Fitness Coach Rubbishes Claims About Bodybuilding Training Not Being Functional: “Yapping About Nothing”

Functional training is something that has taken over the fitness industry in recent times, and it’s been a hot topic of discussion. Many people think that functional training cannot be achieved by the traditional bodybuilding program. But to put an end to this debate, online fitness influencer Sean Nalewanyj is here to state the facts.

Nalewanyj tells his viewers that they might have heard some “goofy” functional trainers calling bodybuilders training for hypertrophy as not functional. But “they’re just yapping about nothing,” says the influencer. While stressing that this might be a hard concept to grasp for functional influencers, Nalewanyj explains that “muscle mass is functional in and of itself.”

Nalewanyj highlighted that the new tissue the body has after training creates stronger and more capable muscles. Hence, the sole purpose of hypertrophy is to gain strength. Further, Nalewanyj shed light on the fact that “even if aesthetics are your main focus, even if the only thing you truly care about is putting on muscle for cosmetic reasons, you’re still training for strength by default, and in turn, that strength makes you more functional.” He then listed a few exercises that make you progressively stronger. 

The basic movement patterns he recommends are squats, hip hinges, overhead presses, horizontal presses, vertical poles, and rows. “You’re getting progressively stronger at those movements over time. What you have to do in order to gain the muscle you’re after that absolutely is functional by any nonbrain dead definition,” he explained.

In similar fashion, the fitness coach previously revealed why it makes no sense to do fancy variations of basic exercises.

Nalewanyj advocates sticking to the basics 

In a previous video, the online fitness coach revealed that “there’s no real reason” to do alternating overhead dumbbell presses while hitting shoulders. Instead, one should go for a normal shoulder press to witness better results. The young fitness influencer highlighted that the added variations are not always as beneficial as people think they might be.

Nalewanyj emphasizes that the shoulder press is the best movement for your shoulders. Along with this, he shed light on the hypertrophy in the shoulder press. The online fitness influencer explained, “But in the context of optimizing hypertrophy, it’s just kinda one of those “what’s the point” type of movements that influencers post on social media where there’s no real upside but some potential downside.“

As the young fitness influencer highlighted, it is not always necessary that new techniques are as beneficial as one might think they are. What are your views on the matter? Do you follow traditional bodybuilding programs or functional training? Let us know in the comments.