Functional fitness with Lamar Lowery

Lamar Lowery is the founder of the Lamar Functional Training Academy in Germany and the author of a new book called Functional Fitness. While intended for personal trainers, Functional Fitness offers information and sample exercises that everyone can use in building their own functional fitness.

What is functional fitness?

Lamar explains that fitness can be functional and not just traditional. Every moment involves a chain of muscles and nerves, which when repeated over time helps to restore the body’s natural capacity for movement.

Four pillars of human movement

In the book, Lamar discusses the four pillars of human movement, which provide a strong foundation to build upon when improving one’s functional fitness. They include:

1. Locomotion, which involves standing and moving.
2. Core area of the body, including the shoulder to the knee. This does not stop at the hips.
3. Pushing and pulling, such as opening and closing doors, moving a mouse. We do these motions constantly throughout the day.
4. Rotation and diagonal movement, which involves keeping your arms swinging when the body is moving. This keeps the muscles in the upper body activated. Another helpful exercise is doing squats by simply sitting in and getting up from a chair.

The functional path to better performance

To get started, Lamar recommends starting with the basics. This involves moving everything symmetrically and in pairs. Make sure your posture is aligned. Practice basic body positions including the push up position and a laying position. Learn to control these movements and then move on to more complex exercises. This is the functional path to better performance.

Functional Fitness is a great resource of various exercises, both basic and advanced, for both personal trainers and anyone interested in improving their health and fitness. To get a copy of Lamar's book, go to your local bookstore and request that they order it for you.