Function is meaningful movement, it is not an isolated event, and it is movement that is leading toward something not an end unto it self. Movements that are less functional are movements that repeat themselves and are isolated. For example the leg extension or leg curl repeat themselves, they are essentially an end in themselves. Contrast this to the lunge that is progressive and can lead to many variations. The body is a link system and movement involves the timing of the movement of the links of the kinetic chain. It is helpful to visualize the process as total chain training moving from toe nails to fingernails. The outcome is functional sports training which incorporates a global systems approach to training & rehabilitation.
In many ways function defies a strict definition because it always must be defined in the context of the end result. We certainly can see it and feel it. Common sense will direct us to activities that are related to what we are ultimately training for. Since it is about movement it should be instinctual. Unfortunately in the search for quantification and technological advancement we have, at times, outsmarted ourselves. I look at relatively simple criteria; if I am getting too far away from the body and fundamental movement then in all probability what I am doing is not highly functional, it won’t transfer.
Paul Ford
‘Functional’ *must* be defined in context, yet not necessarily in the context of the end result. Why not? Time! Time shifts. Humans, people, athletes are plastic they shift or change or adapt.
Their bodies are plastic – they adapt to individualised, progressive and systematic training. They adapt to load over time (not all the time). Their behaviours adapt. Behaviours (or actions in competition) reflect decisions in context at a point in time, not the same behaviour all the time: this is athletic intelligence. Intelligence changes over time. Goals, aspirations and dreams change over time too, and so should the goals/objectives/outcomes of activities and exercises in sessions, micro-, meso- and macro-cycles to meet those goals, and higher level aims.
The (partial) leg extension *can* have a functional role, it can be functional in the context of what goal it is implemented to achieve for a period of time (ie. some VMo rehab post knee surgery); yet it won’t be nor remain functional for all people for all goals all the time.
Yes, define ‘function’ in context. ‘Functional’ literally means to serve a purpose. Define the purpose for a point(s) in time. Yet time, and with it, people/athletes, shift too – either by more-or-less permanent adaptation or more transient choices.
The end results are not and rarely can be definitive as they are not necessarily seen for what they can be, yet often for rather what are perceived (or measured) to ‘should’ be. Each end-result is really only a stop gap in time, like a progression in loading or exercise complexity.