As a gym rat for almost 15 years and strength and conditioning professional for the last ten, I have seen plenty fads come and go. From “Six Minute Abs” to “Exercise in a Bottle”, we have seen them all. Unfortunately, Functional Training (FT) is lumped into this category. However, functional training is more than just a fad. It has proven effective, perhaps not through comprehensive research, but through empirical observation. We have seen results time and time again!

So why is functional training so effective? There are many answers to this question. So many that it inspired me to start a company dedicated to improving the performance of the endurance athlete through strength training; To the MAX was specifically designed to break down and teach the application of the concepts of functional training for the endurance athlete. After talking with many coaches and athletes, it is apparent that, as a whole, endurance athletes characteristically possess a higher level of intelligence and comprehension than athletes in other sports do. (Why else would we swim, bike, and run for hours, just to end up where we started?) However, there is still a gap between the strength training methods still being used and current training methodologies. So to give you one possible answer to the question raised earlier as to why functional training is so effective, we will elaborate on a very important FT concept first put forth by one of my mentors, Juan Carlos Santana, called “Training the Invisible”.

Training the invisible is a very powerful, but little understood concept in training. The reason why it is so powerful, and poorly understood, is because it is happening all the time and without you even knowing it. So what exactly is “training the invisible”? It is training a movement in the absence of that particular movement. To put it in more simple terms (as it was to me when I first learned it) we will use the example of a table with four legs. What will happen if we remove one of the legs of the table? Will the table collapse? No, it will wobble, or, in movement terms, rotate. It will rotate towards where there is no support, much like that chair you had to sit in back in high school English. Now let’s look at how this relates to human movement.

Put yourself in the push-up position, with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Now take one leg and lift it off the floor. What does your body want to do? It wants to rotate toward the direction of no support, just like the table. So why doesn’t your body collapse or rotate? The answer is that the musculature of the core resists the rotation and stabilizes the body. Although there is no rotation visible, the rotational muscles of the core are working to resist rotation creating torque or rotational force. To see a practical application of exactly what we are talking about just look at a sprint at the end of a bike race. Although rotation is happening all the time during cycling, it is highlighted during this intense sprint!

We can apply this same principal to flexion and extension as well. For an example of flexion, let’s use the push-up position again. What does your body automatically want to do while in the push-up position? Gravity will always try to pull you towards the ground; in the push-up position, this would be extension. What muscles are working in order to resist this movement and maintain a good body position? That’s right, the flexors (i.e. knee, hip, and trunk)! This position trains flexion, in the absence of flexion.

I will give another example to make sure my point is clear. If I grab an exercise band and step back facing the point of attachment what does my body want to do? That’s right, flex forward. What muscles are working in opposition to resist this movement? Right again, the extensors (i.e. hip and back). This would be training extension, in the absence of extension.

Hopefully, now you can begin to see how this concept can be so powerful in your training. Remember, you don’t have to understand or know what is happening to get the benefit. To put it another way, although I have very little understanding of jet propulsion and aerodynamics, I can accept the fact that planes fly in the sky everyday and I travel on them all the time. I don’t have to understand the science or physics of theses concepts, to enjoy the benefits of flight. Don’t get caught in the “I don’t get it” or “I’ll wait for the research” trap. As mom always said, “the proof is in the pudding”! If it feels right and works then it’s good enough for me. The next time you’re in the gym, try the examples discussed earlier and feel what you cannot see; Train the Invisible!