Functional Training Shouldn't Mean "Light Weight": 5 Exercises to Go Heavy On

For me the term functional exercise is a bit of an oxymoron. Every exercise you do should have some translation to what you are doing day to day or you shouldn’t be doing it. For some the term functional may invoke images of lots of body weight work, light lifting, maybe some crawling around on the ground. While some of this may be necessary, once you have mastered the basics you should be cleared to do what your body was made for and that includes performing work and moving heavy stuff!

Here are 5 exercises that you should be loading up on a regular basis to build a strong body.

1. Dead lift: This one is elementary and should be on the top of everyone's list. If someone tells you that you shouldn’t be dead lifting, find out why immediately and then fix that problem.The dead lift taxes almost every muscle in the body and will be the movement that you will be able to move the most amount of weight on.

2. Walking Lunges: More dynamic than a traditional squat since you will be moving, which challenges your stability, you will also have to decelerate your body weight moving forward to put you in a good lunging position which challenges your muscles in ways stationary squats cannot.  By holding dumbbells down at your side you’ll begin to load this exercise and keep your center of gravity low. I like you use the reference of two 5 gallon buckets of water which will weigh around 35 pounds as a starting point when proper mechanic are in place. Take 10 steps down and back.

3. Farmers Walk or Heavy Dumbbell Hold: After you pick that heavy stuff up most of the time you will have to move it from point A to point B. A farmers walk will load the the trunk, arms, legs and train the grip. When a challenging weight or distance is applied the heart rate will jump and is a great substitute for your typical cardio. Get the benefit of training an unbreakable grip with some heavy dumbbell holds at the end of a training session. Grab a set and see how long you can hold on.

4. Overhead Press: Superior to the bench press in terms of function since it loads the entire body, You’ll find you yourself pushing weight overhead more often on a day to day basis than laying on your back pressing something up. An adult male should be able to press his body weight for 1 rep overhead. If you can’t do this your two options are get stronger or get lighter.

5. Dumbbell Rows: I would suggest doing these one arm at a time and without the benefit of having a bench or some other piece of equipment helping to support your body weight. Split your stance ,go heavy, stay as strict as possible but use a little body english to help with the last few if needed.

Group these movements together for a great workout:

5 Sets

Farmers Walk: 100’

Dead lift: x5

Overhead Press: x5

Walking lunges:10 steps each leg

Dumbbell Rows: x5

Recovery Tip: Homemade Heat Compress

From time to time aches and pains will pop up whether they be from training, sport or other daily activities. Many times one of the remedies we turn to is a cold compress to reduce swelling and numb pain. Most of us have either an ice pack or just plain old ice we can put in a ziploc bag to accomplish that. Other times the remedy will call for a heat compress and you are less likely to have one of these handy around the house but you probably have what you need to make a homemade heat compress in a few easy steps.

1. Find a mismatched sock in your sock draw (everyone has one of these somewhere.)

2. Fill the sock with 1-2 cups of rice. (add a spice such as cinnamon or mint for an aroma-therapeutic effect.)

3. Pop the sock in the microwave for about 1 minute and apply to the area that needs heat

Are You Up for the Challenge?

An uncommon phenomenon happened this past weekend, I was able to spend a Saturday night with my wife completely free of children and wake up in the morning in that same state of delirium.

We spend our last free weekend, and really one of our only, in Lake George, NY enjoying the carnival like atmosphere of the village on Saturday night and waking up Sunday morning to do some “”back to school” shopping in the outlet centers located there.

We made a stop in the Reebok outlet. Reebok is a huge sponsor for the Crossfit brand producing athletic apparel and footwear specific to the sport. When I walked into the store a local crossfit gym had set up a display near the entrance. There were barbells, plyo boxes and other apparatus, it immediately grabbed my attention and naturally I levitated towards it to see what was going on. The promotion was “do 5 burpees and receive a $30 coupon for a $100 purchase”. Pretty much a no brainer, I would have done them even if there was no offer.

I looked at the leader board and the current score to beat was 22 burpees. I looked at the coaches and jokingly remarked, “It’s 11am and the most burpees you’ve been able to get out of anyone is 22?” Well I wanted to see if we could do a little better than but I wasn’t going to do it alone. I asked one of the coaches there if he’d like to join me. We are now turning a leisurely shopping experience into a competition. I would probably go shopping a bit more if this were always the case.

After setting up some ground rules for the way the burpees would be graded we agreed to put our max effort forth and perform a continuous 1 minute of burpees. I kicked off my flip flops, the buzzer sounded and we set off on a torrid pace. Between the two of us we complied 73 burpees in the 60 seconds! We stood up congratulated each other and shared a laugh.

Now here is the twist. I didn’t have to think twice about doing the 5 burpees for my coupon or even engaging in 60 seconds of intense work, that’s become my norm. What’s not normal is the passerby-ers that even though they were set on spending well over $100 would not put forth the effort to get the coupon. At the register someone was being rung up and had a total of $104, they said, “Hey do 5 burpees you’ll save 30 bucks.” The answer was no; unbelievable! One guy passing by when asked if he would do the 5 burpees said, “Why the hell would anyone want to do that!” Mind you we are in a store whose primary product is apparel for exercise!

I shared this experience with members of the gym I work at, Higher Choices Personal Fitness in Lagrange, NY. They thought it was absurd, some of the members took a poke at themselves and said even they would have done the work.

Well that’s the point, if you are taking care of yourself on a regular basis, if you are committed or even semi-committed to a fitness routine you are going to be up for the challenges that life throws at you on a daily basis. You’ll have the energy to get everything done that need to get done, if curve balls get thrown at you then you’ll be able to handle those as well.

So ask yourself and be honest, are you up for the challenge or are you going to let opportunities continue to pass you by?

Vacationing from Fitness Over the Summer?

If you are like me your daily routine get turned upside down once Summer arrives and school lets out. The kids are home, they are looking for things to do, places to go and all your free time gets sucked into the black hole called summer vacation. When I was a kid summer vacation lasted forever, now I look at the calendar and say, "I don't have time to do anything!"

Your routine at the gym or other fitness routines may suffer from this schedule change. It is not uncommon to see individuals get away from what they were doing so well just a month ago and go on a "Fitness Vacation" for a few weeks. They return frustrated feeling that all their hard work has been lost and are starting from scratch.

The situation may not be as grim as you have made it out to be. The residual effects of training stay with you even after you have stopped training (kinda makes sense right since you are training for your life that happens outside of the gym.).

Your aerobic endurance and maximal strength will maintain maintain its self up to 30 (+/- 5) days, while strength endurance be be maintained 15 (+/- 5) days before you will notice considerable declines. So stop using the time you have missed as an excuse to continue to keep you away from what you want to be doing in the first place. You'll be back in the saddle in no time at all.