What is "functional" training and how it helps you as a soldier?
Physical training is part and parcel of being a soldier. One common way to train is to visit the gym and use the equipment and free weights available, also known as "conventional" training.
How else can you train to complement your strength gained from "conventional" training, such as the Smith machine bench press, and make your overall training more task specific (such as during a parry)? We will explore various "functional" training methods to strengthen the effectiveness of your training routine.
A Smith machine bench press (Figure 1A) allows the soldier to focus on strengthening his or her pushing ability by using primarily the chest muscles to push against a selected resistance. The strengthened pushing ability of the soldier could be used in a scenario, such as pushing against another soldier during a parry (Figure 1B).
However, you noticed that there is no support behind the soldier for his torso (like a bench during bench press) to keep him stationary and stable while he was pushing.
Fig 1A: Smith machine bench press on flat bench.
Fig 1B: Defensive parry.
Let us look at a chest press exercise while in a standing position without any torso support (Figure 1C). This exercise not only helps develop chest strength but also trains the soldier to push in a standing position without support by actively involving the torso muscle groups to stabilize the upper body. This form of training is an example of "functional" training – training as you would execute the actual movement in actual circumstances.
Fig 1C: Standing chest press.
To provide you with more ideas on what kind of exercises you can add to your "conventional" exercises, we will now explore different kinds of functional exercises. You will notice that functional exercises do not focus only on strengthening a particular muscle group but include other components like coordination, balance and the ability to move rapidly.
With this functional exercise (Figure 2A), the back, abdominals, hip flexors, elbow flexors and grip strength are trained. The exercise not only helps you strengthen those necessary muscle groups used while ascending the low rope (Figure 2B), it trains functional mobility by getting those various muscle groups (such as biceps for elbow flexion, hip flexors for hip flexion) to coordinate in order to ascending the low rope.
Fig 2A: Leg Tuck
Fig 2B: Ascend a low rope
This exercise (Figure 3A) challenges the trainee to maintain an upright position with resistance provided by the dumbbells resting on shoulders. Your upper limbs are also engaged to balance the weights in this exercise. That mimics the vocational-related task of the fireman lift (Figure 3B).
Fig 3A: Dumbbell Squat
Fig 3B: Fireman lift
This functional exercise (Figure 4A) requires the trainee to react rapidly by quickly alternating leg movements forwards and backwards. This mimics the dynamic movement required to quickly recover from a prone position (see Figure 4B).
Fig 4A: Alternate Leg Thrust.
Fig 4B: Recover from prone position.
As shown in the above examples, functional training exercises can address the need to make your training more task specific. Many soldier's tasks not only require utilizing the strength of a particular muscle group alone, but also require maintaining the body's balance while performing a task, coordinating movement utilizing different muscle groups, and reacting quickly to move from a particular position, just to name a few.
These are some of the aspects mentioned here that are addressed by functional training. So do include functional training exercises in your training programs in addition to conventional training exercises.