"What we do in gyms today is unnatural. It's fine for developing strength, but then we have to go about developing exercises for movement," says Dr. Tony Abbott. One of the sharpest minds in fitness today, Abbot brings his concern about what has happened to fitness training to the thousands of students he has instructed at Fitness Institute International, the Boca Raton, Florida-based fitness trainers' school he founded. Abbott's 4-level education program emphasizes the principles of kinesiology and anatomy--understanding clearly how the body works and moves, so graduates can design effective and safe training programs for their clients.

One of Abbott's protégés, Juan Carlos Santana, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), power lifter, and currently, a doctoral candidate at the Exercise and Sports Science Department at the University of Miami, heard the message loud and clear. He not only earned the certifications from Abbott's school, he went on earn a degree in Exercise Science, then took the concept to a new level, creating his own program of functional training. "I call my company Optimum Performance Systems because I am interested only in optimal--not just good performance," he explains, "You have to look at how the body moves to improve training for the movement. You have to look at injuries--movement didn't cause the problem--NOT training for the movement causes injury."

While we may not be thinking about injuries while we train for strength and fitness, it doesn't take long for an "old war injury" or a muscle "pull," while working out to remind us. Santana, and others like Pete Egoscue and Paul Chek have designed programs not only to address injuries, but to prevent them. Likewise, Santana has produced a video on Functional Training, as well as several related videos, and has joined with other functional training experts like Vern Gambetta and Mike Clark, who work with college, professional and Olympic athletes, to fine-tune his program and bring it to hundreds nationally in his own Functional Training Seminars.

The logic is inescapable. We move at various speeds, asymmetrically through different planes, twisting, turning, moving forward and backward, though most of our training is at single speed, moving forward. According to Santana, most injuries in daily life occur when twisting, or when we are off-balance. We are terribly out of balance because we are generally one-side dominant and can't hold our bodies balanced statically for long without falling over. How much does sitting in a pec-deck machine prepare you for the motion required to get you through the day?

Most who have worked with elite, professional, or even amateur athletes will attest to the fact that structural integrity is the most important aspect of performance, yet that is our foremost weakness. And while we may bench press hundreds of pounds and be able to do hundreds of sit-ups, we are functionally weak. "The main purpose of functional training is injury prevention, and to close the gap between absolute strength and functional strength. The use of acquired body strength is what improves performance," Santana explains, "You can't train for running by swinging a club or a racquet, or train to hit a ball by sitting on a machine!"

All of the experts mentioned here eschew the use of machines in favor using free weights, body weight and functional training tools like medicine balls, stability balls, wobble boards and exercise bands. It's back to basics, utilizing many of the implements that were formally used in physical therapy, as fitness tools. The general consensus among functional trainers, is that machines hold your body in position, robbing you of the opportunity to use your own core muscles to build strength and stability.

Several of the basic exercises that Santana uses are reaches, first with the leg, then with the arm, while standing on one foot. While staying balanced, try touching five spots on the floor in front of you, in a semi-circle, from one side to the other. First, bend one knee, reaching forward and to each side with your toe; then, switch to reaching down and to each side, to touch the floor with your finger tips. Don't cheat--just touch and come back up! Do the exercise on each leg and note the difference in your stability--or lack thereof. This seemingly simple exercise will strengthen the legs and build core stability in the trunk, which will combine for better balance.

Santana also uses the stability ball instead of a bench, for dumb bell presses or flies, adding a balancing element to the exercise. "You might not be able to move as much weight," he explains, "But you'll gain stability in the process." Doing sit ups with the back on the ball, or push ups with hands on the ball or on wobble boards, adds a similar element and considerable amount of difficulty. You can also try doing push ups from the floor with the feet or legs on the ball.

But before you say, "This isn't for me--I want to build size and stay strong," understand the concept. When you move properly, in a balanced, controlled manner, the demands on the muscle are heavier, causing enough strain to build and shape the muscle in new ways. And once you master the movement, you can increase the difficulty of the exercise by adding weight, speed or farther range of motion.

Ask Equinox Health Club staff who attended one of Santana's seminars and became believers. Chris Bellantoni, Personal Training Manager of the Scardsale, New York club and Raymond Jovine, a certified trainer and boxer, started incorporating the functional training exercises into their own work out programs. Both over 6' and over 200 pounds, Jovine and Bellantoni are no slouches and look as much like bouncers as fitness pros. "We train hard, I mean, we've been doing this for a long time to get this size," said Jovine, a power lifter who was getting into fighting shape for an upcoming bout, "Are we going to be able to keep our size doing this?" he asked Santana. While he wouldn't necessarily guarantee that you can increase size, Santana assured that you can keep, and not lose size, and proved his point by putting the duo through a super-set series for the upper and lower body, including explosive "Super Legs" (described below), that had both panting and sweating at the end. And while you might pride yourself on strong abs and ability to do a high volume of reps in any ab class, just try sitting, balanced, without feet touching the ground on a stability ball for several minutes. After you get the feel of it, these balancing challenges are a great way to "rest" between sets, and you will feel new parts of your deep abdominal wall--while you thought it was an easy and non-muscle-fatiguing exercise.

"We found functional training was great to integrate into our weight training program, Bellantoni reports, "It's good for weight loss, because you're really sweating--it increases your metabolic rate and endurance, because you're training your body to move fast and doing high reps. But after a month of doing just functional training, though I felt thinner, we felt we were getting a little ‘soft.' We started integrating a set of bar bell bench presses with free weights, with a set of flies with the bands. For back, we'd do cable swims with the bands tied to a bar or the Smith Rack, after doing rows. Pre-exhausting the muscle with free weights, then adding ‘active rest' made it a really good work out." Bellantoni also added wood chops and twists with a medicine ball to his abdominal routine, as well as slams (to the floor) with a heavy ball, which he describes as a great stress reliever, as well as an abdominal, back and arms work out. "I've gotten very positive feedback from clients," he says, even from a client who never used to smile, who now finds her workout fun. "It's opened new doors for working on heart rate--I've added squat-thrusts, so you're actually working a muscle more effectively (than peddling a stationery bike)--and it's fun!" he adds. Jovine reiterated the benefits of integrating functional, with traditional training, "I think it's fantastic! After doing the Super Legs routine for about 5-6 weeks, I went back to squatting 275, four sets, ten reps, and found I not only got a little more definition, but I got stronger too."

Paul Chek, MMS, HHP, NMT, who founded the C.H.E.K. Institute, in Encinitas, California and produced a seminar series and voluminous tapes and workbooks to teach his functional training methods, grew his experience and knowledge from training with medicine balls as a junior high school boxer. He progressed to become a boxer and trainer for the U.S. Army Team at Ft. Bragg, NC, and later worked in a physical therapy clinic with spinal instability cases and orthopedic injuries. That experience expanded his awareness of functional training, as he studied how to use the stability balls in therapy. He then developed his own techniques since he also trained many elite athletes who quickly out-grew traditional exercises and needed further challenges. Over a decade later, Chek is one of the recognized authorities on functional training and teaches the concept from a technical and scientific point of view, with a keen understanding of how the muscles and bones interact to create movement. His analysis of instabilities provide insights into what corrective measures need to be made before the body can move functionally without injury--and how the body will compensate and invite injury if the imbalances are left undetected or corrected. Chek also points out that when starting a program, you must isolate "a muscle, or group of muscles to re-establish neurological communication between the nervous system and the muscle." When the body gets used to the initial phases, it can then move on to more complex and higher level integration of muscles and movement. His exercises and stretches focus on learning balance and proper movements that can assist athletes in expanding their performance boundaries. Chek's golf-specific training book, The Golf Biomechanic's Manual, Whole in One Golf Conditioning, provides step by step instruction for the reader, who becomes the biomechanic, to understand and create his or her own program. The exercises are also applicable to a number of other sports as well as to the movement of daily living.

Pain Free is a state that many of us cannot even fathom, let alone aspire to, but Pete Egoscue uses his easy-to-read manual (also Pain Free at Your PC, for computer users) to describe his "Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain." In his suburban San Diego clinic, and also through a video mail-in program, Egoscue addresses simple common sense principles of taking control of your own body, rather than giving it over to "experts" to fix or treat because it is "sick." Though he acknowledges that the doctors and experts are good people doing what they think is correct, Egoscue totally disagrees with the common reaction to pain. "People ask ‘When does it hurt?' Then they say, ‘You need to stop doing that--and depending on your age, you shouldn't be doing it anyway.' Age has nothing to do with it--your body doesn't know how old it is. Genetics has nothing to do with it. We are teaching people that you are a living organism. It's not 'What's wrong with you?', we are asking, 'What is your body trying to tell us?' Humans are the top of the food chain--we are well equipped. If you can imagine it, you can do it," he explains.

Many students learn that lesson well at Egoscue's annual Summer Sports Camp, where for four weeks, athletes and aspiring ones, attend two-a-day sessions of drills and strengthening activities, including tackling, the Egoscue Method obstacle course, climbing fences and stairs and training on the sands of Del Mar beaches. Speed, agility, explosiveness, endurance, balance, strength and function, self confidence and resistance to injuries are the program goals.

Egoscue's prescription for pain and injury prevention is correct movement. His books and his clinicians outline a series of "e-cises," many of which are really yoga-like postures, that become tools to fix the dysfunction that modern life and sitting too much cause. He is often called, an "anatomical functionalist" because his exercises correct alignment and restore function--as golfing legend Jack Nicklaus, pro football player John Lynch , NBA player Chris Dudley, and numerous other celebrities, professional athletes, and everyday Joe's can attest. By realigning joints, to put ankles, knees, hips, shoulders in a straight line, with the head evenly balanced between the shoulders, the body can move properly. While you won't work up a sweat doing his routines, which are arranged in a specific order to address sequential loading of the joints, you will feel your body responding. Egoscue professes that with time and dedication, the pain will dissipate and proper movement and strength will be restored. Muscle memory will take over, so Liba Placek, athletic director instructs, "Don't try to change your posture--let the exercises do what they do. We are not just stretching muscles, the body needs to be in neutral. When posturally balanced and vertically aligned, then you can address the task at hand. If you are mis-aligned and posturally compromised, you will not recruit the right muscles. You'll get the wrong result--you will get hurt, then blame it on the activity, not the body's instability." Time is the biggest issue for most clients, so even if you don't have time for the whole routine, ten minutes per day is better than nothing, says Erica Lusk, home therapy director, who supervises Egoscue's video clients, "It's impossible to cut corners. It takes three weeks to work through each new therapy menu with progress."

After doing the exercises, the pain may be gone, but the dysfunction that caused it is not. Therefore, Egoscue recommends continuing the exercises on a regular basis. He also recommends drinking as much water as possible, "The Coke wets our whistle but doesn't refill

our fluid reservoirs," he says in Pain Free, noting that we often substitute coffee, tea, sugary drinks and alcohol to substitute for lost stimulus, when really what we need is to move and simply drink water to rehydrate muscle tissue which is 90% water. "When you're dragging, try water first; you may not need anything else," he states.

Other nutritionists believe fueling the body's engine for any kind of training is part of being fully functional. Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist, Tom Inclendon, director of sports nutrition at Human Performance Specialists, who has degrees in Exercise Science, Nutrition, Kinesiology and Management and who is also a doctoral candidate in Exercise Physiology at the University of Miami, know a thing or two about eating for performance. He recommends an emphasis on vegetables and fruits, whole grains like barley, oatmeal and hot, cooked serials and whole grain breads. Though recognizing that there are no real guidelines for the "right" diet, which is very individualized, Inclendon ascribes to the one gram of protein per pound of body mass, 25% of calories from fat--unsaturated fats, which help to elevate testosterone. Supplements are just that he explains, "If you have a bad diet, no matter how many vitamins you take, you'll still have a bad diet." Inclendon, an athlete himself does recommend a post-work out shake with carbohydrates and proteins. The ratios of the combination vary from 2:1 to lose fat and 4:1 to maintain or increase body mass. "Most will say that one ratio works better than another, but since there is no research that has compared ratios, go with a range and see what works best for you," he states. And have that shake immediately after working out, since Inclendon reports that some research shows muscles are like a sponge at that point and absorb nutrients more readily.

Bob Hickner Ph.D., Assistant Professor at East Carolina University's Human Performance Lab takes that recommendation one step further. He concurs that post-workout is an essential time to replace glucose, protein and liquid, but also adds that a meal replacement drink approximately two hours prior to working out is beneficial as well. To help speed absorption, he recommends a light meal and sticks with liquids that speed the entrance of sugars into the blood stream. If that doesn't fit into your time frame, a carbohydrate drink five minutes before you hit the door can work too. "That way, you'll have some fuel at least part way into your system when you're working out," he says. Hickner, a triathlete himself, notes, "Many people think they may not need extra liquids or glucose during or after a short work out, but you can deplete muscle glycogen quickly by doing explosive exercise sessions." (like Super Legs!)

Do each exercise for the noted number of reps, together equaling one set. Increase number of sets and decrease rest in between exercises to increase difficulty. Start with 3 sets, one minute between exercises, three minutes between circuit for beginners. Progress each week to 6 sets, resting only between exercises, not between circuits.

1. Body Weight Squat (lower body until thighs are at least parallel to floor), 20 reps

2. Lunge, 20 reps, 10 per leg

3.Explosive Alternate Step Ups, 20 reps, 10 per side (step up on a 9"-12" step, one foot at a time, then quickly stepping down, repeat for specified number of reps, then switch feet.)

4. Jump Squat, 10 reps (start in a parallel squat, then jump into the air, with straight legs and arms extended straight over head.)

Do Super Legs once per week, combined with stability ball, rubber tubing and medicine balls circuits.