What does "functional" mean when it comes to fitness, exercise, movement, or yoga? What does it mean for a movement to be "functional"? Does it have to be a complex, compound, full body movement? Can simple exercises and movements be considered functional?

I look at human movement from two perspectives mainly.
1) Human evolution determines what movements a human being is good at and what humans are not great at. Movements which aid to evolutionary or survival function are "functional movements".
2) Your job/hobbies may determine what is functional for you. If you are a martial artist, you might need more range of motion than most people. That's okay, and for YOU that's "functional" since it helps train the function of practicing martial arts.

Yoga poses generally are NOT functional, they require hypermobility. There is no useful function for human health or survival to being hypermobile. Therefore when I say I teach functional yoga, I mean I dramatically reduce range of motion, we don't really stretch at all, and we get really strong, coordinated, good at balance, and great internal awareness. THAT is functional in my opinion.

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