Functional training has become one of the most popular terms in fitness, but it is also one of the most misunderstood.
At its simplest, functional training means choosing exercises that improve the physical qualities you need for a specific task. That task could be climbing stairs, carrying groceries, playing with your kids, lifting at work, competing in a sport, or simply staying strong and independent as you age.
Take Your Fitness To The Next Level
So functional training isn't a special collection of "good" exercises that automatically beats bodybuilding, machines, or traditional strength training. An exercise is functional when it helps you improve the function you're actually training for.
In that sense, functional training has been around far longer than the modern fitness industry. Humans have always trained to become stronger, faster, more capable, and better prepared for physical tasks.
Today, functional training can range from basic exercises designed to improve daily living to demanding athletic programs involving strength, power, conditioning, balance, and sport-specific movement.
What Is Functional Training?
Functional training is exercise designed to improve your ability to perform a particular activity or group of activities.
That definition is intentionally broad because "function" is different for everyone.
For an older adult, functional training might emphasize leg strength, balance, walking speed, and the ability to stand up from a chair. Recent systematic reviews have found functional exercise can improve measures such as gait speed, balance, chair-stand ability, and activities of daily living in older adults.
For an athlete, functional training could include sprinting, jumping, changing direction, throwing, carrying, rotating, and resisting force.
For someone returning from an injury, functional training may involve gradually rebuilding the strength and movement capacity needed to return to work, sport, or everyday activities.
Functional programs commonly include basic movement patterns such as:
- Squatting
- Hinging
- Lunging
- Pushing
- Pulling
- Carrying
- Rotating and resisting rotation
- Walking, running, and changing direction
However, there is no official rule stating that an exercise must involve multiple joints, unstable surfaces, or free weights to be "functional."
A machine or isolation exercise can absolutely serve a functional purpose. A leg extension may help build quadriceps strength. A hamstring curl can strengthen the knee flexors. A machine row can improve pulling strength. Whether an exercise is useful depends on what you're trying to accomplish.
To see one example of compound and athletic-style exercises being combined into a program, check out the Jason Momoa Workout.
Low-Intensity vs. High-Intensity Functional Training
Functional training can be easy, moderate, or extremely demanding. Intensity should match your fitness level, goals, and ability to recover.
Low-Intensity Functional Training
Lower-intensity functional training is useful for beginners, older adults, people returning from injury, or anyone learning new movement patterns.
Exercises might include:
- Bodyweight squats
- Chair stands
- Step-ups
- Light carries
- Supported lunges
- Balance drills
- Resistance-band exercises
- Walking
This type of training can improve strength, balance, mobility, and confidence while keeping fatigue manageable.
High-Intensity Functional Training
High-intensity functional training, often shortened to HIFT, typically combines resistance exercises, bodyweight movements, conditioning, and sometimes Olympic-style lifts in demanding circuits or intervals.
Recent research suggests HIFT can improve multiple aspects of physical fitness, including cardiovascular fitness, strength, power, speed, and body composition, although the exact effects depend heavily on how the program is designed.
This style of training can include exercises such as sprints, loaded carries, kettlebell movements, pull-ups, and barbell squats.
The important point is that high-intensity functional training requires a foundation. More complicated exercises performed under fatigue are not automatically better.
Technique, strength, mobility, coordination, conditioning, and recovery all matter.
Related: How to Improve Muscular Endurance.
7 Functional Training Benefits
The biggest advantage of functional training is specificity. Instead of training simply to complete exercises, you select exercises based on what you want your body to become better at doing.
1. Builds Useful Strength
Functional training can improve strength in movements that transfer to daily life, work, recreation, or sport.
Squats can build the legs for standing and climbing. Carries can improve grip and trunk strength. Rows and pull-ups strengthen the muscles involved in pulling. Hip hinges develop the posterior chain used when lifting objects from the ground.
That does not make these exercises inherently more useful than every machine or isolation movement. It simply means their movement patterns can transfer well to many tasks.
2. Builds a Stronger Physical Foundation
A well-designed functional program can develop strength, balance, mobility, conditioning, and coordination before you progress to more demanding activities.
This can be especially useful for beginners and athletes preparing for higher-speed or higher-impact training.
Rather than thinking of "stabilizer muscles" as a special group that only functional exercises train, remember that your body coordinates many muscles to control joints during virtually all resistance exercises.
3. Can Improve Movement Quality
Training movements repeatedly with appropriate resistance can improve coordination and control.
Some studies have also found that functional, resistance, and neuromuscular exercise programs improve scores on movement assessments.
However, scoring better on a movement screen does not automatically mean you've corrected every "imbalance" or eliminated injury risk.
Likewise, functional training does not automatically improve your posture. Posture varies between people and tasks, and no single ideal posture needs to be maintained all day.
4. Can Improve Mobility and Range of Motion
A good functional program often involves moving through large, controlled ranges of motion.
Resistance training itself can improve flexibility and joint range of motion. A large systematic review found that resistance training with external loads significantly increased range of motion and produced flexibility improvements comparable to stretching in many situations.
This means flexibility training doesn't necessarily need to be separated from strength training, and there is no rule saying stretching must always occur after your workout.
What matters is gradually developing the ranges of motion required for your goals and becoming strong enough to control them.
5. Develops Balance and Coordination
Unilateral movements, balance exercises, and plyometrics can challenge coordination and balance.
Recent research on integrative neuromuscular training suggests programs combining strength, balance, core training, plyometrics, and motor-skill work can improve athletic qualities including sprinting, jumping, agility, and balance.
Balance and coordination can also be valuable outside sports. Maintaining these qualities becomes increasingly important for independence as we age.
Related: Balance Exercises.
6. Can Be Part of an Injury-Risk-Reduction Program
No exercise style can guarantee injury prevention.
Strength, balance, conditioning, neuromuscular control, and exposure to sport-specific movements can all be components of successful injury-risk-reduction programs, but injuries are influenced by many factors.
Previous injuries, training volume, fatigue, sport exposure, recovery, strength, and plain bad luck can all play a role.
So functional training can help build physical capacity, but claiming it "prevents injuries" outright goes beyond the evidence.
7. Makes Training Purposeful
Functional training encourages you to ask a very useful question:
What am I actually training my body to do?
A firefighter, MMA fighter, basketball player, recreational lifter, and 70-year-old who wants to remain independent should not all follow the same functional workout.
A good program reflects the specific demands of the person using it.
That's what makes functional training practical.
Functional Training Exercises
One simple way to organize functional training is around broad movement patterns.
The original version of this article listed seven: squat, lunge, push, pull, bend, twist, and walking/running. That framework is useful, but it isn't an official or complete scientific classification.
A more practical list might include:
- Squat
- Hinge
- Lunge
- Push
- Pull
- Carry
- Rotate and resist rotation
- Walk, run, sprint, or change direction
You don't need to train every pattern in every workout. Across your week, include the movements and physical qualities that matter for your goals.
Functional Training Bodyweight Exercises
- Running
- Sprints
- Pull-ups & Chin-ups
- Push-ups
- Bodyweight Squats
- Squat jumps
- Pistol Squats
- Lunges
- Hanging leg raises
- Planks
- Burpees
- Handstands
- Dips
Plyometrics
And the list goes on...
It should be noted that as you advance, you can add loads to these exercises, using weights like dumbbells and barbells. Conversely, if you’ve always trained with weights, it could be great to try something different by doing bodyweight movements at higher reps for a couple months, as the dynamics are completely different and will test you in a new way.
Now, we are going to discuss the types of equipment that can be used to train these 7 different movement patterns, with a video example for each.
Functional Training Equipment & Exercises
Apart from bodyweight movements, there are many types of equipment that are great for functional training, and none of them include machines that isolate movements.
One of the best tools you can use is a barbell and plates, and dumbbells. The “big three” lifts are essentials for a high-intensity functional training regime. Also, full body movements that use dumbbells are great too.
Aside from the obvious, at SET FOR SET, we like to incorporate unconventional fitness tools into our functional training programs.
Steel Mace
Related: 16 Best Steel Mace Exercises
Slam Ball
Battle Ropes
TRX Suspension Trainer
Related: Full Body TRX Workout Plan
Kettlebell
Related: Benefits of Kettlebells
Resistance Bands
Related: Resistance Band Exercises For Explosive Power
Sand Bag
Stability Ball
Other noteworthy tools:
- Steel Parallettes
- Power Tower
- Speed Rope
- Sled
- Steel clubs
- Indian clubs
- Foam Rollers (recovery)
- Massage Balls (recovery)
All in all, any training that directly correlates to improved function of daily life is great. Functional training MUST be done if you want to have a well-rounded physique and fitness level. Remember that functional training will be different for everyone because we are all at different levels in our fitness journey and we have different goals. Functional training is simply becoming the best you physically, so you can tackle whatever your day has in store for you.
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