Functional Training the MFT way!
At MFT Global, during our Bootcamps and Personal Trainer sessions, you’ll hear us talking about functional fitness or functional training. I’ll just say this right here and now that that phrase is opening one of the biggest can of worms in the whole of the fitness industry, frequently leading to mudslinging arguments from both sides. So let’s go through what we mean by it, then any warring factions can look at their own training and decide how it all fits together and then see whether the research supports their position.
As part of my undergraduate degree in Sport, we studied Human Structure and Function. This is really the first clue for us when we start to describe what we mean by functional training. We learned that our bodies (yours, mine, the person next to you) have a design and a best way to function. Humans are capable of a great many things when it comes to strength and movement and you only have to watch the upcoming Olympics to see how versatile we can be and how far in any given direction the human body can go. However, let’s not focus on Olympians – my point about versatility can’t detract from the key point…function applies to everyone, from beginner to elite athlete.
Function related to skill. Everything we do is governed by the brain and nervous system. The recruitment of motor units in muscles and indeed the muscles themselves is determined by the brain when in response to a situation/demand or task being performed. Exactly how many motor units (and which muscles for that matter) recruited during the task is determined by our level of ‘skill’ at that task. The more frequently we have completed the specific task, the more motor unit and muscle recruitment we get. (1) So, when at an MFT personal trainer session or MFT fitness class, we make you do some of our three planar movements or bend twist and extend into various different positions, what we are actually giving you is an improved skill set to cover these positions. i.e. you’re getting better at performing them. This, by the way, is a key motivator for sticking to a fitness regime.
Muscle function. At MFT we like to do some movements to hit the muscles in the way that suits them best (true to their function). Perhaps the best example of this is the calves. Your calf will react to jumping and landing by suddenly tightening to hold the Achilles’ tendon in place. The Achilles will then “stretch” and shorten with a huge amount of energy and allow you to spring off the floor, very useful for running and jumping (2) (3). Unlike a bodybuilder who may use calf raises through a full range to improve their size to make them look good on stage. This somewhat goes against the true function of the calf muscle and isn’t what we’re into.
Further Example! If you want to be better at doing body weight squats, then please do more body weight squats. BUT (no pun intended) if you wanted an effective exercise to work glute then you’d perform a split squat with internal rotation at the hip on the leading leg. This exercise puts glute on leading leg in full extension with an eccentric load.
Specificity. While we like to give you a range of exercises during our personal trainer sessions and fitness classes, the underlying principle of specificity is absolutely key to any performance benefit. The SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demand) is absolutely fundamental to any type of sports training. It’s why being on a wobble board can be seen as being of very little use, unless you’re going to be on a wobbly board, so surfers carry on, but in general, the ground doesn’t wobble. This principle also calls into question endlessly squatting and deadlifting for sport, as there’s no guarantee that the gains will transfer to anything else, but then if you want a big heavy squat, that’s exactly what you’ll need to do. Your body will also make the adaptations to the training stresses right down to the cellular level, every movement you do will have an effect (4). Again I revert back to the true function of a muscle on this one.
So our Bootcamps work on skills – these are determined by your MFT Personal Trainer (and because of how we train them they’ll have thought about it first). We love eccentric movements (5) (6) to maximise gains, so you walk away feeling long and lean.
MFT Functional Training – human body APPROVED!
Rich
Head of Research
MFT Global
1) Motor training induces experience-specific patterns of plasticity across motor cortex and spinal cord
DeAnna L. Adkins, Jeffery Boychuk, Michael S. Remple, Jeffrey A. Kleim
Journal of Applied Physiology Published 1 December 2006 Vol. 101 no. 6, 1776-1782 DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00515.2006
2) J Strength Cond Res. 2008 Sep;22(5):1705-15. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31817ae4a7.
The role of elastic energy in activities with high force and power requirements: a brief review.
Wilson JM1, Flanagan EP.
3) Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2014 Oct;39(10):1144-50. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2014-0063. Epub 2014 May 1.
The relationship between lower-body stiffness and dynamic performance.
Pruyn EC1, Watsford M, Murphy A.
4)American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation:
November 2002 – Volume 81 – Issue 11 – pp S40-S51
Report & Review: Cellular and Molecular Adaptations
Skeletal Muscle Plasticity: Cellular and Molecular Responses to Altered Physical Activity Paradigms
Baldwin, Kenneth M. PhD; Haddad, Fadia PhD
5) Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010 Sep;42(9):1731-44. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181d392e8.
Changes in the eccentric phase contribute to improved stretch-shorten cycle performance after training.
Cormie P1, McGuigan MR, Newton RU.
Baroni BM, Pompermayer MG, Cini A, Peruzzolo AS, Radaelli R, Brusco CM, Pinto RS.
J Strength Cond Res. 2016 Jul 7. [Epub ahead of print]