I’ve written dozens of functional fitness programs over the years, and I’ve had thousands of athletes achieve their goals using them. Some of these plans build muscle and strength, while others focus on making you a better overall functional fitness athlete. In this article we will cover my top 5 most popular programs of all time.
I will be grouping these programs together by their goal, whether that’s building muscle, strength, or endurance. This will allow you to compare similar programs and choose one that best fits your goals, and training style.
The vast majority of these programs are completely free. However, a few of them do have more detailed premium versions that aren’t free. These programs are designed to give the athlete the same type of coaching advice I would give in a custom program, at a fraction of the price. Without further ado, let’s get into the muscle building programs
My Most Popular Muscle Building Programs
These programs are designed to build muscle primarily. That doesn’t mean that we completely neglect our conditioning, or our WODs. These programs are biased towards building muscle, with the goal of maintaining all other fitness attributes.
The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
This is by far my most popular program, and if you follow the complete series, it lasts for 4 months. It’s broken down into three parts, with each successive portion of the program increasing in difficulty. Here’s an example of The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program (Part 1).
This program has four compound lifts, as well as some accessory movements. There is also one WOD each session. While this part is only four days per week, it is roughly double the overall lifting volume from a traditional functional fitness program.
This program has a premium version, with full details, such as lift percentages to hit, and goal times for each WOD. I always recommend trying this program for several weeks, and only picking up the premium version if you like your results. You can get your copy below.
The 6 Weeks of Muscular Growth Program for Functional Fitness Athletes
This program is more evenly biased towards building muscle, strength, and overall WOD conditioning, and is completely free. This is an excellent program to do after the hybrid program above, as it will allow you to work on converting muscle mass into functional strength. Here is a sample week.
This program incorporates two compound lifts, and then a WOD. It’s five days per week, and is meant to be done in one session that takes around 60-80 minutes. It becomes fairly heavy towards the end of the program, which is 12 weeks in total.
If you want the premium version of this program, with all the coaching notes check it out!
My Most Popular Strength Program
Many of my athletes receive the most benefit from increasing in strength. As online fitness personality Mark “Smelly” Bell says, “strength is never a weakness.” He’s right, and functional fitness athletes need a solid strength base to progress as an athlete.
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 9 Week Functional Fitness Strength Program
This program is a pure power lifting program paired with a functional fitness program. You will be hitting multiple squat, bench and deadlifts each session, as well as a WOD. Here is a sample week of this program.
I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. This program works, but it’s super hard. I’ve tested several weeks of it, and I’ve found that it takes up to 90 minutes in the gym, warming up, lifting, and hitting the WOD. You need a lot of rest between these lifts.
It’s designed to be five days per week, and I recommend that you add in the occasional rest day when you just aren’t feeling it. You’ll need them. It also includes a spreadsheet that you can download from StrongLifts to calculate all your percentage work!
The Best of the Rest Programs
These programs have several diverse goals. Most of them are a little more balanced towards conditioning, which along with strength, is a must for a well rounded athlete.
72 Weeks of Free Functional Programming
This is more of a programming sequence which is designed to take an intermediate functional fitness athlete from simpler programs, to more complex and difficult programs.
This programming sequence does incorporate a few of the muscle building, and strength programs, but it puts them in the correct order to continue to make progress.
The red programs on the right are specialty programs that can be added on to the black programs on the left if the athlete has that specific weakness. They are by no means mandatory.
5 Week Functional Fitness Program for Beginners
This program is designed for an athlete who has some experience in the gym, but has not tried functional training. I always encourage brand new athletes to seek competent coaching, but if you have familiarity with the movements, this is a great place to start.
This is only three days per week, but it will leave you sore and laying on the ground most days, so don’t underestimate it! I’ve chosen simpler movements that allow the athlete to get a feel for WODs, without having to focus on complex movements like full snatches, or muscle ups.
Which Program Should You Pick?
You are probably paralyzed with indecision due to the plethora of programming now available to you. I will offer a few words of guidance. If you are a newer athlete start with the beginner program, and move to the 72 week program.
If you lack strength or muscular size you should pick any of the programs in those sections. You will find that these programs work well, but they are contingent on you working consistently and recovering well. It goes without saying that you will need to have a nutritional plan, so you should take a gander at this handy spreadsheet which will calculate macros, body fat, and more.
At the end of the day, there is nothing special in these programs. They are based off of universal principles such as overload, intensity, and exercise variation. The most important part of becoming a better athlete is your dedication to training and recovery. Pick a program, and get out there and start training!
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Great programming! I’d be interested to see if you have any knowledge of jiu jitsu conditioning? I train bjj which is a bit unique in its stress demands. There are some carry over from crossfit, but grappling is just different.
You are right fighting and BJJ is sort of a different area of fitness. It’s not wholly different, but I wouldn’t profess to be an expert in BJJ training. That being said any generally training program will improve your BJJ as you need energy systems work primarily. Try the 7 Week Open Prep Program and see how that treats you.
I had one of your programs that sandwiched some running before and after WODS, now I can’t find it. What was it called
Here you go. https://www.tierthreetactical.com/the-8-week-functional-aerobic-capacity-program/