by Michael Jackson was known for his energetic, physically demanding, and perfectly executed performances. His incredible dancing ability, limber movements, and seeming suspension of gravity while dancing dazzled audiences for decades.
While Jackson was undoubtedly a uniquely gifted performer, his physique and fitness played a major role in enabling his iconic performances. Jackson revealed in a recent interview that he started incorporating functional training into his routine a few years ago, and it made a tremendous difference in improving his overall fitness and ability to perform.
“Functional training has been a total game-changer for me,” Jackson said. “It has taken my strength, balance, and flexibility to new levels. I feel better than I ever have before.”
So what exactly is functional training? And how did it help propel Michael Jackson to even greater heights as a performer?
What is Functional Training?
Functional training is a style of exercise that involves training your muscles to work together to perform real-life movements. The aim is to build overall, full-body strength, balance, and coordination instead of just isolating individual muscle groups like many traditional workout programs do.
Functional exercises mimic natural motions like squatting, lunging, bending, reaching, pushing and pulling. This type of training develops core strength, stabilizer muscles, balance, and flexibility. This leads to better posture, improved mobility, reduced risk of injury, and better transfer of strength to everyday activities.
Some examples of functional exercises are planks, pushups, squats, deadlifts, farmer’s carries, lateral lunges, and burpees. Instead of exercises that isolate just one muscle group, functional training works the whole body at once.
Benefits of Functional Training
There are many benefits to incorporating functional training into a fitness regimen:
- Improves balance and coordination. Functional exercises improve neuromuscular connections, enhancing balance and control of the body’s movements. This helps prevent falls and injuries.
- Boosts cardiovascular endurance. The full-body nature of functional training gets the heart pumping and improves cardiovascular health.
- Increases strength. Functional training simultaneously strengthens all the major muscle groups of the body.
- Reduces risk of injury. The focus on joint stability, mobility, and muscle balance helps protect joints from improper movements.
- Improves posture and mobility. The full-range motions required in functional training improves mobility and posture.
- Burns fat and calories. The compound nature of functional exercises burns more calories than isolation exercises.
- Boosts metabolism. The high-intensity nature of functional training promotes increased post-exercise oxygen consumption, elevating metabolism.
- Enhances mental focus. The controlled motions require concentration and focus.
- Increases energy levels. Full body activation gets the blood pumping, improving energy.
How Functional Training Helped Michael Jackson
According to Jackson’s trainer, incorporating functional training into his workouts made a noticeable improvement in his fitness and performance capabilities.
Jackson does exercises like squats, lunges, planks, deadlifts, and pushups to work his whole body in a coordinated way. He also does a lot of core exercises like crunches, leg raises, and rotational movements.
“Michael works very hard on his fitness,” said his trainer Jason Walsh. “He is always pushing himself to be the best he can be. The functional training has really helped take his abilities to even higher levels.”
Here are some of the key ways functional training helped Jackson improve as a performer:
Improved Strength and Endurance
The full-body nature of functional training increased Jackson’s muscular strength and endurance. Exercises like squats and deadlifts worked his lower body, while pushups worked his upper body. This gave him greater stamina to keep up his energetic dancing and complex choreography for entire concerts.
Enhanced Balance and Coordination
Functional exercises improved Jackson’s balance, proprioception, and body control. Exercises like lunges and planks required him to stabilize his body and control coordinated movements. This helped Jackson achieve perfect balance and form when dancing.
Greater Flexibility and Mobility
The wide range of motions utilized in functional training enhanced Jackson’s flexibility and mobility. Movements like squats improved the range of motion of his hips and knees, while deadlifts lengthened his hamstrings. This enabled Jackson to achieve those signature smooth, gravity-defying dance moves.
Reduced Risk of Injury
The whole-body conditioning approach of functional training improved Jackson’s joint stability, muscle balance, and posture. This reduced his likelihood of injury during intense rehearsals and shows. It also helped prevent overuse injuries.
Increased Explosiveness
The power-focused exercises in functional training increased Jackson’s explosiveness and agility. Plyometric moves like lunge jumps enabled the incredible bursts of energy he unleashed while dancing.
Improved Cardiovascular Health
The sustained exertion required in functional training boosted Jackson’s cardiovascular endurance. This improved his breathing, lung capacity, and ability to take in oxygen. During shows, this allowed Jackson to keep singing live and dancing without getting winded.
Augmented Mental Focus
The concentration needed to perform functional exercises enhanced Jackson’s mental focus and awareness. This allowed him to nail the meticulous details and synchronized steps in his dances before huge crowds.
Jackson’s functional training regimen was tailored to the specific demands of his performances. It included exercises to improve every aspect of his fitness to make him the best entertainer possible.
Sample of Jackson’s Functional Training Routine
According to his trainer, here is an example of some of Jackson’s key functional training exercises:
Warm-up: 5 minutes on stationary bike
- Plank: 3 sets of 30 seconds
- Side Plank: 3 sets per side of 20 seconds
- Squat to Overhead Press: 3 sets of 10 reps
- Quadruped Opposite Arm and Leg Lift: 3 sets of 12 reps per side
- Forward Lunges with Bicep Curl: 3 sets of 10 reps per leg
- Pushups: 3 sets to failure
- TRX Rows: 3 sets of 12 reps
- TRX Pikes: 3 sets of 10 reps
- Jump Squats: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Farmers Carry (with heavy dumbbells): 3 laps
Jackson followed his workouts with stretching, massage, cryotherapy chamber recovery, and vocal warm-ups and exercises.
The Future with Functional Training
Jackson continues to be amazed by how functional training has boosted his fitness, performance abilities, and overall health into his 50s. He plans to continue relying on functional exercises to keep defying expectations and gravity late into his legendary career.
The superstar encourages all his fans to try adding functional training into their own exercise routines. Jackson says the benefits are immense and that the exercises can be modified for any fitness level.
Jackson hopes the increased popularity of functional training will inspire a new generation of healthier, happier people. And that his own functional training journey will motivate others to improve their lives and explore their capabilities, just like he continues to do every day.
So take a page from the King of Pop’s book! Adding functional exercises can help you reach new heights in your own life and abilities. Who knows what you can accomplish with improved strength, mobility, balance, and focus? With fitness innovation like functional training, the potential is limitless!
