In my late 20s, my dad purchased a set of tools for me. I was moving to Toronto and would be living alone for the first time. He wanted to make sure I had the tools to do basic tasks around my apartment. When I was ready to leave my apartment, those tools came in handy. Especially when it came time to disassemble my dining table and take down my curtains.
It is very satisfying to be able to do things for yourself. And no, this isn't a post about why it's important as women to be independent and you don't need any man to do things for you blah blah blah. But this is a post about how we can aim to improve our day-to-day performance so we can continue to do things for ourselves.
As humans, we move in so many different ways. We walk, jog, sprint, climb, jump, leap, bend, twist, lunge, push, pull, stand, sit, lie down, get up and do it all again. I don't know about you, but I'd like to continue to move with no limitations for as long as I can. I want to continue to lift and carry a heavy box up the stairs. I want to continue to lift my overpacked luggage onto the weigh tray at the airport like a boss. If a friend is in a bind and needs help moving a very heavy piece of furniture, I'd like to offer my assistance without worrying about my back going out. How about you? What do you want to continue to do?
Regular exercise will help you keep your body strong so you can continue to do everyday activities. But, you need to be strategic about the exercises you perform. How? By incorporating the concept of functional fitness. the keyword here is functional. Yass, girl. I'm adding another F word to your vocabulary.
What is functional fitness?
Simply, functional fitness is performing exercises and movements that can help you perform better in your daily life outside of your workouts. For example, learning how to do a proper squat may help you sit down and get back up, and the mechanics of a push-up can help get you off the ground. Is functional fitness just another fitness buzzword? Many people think so but I don't. I think it should be a core element of your workouts, but more on that later.
In part II of this post, I will take a deeper dive into functional fitness and some things to consider if you want to incorporate it into your workouts. So stay tuned...
As always, I would love to hear from you. Please share one activity that you use to find easy, but now it's more difficult to perform.
-GhanaGirl
