Crossfit and Functional Training, two comparison activities that fill the gyms

We hear more and more talk about the Crossfit and Functional Training which for some years now have seen the rooms of the sports centers dramatically.  Not only that. Personal training studies or even apps to download offer more and more personalized programs such as "miglor way to return or in shape". These two disciplines have now become in a few years the fulcrum of the large fitness market. Whether it's specific or adjuvant training for other sports, there is no respectable athlete who has never made a training program or even just tried at least once a session of these two activities.

Crossfitt or Functional?

ll Crossfit is one sports discipline Where you do not work only on the functionality of the body, but you try to improve its performance also in terms of strength and development, of athletic gestures.  "The non -special crossfit, but prepares the student to develop in several directions, based on the ten fitness skills "

The Functional training Instead it is a workout where you work a lot with free body or with the help of small equipment, making exercises aimed at giving our body balance, coordination, strength of core And agility. "The Functional training tries to enhance specific functions of an athlete ".

What is the crossfit?

 

ll Crossfit It is a patented fitness system, created by Greg Glassman And it is a branch of the CROSSFIT INC .. training and conditioning training consisting mainly of a mix of aerobic exercises, rhythmic gymnastics (body weight exercises) and Olympic weight lifting. Crossfit, Inc. describes its strength and conditioning program as "always varied functional movements performed at high intensity over a long time and with the control of the mode", With the aim of improving physical fitness. "Lessons lasting about an hour in gyms affiliate, or "Boxes", typically include a heating, a segment of development of skills, high intensity, "training of the day" (or WOD) and a group or individual stretching period.

Crossfit gyms use original equipment, exclusive and patented on a crossfit brand, including barbells, dumbbells, gymnastics, pull-up rings, jumping rope, Kettebell, medical balls, pliometric boxes,Bands of resistance, rowers. The crossfit focuses on the constant variation of the high intensity to functional movements ", By drawing on categories and exercises such as: gymnastics, Olympic style weight lifting, powerlifting, Strongman type races, pliometry, body weight exercises, seam, aerobic exercises, running and swimming.

The ten fundamental points of the Crossfit

• Cardiorespiratory resistance: the ability of the body systems to group, process and provide oxygen.
• muscle resistance: the ability of the body systems to elaborate, provide, store and use energy.
• Come on: the ability of a muscle unit, or a combination of muscle units, to apply strength.
• Flexibility: the ability to maximize the movement of movement of an articulation.
• Power: the ability of a muscle unit, or a combination of muscle units, to apply the maximum strength for a minimum time.
• Speed: the ability to reduce the repetition time of a repeated movement.
• Coordination: the ability to combine a series of distinct movements in one movement.
• Agility: the ability to decrease the transition time from one series of movements to another.
• Balance: the ability to control the position of the center of gravity of a body in relation to its support base.
• precision: the ability to control a movement in a direction or specific intensity.

Crossfit athletes are exercised with running, remoteerrometer, rope jump, climbing and shift of objects; Often they move heavy loads quickly and for long distances and use the techniques of powerlifting and weight lifting. They also use dumbbells, gym rings, tractions, Kettebell and many free -body exercises.

And what's different from functional training or gymnastics do you work?

This second discipline is a type of training performed both in fitness or outdoor centers aimed at improving the movement of the individual in its daily motor functions. The approach to this kind of activity can be different, depending on the level of the intensity desired. and the degree of personal training. The peculiarity is often in the ultilizzo of small tools such as ropes, bags, truck tires, everything that can be useful to move the body in the three directions: lateral, front and transverse. It starts from your body considered as natural overload (by bars for tractions or parallels, ground folds, pliometric leaps, etc.) up to the means of circumstance such as boulders, trunks, ropes, chains, passing through all tools Conventional such as kettlebells, medical balls, elastic bands, Clubbels, sacks stuffed with sand (sandbags, Bulgarian bags) or water (flowbags), pipes containing water (Water pipe), rings (power ring), flying (using its suspension weight ), Bosu, Fit Ball, proprioceptive tablets and so on, without forgetting the always valid balances and dumbbells.

Contrary to other more selective training methods, Functional Training has as its purpose the global development of all Main motor skills, that is, conditional skills such as strength, resistance and power, coordinative skills such as balance, motor and postural control, agility and motor adaptation, and joint mobility. However, functional gymnastics must respect at least some (if not all) among the following principles to be considered such:

• ability to use the reaction forces (on the ground, in water, in the air);
•  transmission of forces through body segments;
•  awareness and constant control of the posture of all bone segments and joints during each movement;
•  execution of each movement in the kinetic chain and maximum muscle synergy;
• Involvement of the three plans of movement in space, frontal, sagittal and transverse;
• stimulation of proprioceptive receptors by gradually reducing the support base or using an unstable;
• Activation of the muscles of the core, fundamental in the management of muscle chains, acting as a conjunction between lower and superior limbs;
• Research of the reactivity considered as an immediate reaction to a sudden event.

Another important aspect towards which Functional Training is concentrated is the solicitation of postural schemes primitive  That is the gestures that man has perfected in his evolution, relating to his fundamental needs.

The four pillars of the Functional Training

1) Functional kinetic chains: This type of training is based on the exercise of the global body movement, through the use of "open or closed" kinetic chains. A correct training of the kinetic chain allows to obtain a functional posture characterized by an absence of anomalous muscle tension, any asymmetries and dysfunctions

It is an increasingly used form of exercise in recent years and studies report various benefits as it is a more functional activity

2) Mechanical proprioceivity and motor control: The proprioception is an internal feeling thanks to which an individual is aware, at all times, of his position in the environment that surrounds him. The proprioception is very important in rehabilitation and also plays a role of fundamental importance in preventing injuries and improving sports coordination.

Motor control, on the other hand, can be trained with specific and continuous exercises in the technical gesture over time so that the body memorizes automatic response patterns for each external stimulus. This is also said coordinating, and is the basis of the organization of a less expensive and more effective motor gesture.

3) Abdominal belt activities: with the use of "core training". Lately very practiced also for athletics, it is the basis of improving the balance and the enhancement of the body. It represents the center of strength and control of the rest of the body and it is the muscle area from which the movement starts by connecting the lower part of the body with the upper part.

4) Similarity or equality to the natural movement structure:  Functional training includes global body training. With this method we will not train the single muscle but rather to improve and enhance the movement.

So a good fuction training will have to contain this kind exercises:

• Poliarticular exercises: since involving multiple joints will be used in the movement multiple muscle groups
• Polyssial exercises: therefore motor gestures that also include rotations, twists and translations of the bust to create greater instability.
• Exercises performed in dynamic conditions
• Exercises performed with a large joint "Roma"
• Exercises with control of posture, stability and proprioceivity
• Alternating, as far as possible, the methods of contraction (eccentric, concentric, ischinetic, auxotonic, etc.)

The two types of training have in common a huge energy expenditure being activities with high physical intensity therefore before undertaking any sporting activity or to enroll in the gym always remember to undergo a sports medical examination (also for non -competitive activities) to carry out an electrocardiogram and to consult sports professionals if you do not have adequate technical knowledge.