What Are Functional Movements?

If you ask for a general definition of CrossFit, you will hear something along the lines of: Constantly varied functional movements, performed at high intensity.

But what is a functional movement and why is it beneficial to me? 

Functional movements are natural movements, movements that we use in everyday life. Most of the time we don’t even think about these things as we are doing them.

Let me paint a picture of what some of these movements look like:

You just got home from the grocery store. You parked your car, stood up out of your seat, and walked around to your back seat to retrieve your bags.

Now you are lifting the groceries off the floor of your vehicle (grabbing all of the bags that you can possibly hold because bringing all of the groceries in one trip is some sort of subconscious challenge that humans create for themselves).

You walk into your house and as you enter the house you put some of the bags on the counter, and the rest of the heavier bags onto the floor. Now you’re bending over and picking up the heavier groceries from the floor and lifting them on top of the counter.

As you continue to put the groceries away, you finish by placing your final items on the top shelves. 

How many “functional” movements can we find in this everyday example?

To start off, as you stand up out of your car, you are essentially doing an air squat.

As you lift up the groceries from the vehicle’s floor you are doing a deadlift.

Carrying all of the groceries into the house mimics a farmer’s carry.

Lifting the heavier groceries from the floor to the counter is a clean.

And finally, putting the groceries on the top shelves is a shoulder press.

That’s five functional movements that you see programmed in CrossFit gyms all over the world! This is just a small example to a long list of functional movements that CrossFit is built on. 

Functional movements like these are ones that are essential to everyday life. At Rising Tide, our goal is to help people maintain those movements for as long as possible for the best quality of life.