Functional Fitness
functional fitness. Finally, to complete the set of four, there’s the last and final component, balance and endurance. These two work together in all ways and help enhance everything you can do, including the other components listed above.
Functional Fitness – What are Balance and Endurance?
Balance and endurance both have separate definitions. Balance is defined as your capability to control, handle and manage your body’s movement. There are two types of balance to consider, those being your static balance and your dynamic balance. Static balance refers to the balance you must acquire while you’re stagnant, completely still. This type of balance is easier to learn to control over your dynamic balance which is your level of balance when you’re mobile.
In addition to balance would be coordination, which is a very important theory in fitness. Coordination is the capability to do two or more things at once, move your body in two or more different ways with fluency and efficiency.
Balance and coordination go hand in hand, and held in your other hand would be endurance. Endurance, which can also be referred to as stamina, is the ability of your muscles and body to remain active during a lengthy period of time.
Together, balance and endurance help create a set time limit of how long you can do something. With good balance and standard endurance, you’ll be active for a long amount of time.
This leads to the final summary of all the components of functional fitness. With the proper amount of strength, you have a solid base for becoming a fit person. Your strength is going to help you withstand all the restraint you’ll experience while you’re working out.
Power is the speed that you can apply to your workouts to handle them quickly and with more force. Power helps build up your strength so that there’s more to exert, helping you reach the extra mile.
The other way you’re going to reach the extra mile is by using your range of motion, which is going to help reach further in a shorter amount of time. Don’t get power and range of motion confused. Power will take you faster, range of motion will take you further. Together they create a useful duo.
Finally, there’s your balance and endurance. They’re the components that give you a time limit on how long you can last at peak performance. There’s a limit to everything and eventually, you’ll wear down. Your balance will falter and your breaths harsher and raspier.
Put them all together and you have all of the pieces to create the perfect complete puzzle to understanding your maximized personal health.
Functional Fitness – Balance and Endurance in your Daily Life
Balance and endurance keep you running through the day in the most minimal way. They go together as well as rhymes do, harmoniously ensuring that you have the equity and stamina to progress through the events occurring all day. As the saying goes, everything works when there’s a balance.
The simplest and most relatable example would have to be when going up the stairs. While going up the stairs, each moment you lift your foot is a split second of momentary balance. Without that balance, you’d go tumbling down the stairs.
In this case, you’d also require the stamina to keep going up flights of stairs. With the right amount of stamina, you can make it up the entire staircase, but without it you’ll be wheezing after the third flight.
Balance and endurance are actually two things you can’t notice quite easily. These two attributes keep improving on a daily basis and contracting at the same time. The more you do in one day, the better you’ll be tomorrow. The less you do today, the less you’ll be able to do tomorrow.
If you consistently improve your balance and endurance, you’ll consistently get better results. But balance, coordination, and endurance aren’t aspects you can simply stop working on. As soon as you find yourself on a suitable level of endurance, you keep at it.
Maintain your level and never fall from it. As you get older, it’ll be harder to keep one level so it’s better to maintain rather than trying to climb any higher. Just as well, if you stop working on them, your balance and endurance are going to fall by the day.
Cleaning, cooking, walking, talking are all things that take up your endurance. Running, heaving, any sort of movement with any part of your body all require some balancing effort.
Without proper care, walking will become a chore and you’ll become lethargic without the right level of stamina.
Functional Fitness – Balance and Endurance Moves
You can have a full yoga session once or twice a week to cover this type of workout.
1.One Leg Stand (Functional Fitness)
With this workout, you’ll be standing with one leg airborne and the other one rooted to the floor. Try holding this pose for as long as you can.
At first, you might want to hold on to a wall or chair so you can better adjust to the pose. If your balance is generally not good, then start with your arms stretched outwards for greater balance.
If you have better balance, then complicate this easy step by pumping your elevated leg. This way you can better both your balance and your power with one move.
2.Plyo Lunge (Functional Fitness)
In this version of a lunge, every time you bend down over one leg, you’re going to jump and swap to the other leg. In this manner you’re going to help enhance your endurance with each swap, imitating the actions you do when running.
Plyo lunge is a more intense move than a normal lunge so please don’t try it unless you’re comfortable and more than capable of doing a regular lunge first.
3.Straight–leg Calf Raise (Functional Fitness)
With this move, your balance will be intensely tested. Standing on a step or box with your heels hanging over the edge, lift one leg behind yourself. Push your foot up so that you’re on your toes, hold for a few seconds and then come back down. Swap your legs after a few pumps on each foot.
This is going to hurt when you do it, but you’ll surely have a better balance after this. Functional Fitness
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The Third Component of Functional Fitness: Range of Motion