Circular movements when training are so much more “functional training type” involved movements! Functional Training is about improving your mind/body in order to train in a way that totally enhances your ability to go through your life and do those “life movements” in a manner that allows you to get better all the time at “enjoying the continuance of the life that you have chosen!”
There are two main reasons (but there are many more!) that you want to include circular movements into your workouts!
#1 – if you don’t then you are stuck with doing what I call “Piston Style Movements!” These are your basic forward and backward movements! (Think of most machines) You continually “run the resistance pressure” over and over the same path of resistance of your body (muscles & joints etc.) and eventually you will injure yourself because you are just “beating a dead horse” so to speak! But if you do circular type movements, you don’t have near as much of a chance of YOU INJURING YOU!
#2 – if you only use piston style, back and forth type movements then you don’t learn how to do better in your life! (Which is again, what functional training is all about!) You only develop techniques of how to push and pull resistance back and forth but think about how life is? You don’t go around on your daily activities of living and just go back and forth all the time! Why? Well mainly because that wouldn’t produce any new results! (ie. you wouldn’t get anywhere!) No, “life itself is really much more about ‘circular living!’” Also, think about your world as you continue to move through it, is everything that you do all “equal?” No, pretty much every step you take is somewhat ‘different’ than the last! But when you are walking or running on a treadmill for example, it’s pretty much the same(there are no rocks or other things in your way that you must maneuver over or around!) So it’s not totally preparing you for continuing on your ‘life path!’ So think about the other machines that you may use in a gym? Let’s say you sit down on a seat to do machine seated bench presses, you can maybe change the height and possibly a little of other things but for the most part you are doing the same exact move every time! That just doesn’t happen like that in your “real world experiences!” Let’s say you do something simple like grocery shopping and carrying the bags into your house. Well every time, each bag is likely to be different with a different weight and a different makeup of what’s in the bag! So you need to create your exercise world to more closely resemble your “real time world!”
So as you move forward in your life, spend your time and money on the things and situations that will produce actual, continual “life affirming” changes that you can feel great about!
Thanks, “The” Trainer/Inside Out Fitness
