"Functional strength": There are those words again. They
rank right up there with "quality muscle" when it comes to
people in the fitness industry uttering meaningless jargon
that sounds profound on the surface. Of what part of my
weight lifting-built strength isn't functional? At the risk
of sounding like a macho jerk; if I wanted to, I could
probably slam my fist through the wall that's behind my
computer monitor. That's pretty functional.
I've again come across a fitness article in which the
author touts his fifteen minute bodyweight workout as being
somehow superior to the results obtainable with weight
workouts. He claims it will provide more "usable" or
"functional" fitness. The last time I checked, all levels
of fitness were functional and able to be used – as long as
the person in question has a fully functioning body. Lest
you be lured away from the best body-improving endeavor you
can engage (resistance training), take the morning
calisthenics advice with a grain of salt.
I anticipate a huge swing away from the current "core
training" and "functional strength" fitness fads in the
near future. Research is beginning to reveal how important
it is for us to build muscle mass and strength to improve
our health as we age. I'm sorry, but doing one-legged
bodyweight squats or balancing on a Swiss ball just isn't
going to cut it for building the kind of strength that
staves off the ravages of aging.
When I was twenty years old, I went through my first tour
of BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) Training. I
entered that training with painfully skinny legs. Those
undersized underpinnings didn't produce much "functional
strength" at all when it was called upon to function on a
long swim. Our regular two mile ocean swims were done with
a stealthy side-stroke by propelling through the water with
swim fins. Kicking through miles of ocean water using fins
requires thigh strength – the kind of strength I was
woefully lacking. I swam so slowly that I caught
hypothermia which led to pneumonia from inhaling seawater.
That was after my swim buddy and I received extensive
punishment from the instructors for allowing too large a
gap to grow between us during the swim. I was an
embarrassingly slow swimmer.
Two years later, I went through a second tour of the
training (long story). This time, I was the second fastest
swimmer in the entire class. In fact, I was punished by the
instructors for getting too far ahead of my swim buddy.
What made the difference? How did I go from being one of
the slowest BUD/S swimmers in 1984 to one of the fastest in
1986?
Well, during the interim between my two tours of BUD/S, I'd
befriended a bodybuilder and began regularly going to the
gym with him. He was one of those rare workout people who
actually enjoyed building his lower body more than his
upper. Aside from doing squats, he really loved leg
extensions and we worked them hard.
Those heavily weighted leg extensions built strength in the
exact areas of my thighs that were used to propel me
through the water while kicking with fins. So effective
were those extensions that I went from underachieving in
ocean swims to being far above average in them. In other
words – weightlifting built 'functional strength'.
The next time someone tells you that moving from one
bodyweight exercise to another within fifteen minutes each
morning is superior to traditional bodybuilding workouts,
consider that they might try to sell you beachfront
property in Montana. If they cite the fact that their
workout is difficult as being evidence that it's effective,
consider one of my principles:
"A successful workout might be difficult, but that doesn't
mean any difficult workout is successful."
Most of all, if someone tells you their workout produces
more "functional strength" as compared with weight lifting
workouts, tell them you already have a fully functional
body – you're just looking to add more strength.
----------------------------------------------------
Scott Abbett is the author of HardBody Success: 28
Principles to Create Your Ultimate Body and Shape Your Mind
for Incredible Success. He is a certified fitness trainer
and a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP. To see his
personal transformation, visit http://
http://www.hardbodysuccess.com
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