Staying Fit in the Trades – Choosing the RIGHT Functional Exercises!
Chances are you lift heavy, awkward things from time-to-time, and then you climb a ladder with them. What you have is “on-the-job” strength, which accountants could never achieve in a cubicle. Let’s talk about how functional exercise can improve job site performance, health, and fitness.
Cobra Stretch: Great For Lower Back
Common Injuries
Because a lot of construction workers front exercise they develop strength in whatever function they do. The result is other areas of the body suffer and they have an unbalanced system. That’s why we see a lot of strong construction workers with beer bellies or with back issues.
Lower back pain seems to be the most common complaint among workers in the trades, followed closely by shoulder, neck, knee, and ankle injuries. I check “all-of-the-above” ailments.
These ailments and injuries can have a devastating impact on a person’s career, finances quality of life, and can even force some into retirement.
In this article, I want to discuss functional strength training.
Deadlift with barbell
What is Functional Fitness Training?
Functional strength training works your muscles to prepare them for daily tasks by simulating common movements you might do at work. While using various muscles in the upper and lower body at the same time, functional fitness exercises also build core stability. [that helps your back]
For example, a squat is a functional exercise because it trains the muscles used when you rise up and down from a chair or pick up 80lb bags of cement.
By training your muscles to work the way they do in everyday tasks, you prepare your body to perform well in a variety of common situations
Overhead Barbell Press
Functional Exercises
First off stay away from gym machines and use barbells. The back squat, overhead press, and deadlift produce more of a training stimulus than any machine-based circuit.
I try to think about movements at work and then integrate them into my training routine.
Here are a few examples:
- Push up / press – moving equipment in place
- Squat – picking up a bag of concrete
- Deadlift – picking up materials
- Row – picking up a toolbox or material
- Overhead Pres – installing materials overhead
- Step-Ups – climbing ladders
- Farmers Walk – carrying toolboxes and materials
- Pull up – compound exercise to build overall upper-body strength
Alternating Dumbell Row
Remember, muscles rarely work in isolation on the job site, so training them to work together is a more effective way to build functional strength and prevent injury.
HIIT “Thrusters” Exercise: Its a Squat and Dumbell Press-One Exercise
As a side note, I also try to mix in HIIT or high-intensity interval training. HIIT training is a training technique in which you give all-out, one hundred percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods.
This type of training gets and keeps your heart rate up and burns more fat in less time. HIIT training is how I personally keep the beer belly at bay and is a topic and video for another day.
Step-Ups With Weight
It Takes Discipline
Ok I get it you work hard all day and when you get home the last thing you want to do is work more. But you have to!
Schedule three days a week, using the weekend as one day, and work on functional fitness. Plan 45 minutes per workout and take the first 15 minutes to warm up doing the same exercise but with super lightweight.
I don’t think I need to convince any of you that exercise is important – you just need to be disciplined and schedule the time. I bet you schedule a time to watch football on Sunday with your buddies right? Same thing – schedule gym time.
The Farmers Walk with Barbel Plates
The Payoff
Regular functional exercise is integral to staying in shape, and staying fit can prevent injuries and make you more productive on the job site.
The benefits of the right exercise include:
- Increase muscular endurance (the ability for the muscles to resist fatigue)
- Increase aerobic and functional capacity to complete daily tasks
- Reduce the likelihood of injury (i.e. lower back pain/disc)
Pull-Ups or Chin-Ups
I hope you enjoyed this video, its purpose was NOT to show you how to exercise, but impress on you that you should be thinking about how functional fitness and the job site meet.
Stretching Is Important At the End Of Workout
I promise you that as you add more functional exercises to your workout, you will see improvements in your ability to perform your everyday activities and improve your quality of life. That’s quite a return on your exercise investment.
Stay well!