Functional Muscle

[Viper555]

I was wondering if the following exercises will help me build functional muscle:

*Note*All exercises involving weights are use in a powerlifting program


ARMS

1)Push ups
2)Panther crawl(go down like you're going to do a push up,come halfway up,and move foward)
3)push up all the way,go halfway down,back up,all the way down(hold each one for 10 seconds)
4)Inclined Bench Press
5)Military press

ABS

1)Sit ups in a declined position
2)Hang from a chinup bar and hold legs out straight in front of me
3)Lay on the ground and raise legs as high as possible then lower without letting them touch the ground and then back up
4)6 inches

LEGS

1)Jump and bring legs to chest
2)duck walk(squat donw with legs close together and walk)
3)Rabbit Hop(Same as above just leap foward)
4)Stance training
5)Squats

BACK

Deadlifts

FOREARMS
*Note*In all of these my arm is straight out in front of me and me wrist is straight to.

1)Holding staff at end
2)Holding staff at end and bending the wrist down and back up without letting the staff touch the ground
3)Holding staff at end and twisting the wrist left to right making a complete circle
4)Holding staff in center and twisting the wrist left to right making a complete circle

WRISTS/FINGERS
*Note*I use a dumbell with a weight on only one end

1)Hold dumbell at end without weight with thumb,pointer,and middle straight out in front of me.
2)While holding dumbell straight out in front of me I lower it and raise it

ANKLES

1)Standing in a normal walking stance I come up on the balls of my feet and then back down.


Please tell me if any of these do not help me to develop funchtional muscle and if you can give me an exercise to replace it.Thanks for any help.

[Anthroman]

Two things: be careful not to overwork your forearm muscles too much and you might also want to add pullups.

[Lung Hu Pai]

Plate curls are a really good wrist and finger exercise.

[Kempo Guy]

Viper555,

Dude, it doesn't need to be that complicated... Many of the exercises you mention are isolation exercises (even thought they are 'bodyweight exercises'). If you're looking for 'functional strength', you want to do exercises that put as many muscles to use per rep.

For instance, you could mix it up with core exercises such as:
push-ups using different variations depending on workouts using exercises like hand-stand, hindu, traditional push-ups etc., just make sure you're core is tight during each rep; pull-ups (more so than chin ups) in different variations, such as wide-grip, close grip, hook grip (use no thumbs), weighted etc.; ab work like Janda sit-ups and the evil wheel (ab wheel), again keeping your core tight is important; leg workouts like the deck squats (my favorite), hindu squats, one-legged squat, one-legged deadlift (using a dumbbell) etc.

These four categories will work most of the muscles of your body... Pick one or two exercises (multiple sets of course) from the different categories per workout and you have a pretty good program.

Hope this helps,

KG