Page 52 - Muscle & Fitness (February 2020)

T R A I N A L L A B O U T . . .

FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

VS. BODYBUILDING

We dive deep into

the research and

find the differences
between the two.

he term “functional
training” has become a
controversial buzzword
in bodybuilding circles.
T Post a picture of
yourself banging out leg
extensions or lateral raises,
and you’re likely to be
deluged with comments
along the lines of “That’s not
functional,” or “LMK when
you post a deadlift,” and
“How’s that going to help you
in the zombie apocalypse?”
Maddening, isn’t it? You
spend years building a body
you can be proud of, only to be
told you’ve been doing it wrong
all this time. But are they right?
Is bodybuilding all show and
no go? Is it functional?

To answer that question, we
first have to define what func- Any gymgoer,
tional training is—and that competitor or not,
can get leaner from
can be a surprisingly thorny using battle ropes.
proposition. Some adherents
will tell you it’s using exercises
that resemble real-life move-
ments; others say it’s empha- them train with free weights approach is not about appear-
sizing free weights, stability and some stability balls; and, ance. As a side effect, training
balls, and compound move- if they’re smart, they tailor functionally might improve
ments; still others will tell you their workouts to help them the way you look—but that’s
it’s simply training a specific address weak points and to decidedly not the main focus.
person for a specific goal. reach specific goals. According to the American
Smart bodybuilding training So we could end the discus- Council on Exercise, an orga-
incorporates all these crite- sion there and say that body- nization that certifies personal
ria. Nearly all muscleheads building training is functional. trainers, “The primary goal
worth their callouses perform But there’s more to parse here, of functional training is to E D G A R A RT I G A ; P E R B E R N A L
variations of real-life moves because functional trainers all transfer the improvements
like squats, lunges, deadlifts, seem to agree that, whatever in strength...to enhancing

and pullups; nearly all of else it might involve, their the performance of another

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