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If you’ve been wanting to lean into healthier habits, especially as the new year approaches, exercise is a great option. Working out it brings a lot of amazing benefits, but perhaps the most important is mobility. As we age, it becomes more difficult for our bodies to carry grocery bags, bend down to pick up children, and even get in and out of chairs. While you can’t completely avoid these changes in your body, there are a few key exercises you can do at least once a week to help you stay mobile and strong for decades to come.
Functional fitness refers to the type of training that prepares people for everyday life, with the goal of being healthy, strong, mobile and cardiovascular fitness as long as possible, even as you age and become more susceptible to injury and degenerative disease.
A big part of achieving that goal involves functional movement, movement that translates to things you do regularly—like picking up a heavy box off the floor, getting in and out of a car, walking up and down stairs, and jumping over a puddle of water. Functional movements also translate into actions and activities that you may not encounter as often, but strength will really come in handy when you do – such as lifting and over a fence or playing any sport.
Below I list the seven most important functional movements that everyone, including you, should master. Then, if you want to take things to the next level, consider one of these exercise apps to help you on your way.
Read more: The most effective exercises to get in shape in the least amount of time
Functional movements make life easier.
Elements of functional exercise
A certain group of qualities makes a movement truly functional. These exercises usually:
- Use more than one joint (these are compound movements, not isolation movements).
- Engage multiple muscle groups.
- Include multi-plane motion (forward, backward, side to side, up and down).
- Include free weights (dumbbells, barbells, and kettlebells) instead of machines.
- Builds strength, coordination and balance.
- Improve body awareness and joint range of motion.
Functional exercises train you to use your body as a system, the way it was intended to be used. This is different from isolation exercises, such as the leg extension machine, which involves sitting in a chair and isolating the quadriceps to move the weight. You’ll never mimic that movement in real life—your quads move in concert with your hamstrings, calves, glutes, and core.
Isolation exercises have their place: strengthening individual muscles can help people recover from injuries or correct muscle imbalances. However, functional movements are the most important, applicable and beneficial exercises to master.
Read more: Heavy vs. Light Weight Lifting: Why One Isn’t Better Than the Other
7 functional movements you need to strengthen
If you’re ready to get stronger, make your daily activities easier, and generally feel more capable in life, add these nine functional exercises to your gym routine. You can try them on their own or as a circuit in any combination you like.
Just remember, if you’re new to exercise or unsure of your form, it’s always best to enlist the help of a professional or an experienced friend who can show you how to perform these moves safely.
One option is to try different functional fitness programs, e.g CrossFit, F45 training, Barry’s Bootcamp and Opek Fitness if you don’t want to work alone.
Read more: How to create an exercise routine you’ll actually stick to
1. Deadlift
A personal trainer helps the client prepare for the deadlift.
The deadlift is the most functional of all functional movements. Think about it: how many times do you bend down to pick something up? Probably more than you think. Every time you squat down to pick up a box, a bag, a child, a small dog, or anything else, you’re doing a deadlift. Or at least it should be.
Many people lift objects off the ground the wrong way, pulling solely with their back muscles instead of using their legs and core. Getting started with weight lifting is easier than you think. Practicing deadlifts at the gym can teach you to pick things up with good form—to lean into your hips, keep your core tight and your back straight, and recruit your leg muscles. This reduces the risk of injury while performing a basic activity, such as grabbing your heavy suitcase from baggage claim at the airport.
Read more: These 20-minute HIIT workouts are all you need to get in shape
2. Squats
Back squat with a barbell.
Squats are close to the deadlift as one of the most important functional movements. Squatting is a natural position that people should achieve (think small children squatting in a perfect squat), but unfortunately, most people lose the ability to squat with good form due to poor posture, too much sitting, and lack of joint mobility.
When done correctly, the squat strengthens your quads, hamstrings, glutes, lower back and abs. When performed poorly, you risk injury to any of those muscle groups. If you struggle with squat form, you can start with supported squats: Hold on to a hanging trainer or a sturdy object, such as the back of your couch, as you practice going down to full depth.
3. Overhead press
The overhead press strengthens your shoulders and protects your shoulder joints.
Also called the “strict press” and “military press,” the overhead press involves extending the arms fully overhead with a weight. You can use a barbell, dumbbells and even kettlebells for this. Some functional training plans like to get even more serious about the real-life aspect by having people press real objects, such as a sandbag or log, overhead.
Like the deadlift, you probably perform the overhead press more often than you think. Every time you reach up high to put something away or put it down, you are pressing overhead. This movement is not only highly transferable to everyday life, but it also strengthens the major muscles of your shoulder, protecting the fragile joint underneath (your shoulder joints are very susceptible to injury due to their highly mobile ball and socket structure).
4. Pull-ups
Pull-ups work your back, arms and core.
Pull-ups: Seemingly simple, but notoriously difficult. While pull-ups don’t directly translate to a movement pattern that most people use in real life, the functional aspect comes from the fact that pull-ups are a multi-joint exercise that strengthens many muscle groups at once.
When you perform a pull-up, you move your shoulders, elbows and wrists and contract the muscles of your forearms, biceps, upper and mid-back. Because pull-ups involve retracting your shoulder blades (pulling your shoulders back and down—think squeezing your shoulder blades together), they can help improve posture and reduce posture-related pain.
Plus, many recreational activities benefit from pull-ups: you use your back and arm muscles when doing any rowing or pulling motion, so mastering the pull-up can help you in hobbies like swimming, kayaking, and rock climbing.
5. Push-ups
Push-ups build strength in the chest, shoulders and core.
Another surprisingly difficult one movement of body weight (who knew it could be so hard to push your body off the ground?), pushups build strength primarily in the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core.
This translates to pushing any heavy object, but the greater benefit comes from being able to brace your core in a vulnerable position, protecting the spine from unnatural and potentially harmful positions. If your hips sag or your back arches during push-ups, it’s a sign that you need to work on stabilization and core strength.
If you can’t do standard push-ups (just toes and hands on the ground), start with modified knee push-ups. It is best to exercise with a lighter version until your muscles, especially your core muscles, are strong enough to support your spine and maintain good form.
6. Lunges
Lunges translate into everyday activities, such as walking up stairs.
You may think of lunges as a good way to build muscle in your legs, which they are, but they offer more benefits than toned thighs. Like squats, the lunge involves the quads, hamstrings, glutes, core, and lower back—the big difference is that lunges are a unilateral movement, while squats are a bilateral movement.
One sided is just a fancy way of saying “one sided”. With lunges, you work one leg at a time, unlike squats, where both legs work at the same time. Additionally, lunges recruit your calves, a big part of translating them into virtually any activity that involves moving your legs.
The lunge can help you build strength for any activity that involves single-leg strength, or in general when you find yourself having to take a big step, such as standing up on a ledge or stepping on a rock while hiking. They also help with balance and stability, as working on one side of your body at a time forces you to activate your stabilizing muscles to keep your spine aligned.
7. Loaded carries
Tired of making two trips to get groceries? Add kettlebell bags to your gym routine.
Loaded carriers, also called farmers, can prepare you for any requirement that involves transporting heavy objects in your hands. You can perform deadlifts with dumbbells, kettlebells, or unusual objects, such as buckets full of water.
Advantages of loaded carries? Improved postural strength, upper back strength, shoulder stabilization and core stabilization. Another benefit that is sometimes overlooked is rotational resistance, or your ability to resist the weight of an object pulling your core in any direction. And, of course, carrying all the groceries up in one trip.
