Functional Training or Beach Weights

Ok so here is a dilemma that many guys have, do you want to do the exercises that will improve your sporting performance or the exercises that boost your ego and give you that feeling of invincibility (ok maybe not invincibility but you know what I mean...).

I speak from experience, I was once competing at a high level in athletics running times that were on the verge of being selected for minor International competitions. Since that time I have gone down the route of ego lifting but to be totally honest I was in far better shape when I was doing the sport specific exercises.

Here are two pictures of me, the first one of me is at 83kg 2years ago whilst doing sport specific functional training. The second one is of me a couple of months ago at 87kg during a period of strength/beach weights training.

Sport specific functional training

Strength/Beach Weight Training

As you can see from the pictures, doing sport specific functional training I look far leaner (or ripped as some people describe it...) than the strength/beach weight training. I'm not saying this will be the case for everyone but what a lot of people forget about when doing beach weights is that with the exercises you do for sport specific training, the core is often more active in these exercises working to stabilise the body.

So over the next 6 weeks I will be posting daily blogs of my training regime, diet and activity as I go back to basics with functional training. I will test myself after 6 weeks training to see how I have developed in the strength department too, this will show whether functional training can also be better than beach weights training in producing big lifts.

Anyone else wanting to join in on this feel free to message me and get involved too, the more the better.

Current Best Lifts

Bench Press: 150kg

Clean: 130kg

Deadlift: 230kg

Full Front Squat: 132.5kg

Snatch: 75kg