Wednesday, August 31, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Fit For
Sisters
Andrew Luscutoff
Columnist
What is functional
training?
Exercise in the 21st cen-
tury at times can be confus-
ing, with over-complicated
programs, expert gurus, and
charts and graphs showing
that the layman shouldn’t
even begin a program on
her own.
These notions poison the
water for beginners, giving
the illusion that productive
exercise is an unattainable
moonshot.
Part of the job of a good
exercise and health pro-
fessional is to distill the
textbooks, data, and jour-
nals down into actionable,
easy-to-understand con-
cepts. Poor professionals
make it all seem harder than
it should be, and closely
guard their information as
the “only solution.”
This article seeks to
prove a technique that peo-
ple often make harder than
it should be is actually quite
the opposite. That tech-
nique is functional training.
Functional training is a form
of exercise where the goal
is to obtain skills, strength,
and ability which one can
transfer from the gym into
everyday life.
Chandra Hess, a sea-
soned trainer with Sisters
Athletic Club, explained
functional training:
“Functional fitness is about
training movement patterns
and strengthening our mus-
cles through a full range of
motion. It helps us prepare
our bodies for everyday sce-
narios like kneeling down to
pick something up or walk-
ing up a set of stairs.”
Functional strength train-
ing should be composed of
a set of movements that
mimic how the muscles are
actually used. Free weights,
body weight, cables, medi-
cine balls, and kettlebells
are all employed to achieve
this. Balancing the muscle
groups used is essential, as
over-building one group
will negatively affect one’s
functionality.
Stretching the hips, the
middle back, and the shoul-
ders is important to good
function. Mobility is a very
individual undertaking, so
advice from a professional
will help someone get an
understanding of where to
start.
As with any dimension of
endeavor, people will take
an idea and run away with
the concept with the “more
is better” mentality. A com-
mon mistake people make,
according to Hess, is “using
weights that are too heavy
for them and sacrificing
form or range-of-motion in
the process.“ Another com-
mon flaw is using balance
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and instability improperly.
A person might grab a set
of weights, stand on a bal-
ance board, and twirl the
weights haphazardly about
in order to “work on bal-
ance.” Using too heavy a
weight, and using improper
balance or instability tech-
niques are dangerous, and
will not promote the desired
outcome.
Functional training
should be worked into a pro-
gram of sound weight train-
ing with a synergistic effect.
The stabilizer muscles and
core work with functional
training will positively
affect other exercises.
A basic start to func-
tional training anyone can
do:
Kneel to stand — take
a kneeling position, with a
tall posture, and stable core,
push through the front leg
and lift the body up. Getting
up off the ground is a tech-
nique that many people
neglect, until there’s a scary
realization that they can’t.
Functional training isn’t
exclusive to veteran gym-
users. In fact, it’ll give the
best benefit to the begin-
ner. This is because they’ll
be learning coordination,
full muscle contraction, and
skills.
Hess said, “Including
functional training can be as
simple as walking or hiking
more, or adding stair steps
to your weight routine.”
A great book to check
out is “Core Performance,”
by Mark Verstegen. It high-
lights the concepts men-
tioned in this article and
goes deeper into putting it
into practice.
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SCHEDuLE: Different
schools on different
schedules
Continued from page 3
more continuity of courses.
“When we had a five-
period day on the trimester
schedule it was hard for stu-
dents to take band all year,”
he said. “Now there is a
higher probability of taking
band all year.”
Before school opened,
Hosang addressed the change
in a written memo to commu-
nity members. He noted that
a seventh period has caused
confusion.
“We fully anticipate we
will utilize the seventh period
to provide additional opportu-
nities for our students such as
helping them create a résumé,
S AT / A C T p r e p a r a t i o n ,
ASPIRE time, internships or
helping students with college
applications are just some of
the ideas we are working on,”
he wrote. “I am confident that
by the second week of school
we will have our rhythm.”
Sisters Middle School,
which has fifth-graders
through eighth-graders, is
keeping its trimester schedule
because that works better for
students of that age, Scholl
said.
For one thing, younger
children have shorter atten-
tion spans, which is accom-
modated in the trimester
19
setup, he said. The differ-
ence in schedule reflects what
Scholl said are different aca-
demic needs.
“It’s all part of a puzzle,”
he said, meaning such things
as lesson-preparation time for
teachers and other non-class
factors must be accounted for.
Sisters Middle School
Principal Marshall Jackson
said the semester system was
considered for that school.
“We looked at various
options,” he said, “but the
trimester schedule meets the
needs of our kids.”
One issue at the high
school under the trimester
setup was that some students
finished their state-required
courses by the end of their
junior year, and didn’t enroll
for their senior year. That pre-
sented a financial problem,
because school districts are
funded by the state based on
enrollment. The same issue
isn’t present at middle school
because those students’ pro-
motion to a higher grade isn’t
based on required credits.
Trimester also offers the
middle school students a
chance to experiment with
classes that sound interesting.
“Middle-schoolers are try-
ing to find out who they are,”
Jackson said. “They want to
sample different things.”
Classes began this
week throughout the dis-
trict. Schools will be closed
Monday, September 5, in
observance of Labor Day.