I believe most people are aware of the amazing benefits to their body by using more functional training exercises over machines and various isolation exercises for improving movement in daily life and sports. I have posted numerous articles and videos explaining this concept in great detail for many years and the knowledge and education of this is training method much better than what it was 10-15 years ago. However, there still is a misconception that these exercises might make you move better and prevent injuries but they will not make you improve muscular strength and in particular hypertrophy (muscle size). There are several reasons why people fail to put on muscle size when using a functional training approach but what you will find it is not the exercises that are to blame. In this article I will show you exactly what you need to know to improve your movement efficiency and muscle size if that is something you are wanting to do.

The neck is one of the most difficult areas to work with as there is so many things that contribute to the onset of pain. Even your thoughts can affect the muscles and create a ton of trigger points and pain! When you consider it is a part of the complex shoulder region you can begin to see why so many people never find an answer to their problems. One of the biggest saboteurs is our instincts to constantly find ways to relieve the pain, instead of finding out WHY the pain is there in the first place. It makes perfect sense as to wanting to find a way to relieve the tension immediately by stretching the area that feels tight, however, when you understand how the neck is reacting to problems elsewhere, you can begin to see how our instincts are betraying us and setting our body up for much bigger problems. In this article, I will explain what the key causes of neck pain are and why stretching the tight neck muscles is not the solution to long term pain.

One of the most difficult areas of the body to work with is the thoracic region. It is such an important part of the body for providing the necessary mobility required for efficient movement with the upper body and the legs. It is also quite vulnerable to rigidity and stiffness from inactivity and poor movement strategies that can very quickly lead to a host of problems. Usually neck pain, shoulder pain, or lower back pain is the first result of any loss of thoracic mobility as these joints sacrifice their stability to make up for the loss of movement in the thoracic region. Having a series of exercises in your toolkit to restore your thoracic mobility is vital and in this article we show you our top 10.