Functional strength training aims to simulate the resistance needed to build and condition muscles for everyday life. It's a type of functional fitness that anyone can utilize to avoid injury during their daily routines or on the sporting field.
Functional exercises are designed to reduce the chance of injury by building your body up to better withstand the stressors of daily life. The program utilizes resistance, bodyweight, and free weight exercises to help you naturally build muscles. FST movements will replicate natural body movements to use muscles that are regularly needed in daily life. These exercises can be as simple as squats or lateral raises.
As our bodies age we tend to lose body mass and fitness, which is why people become more prone to injury, even just during normal daily tasks. The goal of FST is to help prepare the body for its demanding daily routine and to avoid those harmful day to day injuries.
FST is extremely beneficial for athletes too, as these exercises help the body to withstand rigorous daily routines and will help athletes to avoid injury in their given sport.
FST targets a wider variety of functional muscles, rather than individual muscles or groupings. The goal isn't to build a more aesthetic body (although, this will be a side effect!), but to build functional fitness. That means that rather than weight lifting to build up your biceps, you will instead be using a range of exercises, such as different varieties of push-ups or sit-ups, to build up a larger range of muscles that are used in daily life.