Page 53 - Muscle & Fitness (February 2020)
P. 53
By Andrew Heffernan, C.S.C.S.
standably feel in an activity
that’s ultimately about how
you look in posing trunks.
In practice, however, the
difference between training to
look better and training to per-
form better is almost nonexis-
tent. As any bodybuilder will
tell you, getting stage-ready
is more about the work you
do in the kitchen. The reality
is that most bodybuilding
exercises can help someone
build strength that translates
over to real-life movements.
A study published in JAMA,
for example, found that leg
extensions—a single-joint
machine exercise that func-
tional trainers often dismiss as
“nonfunctional”—performed
three times a week for eight
weeks nearly tripled muscular
strength and increased walk-
ing speed by nearly 50% in a
group of 90-year-old men.
Another study from 2016
compared the effects of
squats, a “functional” move-
ment, with those of leg presses,
a “nonfunctional” one, on tests
of explosive power and bal-
ance. Both exercises improved
the subjects’ performance on
the functional tests.
And heavy lunges
will help you grow THE TAKEAWAY
muscle and improve
your movement. You can’t definitively label
an exercise or a workout func-
tional or nonfunctional—
there’s only appropriate or
movement.” Simply put: It’s requirements, or muscularity.” inappropriate for a person
not about how you look; it’s all Bodybuilding is mentioned given his or her particular
about what you can do. specifically. goals and limitations. Choos-
As a corrective to the charge By directing attention away ing exercises, rep schemes,
that fitness culture can teeter from measures of appearance and workout programs that
on the edge of body shaming, (weight, body-fat percentage, match your goals and tracking
it’s a refreshing perspective. physical measurements) and performance indicators to
According to the National placing it on measures of per- help you reach them doesn’t
Eating Disorders Associa- formance, such as weight lifted sound like a functional ap-
tion, one major risk factor for and reps performed, function- proach, a nonfunctional
anorexia nervosa is partici- al training can relieve some approach, or anything in
pation in a sport that empha- of the pressure and judgment between. It just sounds like
sizes “appearance, weight that bodybuilders may under- smart training.
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