Posted on November 24, 2022.

Have you ever noticed that, when you join a Globo Gym, you make amazing leaps and bounds at first but then seem to plateau and not improve? Most people are taught to work out the exact same way week-in and week-out. With the traditional Globo Gym training program, your body becomes accustomed to this routine and stops progressing. The other, and probably bigger, the problem with this type of training program, is that training begins to become mundane. It’s the same thing over and over and over and….. You get the picture. With ApeFit, it’s rare that you will repeat the same workout twice. This means your body won’t ever become accustomed to a routine and the workouts will be fun and different. There are only a handful of “benchmark” workouts that are used as a yardstick to measure progress. 

These workouts even create a bit of friendly competition with yourself, others in your gym or those around the world. You’ll often hear people talk about “PR’ing on Fran,” or some other benchmark workout.

FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENTS:

Functional movements are movements you do everyday day or they’re a core element to a common everyday movement. Every exercise, and movement, in must meet the following 7 criteria for it to be included:

It must be natural. It’s how we move in real life. In a Globo Gym, the majority of equipment is designed to isolate a specific muscle group. Take the Leg Extension machine for instance. It’s designed to target the Quadriceps, but where in real life do you need to only use your quads? You don’t! It’s not a natural movement.

Universal Motor Recruitment Patterns. This simply means to use all your muscles to move in symphony efficiently, effectively, and quickly from one place to another. Everything from the large main muscles used in a specific movement to all the small supporting muscles that stabilize the movement. With machines that isolate, all the supporting muscles sit idle. They don’t get stronger, this causes muscle imbalance which can cause aches and pains and even serious injuries.

Core to Extremity. The movement starts from your core and works its way out. At a Globo Gym, “the core” is considered to be the abs. This isn’t true. “The core” is a functional group of muscles that acts on the spine and pelvis. This includes the abs, the glutes, hamstrings, quads, the muscles of the lower back, etc. The stronger this group of muscles is, and the more coordinated they are, the faster an athlete can go and/or the heavier the object can be.

Essential Movement. The movement must be essential to an athlete's quality of life. Go to a Globo Gym and ask people their thoughts on the squat or deadlift. You’ll find that the majority of people there consider these to be dangerous movements, but in reality, these are essential movements we all depend on to live. A squat is simply sitting down and standing up efficiently. A deadlift is nothing more than picking something up off the ground, like say a bag of groceries or your kid.

Safe. When compared to non-functional movements. All movements must be safe when utilizing proper form and technique.

Compound, yet irreducible. You can’t break the movement down to smaller exercises or functional movements.

Ability to move large loads (weight) over long distances, quickly. Combined, these three elements (load, distance, speed) uniquely qualify functional movements for the production of work and high power. That means we don’t try to slowly move a weight, etc. This can dangerously tear and destroy muscles. It also greatly decreases the work and power output of the athlete. However, we believe that speed and power can only come after first learning proper technique and showing consistency with that technique. Reckless movement is just as dangerous as slow movements.

Technique + Consistency -> Intensity