To do functional training, it is not necessary to go to a fitness club or buy fashionable and expensive tools, like TRX or Bosu. You can manage with the items you have at home or can buy at your local pharmacy or grocery store.
A paper plate
This cheap thing, which is sold in any supermarket, allows infinitely modifying the basic exercises and complicating them.
During the training, plates are placed under the feet or hands. To keep the balance, they must be controlled every second. Muscles have to work on the entire trajectory that strengthens them very well.
What exercises can be performed
You can use any exercise from the Gliding program. They are on YouTube. The creator of this program, Mindy Mylrea, had trained with paper plates until special discs appeared.
Exercises with plates:
- Stand on the plate with one foot and make sliding movements to the rear or to the side or go down to the usual or side lunges.
- While doing push-ups, put each hand on the plate and, when sinking to the floor, move hands aside each time; while rising, move them back to the original position.
- Take the position resting on your palms and feet, bend your knees and alternately pull the foot on the plate forward. Or pull both feet, lift your pelvis and move to the “peak” position.
Technical details:
- you need to do this exercise on an even floor;
- there should be a paper plate because a plastic one will either slip out of the soles or break;
- palms should be fully placed on a plate; a foot should be placed on the toes; in the initial and final points of the motion, the heel should fall on the floor and act as a brake.
A cushion
It springs not so good as the Bosu, but you will also have to balance on it. Especially if the cushion is small: the smaller the footprint, the harder it is to balance. And it is useful when the body twists or lifts from the prone position: you have to work with greater amplitude, which allows strengthening muscles more effectively.
What exercises can be performed
Many of the exercises that can be done on the Bosu. But these must be power and balance exercises. Aerobic exercises like jumping and stepping will not be suitable – the cushion can slip from under your feet.
Exercises with a cushion:
- Step with one foot on the cushion, make a “swallow” and keep your body in this position.
- Lie on the cushion, your belly down, stretch the legs, put your hands behind your head, elbows apart. Lift the upper and lower part of the body.
- Place your back on the cushion, put your hands behind your head, with your knees bent and the feet on the floor. Do some twisting.
Technical details:
- any firm cushion will fit, even a little one;
- do the exercise on the carpet, and not on the bare floor. Before training, be sure to test the stability of the cushion.
Martens bandage
It is an elastic rubber band with the length of 3.5 meters and the width of 5 cm. It makes your exercises functional, allowing the simultaneous use of the muscles in the upper and lower body and providing the load on the entire movement trajectory.
What exercises can be performed
The same exercises as with resistance band: it can be pulled, slung over a solid fixed support and fixed to the floor with a knee or a foot. But the attempts to use the Martens bandage as a TRX system are not desirable. TRX loops are clearly adjustable in length, securely fastened, they have hard handles, which are convenient to use when doing push-ups; there are also loops for the foot to be comfortably placed there when we work with our legs hanging. It is dangerous to bind the foot with a bandage.
Exercises with the Martens bandage:
- Place both feet onto the middle of the bandage, lean forward, grasp the ends approximately at the level of the knees. Straighten up, stretching the bandage. This very exercise can be performed when standing on one leg.
- Fix the bandage to a solid immovable support and take the band ends in your hands. Sit down and simultaneously pull the ends of the bandage to yourself.
- Step on the bandage with your right foot and take its end to the right hand. Descend into a lunge while lifting the straight right hand to a shoulder level.
Technical details:
- it is impossible to use the usual elastic bandage instead of the Martens bandage: it is not resilient enough and will not give the required resistance;
- not to injure your wrist, hold the bandage as if it were the natural extension of your forearm and do not wrap it around your arm;
- in the original position the bandage must be strained.
