Regular Training vs Functional Training

[niven5]

Do you believe in regular weightlifting training or maybe in a functional training, even if it's not so beneficial for muscle building and general strength. just functional movements. WHAT DO U THINK?

[cthulhupun]

A good base of strength is needed. This is why CrossFit Football realized that they needed to add a strength component to their workouts. Just doing "functional" training won't get you to where you want to be, but gym strength alone won't do it either. As with many things in life, it is about the middle path.

[jonmd123]

Do you believe in regular weightlifting training or maybe in a functional training, even if it's not so beneficial for muscle building and general strength. just functional movements. WHAT DO U THINK?

Regular weightlifting is functional training. If the question is "what makes you faster, doing power cleans or running sprints?" The answer depends on the athlete and where they are at in their training. A good program will have a good mix of both.

[niven5]

Regular weightlifting is functional training. If the question is "what makes you faster, doing power cleans or running sprints?" The answer depends on the athlete and where they are at in their training. A good program will have a good mix of both.

not very functional for anyone. When I say functional I mean to exercises that are specific for a sport and not general functional exercises that actually doesn't happen a lot (for me) like lifting something heavy from the floor or above your head. it's very functional for movers and builders and building workers.

[daveshit]

not very functional for anyone. When I say functional I mean to exercises that are specific for a sport and not general functional exercises that actually doesn't happen a lot (for me) like lifting something heavy from the floor or above your head. it's very functional for movers and builders and building workers.

yeah, and you don't need to be strong for football, basketball, soccer?
give me a break!
you come here ask for opinion, you get some good answers and then write some stupid answer.

Man, you need to be strong to be better athlete. It's not essential to do power cleans, squats etc. Unilateral training cal also give you strength gains. There are more ways to approach a problem, but yours is definitely wrong. Read some literature on training for sports and you will better understand what people are saying.

[jonmd123]

not very functional for anyone. When I say functional I mean to exercises that are specific for a sport and not general functional exercises that actually doesn't happen a lot (for me) like lifting something heavy from the floor or above your head. it's very functional for movers and builders and building workers.

No sport requires an athlete to lift a loaded bar off the ground. So why does any good program involve these exercises? Because athletes need to be very strong. For example, the force on an athlete's leg can be around 4x their body weight while sprinting. The faster you can absorb that energy the faster you can apply concentric force back to the ground.

[cthulhupun]

No sport requires an athlete to lift a loaded bar off the ground.

Olympic weightlifting is a sport. I know what you're getting at though.

[jonmd123]

Geez, next you're going to tell me Crossfit is a sport! Kidding, Olympic lifters are very athletic.

[KidAlchemy]

Strength is strength, it carries over.

[OneLastChance]

Strength is strength, it carries over.

This. Stop making things more complicated than they are OP. /thread

[ckleckner10]

Strength is strength, it carries over.

This. Stop making things more complicated than they are OP. /thread

strength is not power though, and the strength is not always developed within the plane of motion an athlete needs it (throwing a baseball has no relation to squatting a bar) thats why the question was raised and its a good question especially for sports that require more specific motions such as baseball, tennis, or swimming. and no im not bashing anytype of lifting i love my squats let me share my point of view.
like others have said both is best. The easiest way to do it is focus on strength in the big compound lifts in the offseason and 2-3 months out of season you begin to do more "functional" work (one legged work, rotational type exercises, and such)

[KidAlchemy]

OOooh, so you want to get better at tennis? Well, umm... here's an innovative idea: do more tennis?

And this applies to any sport. To get good at sport do the sport, everything else you do carries over strength, speed, agility, flexibility etc.

[niven5]

yeah, and you don't need to be strong for football, basketball, soccer?
give me a break!
you come here ask for opinion, you get some good answers and then write some stupid answer.

Man, you need to be strong to be better athlete. It's not essential to do power cleans, squats etc. Unilateral training cal also give you strength gains. There are more ways to approach a problem, but yours is definitely wrong. Read some literature on training for sports and you will better understand what people are saying.

Listen dude, I don't neglet those exercises. they are the best exercises for functional strength but can you explain me how bench press for example can help a soccer player (except from upper body strength) not so functional. For soccer, football, running etc. one leg exercises is very functional.

[ckleckner10]

i really feel like some of these people are taking this question offensively for some reason. This really is one of those questions that people (especially people receiving advice from others such as personal training clients, athletes, and such) need to ask, is what being said really the BEST way to aid in my goals? Thats all OP is really asking

[HamburgerTrain]

As someone who has worked with literally hundreds of athletes, I can honestly say that everything works for a short period of time and nothing works forever. Every method has it's place in training. This now goes past the research and science of training into the actual "art" of improving performance. Functional training is great for prehab/rehab and correcting imbalances. That being said, I would have to lose my f*cking mind for it to be the main focus of year round focus for anyone that I ever work with. Louie Simmons once wrote that absolute strength governs all other trainable qualities. This is 100% correct. With the choatic and intense nature of most sport, training must mimic that enviroment to be truely sport specific. But, that the athlete must have a very high level of GPP in order to handle such training loads. This is where functional training is extremely important.

To support one school of thought completely independant of the other is just $hitty programming.