Functional Fitness & Movements

What is Functional Fitness? 💪✨

Hey Y'all,

Let's talk about functional fitness and functional exercises. Have you heard of it?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 61% of adults over the age of 65 are limited in their ability to perform basic actions. This means being able to bend down to grab something off the floor, pull a box off a high shelf, or doing yard work can become more difficult as you age. 

Functional fitness focuses on training your body for everyday life—not just the gym. It involves exercises that mimic daily movements: squatting, reaching, pushing, pulling. The emphasis is on natural movement patterns. These exercises build real-world strength and improve flexibility, balance, coordination, and even posture. 

Basically, functional fitness keeps you moving with ease.

The Basics

🔹 What Does Functional Exercise Involve?

• Exercises that mimic daily movements
• Uses bodyweight, free weights, resistance bands, etc.
• Focuses on balance, strength, flexibility, and coordination

🔹 Why It’s Important

• Builds strength for everyday tasks
• Improves balance, mobility, and posture
• Reduces the risk of injury by strengthening joints and stabilizer muscles
• Boosts heart health and burns fat
• Keeps you agile and feeling strong

🔹 Who It’s For

• All fitness levels but especially beneficial to older adult, those with physical disabilities, and those recovering from injury
• Perfect for anyone wanting to move better and feel stronger
• Great for home workouts; minimal equipment needed!

🔹 How to Start

• Use simple equipment like resistance bands, dumbbells, or a stability ball
• Include bodyweight moves like squats, lunges, and push-ups
• Focus on form and posture over speed or heavy weights
• Mix in everyday movement patterns (lifting, balancing, rotating, climbing)

Strength Exercises for FF

• Stair climbs or Step ups
• Chair squats
• Wall pushups
• Dumbbell rows
• Farmer's carry
• Multi-directional lunges
• Bridges

Balance Exercises for FF

• Tai chi (a “moving meditation” that involves shifting the body slowly, gently, and precisely, while breathing deeply)
• Yoga
• Standing on one foot
• The heel-to-toe walk
• The balance walk
• Walking backward or sideways
• Practicing standing from a sitting position
• Using a wobble board

Some Safety Tips

• Warm up before strength training
• Stretch when your muscles are warmed up and after endurance or strength exercises, remember to breathe, and don’t stretch so far that it hurts
• Listen to your body. Understand that beginning a new exercise routine can cause exhaustion, sore joints and muscles. 
• Over-exertion can lead to injury. Rest days are necessary and important so your body can recover
• Find tutorials or guided workouts online to help with form
• Be consistent! Small efforts lead to big results

Exercise also plays a powerful role in supporting our mental health. 

Regular, functional movements help lower stress hormones and increase the release of endorphins, which naturally boost our moods. Over time, exercise helps ease symptoms of anxiety and depression, improve sleep, sharpen focus, and build emotional resilience. 

Think of exercise as a way of building a stronger connection between your mind and body. And we usually feel more grounded, confident, and capable afterwards! So exercise is our no-brainer mechanism for handling life’s challenges! 

Hopefully now y'all have a better understanding of functional fitness and how adding simple exercises to your everyday life can help you live and move better, and stay injury-free. 

Ready to get started? Let's go!

Your future self will thank you! 👏 

EM

REFERENCES:

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/exercise-and-physical-activity/three-types-exercise-can-improve-your-health-and-physical

https://seniorsmobility.org/exercises/functional-exercises-for-seniors/