• 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!

Barry Bragg, personal trainer and president of Raleigh fitness and wellness center, Transformation, LLC will host a two-day, continuing education workshop for Triangle-area fitness professionals. The workshop will be held March 21-22 at Transformation’s North Raleigh location.

“It’s essential that personal trainers continually educate themselves to set themselves apart from their competition,” says Bragg. “The goal for the workshop is to arm local fitness professionals with cutting-edge knowledge, skills, and tools to further their careers and help their clients achieve their best results.”

Day one will consist of a nutrition training workshop by the Transformation team from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., followed by a specially prepared organic dinner. During the training workshop, participants will be introduced to unique nutrition ideas such as:

• Teaching clients to eat according to their body type and metabolism
• How to properly assess a client’s lifestyle and nutritional status
• How to read a label for chemicals and additives that cause fat-gain
• Which foods will help burn body fat quickly
• Which supplements can be safely introduced to maximize results

On day two, the Transformation team will conduct a technical workshop from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Professionals will learn new training tips including:

• Teaching and technical skills to help clients achieve their goals
• Functional Exercises for maximum impact in minimum time
• Knowledge and skills of training for clients at all levels
• How to design and implement successful boot camp workouts that will keep clients energized
• Cutting-edge kettlebell training techniques

Pricing for the workshop is $300 for a single day or $500 for both. For more information or to register, go to PT3.

Should I rest
between exercise sets?

We’ve all seen it at the gym – the big, muscular man that spends 30 seconds grunting, groaning and moaning to bench press a weight that we only dream about lifting. Then we watch him sit around for five minutes before starting another exercise. So in order to obtain large muscles and maintain fitness, we should do the same. Right?

Wrong!

Get the Most Out of Your Workout

One of the biggest excuses among Americans is that they just don’t have time to work out. Do you only have thirty minutes? The best way to achieve maximum results in a small amount of time is to reduce or eliminate rest between exercises. Choose an exercise that works one muscle group and then move to another exercise that doesn’t use that muscle group to allow recovery. For example, if you’re doing an upper body workout after you finish doing a chest press, move on to pull-ups or another exercise that doesn’t specifically target the chest.

For those of you looking to lose weight or excess fat, eliminating rest between exercises also has the added benefit of keeping the heart rate up which means you’re burning more calories and losing weight faster!

If you want a great workout to try, Barry Seneri has come up with one that’ll get you well on your way. Check it out below:

Stepping Outside the Box – “Flab Busting” Workout 1 with Kettlebells –

Immediate Download PDF

Barry Seneri explains how to “rethink” your workout for best results. Completely illustrated and laid out step by step, here are five simple, yet functional body exercises combined for a complete body workout. If you’re tired of the same old boring gym routine – this is a quick and effective way to spice things up. By practicing this routine, you’ll soon see how engaging all of your muscle groups will maximize fat burning for the desired lean body result. The demonstration works best with a set of kettlebells, but it can also be done effectively at home with dumbbells. 10 pages.

Price: Only $9.95