Functional Strength — Building a Resilient Body
In March, we talked about opening up your mobility. In April, we focused on stabilizing the "cylinder." This month at Rivers RMT, we are putting it all together with Functional Strength.
Many people hear the word "strength" and think of heavy barbell squats or bodybuilding. But in a clinical setting, functional strength is much simpler: it is your body’s ability to manage its own weight against gravity in everyday life. It’s the difference between picking up a bag of soil with ease or "throwing your back out" on a Saturday morning.
The Purpose of Strength:
"Bulletproofing" the Joints & Building a "Movement Budget"
Strength training is often the best form of injury prevention. Think of your body’s strength as a "movement budget." Every time you pick up your child, carry a heavy load of groceries, or spend an afternoon gardening, you are spending from that budget. If your physical capacity is low, you "overdraw," and that’s when injuries occur.
We invite you to think about what you need to do in a day and what you love to do. By strengthening these specific movement patterns, you ensure you can keep doing them for years to come.
Real-Life Training: Turning Chores into "Gains"
To build functional strength, start with the movement without weight, then slowly add weight as you build. I like to suggest starting with 5lbs and go up 5lbs once it feels less challenging. You can replicate daily demands with simple exercises at home:
Carrying Grocery Bags → The Farmer’s Carry: Hold a weight in each hand (or even just one for a core challenge) and walk with a tall, proud posture. This builds grip strength, shoulder stability, and lateral core strength.
Picking Up a Box → The Squat or Deadlift: Whether it's a laundry basket or a delivery at the door, focus on hinging at the hips and driving through the heels. This protects your lower back and utilizes your strongest muscles: the glutes.
Mopping or Vacuuming → The Row: That "pulling" motion engages the muscles between your shoulder blades. Strengthening your "rowing" muscles helps counteract the "slump" of desk work and improves posture during chores.
Reaching for the Top Shelf → Overhead Press: Strengthening the shoulders and the serratus anterior ensures you can reach into high cupboards without a "pinch" in the neck or shoulder.
Climbing Stairs → The Step-Up: Use the bottom step of your staircase to practice slow, controlled step-ups. This builds the single-leg stability needed for hiking and navigating uneven terrain.
By viewing your daily life through this lens, "exercise" stops being an extra task on your to-do list and becomes a way to optimize your favorite activities.
The Ultimate Functional Test: The Sitting-Rising Test (SRT)
To understand why functional strength matters for longevity, we look at a famous study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Researchers found that the ability to sit down on the floor and stand back up with minimal support is a significant predictor of all-cause mortality.
Why is this a strength test? Getting off the floor requires a combination of:
Leg Power: To drive your weight upward.
Core Stability: To keep your spine neutral under load.
Balance: To transition between levels.
Mobility: Ability for the joints to have the ability to move through it’s full range
The Challenge: Try to sit on the floor and stand back up.
Start with a score of 10.
Subtract 1 point for every hand, knee, or forearm you use for support.
Subtract 0.5 points if you lose your balance.
Your Goal: Work on "lessening the points of contact" every time you get up from the floor this month.
"Lazy Strength": Floor Sitting as a Training Tool
Looking for something that is easy to build into your daily life? We encourage our clients to practice "Lazy Strength" by spending time on the floor while watching TV or scrolling on your phone.
The 90/90 Position: Great for active hip strength.
The Deep Squat (Resting Squat): Building endurance in the glutes and ankles.
The Yoga Sit (Seiza): Strengthening the feet and shins. (sitting on feet)
Crosslegged: sitting criss-cross apple sauce like we did as a kid
Simply the act of moving from cross-legged to a 90/90 position, and then standing up without using your hands, is a functional strength workout that pays dividends for your long-term health. If you have trouble relaxing in these positions - bring the ground to you. Use pillows, blocks, rolled up blankets to provide support while you work to improve these postures.
The Clinical Connection
Massage therapy helps clear the "noise" and tension that prevents you from moving well. Once we’ve created that space, Functional Strength is what locks those changes in. If we treat your hip pain but don't strengthen the muscles that support that hip, the tension will eventually return.
This May, let’s focus on building a body that is as strong as it is mobile.
This is not medical advice. Please speak to your health care practitioner before starting any activity, or trying any treatment options.
This blog post was partially developed using AI to generate ideas and refine the structure. The author made the final edits and choices
