Functional capacity is your ability to do things that you need to do in your everyday life, picking up your kids, putting your bikes in the back of the truck, shoveling mulch, climbing in the attic, and the countless other physical tasks we have to do everyday.

A great example of this is the deadlift and picking up the 50 pound bag of dog food. When we are in the gym we want to deadlift with spectacular form by keeping the bar close, keeping the back flat, and engaging our mid-line. That deadlift will help you pick up that dog food and having the ability to do a 200 pound deadlift will give you the functional capacity to pick up the dog food in a non-ideal position. When you pick up the dog food you will not be able to get into a perfect position but that is alright because we can handle much larger loads and we are still going to have good fundamentals when picking up the dog food.

In the gym we use equipment that is built to allow max loads lifted. However in real life objects are not meant to be lifted in the same manor. Training in the gym and having the ability to train at relative heavier loads will give us increased capacity to do things in not ideal positions.

Keeping common movement themes in mind when doing things in and out of the gym is very important in staying safe and injury free.

1. Mid-line Stabilization

2. Core to Extremity

3. Balance about the Frontal Plane

4. Posterior Chain Engagement

5. Sound Hip Function

6. Active Shoulders

7. Full Range of Motion

8. Stance and Grip

If you would like to read up on these a bit more check out the blog post below.
https://equity.fitness/blog/2018/6/25/8-common-movement-themes

Working out helps build your functional capacity and by increasing that capacity you are able to pursue more things in life. Functional capacity opens up the world to you. It allows you to follow your heart, dreams, and desires. If you want to be able to climb to the top of an Aztec Pyramid you better have the ability to do walking lunges and box step-ups and have the cardiovascular endurance to make it up and back down. That ascent might not be your goal right now but if you don’t have the capacity to do it, you would not be able to do it even if you wanted to.

What do yo want to have the capacity to do?
Book your Free No Sweat Intro today to learn how we can help you gain that capacity.

I would love to hear of a story of how your training has helped you in your everyday life.
Let me know. berek.bryan@equity.fitness

Cheers,
Berek