You may have noticed that we have begun incorporating “Functional Bodybuilding” into our workouts. While it may not be our typical “Metcon” where we are left drenched in sweat and out of breath on floor, complimenting our conditioning with functional bodybuilding has a host of benefits and carryover to our strength & conditioning including:
- Increased overall usable strength
- Correcting muscle imbalances
- Improved body awareness,
- Coordination
- Injury prevention.
In this more holistic approach, we focus on movement quality and increased use of our stabilizer muscles to work towards a more complete athlete.
During metabolic conditioning workouts, the kipping movements, high rep and repetitive nature can lead to overuse resulting in injuries. How many of us have those achy shoulders and knees or nagging hip flexors and IT bands?
Our goal with functional bodybuilding is to try and prevent this by strengthening and stabilizing your joints in ways that are often ignored during a typical Metcon. While it may not feel like your typical metabolic conditioning workout, the effort is beneficial in a variety of ways such as:
- Increased strength and stability in all planes (forward/backward, rotational, laterally, etc.)
- Improved overall strength and performance by focusing on unilateral work (using one arm or leg) to develop symmetrical strength and neglected stabilizers
- Improved coordination and balance due to the unilateral work and increased use of stabilizer muscles
Our approach at District H is to build a complete strength & conditioning program that keeps you strong, healthy, and injury free. Don’t worry, Metcons will always be a staple of our program, but we can do better and our members deserve better.
Here is how to get the most out of Functional Bodybuilding days:
- Slow your movements down and focus on quality
- Take a healthy scoop of humility and scale down your weight to properly ensure full range of motion
- Understand that you are building your body’s fortress by becoming indestructible so that you can continue to hit PRs on your lifts and train at a high intensity for your Metcons…injury free.
Enjoy the pump!