Are You Fit Enough to Function?

Welcome to the concept of Functional Fitness.

So what exactly, you may ask, is functional fitness? Let me explain.

While hiking down Tuckerman’s Ravine, a trail on Mount Washington, New Hampshire’s highest peak, I became enlightened. Not enlightened in the spiritual sense of having a deep understanding of self and profound inner peace, no, this was more of an “aha” moment of self realization. On this downward trek that basically required single leg squats to descend the huge boulders, I realized I needed to up my fitness game! I had a decent level of fitness at the time, but it was challenging to climb down those rocks without resorting to sliding on my butt. My four teen and twenty-something children and my fit husband didn’t have any problem with it. Even though my children are basically mountain goats (two of them ran up the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Trail), I still want to be able to keep up or at least not be significantly slower.

In this moment of clarity, I realized that I want to be fit enough to do all the activities in which I want to participate. I want to be able to climb mountains, swing from rope swings, jump, dance, dive off diving boards, run, play backyard games, swim, bike, and play sports. Basically I wanted to be fit enough to function well whatever my life throws at me. Hence the term, Functional Fitness.

The concept of functional fitness is inherently personal. The activities you want to do will dictate your fitness needs. At the very least, you want to be fit enough to walk, get up from a chair, get out of a car, open jars, and carry things. These things will allow you to live independently for many years to come. You may want to be able to walk up hills, or bike to the grocery store, or carry groceries home, or carry a child around, or play with your children or grandchildren, or maybe hike Mount Washington. Whatever active thing you want to or need to do, you need to attain a level of fitness that allows you to do that.

So how do you get functionally fit?

Functional fitness implies an all around fitness level with both aerobic capacity and strength plus power and flexibility. Unlike those leg-day skipping, large bicep gym bros, strive for all over strength to function well in your life and not just to look good. To achieve all around fitness, you will need to incorporate a range of exercises or activities into your life. Some for heart health, endurance, and stamina. Some for arm, shoulder, back, core, and leg strength. Some for speed and power. And some for flexibility. To address each of these areas you will want to include some form of the following into your life.

Aerobic exercise for endurance and heart health
Resistance training for muscle strength
Sprint or HIIT training for speed and power
Movement or stretching for flexibility

These four represent general categories and each has a plethora of options that fall in their domain and some even overlap.

Aerobic

Aerobic exercise can be running/jogging, walking, aerobic class, biking, swimming, or any sport or activity that gets your heart rate up to the target level and can be sustained for 20 – 60 minutes. You can find your approximately max heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Then take 60% and 80% of this number to find your heart rate range that is considered aerobic. As a general rule, when you are in your aerobic heart rate window, you can usually talk, but you cannot sing. Find an activity you enjoy and will stick with. Pop in your earbuds and listen to a podcast while you go for a brisk walk. If you like to dance, turn up the music and dance. Whatever you do, just get your heartrate up and stick with it for 20 minutes.

Strength Training

Strength training requires putting your muscles under some resistance; it is also called resistance training. Although a gym is a great place to do strength training, you do not need a gym or even weights to improve your strength. In addition to making you strong enough to function in your life, new research indicates resistance training improves mitochondrial function and is good for your brain!

Years ago, my son introduced me to the concept of strength training through calisthenics and it was love at first sight (or first push up!) I enjoyed it so much that I completely ditched the gym and opted for home workouts instead. It can be done just about anywhere and doesn’t require any equipment, but a pull up bar is super handy. Calisthenics uses your body weight as the resistance and the amount of resistance can be modified by changing the angle of the exercise. Supporting your own body weight is an important life skill that will allow you to live your life more fully. You may remember calisthenics from gym class, but it has come a long way from sit ups and toe touches. Modern calisthenics includes planks, push ups, pull ups, kick throughs, squats, burpees, dips, planches, and more that target every muscle in your body. YouTube has some excellent resources for calisthenics. Lucy Lismore is excellent for beginners and approachable for novice women. Mad Fit , one of my favorites, is an excellent resource for a range of exercises and the instructor coaches you through modifications making it highly adaptable to all levels of fitness. For more intense workouts and fitness challenges, check out Chris Heria.

Resistance training can also be done using resistance bands. You can buy a set of 6 bands that vary in tension from extra light to extra heavy for about $10. They are extremely versatile: there are YouTube videos that guide you through exercises for just about every muscle group. These little bands are also extremely portable: you can use them just about anywhere and I often bring them with me when I travel.

And of course resistance training can be done with weights or machines. Most gyms will guide you through how to use the equipment or you can hire a personal trainer. You can also buy a few dumbbells or free weights to use at home. Check out Caroline Girvan’s YouTube channel for a ton of home workouts using dumbbells.

Sprint/HIIT Training

Did you know that most adults never sprint after the age of 30? Reading this prompted me to start sprinting! I kind of hate sprinting. I’ve been more of an endurance person since high school. I could run all day, but put me on a hill or ask me for speed and I get pooped. These days, I’m learning to like it more especially knowing these are short sprints and it will be over soon! Sprinting is a great way to develop power and speed. But the benefits don’t stop there. Sprinting has been shown to decrease visceral fat, the unhealthy fat that surrounds organs and contributes to inflammation. Just doing five repetitions of 10-second sprints a few times a week will help decrease your visceral fat stores. Sprinting also improves mitochondrial function and blood flow, increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which helps prevent cognitive decline.

Sprint training doesn’t have to be running sprints. You can do sprints on a bicycle or swimming, or any other activity provided you sufficiently elevate your heart rate. Your target heart rate should be 80% to 100% of your maximum heart rate, but you only sustain it for short times with rests in between. Another version of sprint training is high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts. There are plenty of these workouts on YouTube or you can design your own. Check out Caroline Girvan on YouTube for excellent HIIT workouts. Tabatas are a specific form of HIIT that have been shown to be very effective for improving fitness. In addition, sprint training or HIIT workouts have the bonus effect of improving muscle strength and tone in whatever parts of your body you are using.

Flexibility

Developing strength and endurance is excellent, but it won’t matter much if you can’t easily move your body. This is where flexibility training comes in. Stretching your body becomes increasingly important as we age because over time, our bodies compress and tighten, especially when we sit for long stretches of time. Stretching, moving mindfully, and breathing deeply helps to decompress and lengthen muscles and connective tissue. There are countless ways to stretch your body and YouTube videos on stretches are abundant.

However, my favorite way to increase flexibility is doing yoga. With yoga you get the added benefits of breath work and meditation. There are many different styles of yoga so if one doesn’t resonate with you, try another type. Hot yoga is practiced in a heated room, warming and loosening muscles which can help to improve flexibility. Vinyasa flows are sequences that move many if not all of your muscles and encourage your body to take a variety of shapes. Sun salutations are an excellent flow that is easy to learn and can be practiced anywhere. I love doing them first thing in the morning. It is important to remember that yoga is not a competitive sport; only go as far as your body can at that moment and breathe through every posture.

Yoga can even be done in a chair if getting on the floor is not available to you. However, it has been shown that people who get up and down from the ground live longer. Just doing this daily will ensure that you are able to do it. Plus, getting down on the floor has the added benefit of allowing you to play with your children and grandchildren!

Yoga studios are just about everywhere and if you cannot get to a studio, there are myriad yoga videos on YouTube. Two of my favorites are Yoga with Adrienne and Yoga with Kassandra. Both are quite approachable for beginners.

Putting It All Together

Incorporating all four types of these exercises into your life will allow you to continue to do all the things you want to do and live your life fully. It may seem like a lot, but just 30 minutes each day is sufficient. It is helpful to plan out your week of exercise alternating between strength training, and aerobics then work in a little sprint training and stretching. Many HIIT workouts have strength components built in and can do double duty serving as both a strength training and sprint workout. You can also set aside a day or two for yoga. It is especially nice to do yoga first thing in the morning to get you going or last thing at night to unwind. YouTube yoga videos for morning and evening are plentiful.

In a Nutshell…

While it is important to incorporate all four of these exercise types into your life, it is equally important to tailor your program to your personal preferences and needs. This will not only address your areas of concern, but also make it enjoyable – you are more likely to stick with something you enjoy. Figure out what you would like to improve – range of motion, leg strength, arm strength, endurance, etc. and find exercises that target that area. If you don’t have a specific target, you cannot go wrong with full body workouts. To help me support my body on downhill hikes, I focused on single leg exercises for both quadriceps and hamstrings. To improve my upper body strength I turned to good old push ups and pull ups. There are so many exercise resources available online that will help you personalize your program. If you like going to the gym, consider hiring a personal trainer for a few sessions to help you get started or to fine tune your program. Whatever you do, just start moving your body today. Humans are built to move, but in our modern day societies, the need to move has diminished and we have become very sedentary. The old adage applies here – use it or lose it. Move your body or you will lose the ability to do even the simplest things in life.

I am still the slowest hiker in my family. The running joke is that they are all safe from bears as long as mom is on the hike. But my fitness has improved. While stopping by a river for lunch on a recent bike trip, we came across a rope swing. I was able to swim out to the rope, hang on with one hand while undoing the knots with the other so the rope could reach the shore, then climb the rocks, swing out into the air, and drop into the river. Despite the local 10 year olds pointing to a spot several feet higher and saying “you’re supposed to jump from there,” it didn’t diminish my satisfaction with my little feat. I felt functionally fit.