Put more JOY in your ENJOY™
What Is Functional Training?
Have you ever “tweaked” a muscle? Chances are, you said yes. Do you know exactly what muscle it was or why it happened? Chances are you said no. We have the answer. Most exercise programs are focused on the large muscle groups in your body, but that’s probably not what caused your discomfort or pain. If all your muscles tasked with a movement don’t fire at precisely the exact moment, you’re exposed to inefficiency, compensatory patterns or injury. It doesn’t matter how strong or well-conditioned your muscles are if they don’t fire in concert with each other and with perfect timing. Are you sure yours are functioning properly?
That’s where we come in. Instead of focusing on adding bulk to large muscle groups, we focus on making sure all your muscles are functioning properly; even the small ones you may have never heard of that support proper movement. The benefits from this will help you to live a fully functional life with increased overall wellness, ease and efficiency, and decreased pain, stiffness and injuries. Through experience, close observation and expertise, our doctors will guide your exercise program and coordinate your specific needs with other in house providers including our massage therapists. Our goal is to ensure your success.
Functional Training Is For Everyone
Functional Training isn’t just for athletes or only for people with chronic pain. It’s not limited to people who may be deconditioned or who know they could be moving more. It can help anyone in any condition enjoy increased movement, mobility, strength, flexibility and to move throughout the day with greater ease and efficiency.
Most people exercise at the gym to build muscle strength, improve cardiovascular fitness, and maybe increase flexibility. But, do you know why you are doing these things? What is the purpose? For most people, the goal is to improve the quality of life. So, it’s important to ensure you’re getting the most out of your efforts. Incorrectly exercising muscles that are inhibited or injured can actually increase pain and decrease function and performance.
The body inherently develops compensation patterns following the path of least resistance and lowest pain. In some cases, the body will fully inhibit a muscle by shutting it down entirely. Functional training can be tailored to anyone by first identifying these patterns of compensation and then reactivating, retraining and strengthening your muscles. Through experience and by working closely with our doctors, our trainers are able to identify what muscular deficits exist. Training is then focused on creating balance within the body.
What Happens During a Functional Training Session?
This initial session consists of a doctor guided functional movement screening. The doctor will guide you through 7 movements developed to objectively determine how well your body is functioning in key areas such as mobility, stability and coordination. Once completed, a custom-tailored patient specific series of movements will be developed for you. You can think of the movements as exercises, but sometimes they will only be performed a few times in a session. The doctor or trainer will be there to correct the movements and mitigate compensatory patterns.
Remember the purpose of functional training is to ensure that all aspects of your movement are functioning properly. By focusing on how your body moves through everyday, you will gain the benefit of increased ease, efficiency and efficacy in everything you do. Whether you want to run a half marathon, get the most out of your favorite cross-fit class, or just play with your children without pain, functional training can help you Put more JOY in your ENJOY™.
Put more JOY in your ENJOY
™
Doctor guided and coordinated Functional Training at Issaquah Family Chiropractic
