Da Rulk
5 reasons women need Da Rulk’s Raw Functional Training
I get it. My muscles, my ‘workout face’, the fact that my Raw Functional Training puts even Chris Hemsworth through his paces. I know some women take one look at me and think this kind of training isn’t for then.
But that’s where they're wrong. These moves benefit everyone. Functional exercises enhance the way we perform everyday activities by mimicking natural movement patterns. For example, a squat is a functional exercise because it mimics the movement of sitting down and standing up.
Whatever your fitness goal, here are five reasons you need to make Raw Functional Training part of your routine.
1. It’s the perfect workout (trust me)
If you’ve been steering clear of Raw Functional Training, you’re missing out on one of the best high-intensity workouts possible. Just because I’m a big guy doesn’t mean my workouts will force you to bulk up – you have to really try to get these muscles!
With a mix of strength and cardio, you can improve fitness, lose fat and promote overall body conditioning. Plus, because my workouts are mostly equipment free, you can do them anywhere at any time.
2. Everyday lifting gets easy
Women need to be strong! Creating lean muscle mass is not just about toning; it gives you the everyday independence to get things done yourself – faster, better and more easily.
Whether you’re moving house or just grabbing groceries, you’re lifting. That engages your arms, core, back, even your quads and hips when you’re leaning down. If you’re just hitting pure cardio, you aren’t building the strength you need.
If you’ve got kids, chances are they’re going to need to be picked up from time to time. Sure, sandbag moves build the arm strength I need for toddler carrying, but there’s also the increased hip mobility and quad strength I get from an exercise like hostages, which help me lift my little guy into his car seat. And all those ballistic pulses in my workouts make carrying him on my back a breeze.
3. You can go from klutz to coordinated
Unlike exercises done purely for fat burning or muscle toning, functional exercises work supporting muscle groups as well as the main groups. This increases range of motion throughout the body. Generally, the more joints, movements and speed you’re putting into an action, the more coordination you need to pull it off.
It’s practice for every day. Think I just do switches for fun? Okay, I think it's a fun exercise, but when my toddler starts throwing baby food at me I’m also pretty grateful they helped me be coordinated enough to dodge it.
You need these skills any time you’re trying to move with ease and control, like reaching for things or getting up and down off the ground to play with kids. Even reacting to sudden situations like loose stones on a hiking trail or an uneven sidewalk in the city – mobility and muscle coordination make the difference between staying upright or falling flat on your face.
Tone, strengthen, fat-burn, improve mobility. Is there anything hostages can't do?
4. You’ll protect yourself from injury
Strong muscles aren’t just there for heavy lifting: they also protect joints, tendons and ligaments from overwork and potential injury. As we grow older, our bone density decreases (this is especially true for women), mobility decreases and joints and tendons start to take the burden of all movements. If you’ve got strong, well-functioning muscles, this will be less of an issue.
Functional training mimics everyday activity, strengthening the muscles you use on a daily basis and helping to reduce the chance of injury. All of my moves together are geared towards building a better body, but if you’re concerned about high-impact moves, crawls and crawl holds work to strengthen the muscles around your joints in a lower-impact way than jumps and switches.
5. You can become a core-strength powerhouse
Because my exercises are dynamic compound moves, they work multiple muscles all at once – including your core. If you’re focused on perfect form when performing a sit thru, you’re actively stabilizing your core as you complete the movement. Your arms and legs move, but it’s a strong core holding it all together.
Having a strong core is more than just flat or defined abs. It helps to improve posture, protect the spine and lower back and work against the problems of a sedentary lifestyle. Now that’s real inner strength!
Da Rulk
RAW FUNCTIONAL TRAINING
Da Rulk trains superheroes: Navy SEALs, fire fighters, law enforcement… and Chris Hemsworth. A certified strength and conditioning specialist with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology, he is the creator of Raw Functional Training (RFT), a revolutionary approach to movement. He’s the trainer you’ll love to hate, who will transform the way you move.
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