Bri­an Chin Le­ung

Cos­met­ic train­ing can be de­fined as any train­ing where­by your mus­cles are de­vel­oped pri­mar­i­ly to en­hance your looks. Func­tion­al train­ing, on the oth­er hand, refers to a well-round­ed pro­gramme in­te­grat­ing ex­er­cis­es which con­tribute to bet­ter, more ef­fi­cient and safer per­for­mances of re­al-world ac­tiv­i­ties. In func­tion­al train­ing, ef­fi­cien­cy of move­ment is of pri­ma­ry con­cern, rather than mus­cle aes­thet­ics.

I be­lieve that func­tion­al train­ing should take prece­dence over cos­met­ic train­ing be­cause func­tion­al train­ing pre­pares you to cope with the phys­i­cal chal­lenges you are go­ing to ex­pe­ri­ence in your dai­ly life. In ad­di­tion, when you prac­tice func­tion­al train­ing, your mus­cles will look good any­way. It looks a bit ridicu­lous if a gym per­son has big, beau­ti­ful mus­cles but is un­able to lift up a 100lb bag of flour from the floor; yet a small dock work­er can pick up the bag with the ut­most ease.

De­vel­op­ing a func­tion­al mind­set

Now, don't mis­un­der­stand me. I am not say­ing you must give up your gym mem­ber­ship and go pound con­crete with a sledge­ham­mer. I am sim­ply say­ing that when you are in the gym, al­ways think about how each ex­er­cise can help you in every­day life. At this point, I must men­tion that I be­lieve free weights are bet­ter than ma­chines be­cause they can help you de­vel­op vi­tal sta­bilis­er mus­cles that as­sist in every­day move­ments. Let's look at some pop­u­lar free weight ex­er­cis­es and see how they mim­ic every­day move­ments.

Bent-knee dead lift

When per­form­ing the bent-knee dead lift, you should get very close to the bar­bell and al­low your legs to do most of the lift­ing, rather than your low­er back. Like­wise, if a moth­er is pick­ing up her child from the floor, she should first get as close as pos­si­ble to the child, where­by her legs (the moth­er's) can do most of the lift­ing, rather than stay­ing far away and bend­ing over, which could put a tremen­dous strain on mom­my's low­er back.

The free squat

The squat, when per­formed prop­er­ly, strength­ens your legs and your core. Prac­tic­ing the squat can help you get up from a sit­ting po­si­tion in a car or out of a rock­ing chair.

Dumb­bell over­head press

This ex­er­cise works your shoul­ders, your tri­ceps and your core. It can be use­ful when plac­ing items in an over­head cup­board.

Sim­u­la­tion train­ing

In ad­di­tion to the above ex­er­cis­es, you can al­so sim­u­late a lot of phys­i­cal­ly chal­leng­ing move­ments, which can help you de­vel­op re­al strength, while help­ing to chis­el your body. For ex­am­ple, try slam­ming a sledge­ham­mer on a trac­tor tyre; this a great work­out for your shoul­ders, arms, core, back and legs. Func­tion­al train­ing will ex­tend your shelf life and en­sure that you have mo­bil­i­ty in your gold­en years.

Keep Train­ing.