CORE: FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

In the previous posts we have been able to see both the importance of the core for our health and the exercises classified by type of anti-movement. Next, we are going to see how a functional training would be for this musculature.

But, first of all, what is functional training?

Functional training can be understood from two different terminologies: in sports training it is the training that attends to the neural pathway with a view to producing optimum muscular performance; but the concept relating to the functionality of the task is related to the creation of movements that imitate natural positions and situations that occur in everyday life or in sports competition.

Therefore, we should adjust this type of training to the daily movements of the person or to the sport they practice. In addition, with this type of training we should develop a correct postural hygiene in our athletes.

Frontal plank by tacofleur Pixabay license

There have been many debates about when we do core training in a session, as some say it's better at the beginning and others say it's better at the end of the session. From our point of view, the ideal would be to intersperse these exercises within the session in a coherent way. But really, this musculature should be working almost constantly and the exercises for this area simply increase the power of the muscles that should already be active.

To progress the work in this area we can start with 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions in the exercises that use weight and those that are done with your own body weight, and 3 sets of 25 seconds in the stabilization exercises. Little by little we can increase the difficulty of the exercises and repeat this process of progression every 3 weeks approximately. But we should also look at the form of the athlete and his level of experience to plan and design the sessions more appropriately.

Now, if what we want is to dedicate a session in which we focus on the work of the core, we can select between 2 and 3 exercises of each type from the previous posts (depending on what we plan to take the training). 

Next, we are going to show you an example of a session for a medium-low level. First, we have chosen two exercises of each type of anti-movement and we have divided them into two blocks. For each block we do 3 series, alternating the exercises, leaving a rest of between 30" and 1' between the exercises. Once we have done the 3 series of block 1, we repeat the same dynamics with block 2. Here we show you an example of the exercises we could do in each block:

BLOCK 1
Frontal plank	Anti-extension	3 x 8 reps.
Pallof press	Anti-rotation	3 x 10 reps.
Farmer walk	Anti-lateral flexion	3 x 30 meters.
BLOCK 2
Fitball rollout	Anti-extension	3 x 10 reps.
In line lift	Anti-rotation	3 x 8 reps.
Side plank row	Anti-lateral flexion	3 x 10 reps.

Of course, if we want to increase the level of difficulty of this session, we could make progressions of the exercises or increase the number of repetitions.

See you in the next post. 
May the force be with you!

REFERENCES

Boyle, M. (2014). El entrenamiento funcional aplicado a los deportes.

Heredia, J. R., Chulvi, I., Ramón, M., & Isidro F., J. R. (2006). Revisión del Entrenamiento Lumbo-Abdominal Saludable: Análisis Práctico y Metodológico. PubliCE Standard, (May 2015), 15. Retrieved from http://g-se.com/es/journals/publice-standard/articulos/revision-del-entrenamiento-lumbo-abdominal-saludable-analisis-practico-y-metodologico-761

Heredia, J. R., Ramón, M., & Chulvi, I. (2006). Entrenamiento funcional: revisión y replanteamientos. Retrieved April 9, 2019, from https://www.efdeportes.com/efd98/efunc.htm