SPRINGER: Fitness: Weigh fitness trends

A red-hot phrase in the fitness and conditioning industry is "function training."

It appears to be a trend of choice for exercise program design according to Juan Carlos Santana, a sports conditioning specialist. As with any trend, functional training has its good and bad points. However, it seems to present an "exciting alternative for those wishing to exercise and train for performance," Santana said.

Function for these purposes is designed as a specific duty of a person or thing. The function of the human body is to provide support and movement. Therefore, functional training is any program or exercise that enhances the body's structure and movement.

The actual strength gains needed to develop the body are then based on the secondary function one has chosen to participate in.

Santana has defined four major categories of biomechanics calling them the "four pillars of human movement."

All humans have the same basic body structure with the same movement function. We all do the following: we stand or move. We raise and lower our centers of mass. We push or pull. We rotate.

Let's look at Santana's four pillars and how they can be attacked in an exercise program.

• The First Pillar, standing and movement, simply points out that humans are bipedal animals (two feet).

Much of the standing we do supports other movements such as pushing, pulling or rotating. The first pillar is then rarely symmetrically "loaded" or supported by a perfectly balanced stance.

The first pillar can then be trained by balancing on the feet with varying weight distributions. Also, training the body to apply and transmit forces through ground reaction forces. Basically, this entails lifting weights while standing and supporting your own body.

• The Second Pillar involves movement from high to low or low to high.

Bending and tying your shoe is a basic example of a minimal energy movement. Take this same example and apply it to sports. Athletes may have to quickly scoop a ball from the ground, quickly return to a standing position, switch directions and then move. This series of movements is accomplished while using the body's energy to fight gravity.

Training the second pillar is usually done in a more dynamic fashion. For the average exerciser, squats are the ultimate exercise for shifting your weight and energy while resisting the forces of gravity to keep you down. Lunges are another exercise that trains us to move from low to high.

• The Third Pillar, pushing and pulling, is most commonly trained with the bench press.

However, we seldom have to lift heavy objects off of us while laying in a supine position. Therefore, get up and do something upright. A standing row or chest fly using a cable machine or resistance tubing is very effective in training the third pillar.

• The Fourth Pillar involves rotation.

Most people hear rotation and immediately jump on the torso twisting machine at the gym. For life's purposes and for training the abdominals, this machine is highly ineffective.

Our core musculature is designed in a crisscross pattern called the serape effect. Santana gives a visual or this as a scarf draped around the neck, crossing in the front with one end going to a hip and the other crossed end joining at the other hip.

As with other movements, rotation is rarely isolated. Usually, the rotation is amplified by hip and leg motion. The standing position is therefore very effective when training for rotation.

Kim Springer and her husband, Mike, are Certified Personal Trainers and owners of Springer Training. They can be reached at (702) 233-9442 or at their Web site www.springertraining.com.


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