The 8 Functional Fitness Movements

When I first learned of the concept of functional movements (via CrossFit) it changed the way I looked at exercise for ever, and it has been the bedrock of how I’ve trained my clients over the last 10+ years in the industry.

Functional movements are those that relate to how we move in our daily lives, and training them make our bodies stronger and more mobile in general. There are hundreds (even thousands) of exercises we can be doing when we work out, but these 8 types of movement give us the most bang for our buck in keeping us strong for the rest of our lives.

This is my own list of 8 types of functional movements, and I give credit to CrossFit, Dan John and Paul Chek for providing the elements.

Squatting Movements.

Squatting movements are fundamentally the act of going from sitting to standing. We do this dozens of times a day (providing we have the use of our legs) and I remember once reading that “If you never want to need help getting off the toilet when you are older, train your squats regularly!”

The barbell back squat is the classic squatting strength movement.

Squatting movements aren’t just squats, but also leg pressing movements. They are a quadricep and glute dominant movement that involves lowering the hips from standing to below the knees and returning to upright. An alarming number of people cannot do perfect squats even in their 20’s and 30’s because they lack the strength and mobility as a result of sedentary lifestyles.

Hip Hinge Movements

The hip hinge describes the act of bowing forward from the hips, whilst maintaining a straight and strong spine. It uses the hamstrings, glutes and spinal erectors. In the gym it is best seen in deadlift movements.

Learning to load the hips rather than the knees, while maintaining a strong spine can be challenging. Kettlebell Romanian deadlifts are a good exercise to practice with.

In ordinary life, we do this when we pick up our shopping, a child, a pet, a box while moving house or bags at the airport.

Training this movement will help avoid back injuries when picking up heavier object from the floor.

Hip hinging can also be via hip thrust exercise variants that more directly target the glutes.  

Staggered Leg Exercises

These are any exercise where we do not have a symmetrical foot position and have unequal loading between the feet.

In the gym this looks like lunging exercises, step-ups, split squats and b-stance variants.

Walking Lunges are a great way to train the stepping movement.

In the real world, it helps us to maintain leg strength on either side. To revisit the motivation for the squat – “Train staggered leg exercises if you never want to have to buy a stair lift.”

We use a staggered stance when we get up from kneeling such as tying our shoes or working on the floor as well.

Upper Body Pushing

This is the act of pushing an object away from us, or pushing ourselves away from something.

In the gym, examples include the push-up, chest press, shoulder press or dips.

The barbell shoulder press requires not just good shoulder strength, but shoulder mobility and core strength to do correctly.

In the real world we need to be able to do this to push ourselves up from lying on our front, to lift items overhead or push ourselves up out of a chair.

Upper Body Pulling

This is the act of pulling an object towards us, or pulling ourselves towards an object.

Examples include pull-ups, pulldowns and rows.

Seated rows with a neutral grip are a great exercise to hit the back muscles.

In the real world it might be pulling a door open, carrying a child or a pet, climbing over a style on a walk in the country.

Travelling

Travelling is an essential physical activity. We all need to maintain our ability to move from A to B. This can be by walking, running, cycling, crawling, rolling a wheelchair, swimming, rowing and so on.

Bear crawls are a great exercise for working the entire body, especially the core muscles.

Loaded Carries

Loaded carries are common in the world of strongman training but often overlooked in mainstream fitness. This is a mistake.

Sled pushes fall into the category of loaded carries because they require moving a heavy object from A to B.

Carrying something is a basic movement need for everyone. Whether it’s just carrying the shopping in from the car, or carrying a friend home drunk, sooner or later we will find ourselves carrying something heavy. Often it can result in injury if the individual is not strong enough, so we practice this in the gym via farmer’s carries, waiter’s walks, suitcase carries, sled pushes and more.

Rotational Movement

Most of the above movements are very linear, and that’s not the only way we move in the real world. Athletic movements often use dynamic rotation to create and apply force – think of playing tennis, throwing a javelin, boxing or wrestling. Or in every day life just steering a loaded shopping trolley!

The landmine shoulder press requires the core to brace against rotation as the weight descends then push with rotation to lift. It's a great core exercise!

In the gym we can use implements like a rip trainer, barbell landmine attachment, cable weight machines or weighted core exercises to train these movements.

What’s Missing?

One element that people may feel is missing from these key movement types is core exercises.

The wall-walk into handstand is an excellent core exercise, as well as strengthening the shoulders.

This though is because core training comes in a range of methods (bracing, extending, flexing, rotating) and it is incorporated into every single type of movement above, providing you know where to find it and how to employ it.

How many of these 8 types of movement do you regularly include in your training?