Why Functional Training Is Stronger Than you Think!

Jessica was telling me a great story that explains why we work so hard to share what functional training really means and why it is important to your training. While out with a group of girl friends, one of them works for a social media company. Without any reason, the woman turned to Jessica and told her, “I could really help you with your social media presence.” Of course curious, Jessica asked how she was going to go about making better something we have been doing a looooong time.

The woman went on to enthusiastically explain that we should have an “arm day”, a “back day”, all the pretty typical things you would hear in fitness circles. Trying not to make the woman feel badly, Jessica told her that isn’t what we really do or are about.

What’s the point of telling you that story though? If just doing the more familiar bodybuilding isolation approach was better, we would be doing it! Heck, it would be SO much easier to do because people can understand that if they want to help their shoulders, you train their shoulders. It makes far less sense that if you want to help your shoulder you want to think about your foot, your hip, your trunk, your grip, all these factors that really matter.

Until you understand how the body works, it is difficult to teach how to make it better!

We talk about functional training because understanding what it is really about and how it impacts our program drives us because we have seen how people transform in ways they just thought was impossible. That can sound like a pretty good sales pitch, except that is how a lot of the top people in the industry and health professionals actually train.

Instead of just listening to me share these ideas about functional training, I thought it would be good to bring in someone who you may have not heard these ideas from. Dan Swinscoe is a physical therapist with over 30 years of experience and has worked not just in therapy but in strength and conditioning programs with baseball players and golfers.

I think we are really lucky to have Dan part of our team, not only is his expertise awesome, but he has such a great way of making complex ideas digestible and easy to see their importance. So, I grabbed Dan for an interview where he breaks down what functional training means (because it isn’t about replicating what we do in life) and how it can have such a big impact upon how you train!

Listen to Dan’s Interview HERE