Functional Fitness Training (FFT) for 2020
If you’ve had trouble sticking to fitness goals in the past, let this be the year you set different goals! Many people work out because they want to lose a certain amount of weight or see a physical change in a particular area and that’s well & good, but it isn’t the only reason to exercise. The rise of Functional Fitness Training (FFT) is about working out with the goal of making your daily life easier. FFT isn’t about losing weight, though you might do that too if you stay committed, it’s about building skill & function. FFT is about function over form and it might be the next big thing in fitness.
Thinking of fitness with the mindset of improving your daily life in practical, rather than purely aesthetic ways seems like a no-brainer. Having gotten its start in the field of rehabilitation, FFT encourages fitness activities that will allow you to build skills you use outside of the gym. For example, if your work involves picking up heavy objects, you could add kettle-bell squats to your fitness routine to strengthen your legs and back. If you find that a lack of flexibility is getting in the way of bending or walking, you would create a fitness routine that can improve your flexibility by incorporating something like yoga.
Functional Fitness Training can have serious benefits. For one thing, working out with the mindset of FFT allows you to create a truly personalized regimen for your needs rather than trying on a one-size-fits-all exercise routine. This is bound to lead to more apparent results, and with a commitment, the aesthetic aspects like weight loss will follow naturally. Focusing on improving your daily functionality also keeps you from becoming overly-focused on weight or physique which can become more discouraging than motivating.
If you’re feeling downtrodden about not reaching your goals, or by the fight with the bathroom scale, abandon that fight; start working out with tangible, reachable goals that will improve your day-to-day life. For 2020, think about areas of your life where strength or mobility would be helpful, and instead of aiming for crazy weight loss, focus first on improving those areas. Once our personal obstacles are out of the way, workouts become easier, we start feeling stronger, and the confidence and drive to reach larger goals comes naturally. Cheers to a healthy 2020!