Functional Training

Functional fitness workouts train your body as a unit, so you simply can’t not engage your core. The more muscles you work at once, the greater your caloric expenditure, Crockford says. And since you do compound movements in functional fitness workouts, expect to burn more calories compared to doing a routine of biceps curls and leg curls on a machine.

Functional training can improve our mobility, overall strength, and endurance when programmed and executed correctly. By including movements like squat, lunge, push, pull, and rotate into exercise plans — and programming these movement patterns through different planes of motion — the exerciser will enhance their overall ability to function and perform in both sport and life. “By strengthening the body’s ability to work as a unit, the transfer of energy throughout the kinetic chain is more efficient, therefore reducing the risk of injury or movement compensations,” according to Crockford