Form Follows Function
It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic ... that form ever follows function.” Louis Sullivan wrote that in an 1896 magazine article titled “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,” but it also applies to fitness.
It has always been my observation that anyone I meet who is in really great shape almost always looks like they are in really great shape. These athletes aren’t training for aesthetics. They aren’t training with the goal of looking good naked (although it might be a side effect). They are training to accomplish a specific physical task – usually difficult specific physical tasks like triathlons or power-lifting competitions or some other sport. When you train hard enough to compete like a beast, you will end up looking like a beast. Your form will follow your function.
Marcus Cicero, the Roman politician and lawyer, stated in 65 BCE: “It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor.” It was in the late 1960s that Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the father of aerobics, pioneered the benefits of aerobic exercise for cardiovascular and overall health.
Societies from the beginning of time have valued exercise for its ability to increase the efficient functioning of the human body and mind. Whether it was for general health or survival, humans have always been training for function. It is a relatively recent practice that humans have been training for form alone. Eugen Sandow, credited as being the father of bodybuilding, organized in 1901 what is believed to be the first major world bodybuilding competition. By the ’80s, with the help of Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilding had efficiently inserted itself into mainstream society.
Bodybuilding employs specific training techniques, many of which I would never use with a client looking to increase performance. Bodybuilding is explicitly for aesthetics, with not much concern for increased strength or performance. If that’s what you are looking for, more power to you. Today, there isn’t a young man out there who doesn’t want to attain the coveted “six-pack.”
Somewhere along the line there was a shift from exercising for function to exercising for form. Not that there is anything wrong with that specifically. Wanting to look like Chris Hemsworth isn’t a terrible thing. Not that I want to, but he was a beast in “Avengers,” right?
I utilize some of those techniques myself. However, most clients just want to have some muscle, stay somewhat lean, and feel strong and mobile. Exercising for function might also lead you to the form you are looking for. Along the way, you might also gain some functional strength and increased performance.
The human body is a magical thing. It is capable of some radical adaptation. You provide the consistent stress – it will adapt.
If you are a runner, for example, and you run consistently, your body wants to make you the most efficient runner possible. What is one thing that will make you run more efficiently? Less weight. If you don’t have to carry around any unnecessary weight, you will be able to run farther and/or faster than if you have a 20-pound spare tire around your waist.
Increasing performance as a runner may help you get leaner, result in the form you are looking for, and help you reap cardiovascular benefits as well. If you are an athlete training for power and speed, your body will shed as much weight as possible and maintain as much muscle as possible. Muscle produces power and, without excess weight to slow you down, will equal speed. If you’re Chris Hemsworth and train for a superhero performance like Thor, you end up looking like Thor.
There are many other things that must go along with your training. You can’t just train like a superhero. You must eat like a superhero, sleep like a superhero, manage stress like a superhero. But if you achieve your goal of functioning like a superhero, you will end up looking like a superhero.
So, setting performance goals might be the way to go. Deion Sanders wasn’t training for aesthetics when he ran a 4.27-second 40-yard dash at the 1989 NFL Scouting Combine, but in order to do that, you have to be lean and mean. Jon “Bones” Jones wasn’t training for form when he won the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, but his six-pack was showing strong.
My advice is to find a performance goal to focus on and train hard. Maybe you want to send Jon “Bones” Jones packing in the next UFC championship bout. Maybe you just want to smoke the competition in one of the many races that take place on Seven Mile Beach this summer.
Whatever your goal, find a trainer to help you out and put in the consistency. When you end up getting in really great shape, you just might look like it, too.
What kind of superhero training program do you think Chris Hemsworth followed? I’m just asking for a friend.
