Have you ever stopped to think about what the goal of your exercise routine is?
We have all heard that we should be exercising for our health. It’s true that being active in almost any form will benefit our health, but why not really make your fitness routine work for you? What I mean by that is to be intentional with your exercise routine. Use exercise to make your daily life easier and become more independent. This, my friends, is the aim of functional fitness.
A great way to start planning your functional fitness routine is to examine your lifestyle and see what movements you do on a daily basis. Think, do you need to pick up a newspaper or mail from the ground or floor? Furthermore, what do you find a real challenge in your daily life? Maybe getting out of bed is difficult for you. One more thing to think about is this, what would you do if an unplanned emergency happened? If there was a fire and you needed to take the stairs, would you be able to? Could you get up from the floor in the instance of a slip or fall?
Recognizing these needs and the movements required to accomplish these things are important for everyday life.
You can start incorporating these movements as a part of your fitness routine today. Some examples include doing squats by your bed, to strengthen your legs and replicate getting up and out of bed. You can also do some heel raises and lift your hand above your head by your kitchen counter, just as if you are reaching for something on your top shelf. By practicing these movements often and with some increased weight or resistance you can make them easier for you to do in your daily life.
Make your fitness routine useful in so many ways by making it functional!
We have lots of functional exercise videos on our YouTube channel for some exercise inspiration today!