TRADITIONAL FITNESS TRAINING VS FUNCTIONAL FITNESS TRAINING

Given today’s monotonous and fast paced life, if one is not thinking about being fit and healthy then there is something drastically wrong. Fitness and Health is essential for today’s life. Daily we should have a fitness regime to be healthy. Some prefer to go to the gym and exercise and some prefer the outdoors. Either way it’s a good thing

But, the bigger question I am always posed with is between traditional fitness training (TFT)and functional fitness training (FFT) , which is better?

Let me explain to you what the two methods of exercise are. In traditional fitness training we train to improve our muscular fitness as well as flexibility which brings about many positive changes in us such as muscles build up, improvement in bone density, lowering of fat percentage in the body and many more benefits.

But, this fitness regime will not help in our day to day activities such as standing walking, lifting etc. because TFT involves doing only one type of exercise at a time. Also in weight training you concentrate and target one major muscle at a time. In TFT we do not do the exercises that are used in day to day life- for example Dumbbells Curl is a great exercise for the Biceps but, it is not part of our daily routine.

Functional Fitness Training (FFT) involves the movements we use in our day to day life such as sitting, walking, lifting object etc. For example exercise like Squats, Lunges which are useful in day to day activities.

FFT is more effective as its benefits are many.  For instance it focuses on body stabilisation because it consists of exercises like squats, lunges, push ups etc. At a time we can focus on multiple muscle groups, it helps to improve our body posture and finally also helps to prevent injury..

According to me we need to balance between TFT and FFT which will eventually give us the desired results of being fit and healthy.