Education

Why Obstacle Course Fitness?

Fitness as we know it today is a relatively new phenomenon. Until recently, human survival was largely dependent on physical capabilities. We needed endurance, speed and agility to hunt, strength to move logs or till the soil for hours on end, and the ability to bend, stretch, squat, climb and easily get up and down off the ground.

From a young age, our ancestors were physically challenged on a progressive basis, performing chores and tasks that gradually increased their body’s capabilities, affording them a better chance of survival. In short, our ancestor’s existence mandated a certain level of what we now term, functional fitness.

Here is link to Railyard videos on YouTube featuring reviews from all over the world.

Functional fitness focuses on building a body capable of performing real-life activities with ease and without injury. Over the past few years, researchers in the fitness industry have discovered that traditional fitness programming may not be supportive of the activities we actually do on a daily basis.

It’s great to strengthen specific muscles seated at a weight machine, but if we still get a sore back while cleaning the house or playing with our kids or our legs get tired when we go out dancing, something is missing in our overall level of fitness. Obstacle Course Fitness is based on concepts that promote and support functional fitness.

Traditional exercise programming and equipment has emphasized muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and body composition. Railyard reaches beyond the traditional and into functional, secondary fitness.

Railyard Fitness equipment is designed to help users develop secondary "fitness" results using five principles:

1) integration versus isolation of muscle work,

2) control and balance of body weight,

3) use of body weight and gravity as loading factors of resistance,

4) continual, self-paced movement, and

5) use of multiple physical planes of movement.

If you are a professional fitness instructor searching for exercise solutions ages 5 and up such as youth, adult, or sports conditioning, let us know how we can help you.

Download 50 free functional body weight exercises you can use to build balance, coordination, agility, speed, endurance, power, flexibility, and improve posture.