Functional Fitness at Chatham Works
Train in the Gym Like You Move in Real Life
Functional fitness uses dynamic, natural exercises to train the body for real-world movements and activities. It's a holistic approach that's proven to:
★ Build Strength ★
★ Burn Fat ★
★ Improve Balance & Mobility ★
★ Boost Cardiovascular Conditioning ★
Originally an offshoot of Physical Therapy, functional training is now a staple in the regimens of pro and amateur athletes, first responders, the military, and regular people everywhere.
It's a lot more fun than shuffling mindlessly between weight machines. And it's central to our approach to fitness here at Chatham Works.
Chatham Works Personal Trainer John Gill working with a client during a Team Training class.
Focused on Fundamentals
The goal of functional fitness is to prepare your body and brain to perform the activities that make up your life, whether it's domestic tasks like carrying groceries, doing yard work, or picking up a child, or more athletic endeavors in sports or nature. So it emphasizes foundational movement patterns that are the building blocks of how we move our bodies in the real world.
It also mirrors how we move in the real world by emphasizing compound movements (multi-joint, multiple muscle group exercises), and movements in multiple planes of motion. In contrast, weight machines are usually designed to put you into an idealized position in order to isolate larger muscles, and usually in just a single plane of motion.
5 Big Benefits of Compound Movements
1) Build Functional Strength
Resistance training using compound movements to build "functional strength" is central to the idea of functional fitness. And strength training is important for everyone!
The many proven benefits of strength training include:
★ Longer predicted life span and improved quality of life.
★ Improved fat loss and metabolic health.
★ Maintaining and building muscle mass and bone density - and especially as we age.
2) Strengthen the Brain/Body Connection
Performing compound exercises requires your brain to control multiple muscle groups at the same time, often across multiple planes of motion. That develops proprioception - the "brain/body connection" - which leads to better balance and coordination, and reduces your risk of injury.
Multiple recent studies have found that functional training is significantly more effective than traditional strength training at improving balance and mobility.
Chatham Works Personal Trainer Jason Cartwright with a client.
3) Core is Included ...
Compound exercises often require you to engage your core (abdominal) muscles. That means you don't need to set aside time for dedicated core work. (But sometimes our Trainers still throw in some core-centric work for good measure.)
4) ... Cardio Too
Functional training can be performed at a wide range of speeds, from "slow and steady" to high intensity interval training (aka HIIT). But cardio is "built-in" when you perform compound, multi-planar exercises, because engaging more muscles requires your heart to work harder - especially when you add in resistance training.
So in addition to helping you build strength, functional fitness helps strengthen your cardiovascular system, and you can burn more calories in less time than with traditional weightlifting.
Monitor your workout in real-time, including heart rate, % of max HR, calories burned, and more with a Myzone Heart Rate Monitor (free for all Annual THE WORKS members).
5) Variety = FUN! = Good
Functional fitness is also a lot more fun than just doing circuits on strength training machines.
In a group exercise class or Personal Training session you might use any combination of equipment, including dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags, the CrossCore bodyweight trainer, medicine balls, resistance bands, cardio equipment, battle ropes, plyoboxes, step benches, swiss balls, landmines, TerraCores, and more. And of course there are a million exercises you can do using just your bodyweight.
Sometimes it feels more like play than working out!
A sampling of some of our functional training equipment.
On top of that, there are numerous different ways that functional training sessions can be structured depending on various factors, including the goal on the workout.
All that variety has some major benefits. It keeps things interesting, and helps you avoid plateaus by continuously challenging your brain and body in different ways, and it also improves adherence.
Functional Training at Chatham Works
Learn By Doing
Don't worry if all of this sounds a bit foreign or overwhelming. Our expert staff will teach you how to safely and effectively use our equipment and execute the workout. They'll also explain "the why" behind what you'll be doing. So you're also learning - not just exercising.
Chatham Works Personal Trainer Brittany Butler working with a client.
It's NOT a Contest!
Our clients come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and range in age from late teens to 80+. Some are super fit. Others are earlier in their fitness journeys. More than a few have to work around old injuries or other signs of "mileage". And everyone fits in.
So "meeting clients where they are" is central to our approach. Our staff are experts at providing harder and easier variations of exercises (aka "progressions and regressions") - or alternative movements if someone needs to work around an injury or limitation.
That means we can have clients with a wide range of strength, mobility, and conditioning levels all in the same class and still make sure that everyone gets a great - and safe - workout.
