Healthy Living

There are many reasons why functional exercises are important; here are some of the primary reasons:

1. They promote maintenance and improvement in Active Daily Living tasks
2. They promote spinal health and longevity
3. They mimic motor patterns that translate into daily tasks, recreational sports, and work activities.

Traditionally, when people exercise, they are working on “cosmetic fitness” – exercising to look good and working on surface muscles or those that we see. The problem with this is that it doesn’t help you in daily tasks. How often do you hear that someone hurt themselves reaching to the back seat of their car, turning quickly, or bending down quickly to pick up something? These are daily living tasks; therefore, it makes sense to train the muscles doing similar movements. You aren’t lying down most of the day doing crunches, yet your abdominal muscles are constantly working to stabilize your spine. So why not train them in a way that makes sense (i.e. standing, sitting, twisting)? That’s what core and functional training are about, and there are several methods you can use.

• If people are not active in sports or physical education (in other words doing something that challenges their stability and ability of muscles to react), they start to lose balance at the age of 15 or 16.
• After the age of 70, nearly 85% of people die from complications due to breaking their hip.

If those aren’t reason enough to incorporate core and functional training into your exercise program, perhaps learning more will convince you.

What is Functional Training?

Functional training is defined as “activity that trains movement” and includes: balance training, stabilization training, core training, and dynamic movement training. The result of functional training is agility – improved reactionary forces where your body has the ability to compensate for changes in your center of gravity and can move quickly and efficiently. In other words, if you’re falling or suddenly caught off guard, your body is trained to react quickly, meaning you are less prone to injury. Exercises promoting core strength and stability improve or maintain posture and alignment as well as challenging balance and equilibrium.

Core training is different than just training your abdominals. Although the abdominals are an important part of your core musculature, true core training is a more integrated approach; it combines strength, balance, agility, and flexibility of the muscles that control the entire trunk and spine. Regular conditioning of the core muscles is essential to prevent injuries, correct posture, and making you more efficient with all that you do.

Functional training is about QUALITY of the movement, not quantity!

We are all so busy these days. There is so little margin in our days for anything  to be added. Perhaps this trend towards busy-ness has led most of us into a downward spiral with our health, because we are very often eating ‘on the go.’

It’s no big secret that many fast food restaurants have the lowest quality food imaginable…containing hydrogenated oils (trans fats), hormones, antibiotics, MSG, sodium, and many other chemicals and preservatives. These foods are highly processed and virtually give you no nutritients, but a lot of calories. This has made many of us gain unwanted fat and weight. However, there are some great Fast Food Chains that are hearing your cry for ‘Help!’

Here’s our Top 3 Fast Food Chains:

Chipotle- The hallmarks of Chipotle include things like unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal. ’Fine Fast Food. Chipotle took a fork in the road that changed everthing.  

Jason’s Deli- Jason\’s Deli - They boast about eliminating high-fructose corn syrup from their menu. Also, they have a top notch salad bar that features organic selections of lettuce, spinach, carrots, and other nutritient dense foods.

Panera Bread- Panera Bread uses whole grain breads and also uses antibiotic-free chicken among its menu items.

While other Fast Food chains seemingly carry some of the same items, we have found that these 3 chains stand head above the rest when it comes to quality.

Remember, you are what you eat.