Evie discusses easy to fitness routines that anyone can adapt to and breaks down how simple functional exercise can be.

Most people don’t have an idea why they’re doing the exercises or the fitness programs they’re doing. Chances are they’ve only seen them in different sources such as magazines, TV shows, and influencers and thought that those were the ones they need.

Most people hear the words “functional fitness,” and tend to associate it with CrossFit immediately. Why? Because they combined cardio, training, and bodybuilding into one. Before CrossFit, runners and bodybuilders trained separately. Nobody figured out how to combine those two. It is a great concept as we humans need to have a certain baseline strength for cardiovascular endurance and cardiovascular health. Unfortunately, CrossFit turned into a sport. They are now selling it and putting it as functional leading people to believe the only people that should be doing the exercises are the ones who will compete.

Functional fitness is really all about “are you moving and exercising in a way that matches what you’re trying to do in your life?”

There are a lot of fitness programs that make you dysfunctional over time, and unfortunately people don’t realize it until after ten or twenty years that they start to experience the bad effects of it.

What are some of the exercises to consider to be the most functional? Here are the things to think about:

1. Do you want to look better? 
This is universal. Who doesn’t want to look better? It’s everyone’s desire, but the question is if this is your primary function. If this is your only goal you can work on bicep curls, tricep extension and muscle isolation, things you can load one or two muscles at a time.

2. Do you want to be strong and be resilient?
You should be focused on cardio workouts and compound muscle contractions if this is your goal. Compound muscle contractions is about moving through multiple joints and multiple muscle groups. Deadlifting is a great example.

3. Do you want to alleviate pain?
When people age, it’s normal that they experience a lot of aches and pains. For some of the girls who haven’t done any resistance or weight training, it’s a struggle to feel pain. Alleviating pain is a big concern. If this is you, high-intensity workouts will NOT be your best choice. The pain you’re experience is because of weakness of the joints. Best picks will be resistance training, yoga, walking, and even riding a bike.

The question we must ask ourselves is, “What do see as the kind of movement that suits our current needs best?

One Truth: Creating optimal wellness isn’t as complicated as the fitness industry would have you believe but not a lot of people make a living off of telling people to use resistance bands and go for a walk. People that have your best interest at heart are going to take the time to figure out what your function is and guide you into the best movement and exercise for you to accomplish those things.