Health and Fitness Tips

Health and Fitness Tips - Core Training:


The term "core training" is often used interchangeably or in association with the terms "functional training" or "functional movement," although there is a distinction between the two.


Core training is actually a form of functional training, so functional training is a broader description of an important training concept.



Functional training is popular today as it well should be. It really revolves around integrated, multi-dimensional movements that sometimes change speed in all planes of motion. I don't want to get into a deep discussion about exercise kinesiology or biomechanics, so just think of everyday life: How many leg extensions or leg curls do you perform in everyday life as compared to squats? Squatting down is a natural, "everyday" movement. In other words, it's "functional."



The word "integration" is also mentioned frequently in discussions of core training and functional training. This means that we do not condition or train by isolating muscles. We "bring together" all the muscles of the body to work as a unit - that's integration. In sports training, the concept of integration is embodied in the maxim, "train movements, not muscles."



Try to do a bicep curl on a machine, then do a curl with a single heavy dumbbell. You will notice right away that your entire body must stabilize and work together for you to curl that dumbbell.



Even if your goal is looks and not performance, there is still no reason to train only form (looks) and not function if you have a way to train both at the same time.