bodybuilding, cycling, gymnastics, sprinting, squash, swimming, triathlon, Biomechanics

Functional training is exactly what it means... depending on your activity, whether it is playing as an amateur hockey goalkeeper, professional ice skater or simply wanting to lose weight.

It encompasses the exercises, the duration, intensity, sets and reps you include in the programme and the progression of the training programme.

For example you would get a Tour cyclist to do 3 x all-out power cleans, nor would you get a 50m swimmer to do running hill sprint repetitons.

Its all about seeing what actions are used by the individual and embracing these in the programme.

to be honest mate, i only have access to the same resources as you, unless you want to pay for journals and books.

If you are quite technically minded i would suggest a couple of books such as NSCA strength and conditioning book (this is geared towards sport-specific) and maybe a sport and exercise biomechanics book. But seriously, if you are a fully qualified personal trainer, i.e. REPs standard then you will already know what they are going to say pretty much anyway.

It is literally looking at the movements used in their sport or lifestyle and incorporating the exercises around that.

Hope that helps, Chris