Functional Training

Often people can get over focussed on functional or sport specific training. In fact members of my profession are far too often guilty is using the buzzword 'functional' (along with 'core') and getting clients to use instability training (bosu balls, swiss balls etc) when all the client actually needs is to squat! So what if you can already squat 100kg for reps comfortably, you can deadlift 140kg with no issues and you can press 80kg. Should you now do some functional training? While this is clearly open to debate the more I think about it the more I tend to think along the lines of; Well you've got it, what are you going to do with it? So you have this strength, some muscle size and some capacity to work but everything you have done is linear, it is straight lines (up, down, forwards), it is work for a minute, rest for a minute. In fact what you can do is actually quite limited compared with what the body can do. I would bet I can give you a relatively simple exercise with a low weight that you will struggle to do which seems daft when you can lift 140kg off the floor. The body is a system, it should be trained as a system. The body is only as strong as it's weakest point. Here are some examples of things you could do:

 If you have a Vipr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWVC2cQqRqo

Or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klA28sAD3kA

Or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Q9mxjhMy8

Or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=628qphA1-8M