FILEX 2014
PRESENTER
FUNCTIONAL MUSCLE
CONDITIONING
By utilising bodyweight exercises and elements of momentum and rotation, you can incorporate
functional muscle conditioning into any group fitness workout, says Marietta Mehanni.
‘F
unctional’ and ‘functionality’
have
become
popular
buzzwords in the fitness
industry over the past 10 years. While
isolation exercises are still prevalent,
compound and multi-planer movements
have demonstrated effectiveness with
enhancing everyday movements that
would otherwise cause injury to an ill-
prepared body.
Our increasingly sedentary lifestyles
mean that our genetically engineered
highly mobile bodies are immobile
for several hours a day and thus we
develop not only postural weaknesses,
but also strength deficiencies for
activities like gardening, household
duties, and recreational pursuits such
as bush walking, playing sport and
family activities.
Traditional
muscle
conditioning
workouts provide a unique opportunity
to not only deliver exercises that
challenge the body by using a variety of
stimuli, but also to educate participants
on quality movement that requires
nothing more than their own body
weight to perform.
Bodyweight exercises
We often marvel at the amazing ability
of circus performers, gymnasts and
other athletes to shift and hold their
own body weight. In fact, being able to
lift their own body weight is often used
as a measure of strength.
Bodyweight exercises are ideal for several reasons:
1. THEY REQUIRE NO EQUIPMENT
As such, these exercises can be performed anywhere
and at any time as lack of equipment can never be
used as an excuse!
2. THEY PROMOTE MULTI-JOINTED, COMPOUND
EXERCISES
Often bodyweight exercises require more than one
joint action to be performed, meaning that more
muscle groups are incorporated. Let’s compare
the humble push up with the bench press. When
performing the push up, either on the knees or toes, the
wrist, elbow and shoulder joints are all involved. This
means the muscles of the upper torso are incorporated
in the exercise. The abdominals and erectus spinae are
also integrated to stabilise the torso, and then, finally,
the muscles of the lower body maintain an isometric
contraction to keep a strong lever for the arms to lift up
and down (especially when the push up is performed
on the toes).
In contrast, with the bench press, the body is well
supported by the bench and the weight is lifted up
and down using the shoulder, elbow and, to a lesser
extent, the wrist joint. The muscles of the torso play
a smaller role with assisting the exertion phase with
forced expiration. Depending on how heavy the
weight is, the lower limbs may or may not assist with
an isometric contraction to assist with the lift. It is
clear, therefore, that there is much more involved
with the classic push up than with the bench press.
3. MANIPULATION OF LEVER LENGTH
By manipulating the lever lengths of the upper and
lower body, range of motion can be adjusted to
either increase or decrease intensity, i.e. a longer lever
will have a greater range of motion and thus increase
Watch Marietta demonstrate some functional muscle conditioning moves in the online version of
this article at www.fitnessnetwork.com.au/resources-library/functional-muscle-conditiong
or via the Network magazine iPad app available at www.fitnessnetwork.com.au/mag-app
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