FUNCTIONAL HEALTH is about your muscles, bones, joints, nerves, cells, and everything else that is responsible for your physical ability to move. It is your mechanical well-being. But what Functional Health is really about is optimizing your ability to do the activities that you need to do and that you want to do, without being hampered by pain or injury. Whether that is keeping up your weekly tennis or golf match, playing with your kids, or simply unloading your groceries, for some it is a little more like competing in a spartan race, running a marathon, or attempting a triathlon, the goal of Functional Health is to improve your capacity to perform your life.

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A New Category of Health: Functional Health is a whole new kind of health. The only one that pertains specifically to your physical function, it fills the gap left by more traditional categories of health. Anything that impairs your ability to function normally whether it be physical or mental, compromises your Functional Health.

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All by Design: The foundation of Functional Health is the body’s physical design, probably the most finely engineered design that exists. Like any high-end machine, the human body works best when it is able to work like it is meant to. That means joints moving properly, muscles in the right balance with each other, and so on. And the real key to optimal Functional Health is doing things–both your routine activities and your exercises–in ways that work with your body’s design, not against it. Simply put, when your body can’t work as designed, you pay the price in pain. So, improving your functional health is just a matter of understanding your body’s basic design and learning how to enhance it.

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Being in Shape to Do Nothing: Most aches and pains do not come from performing extraordinary feats; they come from doing routine activities. In fact, doing “nothing” is one of the riskiest things we do. Literally doing “nothing” (e.g., becoming a couch potato) as well as figuratively doing nothing (e.g., working at a desk, unloading the dishwasher) are responsible for more neck and back pain than any sport. The basic truth is that being in good Functional Health requires that your body be in shape to do whatever you are asking it to do. In other words, you actually have to be in shape to do “nothing.” Sound ridiculous? Consider how long a professional chef can whisk a batter by hand….and then think about how long you would last before the burning and cramping in your arm would make you cry uncle.

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About Your Function: Not everyone needs the balance of a tightrope walker, the endurance of a pro cyclist or the strength of a bodybuilder. You determine what level of Functional Health you need to improve your performance of your life.

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Feel, Look, and Perform Better