Train Like an Athlete, Not a Bodybuilder

Introduction

Many people default to traditional gym exercises like squats, leg presses, or machine workouts to build muscle. While these have value for strength, they don’t always mimic the real-life movement demands of sports or daily activities. Athletic functional training focuses on how you move, not just how you look. Its goal is to build usable strength, balance, and coordination that carry over beyond the gym. Whether you’re an athlete, a weekend warrior, or simply someone rehabbing an injury or looking to stay fit for everyday life, training “like an athlete” can benefit you.

Unilateral Strength for Real Life

In most sports and daily tasks, we rarely push off both legs at the same time the way we do in a squat. Think about it: running, hiking, climbing stairs, even getting out of your car – these movements are largely unilateral, involving one leg or one side of the body at a time. Strength coach Mike Boyle famously pointed out that while athletes compete using mostly one-legged force in their sports, many training programs still rely heavily on two-legged exercises. The result is a disconnect you might develop big muscles with bilateral lifts, but you could be missing out on the balance and stability needed when one leg has to do the work. By incorporating single-leg exercises (like lunges, step-ups, or single-leg squats), you train your body to handle asymmetrical loads and develop strength that’s usable when one side at a time is called into action. In fact, because single-leg training has a smaller support base, it forces your muscles and nervous system to coordinate and stabilize more effectively– just like they must in real-life situations.

Training in Multiple Planes of Motion

Another limitation of traditional bodybuilding-style training is that it often occurs in a rigid, straight-line (sagittal plane) motion. But we do not live in a one-dimensional world – real life and sports involve constant twisting, turning, and side-to-side movement. For example, think of rotating to pick up a suitcase, cutting sideways to dodge a defender in soccer, or reaching up and behind to grab something off a shelf. An exercise routine that prepares you for these demands needs to include multi-planar movements. Rather than just doing fixed motions like forward lunges or vertical lifts, functional training has you moving in all directions: front/back, lateral, and rotational. This trains your body to be strong and stable no matter which way you move. By expanding your workouts to all three planes of motion, you better prepare your muscles and connective tissues for the variety of actions life throws at you – reducing the risk of injury when you twist or bend unexpectedly.

Key Elements of Functional Training

To “train like an athlete” means focusing on function and movement quality. Instead of isolating muscles on machines, functional workouts emphasize compound movements and dynamic exercises. In practice, this approach includes a few key elements:

Single-Leg Training: Exercises performed on one leg at a time (like single-leg squats, lunges, or step-ups) to build unilateral strength, balance, and fix left-right muscle imbalances. This improves stability for activities like running or climbing, where each leg works independently.
Multi-Planar Movements: Movements that occur in various directions – not just up and down, but also side-to-side and rotational. Training in all planes develops agility and resilience for tasks that involve twisting or lateral motion (imagine a tennis forehand or turning quickly while hiking on uneven terrain).
Core Integration: Emphasizing the use of core muscles in every exercise. Instead of using machines that support your body, you might do free-weight or bodyweight exercises (squats, deadlifts, push-ups, etc.) that require your abs and lower back to stabilize you. A strong, engaged core links your upper and lower body, improving overall balance and power transfer.
Agility and Reaction Drills: Quick, coordinated movements that challenge your speed and reflexes. These include agility ladder drills, cone drills, or reaction games – training your body and brain to respond faster and with better coordination, much like an athlete reacting on the field or like you regaining balance to avoid a slip.
Plyometrics and Proprioceptive Work: Explosive exercises (such as box jumps, bounding, or clap push-ups) develop power and teach your muscles to generate force quickly. Proprioceptive training (like balance board exercises or single leg stands with eyes closed) improves your body’s awareness of its position. Together, these build dynamic stability – the ability to stay controlled and strong during quick, powerful movements or on unstable surfaces.

Agility ladder drills challenge coordination and foot speed. Functional training often incorporates such agility and reaction exercises to improve quickness, balance, and neuromuscular control in dynamic situations. For instance, darting through ladder patterns requires you to stabilize on one leg momentarily while rapidly changing direction – mimicking the demands of sports and daily life.

Proven Benefits of Training Like an Athlete

Training with a functional, athletic mindset doesn’t just “feel” useful – research confirms real benefits. One major advantage is a lower risk of injury. By working multiple muscle groups together and reinforcing natural movement patterns, you’re teaching your body to move safely and efficiently. Studies show that athletes who follow functional training programs suffer significantly fewer injuries – one report cited 60% fewer injuries compared to those sticking to traditional routines. Even older adults benefit: greater strength, balance and coordination from functional exercises translate to fewer falls and mishaps in daily life. In other words, building functional strength is like adding “insurance” against injuries – it prepares your body to handle unexpected slips, trips or quick moves without breaking down. As one biokinetics expert put it, this type of training helps your whole body learn to work together to get a job done, which can prevent the kind of strain injuries that happen when one isolated muscle is overtaxed.

Functional training also enhances performance in ways traditional isolation training might not. Because you’re practicing movements similar to those in sports or real tasks, your gains carry over directly. For example, a recent meta-analysis found that single-leg strength programs led to significantly better improvements in athletes’ jumping and sprinting ability than programs based purely on two-legged lifts. This makes sense – if you train the way you play, you get better at playing. By incorporating things like plyometrics, agility drills, and multi-directional moves, you’re not just increasing muscle mass; you’re improving how efficiently your nervous system can recruit those muscles when it counts. In scientific terms, you’re boosting neuromuscular control and coordination, which means your brain can activate the right muscles at the right time to produce powerful, coordinated movement. The result is often noticeable: you feel quicker on your feet, more powerful in your jumps or throws, and more balanced in your stance. This applies equally to a recreational runner shaving time off their sprint, a basketball player improving their agility on the court, or an active parent finding it easier to lift and play with their kids.

Bridging the Gap with Biokinetics

The gap between gym strength and real-world functionality is exactly what the field of Biokinetics aims to bridge. (In South Africa, Biokinetics literally means “the science of movement” – it involves using exercise as a form of therapy for rehabilitation, injury prevention, and performance enhancementsun.ac.za.) A Biokineticist is a clinical exercise specialist who designs rehab and training programs that mirror natural movement patterns. Instead of giving you generic workouts, they assess how you move in daily life or sport, then tailor exercises to improve your specific weaknesses and goals. This might mean retraining fundamental movements – teaching you to squat, lunge, push, and twist with proper form – so that you not only recover from injuries but come back stronger and move better than before. It’s a highly individualized, evidence-based approach: after a thorough assessment, the Biokineticist prescribes targeted exercises to enhance your health, functional ability, and athletic performancesun.ac.za. In essence, biokinetics combines the rehabilitative wisdom of physical therapy with the performance focus of sport science. The outcome is training that helps you move better, not just get bigger – aligning perfectly with the “train like an athlete” philosophy.

Conclusion: Function Over Form

By shifting your focus to functional, athletic-style training, you’ll be investing in fitness that goes far beyond cosmetic muscle gains. You’ll build a body that is capable: balanced, resilient, and ready for the movement's life throws at you. You can still lift heavy and build muscle, of course, but you’ll be doing it in a way that also sharpens your balance, coordination, and agility. Over time, you’ll likely find that you feel stronger and more confident in everyday tasks – whether that’s carrying groceries up the stairs, dominating on the sports field, or simply playing with your kids without pain.

So next time you’re working out, pause and reflect on your routine. Are you building strength that translates to life and sport – or just to the mirror?

References

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Eldridge, D. L. (2011). “Functional training: An athlete's guide to better performance.” The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 25(4), 1107-1113.
McGill, S. M., & Karpowicz, A. (2009). "Biomechanics of resistance exercise and implications for rehabilitation." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 23(7), 2219-2236.
Sato, K., & Sato, H. (2018). "Effects of balance training on sports performance and injury prevention." Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 17(3), 344-354.
Boyd, M., & Burns, K. (2017). "Plyometric exercises: Effects on sport-specific strength and power." Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 31(5), 1293-1302.
Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning. (2016). Functional training for athletes. Retrieved from: https://www.bodybuilding.com/
American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). (2020). “Functional Training: A Key to Performance and Injury Prevention.” ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, 24(5), 38-41.
Prentice, W. E. (2009). Rehabilitation techniques in sports medicine. McGraw-Hill.

South African Biokinetics Association. (2021). "What is Biokinetics?" Retrieved from https://www.biokinetics.org.za

Where Every Movement Counts