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It’s important to build your fitness routine around functional fitness exercises that simulate real-life motions. Everyday tasks like grocery shopping and gardening can be accomplished with greater ease and safety with the help of functional fitness exercises.
By mimicking the motions you might perform at home, at work, or in a sport, functional fitness exercises condition your muscles to work together, thereby preparing you for your daily tasks. Functional fitness exercises not only target a wide variety of upper and lower body muscles simultaneously but also place a strong emphasis on core stability.
Below we will discuss some of these exercises to help prevent injury.
Best Functional Fitness Exercises to Avoid Injury
Check out the following six functional fitness exercises you can do to avoid injury:
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1) Lunge
The lunge is a fundamental exercise, as it prepares the body for more complex movements like walking, stair climbing, and picking things up off the floor. Weak hips, and more specifically the stabiliser muscles that align the upper leg from the hip to the knee, are almost always the root cause of knee pain, underscoring the significance of lunges.
Walking lunges are one of the best functional fitness exercises, as they strengthen the legs by mimicking a stride with an exaggerated motion. To perform a lunge, step forward with both feet, plant your toes, and bend your front knee to 90 degrees while lowering your back knee till it's almost touching the floor. Switch feet, and try again.
2) Hinge
Hip-hinging is a natural motion that everyone performs frequently. Everyone has made a hip-hinge movement at some point, which is when they bend over to pick something up without squatting. Therefore, you should make this part of your regular workout.
The ability to perform this motion facilitates activities such as picking things up off the floor, bending over to examine something more closely, and so on. Hip-hinging is an indication of flexibility, strength, and poise. The barbell deadlift is one of the most popular functional fitness exercises that targets the hip hinge.
The gluteal muscles (your butt), hamstrings (the backs of your thighs), and lower back are all put to good use during a hip hinge. Smaller stabilizer muscles, tendons, and ligaments also contribute to maintaining your equilibrium.
3) Push Exercises
Most of us constantly employ push motions. We have to push everything from grocery carts to lawnmowers to ourselves in the morning. Bench presses, push-ups, military presses, overhead dumbbell presses, and so on are all examples of common pushing exercises.
Push-ups are the most basic upper body push exercise, but they can be challenging for people with mobility impairments. Standing resistance band press strengthens muscles and improves coordination and balance and is one of the best functional fitness exercises. It can also be performed while seated.
4) Squat
We perform the squat many times a day without even realizing it: when we sit down and stand up again.
It's one of the most basic functional fitness exercises you can perform to stay fit. The bodyweight squat is an easy-to-customize exercise that allows you to modify your workout by adjusting your support, range of motion, and/or resistance.
The squat is a compound movement because it involves the hips, knees, and ankles all at once. You should perform squats using only your bodyweight at first. Add weight, and switch between front and back squats as you gain strength.
Always aim to have your thighs just above parallel to the floor at the bottom of your squat. It's important that you work with a trainer to perfect your form when performing exercises like deadlifts and squats. Master your form, and challenge yourself with more difficult exercises.
5) Rotation Exercises (Movements that incorporate twist or turn)
Rotational motion is often disregarded, despite its significance. This is a vital exercise to add to your routine if you care about staying healthy and injury-free. Exercises involving rotation focus on strengthening the core muscles. The core is made up of a group of muscles that are specifically designed to function together.
The woodchopper is one of the best functional fitness exercises for building core strength and stabilizing the lower back. Lower back pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal complaints, and this exercise aids in preventing it.
The lumbar spine (lower back) was not built to carry your weight around all the time. However, most spinal rotation occurs in the middle spine (thoracic spine), so boosting mobility there is important.
6) Rotation Resistance (Anti-Rotation)
As we swing a golf club or a baseball bat, for example, we do not merely rotate; rather, we actively resist rotation. The lower back benefits greatly from anti-rotation exercises, as they keep the spine from twisting or rotating.
Opening a door is a commonplace instance of this. You have to keep your balance and fight the urge to spin around when you open the fridge door. For that, the core must be strong.
By simulating and then strengthening the core's natural function — to keep the spine stable and allow you to move in a safe plane of motion — anti-rotation exercises are functional fitness exercises that can help prevent injuries.
Takeaway
Functional fitness exercises are necessary in all workout routines to help prevent injury. Perform the aforementioned exercises regularly to stay fit and healthy. Check out these functional exercises for fat loss.
