What is the difference between “Bodybuilding training” and “Functional Training” anyway?

Bodybuilding training, by definition, is “cosmetic.” In a bodybuilding competition, you are judged on the way you look, not by the way you perform. Whether you use light weights or heavy weights, slow reps or fast reps, long workouts or short workouts is completely irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that on the day of the contest, your physique is visually the best one onstage. This means having the perfect package of low body fat, muscular size and classical symmetry.
Bodybuilding training therefore, is not aimed at increasing strength, flexibility, speed or other athletic factors as ends in themselves. In competitive bodybuilding, improving performance is only sought to the extent to which it helps the bodybuilder build more muscle and stay injury free so they can ultimately, look better onstage. (Or as one functional training expert kindly put it, “The only athletic component bodybuilders encounter is having to walk across a stage and selectively spasm muscles to their favorite tune!”)
Functional training emerged primarily from the sports conditioning and rehabilitation world and refers to the prescription of exercises that contribute to
better, more efficient and safer performance of real world activities or sports movements.
For example, functional training would help the average person develop strength that carries over into daily activities such as pulling open a heavy door, hiking up a rocky, uneven trail, starting a lawnmower, carrying a child, unloading heavy packages from the trunk of a car, or reaching up and pulling down a bulky box from an overhead shelf.
If you’re an athlete, functional training will help you improve your performance in your event. You will improve your swing, kick or throw further, run faster or increase your vertical jump - and do these things without getting injured.
The terms “core training” and “functional training” are often used interchangeably, although core training is just one modality of functional training. Core training means doing exercises that activate the “core” muscles of the torso, neck, pelvis, lower back and abdominals. Basically, your core is everything except your arms and legs. Core training doesn’t just work the muscles you can see – it also works the deep muscles like the quadratus lumborum and transversus abdominus (aka the TVA), which are important in strengthening and stabilizing the lower back and torso.
The most common example of a core-training apparatus is the “stability ball,” which is used for full range abdominal work, resistance training and numerous other exercises to develop balance, stability, coordination and core strength.

DOES FUNCTIONAL TRAINING HELP BODYBUILDERS BECOME BETTER BODYBUILDERS?

To the casual observer, a bodybuilder walking shirtless down the beach represents the epitome of health, fitness and athleticism simply because they “look” like they’re in great shape. However, a trained strength and conditioning coach would be likely to spot a lot of problems in many bodybuilders simply by looking at his/her posture, gait and exercise performance. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and many bodybuilders have some inconspicuous, but potentially dangerous weak points.
Functional training can help the bodybuilder strengthen these weak links, which left unattended, could lead to major injuries that might set them back for months.
Bodybuilders also get tend to stuck at strength plateaus quite frequently, while certain “in the know” athletes with half the muscle mass continue to get stronger and stronger – even though they might not “look” as strong as they are. Functional training can help bodybuilders make steady gains in strength and power, which, while not the primary goal of the bodybuilder, can help the bodybuilder gain mass later on.

DOES BODYBUILDING TRAINING HELP ATHLETES BECOME BETTER ATHLETES?

Functional training can definitely help the bodybuilder become a better bodybuilder, but is the reverse also true? In some instances yes, bodybuilding training can help the athlete. For example, when an athlete needs to add 15-20 pounds of muscle, a bodybuilding style program could be incorporated into a carefully periodized schedule in order to achieve the hypertrophy desired.
However, functional training has more application to bodybuilders than bodybuilding training has to athletes. For example, most bodybuilders train with a controlled tempo and more time under tension. Bodybuilders generally perform little or no explosive exercise, usually opting instead for slow reps such as a 2-3 second concentric and a 3-4 second eccentric. Time under tension is an important consideration for the bodybuilders.
If an athlete requiring explosiveness and strength used a traditional bodybuilding protocol of 6-8 reps on a slow tempo such as 4031 or 9-12 reps on a 3020 tempo, they would not be training the qualities they wanted to improve. As many strength coaches are fond of saying, “train slow, get slow.”
Athletes are not primarily interested in cosmetic improvements or pure muscle mass– they want functionality! They want strength, power, flexibility, coordination, agility, balance and endurance. They want to run faster, jump higher and hit harder.
Athletes need very high levels of neuromuscular integration and recruitment of fast twitch muscle fiber. They require activation of postural and stabilizing muscles. If the athlete focused on muscular isolation and machine work as many of the bodybuilders do, once again, they would not be training with the proper specificity.
The best thing an athlete can do to improve their sports performance is to use free weights, explosive movements and functional training modalities that are as specific to the requirements of their events as possible. Therefore, it’s only logical to conclude that athletes should NOT train like bodybuilders.

CONCLUSION

Many bodybuilders have become closed minded to trying new things such as functional exercise or working on a ball. As a result, they are finding themselves developing imbalances, getting injuries and falling far short of their potential for muscle mass. On the other hand, many strength coaches and athletes wrongly accuse bodybuilders of faulty training, when the bodybuilders are in fact, doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing: Training to look good. Bodybuilding is NOT the worst thing that ever happened to strength training. Strength athletes, for the most part, should simply train like athletes and bodybuilders should train like bodybuilders. However, as this “old school” bodybuilder discovered, functional training DOES have a place in the bodybuilder’s routine and the bodybuilders could certainly stand to learn a thing or two from the athletic community.