The true goal of fitness is to improve the health of individuals and the community. The fitness industry is just beginning to play a credible, integral role in health-care reform, including the way it serves the sedentary and/or aging population.

What is Functional Fitness?

The term functional fitness is applied to a simple exercise plan that is designed to improve health, increase the ability to perform the activities of daily living, enhance the quality of life and prolong physical independence.

Functional fitness is everyday training for health, good posture and muscle balance. The purpose of functional fitness is to train muscles to perform their specific functions in daily activities at peak performance. A functional fitness plan includes cardiovascular and strength training to maintain a healthy body. A well designed functional fitness plan can complement the activities that a person already is doing in life, and does not require joining a workout facility.

Functional fitness helps people reach goals such as reduced blood pressure, increased range of body motion, and improved self-esteem. For sedentary individuals, achievable benefits from a functional fitness program include the ability to get up from a sofa, to carry suitcases on vacation, to climb stairs, and to reduce the pain experienced from life’s movements.

Most people shun exercise because of the amount of time they think it takes. You know it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes per day to live a healthy lifestyle.

Functional fitness programs do not waste time on exercises that are not needed. Besides some specific exercises performed to improve the specific needs, most of the exercise in a functional fitness program is moderate intensity physical activity accumulated during the day, such as walking instead of driving, physical activity instead of TV, and household tasks are done with a minimum of labor-saving devices.

A Simple Functional Fitness Routine

Let me give you a simple training routine. Everyone these days have stationary bikes. Use them in my method.

• Fast paced cycling for 1 minute
• Rest for 10 seconds
• Fast paced cycling and so on.

Do this for at least 10 rounds of cycling. You’ll lose all your extra flab in this 12 minutes a day workout. This will build your cardiovascular, help you lose weight, be more active and energetic in day to day life. All you need is 12 minutes of your busy time.