In this Workout of the Month (WOM), you’ll test your strength and improve your posture with a mix of body-weight exercises. Plus, TRX in a functional workout included here will upgrade the challenge ahead. All, of course, the EVO way.
In a general sense functional training exercises, performed either with body-weight alone or with the support of equipment, can work on the body’s ability to find stabilisation, a capacity that should be seen as one of the primary body functions. The need to control stability and balance, the transfer of load, the need for coordination and of going beyond mere production of strength are examples that show precisely the need to exercise these skills.
We can promote the harmony between upper-body and lower-body by exercising it in a functional-training way, exploring the pillars of natural human movement. Locomotion is one of those pillars, and it refers to the linear displacement of the body’s centre of mass, which demands effort from the leg muscles (quadriceps, thigh posteriors and glutes). This effort happens as the body strives to take in the impact of the forces that occur in reaction to the ground, and at the same time, it creates the need to activate the muscles that stabilise the pelvis and the core muscles, to prevent falling and finding balance.
Conjugating the strength of the back muscles with the scapular waist and torso stabilisation, we train the body in a functional training perspective exploring the movement pillar of pushing and pulling. This same pillar is explored as we demand effort from arms and chest muscles, and we try to maintain scapular stabilisation.
Two other pillars form the tetralogy of the base pillars of movement: level changes and rotation. The level changes pillar is stimulated as we promote motions that imply a variation of the centre of mass in a vertical line, as examples of these we have squatting or climbing/ elevating. The rotation pillar allows the acceleration and deceleration of the movement and is responsible for the transition of forces from the upper to the lower body and vice-versa.
Functional workout / Body-weight/ bar and strips/ TRX / 15 reps, 4 sets, 30 seconds rest
Strength 7/10
Power 7/10
Endurance 8/10
Speed 5/10
Agility 6/10
Coordination 7/10
Balance 8/10
Flexibility 5/10
15 reps, 4 sets, 30 seconds rest
15 reps, 4 sets, 30 seconds rest
15 reps, 4 sets, 30 seconds rest
15 reps, 4 sets, 30 seconds rest
OTHER EXERCISES: