You’re struggling to improve your functional training skills. How can you use failure to help you succeed?

1 What is functional training?

Functional training is a type of exercise that focuses on improving your ability to perform everyday activities, such as lifting, bending, twisting, pushing, pulling, and balancing. Functional training exercises mimic these movements and engage multiple muscle groups and joints, enhancing your strength, mobility, stability, and coordination. Functional training can also help you prevent injuries, improve your posture, and boost your overall health and wellness.

2 Why is failure inevitable?

Failure is a natural and inevitable part of any learning process, including functional training. You can't expect to master every skill, technique, or exercise on your first try, or to improve your performance without facing any obstacles or setbacks. Failure is not a sign of weakness, incompetence, or lack of talent; it's a sign of growth, challenge, and potential. Failure means you're trying something new, pushing your limits, and exploring your possibilities.

3 How can failure help you succeed?

Failure can help you succeed in your functional training goals if you use it as a feedback mechanism, not as a judgment or a punishment. Failure can teach you valuable lessons about what works and what doesn't, what you need to improve and what you need to maintain, and what you need to change and what you need to keep. Failure can also motivate you to work harder, smarter, and more creatively, and to seek help and support from others. Failure can also make you more resilient, adaptable, and confident, as you learn to overcome challenges and achieve your desired outcomes.

4 How to embrace failure as a learning opportunity?

To embrace failure as a learning opportunity, you need to adopt a growth mindset, which is the belief that your abilities and skills can be developed through effort, practice, and feedback. A growth mindset helps you view failure as a specific and temporary situation rather than a global and permanent trait. It also encourages you to focus on the process rather than the outcome, and on progress rather than perfection. To develop a growth mindset, you must recognize and challenge fixed mindset thoughts such as "I can't do this" or "I'm not good enough", replacing them with affirmations like "I can learn this" or "I'm improving every day". Additionally, celebrate your efforts instead of just your results and reward yourself for trying rather than achieving. Additionally, seek constructive feedback instead of just praise and use it to improve your performance rather than validate your self-worth. Lastly, learn from those who have succeeded in functional training by modeling their strategies, habits, and mindsets.

5 How to analyze your mistakes and correct them?

To analyze your mistakes and correct them, you need to adopt a reflective and proactive approach, which is the ability to evaluate your actions and outcomes, as well as plan and implement changes based on your findings. This approach helps you identify the causes and consequences of your failure, and the solutions and actions to prevent or overcome it. Additionally, it allows you to monitor and adjust your performance, so you can learn from your successes and failures. To do this, review your functional training goals to ensure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Then assess your performance in comparison to these goals, expectations, and standards. Identify any gaps, errors, or weaknesses in your functional training skills, techniques, or exercises; consider factors such as lack of knowledge, practice, feedback, or resources that may have contributed to them. Define desired outcomes for improvement or correction; outline strategies or resources needed to reach them. Finally, implement the changes and measure the results; repeat this process until you reach your functional training goals.

6 How to set realistic and measurable objectives for your functional training progress?

To set realistic and measurable objectives for your functional training progress, you need to adopt a SMART goal-setting framework. This is a method to create clear, specific, and attainable goals that can be tracked and evaluated. It helps to break down your functional training goals into smaller, manageable, and achievable steps. Additionally, this framework allows you to monitor and celebrate your progress and achievements, as well as adjust your goals and actions according to your feedback and results. To do so, you must specify what you want to achieve in your functional training, measure how you will know if you have achieved it, make sure it is realistic and attainable, ensure it is relevant to your values and interests, and time-bound it with a deadline or timeframe. Doing so will help contribute to your overall health and wellness.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?