How to perform functional body training?

Some people's physical fitness has not been so good, so they can only adopt some corresponding functional body training to achieve the goal of improvement. However, this method is generally used for the physical recovery of athletes. Therefore, when people adopt this training method, they must have an assessment of their own physical condition, try not to strain their muscles, do it within their ability, and do not do it frequently. They must train appropriately, which is a better way for the body.

Features:

Functional training originated from injury rehabilitation. When physical therapists treat athletes for injuries, they often conclude that the injury is caused by poor function of a stabilizer muscle, shifting the force to another muscle. Typically, the muscles that are not functioning properly are stabilizers of the hip, spine, or scapula-thoracic joint. There is a clear trend here: it always seems to be the same muscles that are injured. Physical therapists note that weaknesses often occur in the deep abdominal muscles (transverse abdominis and internal obliques), hip stabilizers (gluteus medius, adductors, quadratus lumborum, and hip external rotators), and scapula retractors (lower trapezius and rhomboids). As a result, people began to pay attention to what physical therapists call muscles with poor functional sustainability to ensure that athletes complete basic movements with the most correct and safest techniques.

First, most of the human body's muscle groups are arranged longitudinally, while others are arranged diagonally, such as the external obliques and quadratus lumborum. This complex arrangement enables the trunk to generate flexion, extension, lateral flexion, and twisting movements. The various complex movements of the human body (including competitive movements) are a combination of functional movements of the human body, such as pushing, pulling, rotating, lunging, squatting, and forward bending. These movements are completed in two or more planes. Therefore, functional strength training focuses on multiple angles and coordinated exercises in each plane of the motion chain.

Second, functional strength training takes core stability as an important part. According to the physics principle that rotational torque remains constant in a closed individual. When the lower limbs generate a forward rotational torque, other parts must generate an opposite rotational torque in order to achieve balance. The core part is responsible for stabilizing the center of gravity, generating force in the links, transmitting force, etc. in this process. It plays a pivotal role in the coordinated work and integrated force of the upper and lower limbs. Moreover, the control of various states of limb movement originates from the core muscles. With a strong core strength as a guarantee, the torso is firmly supported, the stress on the limbs can be reduced accordingly, and the limbs can complete technical movements more easily and coordinately. Therefore, functional training takes core strength as the main content.

Third, functional strength training emphasizes the integration of movements and dynamic balance under control. The human body can be divided into multiple links, including the head, torso, upper arms, forearms, hands, thighs, calves and feet. Each link can be movably connected to form a biological motion chain. When force acts on the biological motion chain, each link undergoes relative changes. How to integrate the movement of different joints and muscle contraction to form a muscle "motion chain" that conforms to the laws of special mechanics and create ideal conditions for the exertion of force at the ends of the limbs is a common problem faced by all sports. Take tennis as an example. If the principle of racket strings is not taken into consideration, according to the principles of human biomechanics, only by making full use of the movement of large muscle parts and transferring the movements of various parts to the racket head in a coordinated manner, can the racket head obtain the maximum force, that is, the maximum acceleration; high-level professional players do not have exactly the same movements when serving, but they all make full use of the coordinated movement chain of feet, legs, hips, waist, abdomen, shoulders, upper arms, forearms, and wrists to transfer the maximum force to the ball. Some studies have shown that when a tennis player swings the racket to hit the ball, the strength of the hip and torso accounts for 50% of the total hitting force. Functional strength training can enable athletes to adjust the human body parts into a unified elastic body of trunk and limbs under the control of consciousness. Each movement link runs from the inside to the outside, from the proximal link to the distal link, and is connected and stretched to form a seamless elastic body. Its kinetic energy increases from the inside to the outside through the step-by-step acceleration of the movement chain, and the maximum speed is achieved at the terminal link. In short, functional training is physical training that increases strength while taking into account overall balance and coordination. It is specialized training that improves skills while taking into account the stability and unity of the whole body.