12 Week Masters Athlete Functional Fitness Program (Part 1)

This program was written for masters athletes that want a difficult program that is tailored for their specific needs. Often times a more generic program will fail to take into account the specific requirements of the masters functional fitness athlete. I’ve seen everything from programs that are very likely to injure the athlete, to programs that would barely challenge anyone. This program strikes a nice balance, and will have you setting PR’s in no time. Keep reading to see if this program is for you.

I’m embarrassed to say that it’s taken me several years to write a program for masters athletes. That doesn’t mean that many haven’t done my other programs, but I thought it was about time to write something specifically for them. Especially since I’m rapidly approaching that age bracket myself!

The first thing we need to ask ourselves is what makes a good masters program? The answer to that is three things. They are listed below.

Keys to a Great Masters Program

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• Maximize Training Return on Time Investment
• Do No Harm
• No Coddling

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Any athlete that I coach at my home gym can attest I’m not the easiest coach they’ve ever worked with. I’ve even been known to dispense such nuggets of wisdom as,”try not to get tired,” or “going unbroken for the whole WOD is always the fastest.” Joking aside, I do push athletes because I’ve seen them hold themselves back time and again. This is often the case with masters athletes.

I’ve found, over my years of coaching, that these three keys are crucial for coaching any athlete, and even more so with masters. They are often very busy people, and can’t go to the gym three times a day or spend two hours a day working out. Thus, we need to get all we can out of the time they have carved out of their schedule.

Injuries are an inevitability for any hard training athlete. Most are minor, and require nothing more than rest. Masters can be slightly more injury prone, so we need to take this into consideration, both by warming up thoroughly, and selecting movements that are less injurious, but still useful.

Lastly, I see way too many coaches coddle masters athletes. I swear if I see another set 20 ring rows at a nearly standing position I’m going to lose it! Athletes are athletes, and if they aren’t complaining about the workout then it was too easy!

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DOWNLOAD THE 12 WEEK MASTERS ATHLETE PDF HERE

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12 Week Masters Athlete Functional Fitness Program

This program is an even balance between building muscle mass, functional fitness capacity, and strength. No doubt many of you will be familiar with my other program where I bias them towards strength, or towards building muscle mass, but this is an even mix of all of the above. Ideally, this would be done by someone who has experience and coaching in all these moves, as it’s not a beginner program like this one.

Week 1: Masters Athlete Program

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As with many of my programs, the first week is a testing week. You can see we are testing the big three lifts, and you will also see several of these WODs in the final week of this program.

I expect you to complete a thorough warm up prior to attempting the strength work. I always recommend 3-5 minutes of running, rowing, or assault bike. You should then follow it up with some skill work in the specific movements you are doing. Things like, KB swings, empty bar reps, and technique practice are great ways to finish the warm up.

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Week 2: Masters Athlete Program

I want you to pay attention to the rest intervals for the strength work. These are going to become important, as you will see. You will also note that several times a week there are longer WODs, or a WOD and strength combined. This is for a reason.

Masters athletes do well with longer WODs as they get in more work and are thoroughly warmed up. This reduces the risk of injury and makes sure that they get enough volume to make great progress.

Week 3: Masters Athlete Program

We have cut down your rest period for the strength work from two minutes, to 90 seconds. I’ve done this for a reason, as research shows that decreasing rest interval training is a great way to save time, and actually increase muscle mass at the same time.

Week 4: Masters Athlete Program

Things start to get spicy with the strength work this week. You only have 60 seconds to rest. This is exactly what causes you to write me angry emails! I fully expect you will have to lower the weight you could use if you had more of a rest period. I encourage you to read the research on rest intervals I linked above, as it really shows some great benefits to decreasing rest intervals.

It’s ok to pick a lower weight than you used last week. I want solid reps with a strict rest interval. Don’t add in any “extra” rest. I’ll know. I’m always watching.

Week 5: Masters Athlete Program

This is the second to last week of this portion of the program. This means that it is going to be challenging. I expect that you will feel fairly sore, and a little beat up. Make sure you are taking your time warming up and paying attention to correct technique to make sure you get through it in good condition.

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Week 6: Masters Athlete Program

This is our deload week, which means we reduce the volume, but not the difficulty. You can see we are working to three rep maxes which should feel fairly heavy since you haven’t lifted this heavy so far. That’s ok. We will be doing a little more strength work in part two so you will get plenty of practice.

Nutrition and Recovery

You can achieve good results with out paying too much attention to your nutrition, provided you select healthy foods, and stay out of the drive through lane. For those athletes that want even more performance I recommend checking out this nutrition calculator. It will give you calories, macros, and more.

You would also do well to review this article that covers research backed recovery methods. Let’s just say that there’s a reason I don’t do ice baths, and I always spend 10 minutes cooling down with easy rowing, or assault bike work.

Final Thoughts

As the title implies this is the first portion of the 12 Week Masters Athlete Functional Fitness Program. This will be followed by part two, which will continue on with many of the themes in this program and build a little more strength. Stay tuned for that program, and get out there and start training.

If you like science based programs that build muscle mass, then check out this program!

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