If you’re reading this then you’ve been following along with part one of this program, and you want to keep the weight loss rolling. In this second part of the 12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program, we will be changing things to avoid stalling your fat loss. The overall program has a strong lifting focus, but we’ve rotated movements, and WOD types to keep things from getting boring. Most importantly, this should allow you to keep losing body fat while maintaining your fitness. Keep reading for more.
If you haven’t tried part one of the 12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program, then I highly recommend that you start there. It’s designed to help you acclimatize to this style of training, as well as creating your ideal caloric deficit. Make sure you give part one a read so you aren’t jumping into something too aggressively. Let’s review the objectives of the 12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program.
12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program Goals
- Maintain an ideal fat loss rate of 0.5-1% body fat each week
- Maintain or increase functional work capacity
- Build muscle mass for newer athletes
- Maintain muscle mass for intermediate and advanced athletes
The first bullet point is key when we are at the half way point in our diet. I find, as a coach, that athletes can generally start losing bodyfat fairly easily, once they get their schedule and their daily habits set with the program. This can cause some problems, as athletes naturally want faster results.
Generally athletes try to add in in extra work, or cut their calories down too much. This, in turn, causes your body to freakout, because it interprets this as starvation, which it is. Your body fights back by lowering your metabolism, and changing your hormonal production, causing you to stall with your weight loss.
If you’ve read my other articles on weight loss, you’ll know that the research is very clear that a weight loss rate of 0.5-1% of you bodyweight lost each week is ideal. It doesn’t require a huge caloric deficit, and you don’t feel miserable on the diet. It also allows you to continue to drop body fat for longer periods of time.
Midway Diet Expectations by Training Age
Contrary to popular belief, newer athletes generally fair a little better on this type of functional fitness weight loss program. Most research shows that newer athletes can actually lose body fat, and gain muscle mass at the same time. Athletes with a few years of experience under their belt probably won’t be able to build muscle and drop fat at the same time.
It’s important to understand that if you’ve been in the gym for a few years, you can still drop fat, and look great, but you probably aren’t going to be setting any workout PRs in a caloric deficit. Newer athletes can actually show some improvement, and gain strength during a diet. Life just isn’t fair sometimes!
If you recall, our diet program left off at week 6. The PDF download includes these first 6 weeks of program, and adds on the last six weeks of programming. This brings the total program length to 12 weeks. You can download your copy of 12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program (Part 2) below. Without further ado, let’s get in the fitness programming!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE 12 WEEK FUNCTIONAL FITNESS WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM (PART 2) PDF
12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program (Part 2) Week 7
If you recall, we’ve changed the movements and rep schemes from week 6. I’ve kept the same general programming goal for each day. For example, Monday is going to be an upper body pressing day, but you will change movements, as well as volume.
I’ve also included some different cardio blocks. As always, you can do each daily session as one long mega session, or break it up throughout the day. I also expect you to take an occasional extra rest day when you just aren’t feeling like training. Your results come from consistent choices, in the long term, not a small deviation in the plan.
One interesting change I’ve made is the agility training on Thursday. When you download the program, you’ll be able to follow the link to the video, covering the types of agility drills you can choose from. I’ve included these because they can be a great fat burner, and they are not a traditional type of training for functional fitness athletes.
That means that you will most likely benefit from them, and it should keep you from getting bored. Be reasonable in your approach, and don’t stress about how many you are doing. Just pick a few drills that you like and work on them. I also want you to make sure you’re warming up throughly and not sprinting at max speed during any of these drills.
12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program (Part 2) Week 8
If you compare this week to week 7 you’ll notice that I’ve increased the intensity, relative to one rep max, as well as the overall volume on several of the lifting blocks. You’ll also note that I’m having you work to 1 RIR and 2RIR. Remember that RIR stands for reps in reserve. If you have a set of 10 at 2 RIR, that means you could 12 reps if you were going for max effort.
For the superset blocks, this means that you will perform the first movement and then immediately move to the second movement with no rest. You can then take a 90 sec to 2 min rest between super sets.
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On Wednesday, I’ve included an accessory block of banded kettlebell swings. These are an excellent movement that allows you to put in much more effort into the kettlebell swing then you could otherwise. Check out this video for a demo.
12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program (Part 2) Week 9
This week starts to get a little spicy. I have you working between 3-5 rep maxes, on your heaviest sets. This generally equates to 88-92% of your one rep max. These are challenging sets, and just to be mean, I’ve also included big sets of up to 20! Hate me if you want, but you’ll like the gains.
Make sure that you’re keeping a shorter rest period on the super sets, with no rest between movements. Super sets are less about moving the absolute maximum weight, and more about creating bigger, more challenging sets.
You’ll also note that I’ve added in an extra rest day, effectively removing one WOD from the program each week. I do this so you have a little more recovery than you otherwise might. As we get closer to the end of a diet, you start to have less energy, and it can be hard to push if you are doing a lot of mentally taxing WODs.
If you like this style of training but want to build more muscle mass then get this program!
12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program (Part 2) Week 10
This week is a mini deload week. I’ve given you two less WODs, and the volume is reduced by around 30% from the previous week. I still expect you to work hard, but this reduction in volume will allow you to keep pushing all the way till the end of the program.
When you do see lower sets or AHAP feel free to push yourself hard. Just because it’s a deload week doesn’t mean that you won’t be lifting heavy. It just means you won’t have as many very hard sets.
Feel free to add in a little extra recovery work like stretching, or some extra walks. These things will help your progress long term, and they can help your short term fat loss goals. Now let’s get into the final cycle of the program.
12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program (Part 2) Week 11
This week we’ve rotated exercises again. This should keep you from stagnating and hopefully you won’t get bored. In these last two weeks you need to follow the RIR recommendations, but pay attention to your body. If you are feeling a little run down, or accumulating some minor aches and pains, you can back off on the weight. The goal of this program is losing weight, not setting strength PRs.
Astute observers will note that I’ve also swapped out the supersets from last week, for a sort of mini WOD. This will allow you to get some extra volume, and it will give you a little better hormonal response. This change keeps you burning fat, since you probably haven’t done this specific style mini WOD previously.
12 Week Functional Fitness Weight Loss Program (Part 2) Week 12
This is the last week of this program, so stay strong, and avoid doing anything crazy. By now, you should feel very used to this style of training, while in a caloric deficit, but you need to resist the urge to make any drastic changes to your diet or training.
Once you finish this week, you’ll have a few different options. If you decide you want to continue to diet, you can repeat this program at week 1. Or you can rotate to a different program, while following your current diet plan. The specifics of the work inside the gym matter less than maintaining a caloric deficit.
Diet Programming and Advice
I highly encourage you to reread the diet advice in part one of the 12 Week Functional Fitness Program for Weight Loss. In this portion of the program, you will have to drop your calories at some point. The important thing to remember is that you should not make any drastic drops in calories.
I recommend that women drop around 300 calories and men drop 500 calories if they’ve stalled in weight loss. You still need to prioritize protein and carbs, with just enough fat to support a smart hormonal balance. If you begin to lose weight again then maintain that current energy intake. If you stall, you can drop another 300-500 cal. Remember, you shouldn’t be eating under 1300 cal for women, and 1500 cal for men.
You’ll also find that you should stick to the foods you’ve been eating, as changes in diet mid way through a plan, can add a little more difficulty to your diet than you need. Your body tends to become good at processing the foods you customarily eat, and as long as you’re eating a nutritious diet, you don’t need to rotate foods unnecessarily.
If you want a great follow on program with all the coaching notes, check this program out.
Final Thoughts
If you liked this program, then I would recommend following up with my 12 Week Metabolic Strength Program. It’s similar in volume, and it will be a great segue to further dieting, if that’s your desire. If you want to get back towards normal training, and dieting then you should consider following this cycle with a normal performance based 7 week program. If you have any questions put them in the comments below and I’ll get you an answer. Now get out there and start training!
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