Understanding the concept of form
following function, and applying it to the
exercises you perform or prescribe to
clients, will provide you with a very basic but
valuable way to help you determine whether
a particular exercise is likely to result in the
outcomes you are seeking.
The 30-second article
• Ensuring that form follows function
simply means that you are doing the
correct exercise, and doing it well, in
order to maximise the training effect
on the target muscle group, whether
the end result is functional or not
• The bench press is a good example of
an exercise in which form follows
function, with the muscles being used
exactly as intended
• In some exercises, such as the
dumbbell biceps curl, it may be
preferable that form does not
completely follow function for the
entirety of the movement, depending
on your objective
• Exercises in which form does not
really follow function are of limited
benefit.
1
Form following function
The vast majority of weight training
exercises, especially free-weight ones,
mimic real-life movements very well – and
therefore might be deemed ‘functional
training’ as long as they are movements that
the exerciser performs in daily life. Take a
bench press, for example. It uses the chest,
shoulder and triceps muscles in unison to
move a significant weight away from the
body. If you had to brace against a wall
and push away a large fridge, or you had
to simply get off the ground from a prone
position, or fend someone away in a football
match, you would use the same muscles in
much the same way.
The only concessions we make for the
bench press exercise are to lie on a bench
and force our hands into a position which
enables us to hold a bar. Whenever we use
these muscles in real life, we might not be
lying down and we might not have our hands
around a bar, but this does not detract
from the target muscles working as they
are meant to. The main point is that during
a bench press, we’re using the muscles
exactly the way they should be used, but
we’re just doing so with a weighted barbell.
Form follows function.
Dumbbell bench presses do the same
thing, but with a slightly greater range of
motion. Think of almost any exercise and it’s
likely to be a case of form following function. A
calf raise is another good example. Whether
it’s done on a standing calf raise machine, a
seated one, a leg press, as a donkey raise (a
calf raise with someone sitting on your hips
– yes, that used to happen!) doesn’t matter
– it’s always an ankle extension, and that’s
what calves do, so the form of all of these
exercises follows the function of the target
muscle: they just do it with more weight,
more reps and more sets.
During a bench press, we’re using the muscles
exactly the way they should be used, but we’re just
doing so with a weighted barbell
In the bench press, form follows function, even though we might not be lying down when we use these muscles in real life
12 | NETWORK SPRING 2018