The Truth About Functional Training

Functional training has become something of a buzzword in the fitness industry over the past decade. It’s commonly defined as exercise designed to prepare the body for daily life, work, or sport by improving movement efficiency and overall functional capacity.
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In practice, however, “functional training” often gets stretched beyond its original meaning. Many self-proclaimed functional trainers design movements no one has ever seen or used before, label them as functional, and use that label as a marketing tool. While it certainly grabs attention, it raises an important question: are these complex movements actually effective?

Many of these exercises fall into a category known as combination exercises. Common examples include a reverse lunge to a biceps curl, a curl to a press, or a squat to a press. These movements are intended to mimic everyday activities, such as picking something up off the ground and placing it on a shelf. Coaches who promote functional training often claim that this style is superior to traditional strength exercises such as squats, bench presses, overhead presses, and deadlifts.

However, these claims are often inaccurate. In fact, functional training can sometimes limit the results your workouts produce.

One of the main issues with combination exercises is a problem known as underloading. Underloading occurs when one or more muscle groups are not sufficiently challenged during an exercise. When a muscle isn’t adequately challenged, it doesn’t get stronger or improve its ability to produce force, build muscle tone, or enhance performance.
A great example is the squat-to-press. This movement combines a squat followed by an overhead press. Anyone who has performed these exercises separately knows that most people can squat far more weight than they can press overhead. This is largely due to the muscles involved: squats rely on the quadriceps and glutes—two of the largest and strongest muscle groups in the body, while the overhead press relies primarily on the deltoids and triceps, which are much smaller and capable of producing far less force.

When muscles are consistently underloaded, overall progress suffers. Strength and muscle development occur when muscles are trained close to failure, typically within about five reps. In many cases, spending too much time “functionally training” makes it harder to reach that level of stimulus. Imagine putting in months of hard work, only to see mediocre results because your exercise selection wasn’t optimal.

Now, this doesn’t mean functional exercises are useless. In certain situations, they can absolutely have value. They can make programs more enjoyable and engaging for people who prefer variety and movement-based training. That said, functional training shouldn’t make up the majority of your program if your goal is real, measurable progress. Instead focusing on progressive overload on basic movements like squats, presses, deadlifts, etc is usually the best approach to build your strongest body.