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Functional training: does it really enhance performance?

Functional training has become a buzz-word and programming trend in the fitness industry over the past few years. In gyms, personal training studios and physiotherapy clinics throughout the country, all manner of exercises claim to have incredible athletic, therapeutic and performance enhancing benefits simply because they are taught under the banner of ‘functional training”. 

Functional is defined as “having a practical application or serving a useful purpose.” 

Using this definition, you would assume that no exercise professional would train a client or an athlete by implementing “non-functional” methods (i.e. exercises that serve no useful purpose). 

Unfortunately this is not the case. Non-functional training is rife.  

On one hand there are many fitness trainers (overly concerned with creativity) prescribing exercises that are too challenging or complex (particularly those performed on unnecessarily unstable surfaces) which appear to be more like circus acts than mimicking activities of daily living or sports performance.  

On the other hand, there are many therapists (overly concerned with pathology) prescribing low-level, single-plane dominant, isolation exercises at ineffectively low loads. 

Clearly an effective model, or some structured guidelines for developing and implementing practical and useful functional training, is of value to both physical performance professionals and their clients.