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Summary
On episode 141 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan breaks down functional fitness: what it actually is, how to build a training plan around it, and the tools most commonly used for it.
His angle is practical: benchmark where you are, define a vision for what your body needs to do in real life, then build workouts that close the gap, fixing weaknesses before pushing strengths to avoid injury.
He walks through a long list of functional training implements, from kettlebells and medicine balls to sandbags, tires, and sledgehammers, explaining what each one trains and why it beats a machine for real-world movement.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com
Key Takeaways
- Start with an honest benchmark. Before programming anything, identify your physical limitations or injuries, your current strengths, and the current demands on your body.
- Define a vision statement for what fitness should let you do. Hiking, playing with grandchildren, tennis, golf, whatever the goal is, it should be specific and relevant, the same way a SMART goal works, so training stays connected to real life.
- Fix weaknesses before you push your strengths. Compound functional lifts amplify the risk of an unaddressed weak link; Allan's own lower-back injury from a weak core during heavy CrossFit deadlifts is the cautionary example.
- Work with a trainer for functional-style training specifically. A professional can assess movement patterns, mobility issues, and muscle imbalances that are easy to miss training alone, given the higher injury risk of these exercises.
- Kettlebell swings build the posterior chain. The Russian kettlebell swing trains the back, glutes, and hamstrings using a hip-driven motion that mirrors real tasks like lifting a child or a bag of groceries.
- Medicine ball work and battle ropes build strength and metabolic endurance together. Wall balls and slams hit the chest, triceps, shoulders, and lower body, while battle rope waves and slams train the whole body at once.
- Unstable-load tools like sandbags and tires train grip and real-world stability. A shifting load of water or sand can't be controlled the way a barbell can, closer to what carrying an actual child, box, or grocery bag feels like.
- Club bells build joint mobility, especially in the thoracic spine. Swinging a weighted club through a full dynamic range of motion trains mobility and grip strength together.
- Sledgehammers and mallets build grip strength and are a natural testosterone booster. Swinging against a tire trains grip under load, similar to the testosterone-boosting effect associated with chopping wood.
“Machines are probably the least functional pieces of equipment in the gym…your grandchild is not sitting on a rail.”
Coach Allan