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_Wolf_ · 04-01-2006, 07:46 PM

Functional Strength Training Vs Bodybuilding: Is Bodybuilding The Worst Thing That Ever Happened To Strength Training?

by Tom Venuto

I’ve been involved in the strength training and bodybuilding world for over 20 years now, including 14 years in the health club and personal training businesses. This has given me a very unique perspective on a trend that’s been taking place recently that’s quite disturbing to we, the dyed-in-the-wool “old school” bodybuilders. Quite simply, we are being “attacked!” We are being accused of training “all wrong!”

Those machines we use? “Utterly worthless.” The leg press? “Non-functional.” Our strength? “Pathetic compared to our size.” Our speed? “Bwahhhh haa ha!” Our flexibility? “Like taffy at the north pole.” “Big, slow, weak, stiff, bloated, useless muscles” – that’s us – the bodybuilders. Or so says a certain group of vehement strength and athletic coaches. One well-known guru even went as far as saying, "The worst thing that ever happened to strength training was bodybuilding."

Well, after being “picked on” for a long time for being a “vain” bodybuilder only interested in how I look (not caring about my athletic abilities), I figured it was time someone finally tackled the “functional” strength training versus “cosmetic” bodybuilding issue head on. In this article, you will learn the answers to these questions: What is “functional” training?

What is “cosmetic” training? What’s the difference between the two? Should bodybuilders train like athletes? Should athletes train like bodybuilders? Will the two ever meet in the middle? How should you train if you’re just an “Average Joe” (or Jane) who wants to look good, feel good, play recreational sports and stay injury free? Do you listen to the heavily-muscled bodybuilding champ, or to the strength/athletic coach? Read on and find out.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “BODYBUILDING TRAINING” AND “FUNCTIONAL TRAINING” ANYWAY?

Bodybuilding training, by definition, is “cosmetic.” In a bodybuilding competition, you are judged on the way you look, not by the way you perform. Whether you use light weights or heavy weights, slow reps or fast reps, long workouts or short workouts is completely irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that on the day of the contest, your physique is visually the best one onstage. This means having the perfect package of low body fat, muscular size and classical symmetry.

Bodybuilding is not aimed at increasing strength, flexibility, endurance, speed or other athletic factors as ends in themselves. In bodybuilding, these performance qualities are only sought to the extent to which they help the bodybuilder look better onstage. (Or as one functional training expert sarcastically put it, “The only athletic component bodybuilders encounter is having to walk across a stage and selectively spasm muscles to their favorite tune!”)

Functional training emerged primarily from the sports conditioning and rehabilitation world. By definition, functional training refers to a well-rounded program integrating exercises which contribute to better, more efficient and safer performance of real world activities or sports movements.

For example, functional training would help the average person develop strength that carries over into daily activities such as pulling open a heavy door, hiking up a rocky trail, starting a lawnmower, carrying a child, unloading heavy packages from the trunk of a car, or reaching up and pulling down a bulky box from an overhead shelf.

If you’re an athlete, functional training will help improve your performance: You will improve your swing, throw further, run faster or increase your vertical jump. Because functional training helps link your entire body together so it performs optimally as a cohesive unit, you’ll also decrease your chances of getting injured.

The terms “core training” and “functional training” are often used interchangeably, although core training is just one modality of functional training. Core training means doing exercises that activate the “core” muscles of the torso, neck, pelvis, lower back and abdominal area.

Basically, your core is everything except your arms and legs. Core training doesn’t just work the muscles you can see – it also works the deep muscles like the quadratus lumborum and transversus abdominus which are important in strengthening and stabilizing the lower back and torso.

The most common example of a core-training apparatus is the “stability ball,” which is used for full range abdominal work, resistance training and numerous other exercises to develop balance, stability, coordination and core strength.

Why functional training caught the eye of an “old school bodybuilder”

Functional training is old news in the sports and rehabilitation world, but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that it really came to my attention because I started seeing it catch on in a big way inside our health clubs. All of a sudden, the trainers had medicine balls, core balls, core boards, rubber tubing, stability balls, rollers and foam pads all over the place, whereas just five years ago, there wasn’t a ball to be found in the entire joint!

One day, as I was doing my weekly “white glove” gym inspection, I witnessed a jaw-dropping spectacle that literally stopped me dead in my tracks. I watched in astonishment as one of our trainers did full squats standing on top of a stability ball while holding a medicine ball at arms length in front of him.

I later observed him take his clients through workouts including lunging off of foam pads, jumping on and off platforms, squatting one leg at a time, “playing catch” with medicine balls, and all kinds of “weird twisting stuff” you hardly ever see bodybuilders doing.

At the time, I thought this was all very bizarre. It looked to me like they were training for Cirque Du Soleil rather than getting in shape, so initially I just ignored them and continued on with my merry old bodybuilding ways; rowing, squatting and bench pressing for multiple sets of 6-12 controlled reps.

A few things finally made me take a closer look. First, client retention for these trainers went up. It seemed that all this new variety was a great motivator for the average Joe. Second, it seemed like the personal training clients were actually HAVING FUN (which could also explain the increased retention). Third, I saw the trainer (the one who was doing the circus act on the ball), doing one arm presses with a 100 pound dumbbell on a stability ball.

Now THAT I thought was VERY interesting. I also saw him doing inclines for reps with the 120s. That may not seem like spectacular poundage for an advanced bodybuilder, but this guy wasn’t a bodybuilder. He had an athletic, but otherwise pretty average-looking build, yet he was a LOT stronger than he looked. I admit; I was intrigued.

So, being a humble guy who knows he doesn’t know it all, I started picking his brain and doing some research to learn more. I then tested out some of these techniques on myself, found the answers to all the questions that had been burning in my mind, and came to some conclusions.