Anyone here experienced with functional patterns training?

[Federico del pueblo]

I have a friend who is a trained coach in functional patterns, a training philosophy invented by Naudi Aguilar.

We don't meet often but he's getting a little bit on my nerves by repeatedly telling me "tell me when you're ready for functional patterns and we'll start something".

I'm actually fine with just regular resistance training (bodyweight + weights) and don't feel like following another approach.

Anyway, I'm still curious if anyone here has done FP or is still doing FP, how it's working for you and just generally what you think about the approach.

To me it seems like a "back to the roots" kind of thing where it's about moving like people from cavemen times for optimum health, because "that's how we evolved evolutionary".

Probably it should be combined with the paleo diet ??

[BipolarGrowth]

Functional training is a pretty hilarious concept. I wouldn’t worry too much about his nonsense. Feel free to tell him once he’s ready to stop suboptimal training to let you know ?

[Federico del pueblo]

1 hour ago, BipolarGrowth said:

Functional training is a pretty hilarious concept

So you mean generally, not just in the case of functional patterns?

I honestly don't even know what "functional" in this context is supposed to mean...like which function? 

Is a pull up not functional? Or a push up? Or is it things like bench press, because you wouldn't normally encounter a bar with weights on in nature, so there's no point in having bench press strength? 

I have no idea ?

[BipolarGrowth]

@Federico del pueblo the hilarious part is that functional training in the modern day would be far closer to practicing typing to become more efficient using a keyboard than swinging a kettlebell around in the most arbitrary movement pattern you can imagine. 
 

What function are we trying to improve at? Why would the traditional compound movements be bad things to train? It’s just odd. If someone wants to go chop some logs in half for hours, I’m cool with that, but it is in no way optimal for muscle or strength development. You have to train close to muscular failure with 30 reps or less to get optimal muscle growth. You have to train a little further from muscular failure for sets of 1-5 reps for optimal strength improvements. Most of the functional training fad exercises cannot achieve these two goals nearly as well, safely, or predictably as the tried and true compound exercises. 

[integral]

Of course you want to learn how to use your body outside of basic bodybuilding techniques.

Can you do a cart wheel, a hand stand, flag poll, backflip, calisthenics holds, multiple consecutive high kicks, wrestle a man into submission, walk a tight/loss rope, a flare or move around obstacles like parkour?

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by integral

[Federico del pueblo]

@integral

22 hours ago, integral said:

Of course you want to learn how to use your body outside of basic bodybuilding techniques.

Can you do a cart wheel, a hand stand, flag poll, backflip, calisthenics holds, multiple consecutive high kicks, wrestle a man into submission, walk a tight/loss rope, a flare or move around obstacles like parkour?

 

That's a different topic.

 

 

 

[integral]

9 hours ago, Federico del pueblo said:

That's a different topic.

Maybe, Functional patterns is gymnastics with weights, kind of? 

Edited December 18, 2022 by integral

[BipolarGrowth]

A pull up is not functional, but pretending to be a flag is. I guess I’ve really misunderstood fitness. 

Edited December 19, 2022 by BipolarGrowth

[Tyler Robinson]

On 12/17/2022 at 5:08 PM, integral said:

Of course you want to learn how to use your body outside of basic bodybuilding techniques.

Can you do a cart wheel, a hand stand, flag poll, backflip, calisthenics holds, multiple consecutive high kicks, wrestle a man into submission, walk a tight/loss rope, a flare or move around obstacles like parkour?

 

What is functional patterns? 

 

[integral]

10 hours ago, BipolarGrowth said:

A pull up is not functional, but pretending to be a flag is. I guess I’ve really misunderstood fitness. 

He’s basically giving people who are stuck in masculine bodybuilding mindset to do activities that are still masculine but actually add coordination and balance. The typical bodybuilder doesn’t want to do gymnastics. Functional patterns is all about style baby. ?

Maybe not it probably looks goofy to them. It will probably attract the CrossFit people. But I do like the idea of using weights with higher balance and coordination. The middle ground of gymnastics but with heavy weights.

Edited December 19, 2022 by integral

[Federico del pueblo]

10 hours ago, Tyler Robinson said:

What is functional patterns? 

 

This.

 

 

[King Merk]

Yea I spent over 5 years as a personal training and got my bachelors in exercise science. I’ve also trained with multiple FP certified trainers and am myself trained in Functional Pattern training philosophy.

I say this because most people I see on here giving fitness advice don’t have a very deep understanding of what they’re talking about.

I have a lot of critics about Naudi but he has a pretty deep understanding of human biomechanics.

Most mainstream health/fitness advice will greatly accelerate the break down of your joints and FP offers an alternative.

FP is much better than the mainstream bodybuilding/hypertrophy centric advice you’ll typically get (assuming you care about holistic health) 

But personally I lean more towards the GOATA style of movement training as there is deeper wisdom in it than FP

Naudi is so frustratingly dogmatic that it I find it impossible to even listen to him now days

[King Merk]

The general consensus for the meaning behind “Functional Training” amongst people who know what they’re talking about is forward locomotion and breathing.

Some like Naudi would include throwing which is fair but undoubtably humans are mean to breathe and walk. Acts like throwing & kicking are extensions of that.

How does your training protocol influence these core aspects of movement?

That’s the whole concept behind “functional training”. Is the ability for your “exercise” to carry over to your daily activities.

Bench pressing and heavy back squats don’t have much carry over to daily living. In fact some would even argue they inhibit your ability to move effectively throughout your day to day life.

You bench press to improve your ego, not your running pattern 

Edited December 20, 2022 by King Merk

[Michael569]

I don't know anything about the particular training your friend recommends but in general, a functional training pattern is absolutely brilliant way to get way more out of your workouts. 

You can do a more CrossFit type of training where you go very high intensity for a short duration, you could do sprints, shadow boxing or bag work, you can do more primal type of training replicating wild animals and lizards, you can take a more parkour type of approach that includes a lot of rapid motion, changing direction, jumping etc. You can also do calisthenics and do a more pull/push training that includes mostly just your own bodyweight. 

I've been oscillating between weight training and a functional pattern and I've found my stamina and coordination has improved significantly compared to times when I only did bodybuilding. These days I really enjoy a session rope skipping, followed by shadow boxing with 1kg dumbells and then taking about 24 minutes of interval training with some jumping, burpees and that sort of stuff. I made a Youtube Video on this topic about a year ago. The quality is kinda shit but a few people I've shared that with found it quite helpful starting point. Very little investment into equipment required although not ideal at below 0 degree temperature

Edited December 21, 2022 by Michael569

[effortlesslumen]

On 17.12.2022 at 8:29 AM, BipolarGrowth said:

@Federico del pueblo the hilarious part is that functional training in the modern day would be far closer to practicing typing to become more efficient using a keyboard than swinging a kettlebell around in the most arbitrary movement pattern you can imagine. 
 

What function are we trying to improve at? Why would the traditional compound movements be bad things to train? It’s just odd. If someone wants to go chop some logs in half for hours, I’m cool with that, but it is in no way optimal for muscle or strength development. You have to train close to muscular failure with 30 reps or less to get optimal muscle growth. You have to train a little further from muscular failure for sets of 1-5 reps for optimal strength improvements. Most of the functional training fad exercises cannot achieve these two goals nearly as well, safely, or predictably as the tried and true compound exercises. 

You should check out the bioneer on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@TheBioneer His definition and philosophy of functional training is quiet good.  He adresses the points you are making. There is a stigma around functional training, because most people associate it with some fancy popculture cardio flows without cross modality to everyday life. 

Edited December 21, 2022 by effortlesslumen

[Federico del pueblo]

Merry Christmas everyone!

@King Merk

On 20.12.2022 at 9:24 AM, King Merk said:

Most mainstream health/fitness advice will greatly accelerate the break down of your joints and FP offers an alternative.

Ok. Is this inherent to the classic exercises (like bench press, squats, deadlifts) or is it also due to a lack of balancing these exercises with other exercises?

Like e.g. a lot of guys train their internal rotation more than their external rotation and end up with shoulder problems, which could be avoided if they balanced their chest/pushing exercises with other exercises (also including stretching).

On 20.12.2022 at 9:32 AM, King Merk said:

That’s the whole concept behind “functional training”. Is the ability for your “exercise” to carry over to your daily activities.

In other words you become a more functional human being because you can move better, have more mobility, less pain etc?

How do functional training programs account for certain limitations you already have? E.g. if you're dealing with knee pain from former sports injuries, aren't then a lot of exercises from functional training impossible because they would worsen the pain and then you have to somehow work around this issue?

@Michael569

On 21.12.2022 at 0:13 PM, Michael569 said:

a functional training pattern is absolutely brilliant way to get way more out of your workouts. 

More functionality that is? Like all of life becomes easier because you have more stamina, mobility, coordination/balance AND strength?

 

Also to all of you:

Has anyone here tried out the Knees over toes guy's approach to improve knee pain? What's your view on that?

[Ulax]

@Federico del pueblo I had a brief look at FPT. I like the look of it.

 

[Michael569]

On 26/12/2022 at 0:33 PM, Federico del pueblo said:

More functionality that is? Like all of life becomes easier because you have more stamina, mobility, coordination/balance AND strength?

Of course, it does become easier. Living life with poor stamina, low physical strength and zero level of athleticism is actually quite difficult. That is as long as you don't spend most of your time sitting around. 

But those traits on their own are also proxy for more physical exercise, which usually means better health and lower chronic disease risk. So yes, life does get easier if you are fit as fuck

[NoSelfSelf]

Its really effective if you have problems with posture and movement restrictions..having friend to explain it to you is a bonus because hes using some advance terminology to explain everything...

Functional means everything that is specific for something, in this case functional means on ways you gonna move more efficiently and having better posture so when you workout you dont have so called energy leaks,so you can make the most out of workouts(better movement better gains)and painfree life...in other cases plyometrics are functional for someone that wants to be explosive in legs for demands in their sport...

Courses are a bit pricey but i recommend it and it works almost instantly because its rewirting back to how your body should be from all the sitting around etc.

Edited December 29, 2022 by NoSelfSelf

[Federico del pueblo]

@Michael569  @NoSelfSelf alright guys. Thanks for the info! ?