehab clients from injuries using functional movements. As I trained with him, there were so many exercises he’d show me that were also Pilates exercises. A TRX body saw is the same as the long stretch on the reformer, for example. 

Functional fitness training uses a lot of body weight but also an array of resistance apparatuses and weights. Pilates also uses body weight and apparatuses with springs to add resistance. They both help your body gain strength, stability, and mobility. 

Why It Works

My physiotherapist reached out to me recently because she was so impressed with my success at healing myself from a heel spur and plantar fasciitis. In the beginning, everything hurt: walking, standing, running. I had started to think I’d never run again! Now, I’m 100% pain-free, and she wanted to know what had helped me the most. 

I added in extra exercises to stretch my calves and the soles of my feet, but I got the most pain relief from doing a full body workout – either functional strength or Pilates. The warmups I did helped a lot too, because they warm up the joints before adding any weight. (I follow the same warmups that are in Sweat with Melissa.) After a full body workout, everything in my body felt better, even the most painful spots in my feet. 

Functional fitness and my experiences over the years, like with my feet, have reinforced for me that everything in our bodies is connected. By moving my body consistently and working a bit extra on my weak areas, I healed (heeled?) my foot pain and I’m running again. 

Functional fitness is essential to help you keep moving and doing all the things you love, whether it’s golf, weight lifting, lifting your grandchildren, gardening, running, or all of them! 
Incorporate functional fitness into your routine with the Sweat with Melissa app, which has a library of both Pilates and functional strength exercises, with new ones added all the time.