Training for everyday

So you can bench-press 200 pounds, run a 10K in 45 minutes flat and turn heads when you slip on your Speedo.

But can you hoist your suitcase into the overhead compartment without throwing your back out, or squat to tie a toddler's shoes without grimacing?

In an age when functional training is the reigning buzz phrase in gyms across America, trainers say these are the questions and answers that really matter.

"Functional training is about doing exercises that assist you in performing your activities of daily living more efficiently," says Fabio Comana, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, which recently published a study lauding the benefits of functional training, or mimicking everyday movements.

The notion of practicing movements during a workout, rather than just bulking up with weights or slogging away on the cardio machines, is nothing new. Professional golfers and skiers have long mimicked swings or turns in the gym, and physical therapists often ask rehab patients to practice the motions they do most at work (such as loading a box into the back of a truck) before returning to the job.

But only in the past decade -- as fitness experts have realized the limitations of bulk-building weight machines that allow only for unrealistic single-plane motions -- has the idea of "functional" training trickled down to Everyman.

In that time, the philosophy has transformed everything from the way some weight machines are made (with more freedom of movement) to the equipment used in group classes (things like lightweight medicine balls, resistance bands and unstable platforms) to the more lifelike, everyday moves trainers are asking their clients to do.

On a recent weekday morning at One Boulder Fitness, in Boulder, Colo., a group of newcomers made their way through a surprisingly strenuous functional training class, Metabolic 100, simply made up of repeat squats, overhead reaches, forward presses and rowing motions, all done from a standing position with a 2- to 4-pound medicine ball or a resistance band.

Meanwhile, at RallySport Health and Fitness Club across town, trainer Erin Carson led five women in their 40s and 50s through an hour-long class using specially made circuit machines to hone oft-neglected stabilizer muscles and refine coordination.

"When you train in a stable environment, like doing a bench press or a seated chest press on a conventional machine, you are training your muscle like a bodybuilder, making one muscle perform the same range of motion over and over again," Carson explains. "That's really good for building muscle and strength, but it is not how we move in real life."

Instead, each person in her class took a place at one of four "Kinesis" machines, which use pulleys to allow for movement in all planes and force the user to stand while lifting.

Then they made their way through a series of exercises that resemble common movements in a busy parent's life: A "single-leg dead lift with a reach" looked a lot like leaning over to pick up a kid's toy; a "lateral lunge with an overhead press" seemed to mimic reaching up to the top shelf of a cupboard; and a "lateral lunge with a decline press" resembled pushing a mop or a vacuum cleaner.

Experts say functional-fitness programs can be particularly helpful to baby boomers, who might already be finding themselves getting injured doing everyday things.

A recent study sponsored by the American Council on Exercise found that adults ages 58 to 78 who engaged in functional training three times a week showed greater improvements in upper- and lower-body strength, cardio-respiratory endurance, agility and shoulder flexibility than those who stuck to lifting weights and cardiovascular training only.

You don't have to convince Cindy Cruz- Mazzei, 52. After years of functional training with Carson and, more recently, a weekly visit to Kinesis class, she's seen the benefits transcend to real life time and again.

"We were in the grocery store once when my daughters were little and both of them jumped on the cart on one side. It was about to tilt over on them and I literally grabbed the cart and flipped it back," she says.

"My body just instinctively did all the right things it was supposed to do, and I didn't hurt myself. It just kicks in."