5 Very Helpful Exercises to Stay Functionally Fit for Life

Everyone should have a simple set of functional strength exercises, Why? One of the most important reasons is to improve the strength needed to function in life such as being able to interact and move with heavy loads, such as handling children, cleaning, gardening, loading and unloading vehicles, or any other labor-intensive roles that your life or career may require. Falling over is never an ideal occurrence either, so our baseline stability needs to be above average so we can enjoy life and everything it has to offer. Furthermore,  performing the following exercises as part of your fitness regimen can help preserve the level of energy one needs to get through the day to stay healthy, happy, and fit for life. 

 
 

These exercises are going to help you make sure that you are functionally fit and functionally strong

  1. Goblet Squat 

    Start with a nice neutral spine standing up and your feet positioned just a tad wider than your shoulders. Hold a weight against your chest, with your elbows tucked in as if you’re holding a goblet. Then, tip your hips back and sit down. Imagine going down to a chair, keeping your elbows inside the line of your knees, and the heels of your feet flat on the ground then come back up, standing up nice and tall, pushing through your heels. As you can see it is a great functional exercise to help your quads and your glutes nicely.



    Benefits: Is great for building up your quad and your glute strength, which is really important. Every human requires to sit down, which is the same body mechanics as a squat. We sit on chairs, toilets, and in vehicles on a daily basis. 

  2. Hip Thrust

    So to do a hip thrust set up with your back against an elevated surface with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Place a weight, across your hips, you can use a barbell or a dumbbell, then you want your feet to be underneath your knees. And you're going to lift your hips up off the floor and lean back into the bench. Now as you lift up, squeeze your glutes, brace your hamstrings and keep the core tight. Then you're going to tip your hips slowly down to the floor. Then squeeze your glutes and lift again. Make sure to keep your spine neutral.



    Benefits: This is fantastic for building up the strength of your glutes, and your hamstrings. This exercise is really great for people's posture, especially those who may struggle with low back tension or that ‘excessive arch’ that we often see.


  3. Walking Lunge

    Our next functional exercise is a walking lunge. So what you want to do is take a nice big step forward with one leg putting the weight into your heel. Bend the right knee, lowering down so that it’s parallel to the floor in a lunge position. Without moving the right leg, move your left foot forward, repeating the same movement on the left leg. You want to make sure that your hips stay nice and level, and that when you take a step that your legs land in about a 90, 90 positions.



    Benefits: This builds up the strength in your quads and your glutes, but this is really great for walking upstairs or being much stronger at running.


  4. Deadlift

    The next exercise where you really focus on functional strength is a deadlift. So what you do for a deadlift is walk up to a bar and keep your shins nice and close. You're going to bend down over with a flat back to pick up the bar nicely and a tight grip (pretend to break it in half). So you're pulling it close to you. You're going to sit your bum down till it's horizontal or just one horizontal, push the floor away, stand up, squeeze your glutes and hamstrings.



    Benefits: Deadlift is really great for your glutes and your hamstrings, and also your whole body strength because you have to use a lot of your core and your lats as well to stabilize. This is fantastic for picking objects up off the floor or bending down for long periods of time.


  5. Banded Cha-cha

    So what you need is a band above your ankles. Then you're going to place the weight on one foot. With a straight back and tightened core, contract your glutes then slowly kick back the active leg while keeping the other leg still. Squeeze your glute at the full extension before bringing your leg back and keeping the tension.



    Benefits: This is a really interesting exercise that we like to use for single-leg stability, which is really important to make sure that you are able to keep even through your hips and able to stand on one leg.


“Workout that's simple but powerful”

 

True health is about much more than simply diet and exercise. Here at our gym we will teach you how to balance all the different aspects of life to nourish your mind, body and spirit.

 

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Gretchen Palma