(303) 472-6743

Life was far from sedentary for most of our ancestors. They moved their bodies significantly from dawn to dusk just by going about their business and the normal activities of life. Imagine how many steps they got each day by walking the fields and completing household chores without modern appliances. Today, most of our lives aren’t nearly as active. That’s why functional fitness exercises are important to incorporate into your fitness plan.  

What is functional fitness? 

While many people include bench pressing as part of their exercise regimen, how often do you use that movement in your daily activities? Most of us don’t. Functional fitness is a form of exercise that trains your muscles to work together so everyday activities are efficient and injury-free. Exercises that you do in a functional fitness class will support the movements you complete in daily life.

Think about what you do and how you move about your day. Carrying kids. Hauling groceries. Even getting out of bed. Sometimes, even those who go to the gym regularly for strength and cardio training, can “throw out” their backs picking up a laundry basket or when making the bed. With functional fitness, exercises are tailored to specifically improve balance, train your body for your favorite activities, and to help you go through daily activities with ease. 

Benefits of functional fitness

Incorporating functional fitness into your life has several benefits. At Taylor Pilates and Fitness, we will help you train in multiple planes of motion because we believe your body requires a balance of mobility and stability in life. Functional fitness helps your muscles learn to work together. Functional fitness exercises use muscles in the upper and lower body at the same time which helps build core stability. Additional benefits of functional fitness include building strength, improving your range of motion, and enhanced balance/coordination. When you improve your body’s ability to be stable and mobile, it helps improve your life and prevents injuries. 

Equipment used in functional fitness sessions

While there are many functional fitness activities you can do with just the weight of your body, we also incorporate equipment such as the Oov, CoreAlign, and MOTR to optimize our clients’ training programs.

Oov: The Oov apparatus mimics the curves of the spine. We use it in a functional fitness class to work on balance. It can be used in a variety of positions and is ideal to work on slow-loaded movement training—important for muscle balance and injury prevention. 

CoreAlign: The CoreAlign equipment gives us an opportunity to work on whole-body movement and train muscles to support spine health and proper posture. It also helps improve your gait. 

MOTR: Clients move in a dynamic way when we incorporate MOTR in functional fitness exercises. This piece of equipment helps us activate multiple muscle groups at the same time. 

Everyone can benefit from functional fitness —and it’s fun! You don’t need any special talent, experience, or expertise. Please call or text us today at 303-472-6743 to schedule your introductory session so we can show you how our functional fitness exercises can improve your life.