Functional Fitness And Its Benefits For Seniors

There are many different reasons that a person may workout. Some people are looking to improve the way they look or the way they feel. Some individuals train for sport specific improvement and performance. For some people it may simply be because their doctor (or spouse) has told them they have too.

 

 

There is another area of fitness that is often overlooked but very important to those whom it benefits. Functional fitness, particularly as it relates to seniors, is a lesser known but highly valuable area of fitness. Functional fitness that is geared towards seniors is designed to help individuals continue to perform activities for daily living (ADL’s). This simply means that the training is designed in a way that not only strengthens individual muscles and muscle groups, but helps the brain and body communicate effectively to perform everyday activities.

 

 

Who Benefits From Functional Training?

Anyone can benefit from functional training. However it is particularly beneficial to seniors. If you have a parent, grandparent, or friend who is a senior, you may want to encourage him or her to seek out some functional fitness training. As we get older, tasks most of us take for granted can become more and more challenging. Tasks such as stepping up onto something, putting a coat on, putting something on a top shelf, or getting up from a seated position can become difficult for many people as they get older. Good functional training can help ensure that the senior in your life can continue to perform these actions, and perform them safely and confidently.

 

 

What Is Functional Fitness?

Functional fitness encompasses some more commonly known exercises such as pressing and lifting type motions. It can and does however go beyond that in order to more closely simulate everyday activities. It is very rare that in daily life we use only one muscle in a single plane or range of motion in order to perform tasks. More likely than not, several muscle groups or more are utilized simultaneously. Additionally, balance is very often required while these muscle groups are being used for daily activities.   This is where functional fitness goes beyond the use of weight machines. Functional fitness seeks to replicate daily activities through exercises that involve resistance training, balance work, and coordination.

 

 

Functional Fitness Is Not A Replacement For Machines

Weight machines are an important part of resistance training, and they are particularly beneficial for helping to prevent sarcopenia, or age related loss of muscle mass. Machines can be a great way of ensuring that individual muscles or muscle groups are worked. Functional fitness should not be a replacement for working out on resistance machines, but rather as an additional means of training. If a person engages in both resistance machines and functional fitness exercises he or she is doing a great deal towards maintaining lean muscle mass, as well as ensuring that those muscles can function in a coordinated way with other muscles to perform everyday tasks.

 

How To Start Out

If you or someone you know wants to start engaging in functional fitness, it’s best to start out with relatively easy and basic movements, and then work your way up from there. An example of this would be a single dumbbell biceps curl. From there, you can do a dumbbell biceps curl into an overhead press. After that, you could do a dumbbell biceps curl, into overhead press stepping up onto a single step. Finally, you could do a single dumbbell curl into an overhead press, while stepping up onto a step and raising one leg up off the step once on top.

 

 

Obviously people have different starting points and abilities. It’s important to progress slowly, build up your strength and skill, and only then progress to the next phase. Once a person starts to work in balance related movements, having a spotter is very important as to prevent a fall. Very often when a person starts engaging in more challenging functional training, such as balance work, it can be somewhat frightening. I would recommend only doing such exercises with someone who has been trained how to do the exercises and how to properly spot a person who is doing them for safety. The person doing them may be afraid of falling, but if they know someone is there to help them if they need it, then most people will be able to move past that fear.

 

 

I’ve worked with hundreds of seniors over the years, and functional fitness has been a huge part of that training. It’s been very encouraging to see the progress that people can make when they put the time and effort into their functional training. I have seen many seniors who are pleasantly surprised with what they are able to do when given the time to build up their strength and abilities. Functional fitness is truly empowering because it helps people maintain their standard of living and have a “can do” mentality. Consider working with someone who is familiar with functional training and can help in reaching maximum potential while keeping you safe.

 

 

Paul Owens is a personal trainer in the Cleveland area. He is a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and the National Council on Strength and fitness. He is also a Corrective Exercise Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. He can be reached at http://www.clevelandpersonaltraining.com