Due to the limitations for practicing physical exercises due toCovid-19 health emergency, many boxes and gyms have started to create functional training home-based to be followed by crossfitter.
Many have wondered if this type of workout really is really effective for physical fitness and we thought to clarify some of these points.
Index
What does science say?
In 2012, the Canadian research group McRae evaluated 22 21-year-old women to understand the effectiveness of this training method performed only with the own body weight (functional / calistenics performed at high intensity), which is what we are practically doing in this period.
The subjects used the Protocol Tabata (8x 20 seconds of running and 10 seconds of recovery; for a total of 4 minutes of training) to evaluate the alteration of the physical form (cardiovascular capacity and localized muscular endurance) and the perception of the pleasure of the "Well done" that is, having made a good physical work.
They compared these responses with another control group, which performed a cardiovascular training program on the treadmill (30 minutes ~ 85% of maximum HR) similar to what you do in one traditional gym.
The experiment lasted 4 weeks (4 sessions per week). The authors observed an increase in the VO2 peak in both groups (traditional cardiovascular: ~ 7% and in the Functional: ~ 8%).
However, the high intensity functional training group showed improvements in localized muscle endurance, which did not occur in the so-called "traditional" control group.
The perception of pleasure in having completed the workout also resulted only increased in the group of functional workout.
Why does it feel good post workout?
In high-intensity sports or practicing functional training, the brain begins to release after a few minutes dopamine: this makes us more vigilant, more focused and more focused.
Dopamine is the reason we feel that feeling have worked well and it is she who gives us the energy to go on despite the workout is very hard, even if your body and mind send other signals.
After training, the dopamine level slowly decreases, however increases the level of Serotonin; this has many functions: it is involved in the regulation of the sleep-wake rhythm and body temperature, it controls appetite and relieves pain sensitivity.
These hormones are called "Happiness hormones" because despite the effort, you are rewarded by the feeling of well-being released afterwards.
Conclusions
Even with the pits closed, this period showed us that functional home based workouts are anyway effective and help to improve and maintain fitness.
Obviously we lack the family air that we had in the garage and the companions to deal with, however, according to the studies reported, functional training is highly recommended to improve the cardiovascular capacity, localized muscle resistance , perception of pleasure with the activity carried out.
So Well Done guys!
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