Every Thursday at 12:15pm, Brenna Backe hosts an FRC class in the Koa Fit Studio. Most of the participants are there every week as they can feel the difference in their bodies instantly from this practice. FRC stands for Functional Range Conditioning and uses specific movements to create more mobility and stability at the joints. Instead of focusing on lengthening or strengthening muscles, FRC narrows in on the joint itself.
Brenna found this practice because she knew there was something missing. She did all of the foam rolling, stretching, and corrective exercises, but still felt her motion was limited. FRC proved to be the answer she was looking for. In a matter of weeks, her movement became more fluid, less restricted, and experienced less tweaks and pain. Because of the increase range, she was also able to lift heavier, in deeper and bigger ranges of motion, which lead to better performance in her activities like cycling and gardening.
The science behind FRC is sound. Here is the start to some explanations of why and how it works.
What does FRC do?
In FRC, there are 3 main goals - mobility development, joint strength, and body control.
Mobility Development - You can’t move or strengthen where you can’t move. If you are a person that lacks the movement and range of motion you need to perform and move about life, then addressing this deficit becomes top priority. Mobility in this sense refers to the amount of usable range of motion you have in your joints.
Joint Strength - During the mobility development, we are strengthening the joint as we expand our range of motion. By doing this, we create usable range of motion that is as strong as it is mobile. Joint pain is either brought on by someone going beyond their movement range and stressing the joint, or by someone having too much range, and not enough strength in that range, to have control over a motion. FRC addresses both of these issues by creating the range and then immediately following it up with strength work for that specific range.
Body Control - The result of training with FRC is better body control. By doing joint specific training, we teach ourselves to “uncouple” movements and decrease compensation patterns. We train our bodies to move specifically and our joints will move more freely without being held back by our compensation patterns.
How Does FRC Improve Mobility and Function?
1) Space Cultivation - Certain exercises, like the CARs, are used to maintain the space already in the joint or improved in the joint by other training in the class. Step 1 in this practice is to keep the mobility you have, learn how to control it, and build upon it.
2) End Range Work - End range work is used to increase our range of motion and then strengthen and activate that range so that is usable. Passive stretching increase flexibility, but if it is not followed by strengthening work, we have just created uncontrolled space. This is a liability and anyone who is hyper-mobile has experienced the repercussions of having range of motion without the control or strength.
End Range work not only helps us control our full range of motion, it also increases overall strength. Strength in any range is on a bell curve, meaning we are strongest in our mid-range and weakest at our end-ranges. However, if we improve our strength at the end range, we improve the strength of the overall range. So we get the added benefit of more range while we train for more strength.
3) Full Range Work - We wrap up the FRC work with full range work to achieve coordination and control of the new range with the old, to maintain the strength and range we have created, and to move into any performance specific strengthening and training work we may need for our lives or sport.
Why Joint Specific Training?
Afference is the brains ability to receive signals from the body. In other words, it is how your brain knows what size and range of motion your shoulder has. When we train specifically at the joint, we are tapping into our central nervous system, and this afferent feedback, and mapping or re-mapping our brains to the movement we have within our joints. This is why most FRC participants feel results immediately after class compared with just stretching. It is a faster and more efficient way to gain the range of motion you need.
More answers will be added in the coming weeks. If you are interested in FRC, Brenna hosts a live class every Thursday at 12:15pm at Koa Fit Studio.
If you are unable to join us on Thursdays, peruse our online library and select “FRC” from the dropdown menu to try some things on your own. Start with the full CARs routine to test your starting range in each joint.