I’ve been creating functional fitness programs for over a decade, and I’ve created dozens, upon dozens of programs. The vast majority of them help athletes build muscle, drop body fat, and increase their overall fitness. Those programs are designed to be just hard enough to help you gain fitness. The programs featured here are murderously hard, and are designed to take you to the top of your ability. Keep reading to see if they might be right for you.
This article is going to highlight some of my less popular programs, aimed at increasing your fitness as fast as possible. Some of them are designed for those competing in local functional fitness competitions, where as others will be more biased towards gaining strength, or endurance.
All macho BS aside, these programs aren’t right for everyone. If you have less than a year of experience in the gym, then you shouldn’t do these programs. They are way too much, and are likely to result in injury for new athletes. Even if you do have significant experience, it might be a better idea to try something a little more moderate before jumping in with both feet. You’ve been warned.
The 9 Week Advanced Strength Program for Functional Fitness
This program is designed as a follow on from my 9 Week Functional Fitness Strength Program. It has an included PDF file that dictates what you should be doing each day. Take a look at the example week below.
The first thing you’ll notice is that this program is color coded. Green blocks are to be done with accommodating resistance in the form of elastic bands. In this program, bands are aren’t used to make lifting easier, they are used to make the lifts harder, in the portions of the movements that are mechanically easiest. Click below for the program.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE 9 WEEK ADVANCED STRENGTH PROGRAM FOR FUNCTIONAL FITNESS
The research is pretty clear. Using bands to make lifting harder works very well, but isn’t appropriate for everyone, so read the article linked above. There are some serious safety precautions you need to take.
The next thing you will notice, about this program, is that you will have two large compound movements each day, as well as an accessory movement. You will then have a short break, followed by a WOD. Green blocks are to be done with bands, and blue blocks are done without. Make sure you read the full article on the program as it should answer all of your questions.
Next we will discuss the longest program track I’ve created for athletes that are interested in competing in functional fitness competitions. All together this program is about 6 months in length.
If you like fitness programs and want to get our 3 free training guides, then click here to join the Tier Three Team. It’s totally free, and thousands have already received their strength programming, fat loss, and their bonus guide.
The Tier Three Fitness Competitors Program
This isn’t just one program, it’s a series of programs. They are designed to take a decent intermediate athlete, and increase their strength and stamina, allowing them to become advanced athletes. Check out the first cycle below.
This is part one of the program. You will be doing one lift, a metcon, and you’ll finish with some bonus work. This is the easiest cycle of the program. The volume builds over several months, and so does the difficulty of the strength work.
The good news is that it’s very clear and concise. There are several PDF downloads, as well as excel spreadsheets that will calculate your sets and reps automatically.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE TIER THREE FITNESS COMPETITORS PROGRAM
This type of program is something that I would give to an athlete I coach privately. I would also charge them in excess of $600 for something this labor intensive to create. As of this writing, this 6 month plan is completely free, but I promise you’ll still pay….cue maniacal laughter.
If you want a super detailed program with all my coaches notes, designed to create muscle mass, then check this premium version out. It’s way cheaper than $600 bucks.
Some of you are probably noticing that these two programs have a lot of lifting and WODs in them. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about those athletes that want a killer conditioning program!
The 12 Week Functional Endurance Program
This program is designed to increase your running ability, and more importantly, your overall cardiovascular endurance. You will still lift heavy and hit some good WODs, but you will spend just as much if not more time running……hard. Check out this week of programming.
This program has you running three times per week, which research shows is optimal to increase your fitness, without sacrificing your muscle, and strength gains. If you are newer to running any significant mileage then I highly recommend you check out this 8 Week Aerobic Capacity Program first. It is designed to add on to whatever program you are currently doing and it will prepare you for the rigors of this program.
You will note that one day has you doing two workouts a day, with an easy run and a gym session. As with all of my programs, you don’t have to do this exactly as written. You can spread it out if you like, just make sure you are doing the program in the same sequence.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE 12 WEEK FUNCTIONAL ENDURANCE PROGRAM
As anyone who has spent time in the gym knows, it’s not just the program that matters but your recovery and nutrition as well. Wouldn’t you know it, that’s just what we are going to talk about.
Nutrition and Recovery
Nutrition doesn’t have to be a complicated topic. I recommend that you check out my Ultimate Functional Fitness Nutrition Guide first. This will give you an overview of the basics of nutrition. You’ll learn why you can’t neglect any one group of macro nutrients, and how simple the basics really are.
Next, I recommend you download my Functional Fitness Nutrition Calculator. This started as a tool I created for my athletes. It allows you to measure your body fat, calculate energy expenditure for a gym session, and it calculates your macro and caloric requirements. It’s a handy tool!
Scientifically Valid Recovery Practices
Sleep 8 hours a night, drink water, and don’t stress yourself out. There, that’s all you need to know! Technically yes, but it isn’t particularly prescriptive in how to go about this. Nor does it provide any supplemental recovery assistance.
I recommend you checkout this article about scientifically validated recovery methods first. For those that want the cliff notes version, you need to stay away from NSAIDs, and ice/cryo treatments unless you are using them for a very specific purpose.
Moreover, there are two useful recovery practices that have backing in science. First, you should cool down with 10 minutes of easy cardio. This is something like walking, rowing, or assault bike at 60 watts or so of power output.
Next, there is some solid research that wearing exercise tights can help your recovery. Researchers have shown that wearing them during lifting and after are both beneficial. I was initially skeptical of this, but they do reduce muscular soreness remarkably well.
Final Thoughts
Frequent readers of this website will know that I think programming matters, but being consistent and disciplined is vastly more important. All of these programs are designed for a specific purpose, with specific types of athletes in mind. There is no shame if you try these programs and find that the volume is too much. This is actually a good thing, as you can make progress with less work and time expenditure.
If you find you like these types of programs, but want something a little less murdery, then checkout this article where I go over my 5 most effective and popular programs. I bet you will find something you like. Now get out there are start training!
It’s not too late to pick up a copy of my most popular program for building muscle and functional fitness.
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