If you’re anything like me you love functional fitness, and a big part of being fit is getting strong. If you’ve looked around this website you’ll notice that I have many programs that are designed to increase strength and functional fitness. This lead me to create a programming series so that athletes that like biasing their training towards strength have a solid plan for long term gains. If you follow this programming series you should expect to gain significant strength in the more than 6 months of free programming. Keep reading for all the details.
I want to be perfectly up front about the goals of this programming series. All of these programs are heavily biased towards strength and power development. This means that while you will increase your overall work capacity as a result of increased strength gains, you aren’t like to develop other aspects of your fitness. In short, if you are training for a functional fitness competition this series isn’t the best for that.
This functional strength programming series is great for athletes that have traditionally shied away from heavy training. It can also be very good for athletes that have competitive hopes, but have a real deficit in strength. Lastly, this is good for athletes that use functional fitness as training for their primary sport. Without further ado, let’s get into the first program!
The 9 Week Functional Fitness Strength Program (Part 1)
This is by far my most popular program, and has been for many years. In this program, I’ve combined the very well known Strong Lifts 5×5 program with some well written WODs. It does require you to download their spreadsheet that calculates all of your lifts. I have provided additional programming to make sure you aren’t interfering with the strength work.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE 9 WEEK FUNCTIONAL FITNESS STRENGTH PROGRAM (PART 1)
This program is written as 5 days per week. On most days you’ll be doing percentage work with three lifts. There is one dedicated olympic lifting day in there as well. You will also have one WOD on each day that is designed to pair well with the programmed lifts. Here is an example week.
As the name implies, this is only part one of the 9 Week Functional Strength Program. Logically, the next program in our 6 month programming series will be part two of this same program. It is largely the same, except for the increased difficulty. You don’t mind right?
The 9 Week Functional Fitness Strength Program (Part 2)
Part one of this program ended on a deload. We are starting with part two fresh from the deload. This means you should be feeling good and ready to attack this portion of the programming series.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE 9 WEEK FUNCTIONAL FITNESS STRENGTH PROGRAM (PART 2)
This portion of the program starts on week 6 which is pictured below. As you might notice, some of the overall volume is decreasing, but the intensity of load is increasing. This is a standard practice and allows athletes to keep building strength in the long term.
You will also notice that on Thursdays I have taken the liberty of having you do some hard interval work. This is purely for conditioning, but it serves a few other purposes as well. First, hard short intervals have been shown not to interfere with strength gains when used correctly. Secondly, this increase in total body blood circulation will help to promote recovery. Lastly, it’ll keep you from sucking wind on WODs!
If you want both parts of this program in one convenient PDF, then you should check out the premium version of the 9 Week Functional Strength Program for athletes. It has detailed coaching advice, scaling options, and much more!
This is the end of the first portion of the 29 week programming series. I recommend taking a few days to relax and do some fun activities outside of the gym before starting the next program as it is much higher in volume, and you’ll want to be fully recovered before jumping in with both feet.
The 10 Week Functional Power Building Program (Part 1)
This program is much higher in volume even though it is still written as 5 days per week. It does include a PDF download from Drop Box. Generally speaking this program is a relatively even mix of heavy lifting, bodybuilding style accessory work, and short hard WODs.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE 10 WEEK FUNCTIONAL POWER BUILDING PROGRAM (PART 1)
This program relies heavily on working to technical maxes (TM). These are a favorite tool of mine, as they help you gain strength safely, and efficiently. A technical max is the heaviest load you can lift with near perfect form. This is different than a true rep max, where I would expect that your form will degrade slightly. Check out a sample week below.
The top row of this program is your heavy strength work. Underneath that you have a bodybuilding style accessory movement and then a short rest. Then you’ll move into a WOD and finish the session with a final accessory movement that works a specific deficit in your fitness. Now that you’ve seen part one, let’s take a look at part two!
If you like fitness 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 10 Week Functional Power Building Program (Part 2)
I should start out this section with an apology. Part two sucks, in a good way. It gets very heavy, and the volume on the accessory work is very high as well. I personally tested this program and I found it to be very good at building strength, but it wasn’t easy!
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE 10 WEEK FUNCTIONAL POWER BUILDING PROGRAM (PART 2)
I always recommend that athletes start to take a little longer to warm up, and a little more rest between sets towards the end of any program. It’s cheap insurance that allows you to keep performing safely, and effectively. Remember no one ever said they had a bad workout because they warmed up too much!
In this sample week you can see that the percentage work is increasing in intensity. Moreover, you will also increase in total volume for the bodybuilding moves, and accessory moves. This is mandatory as your body will stop progressing unless you continually challenge it. You should expect each session to take around 70-90 minutes depending on how long you warm up, rest, and cool down.
The good news is by the end of this program you should be repping weights that were once your one rep maxes. The bad news is that this leads to the last portion of this 29 week functional strength programming series, and that means things get even harder!
Some athletes like having a more detailed program to follow. If you’re this type of athlete I recommend checking out the premium program below. It has everything you need in one convenient PDF.
The 9 Week Advanced Strength Program for Functional Fitness
This program is most likely very different from what you are accustomed to. A large portion of this program requires you to lift using elastic bands. Now, most functional fitness athletes are familiar with bands as aids for pull ups or other movements. That isn’t how we will be using them here.
CLICH HERE TO GO TO THE 9 WEEK ADVANCED STRENGTH PROGRAM FOR FUNCTIONAL FITNESS
For the advanced strength program we will be using the the bands to provide accommodating resistance. Normally as you lift the weight gets easier. Picture a squat. The hardest part is from the hole up to slightly above parallel. As you push through the sticking point the weight moves easier. Accommodating resistance uses bands, anchored to the ground, to make the lift harder as you finish. Research has shown that this is one of the most effective ways to gain strength. Here is an example of a banded back back squat.
This advanced strength program uses bands on nearly all compound movements. It’s ok if you don’t have any, I’ve put some links to Amazon in the link above. They are very cheap and great training tools to have around. Check out this sample week below.
This is by far the most strength biased program in the series. You’re only going to be doing WODs three days per week, with the bulk of your lifting volume coming from moving heavy weights. I found that three hard WODs per week is enough to maintain your conditioning. This allows you to maximize your strength gains. However, having a killer program isn’t the only thing you’ll need to really make awesome progress.
Eating Like an Athlete
Nutrition is a key topic for anyone looking to maximize their gains. It doesn’t have to be super complicated but there are a few basics you need to understand so you aren’t killing yourself in the gym for no results. I have also created a great nutrition tool that will tell you how many calories you burn each session, calculate your macros, and more. Check out those two fitness resources, and if you want even more information on the science behind functional fitness you can check out my ebook, “Programming Your Fitness.”
Scientific Recovery Practices
This is one area that is plagued by garbage nonsense. Here’s a pro tip, if someone tells you they have one weird trick to do x,y,or z it’s bullshit. There are no fancy supplements, or gadgets that will allow you to recover faster. Similarly, almost all things you have done to you: massage, cupping, cryotherapy, don’t actually work, and may actually slow your recovery (looking at you cryotherapy).
The number one scientifically validated recovery method, is easy movement for 10 minutes after a workout. This increases circulation, and clears waste products from cells. Similarly, there is some solid scientific evidence that wearing compression tights helps athletes gain more strength, and recover faster. I’ve tested both of these methods and they do provide measurable benefit.
You’ll notice that the best method, easy cardio, is free, and the second best method is a one time expense that is relatively cheap. You don’t need any fancy $100 tights, as any compression garment works.
Final Thoughts
This is a long programming sequence, and I don’t expect you to complete all of these programs back to back, with no breaks. You need to take some reasonable breaks between the programs. Sure there are deloads, but your body needs a couple of days, here and there, of no lifting to completely recover.
Lastly, I want to leave you with a few pieces of general advice. Don’t sweat it if you need to modify the schedule or program slightly. If you don’t like a certain move and want to substitute it then go ahead. I do not recommend adding in extra work with these programs. That is likely going to be too much for most athletes.
If you have specific questions about a program go to that specific program’s link and read it. Many folks ask questions that I answer in the comments. If you can’t find the answers there put a comment below and I’ll get you on the right track. Focus on one goal at a time, and before you know it you’ll be stronger than you ever thought possible. Now get out there and get training!
The opinions and information expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are not affiliated with any corporation, group, public or private entity.This web site is not endorsed by, directly affiliated with, maintained, authorized, or sponsored by Crossfit Inc. All product and company names are the registered trademarks of their original owners. The use of any trade name or trademark is for identification and reference purposes only and does not imply any association with the trademark holder of their product brand.
