Exercise for people with special needs
Functional fitness is an all-rounded, holistic approach to fitness, which improves functions and better prepares the body for daily tasks, writes Olivia Miwil
IT is universally known that physical activity is beneficial for health, but how should people with special needs or requirements exercise? Functional fitness is the answer. Sabah Functional Athletics Society founding member Dr Roddy Teo says functional fitness is meant for everyone including the elderly, young children, people who have lost their limbs or even those recovering from a stroke.
Functional fitness was made popular by the brand CrossFit, founded by Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai in 2000, and is an all rounded, holistic approach to fitness, which improves functions and better prepares the body for daily tasks.
Workouts are modified according to individual body requirements. For example a clean and jerk move can be done by lifting a box from the ground and putting it on an overhead shelf or climbing a wall.
“Functional fitness is actually a rehabilitation programme to help someone bring back their functions to normal, or near normal. Post stroke patients who are undergoing physiotherapy can also benefit,” says Dr Teo who also improves his martial arts performance through this fitness regime.
In line with the theme of World Health Day this year, which is Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, Everywhere, Dr Teo, who is a public health physician, says the Sabah Functional Athletics Society will take a multi-pronged approach to engage as many people as possible.
To date, they have been engaging staff of the Sabah Health Department including its director, Datuk Dr Christina Rundi, to be part of their in-house functional fitness workouts, competitions as well as talks and seminars.
The society also recently concluded its annual International Functional Athletics competition dubbed Borneo Pangazou in June in Kota Kinabalu.
“In the near future, the society will work with academicians to get scientific evidence on the benefits of functional fitness.”
Meanwhile, another member of the society, Dr Timothy Cheng, says resistance training in functional fitness helps increase bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporotic fractures.
“There is a vicious cycle that affects the elderly from the cause and effect of a frac- ture. It causes immobility and fragile bones, which in turn predisposes one to another fracture,” he explains.
Dr Cheng said another benefit of this workout is that every member of the team is cheered on and no one is left behind.
“All workouts are done under the watchful eye of a coach — unlike a normal gym where one has to pay extra for a personal trainer. This ensures correct form and technique and helps reduce the incidence of exercise-related injuries.”
Sabah is home to about 20 fitness centres that offer functional fitness training. The towns on the east coast such as Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Tawau also have their own centres for such training.
For more information, visit the Sabah Functional Athletics Society Facebook page.