It can be difficult sorting between high quality functional workout plans, especially if you’re an intermediate athlete. A quick Google search will yield many poorly constructed programs that, at best, will stop working after a few weeks, and at worst, induce injuries. It took me many years of writing functional workout plans before I produced programming that challenged athletes and accomplished their goals. In this article I will review my 3 best functional workout plans, geared towards intermediate athletes.
Before we go down the programming rabbit hole, we need to discuss what an intermediate fitness level athlete is. If you’ve read any of my other articles, then it will be no surprise to you that I have a very concise definition of an intermediate athlete. If you want to read the full list click here. Here are the intermediate standards below.
Intermediate Functional Fitness Standards
- 6+ Months Experience in the Gym
- 3 Strict Pull Ups Male / 1 Strict Pull Up Female
- Deadlift: 1.8x Bodyweight Males / 1.6x Bodyweight Females
- Back Squat: 1.5x Bodyweight Males / 0.9x Bodyweight Females
- Barbell Strict Press: 0.7x Bodyweight Males / 0.6x Bodyweight Females
- Fran Workout of the Day (WOD): 5:45 Males / 6:55 Females
- 1 Mile Run: 7:00 Males / 8:00 Females
As with any list of standards, it’s perfectly natural if you can’t meet all of them right now. However, you should be able to achieve most of these standards if you want to have success with these programs. However, I fully expect most athletes to scale from time to time. I’ve even written a guide on how to scale WODs and Metcons!
If you find that you haven’t yet achieved enough of these standards, then I recommend checking out a few of my beginner programs. These are designed to acclimatize you to more difficult functional movements and training, while building strength, conditioning, and muscle mass.
If you’re way past these standards, then you might want to check out some of my more challenging programs like my Apex Program, or my Advanced Functional Bodybuilding Program. They will help even advanced athletes achieve their next level. Further on I’ll review some tips for picking your best functional training plan. Don’t forget to join the email list below so you can get my free fitness guides.
Choosing Your Best Functional Workout Plan
In order to make the most progress towards your specific functional fitness goals, you need to be specific about them. Don’t just say something like, “I want to get in better shape.” Instead, it would be better to say, “I want to increase my Fight Gone Bad score by 10 percent in 8 weeks.” If you’re more strength oriented, your goal statement might be, ” I want to add 20 pounds to my deadlift one-rep max by the end of the program.”
Either way it’s important to state your goal clearly, and choose a deadline for it. Personally I’ve found that it works very well to do this sort of goal planning with a workout partner. Two people working towards the same goal have a much better chance of completing it, especially if you’re competitive!
In my decades of training and coaching, I’ve found that most functional fitness athletes generally want one of three things. They want to gain muscle mass / loose body fat. Or they want to increase their WOD conditioning. Lastly, they quite often want to increase their strength in specific lifts, like front squats, or bench press.
Wouldn’t you know it, I’ve included programs that will best accomplish these three goals. However, if you want to try my most popular functional bodybuilding program, then you find that below
3 Best Functional Workout Plans for Intermediates
As stated above, I will include several different types of programs. I’ll show you an example week of the programming and talk about some of the details. If you want to see the full details you’ll have to follow the links to see the program home page.
I encourage you to check out several of them, as I often provide useful tips on nutrition, proper form, and how to warm up / cool down correctly. Each of these programs will help you build strength and get your heart rate in the red! Let’s get to the first functional workout program.
8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program is by far my most popular fitness program. It’s a four day per week program that is designed to increase your muscle mass, and strength, while maintaining your WOD conditioning.
I use a lot of basic compound movements with moderately heavy, to heavy weights. My experience, and research confirms, that this loading, and these rep ranges are ideal for building muscle mass. Here is a sample week below.
This program is actually broken up into three 8 week cycles (Cycle 1, Cycle 2, Cycle 3). Each cycle becomes progressively more difficult in terms of overall volume, and the amount of heavy reps you will be lifting. I’ve also included a WOD that is specifically designed to avoid interfering with the primary lifts.
While this workout routine is no walk in the park, most intermediate athletes find that they build a lot of mass and strength if they can follow the full 24 weeks. I’ve found that one month is enough time for most athletes to see noticeable improvement in their physique and training. After 3-6 months most athletes are blown away with how much progress they’ve made, provided they take their training seriously.
While this program is great for building muscle mass, it’s important to include a program for those that want to work on their body composition, by losing some weight. Let’s check out the next program.
20 Pound Fat Loss Program for Functional Fitness
My 20 Pound Fat Loss Program for Functional Fitness Athletes is more than just a simple program. It’s more of a case study of what I did to lose 20 pounds of body fat over 11 weeks. If you follow the link, you’ll see that I cover a lot of information on research based macronutrient splits, and dietary advice.
I also cover all the tools I used to make my diet objective, and measurable, like my Garmin Epix 2 Watch, and a cheap food scale. Most importantly I had a well constructed functional fitness plan. I knew going into this diet that if I simple executed the plan, and followed the process, it would be successful. Here’s an example of the fitness portion of the plan.
You can see that this is a strength biased fitness program, that has you in the gym 6 days per week. That can be quite a lot for some athletes, so I recommend adding in an extra rest day in the middle of each week if you feel like you need it.
It’s also important to point out that the green blocks represent the second workout session of the day. There’s a reason that natural bodybuilders utilize two a days to drop body fat. Personally, I’ve found that this works quite well to maintain strength and muscle mass, while building a moderate caloric deficit.
I highly recommend checking out the link above, where I will cover all the details of this program. Please note this is a case study of my success with this program. I’m not a dietician so I’m not offering you nutrition advice.
I’m simply pointing out what worked for me, including where I could have made improvements. If you want to try a program with slightly less intense workouts, while losing body weight, then check out one of my best training plans below.
12 Week Functional Fitness Training Program
The 12 Week Functional Fitness Training Program is a program that I wrote for a CrossFit Box a few years back. The CrossFit athletes had a lot of success with this workout program. I published it here so more people could enjoy it. It has a lot of extras like a free PDF to download. I highly recommend following the link to get the maximum benefit.
I also want to point out that because this was written for a CrossFit gym, you should not do it exactly as it’s written. This gym had classes 7 days per week, with a partner CrossFit WOD once a week. Note that these partner WODs can be done solo for a real challenge.
For intermediate athletes I recommend trying 4-5 days per week of this program. If you’re doing this solo, then you should drop 1-2 sessions from the program. Drop the sessions that you are currently best at. For example, if you have a strong lower body, then you could drop the barbell lunge sessions.
Similarly, if you have a hard time recovering from very high training volumes, then I would not do the long WODs each week. It’s a good idea to take 2 days between each week of programming before you start the next cycle. Remember, you actually make progress when you rest, as your body has a chance to repair and build your muscle tissue!
In the next session I’ll review some advice I give to all my athletes on how to construct a good gym session for any of my functional workout plans. I’ll also cover a few research based tips to aid in recovery, and gaining strength more quickly.
Building a Successful Daily Workout Routine
The only magic there is to building a body you can be proud of is consistency. You have to commit to following the plan. Notice I don’t say following the plan perfectly. Or following the perfect diet. That is unrealistic. It is a recipe for disaster as the first road block you face will likely derail your progress. It doesn’t make sense to allow a single day to ruin your goals!
Once you find a training program that best fits your needs, you should make sure you start and end your session the same way. I always recommend a general warm up of walking/jogging/assault bike, at an easy pace for 3-5 minutes. This gets the body prepared for action.
You should then do some bodyweight movements that use the same movement patterns you will encounter in the workout. If you’re doing overhead squat, then warm up with air squats. Likewise, a good bench press session begins with some push ups.
During the session you can increase the amount of reps you can do by engaging in hyperventilation breathing. It sounds like nonsense but is backed by research, and I’ve found it works quite well. This method allows you to lift roughly 35% more reps than you otherwise might.
Post Session Recovery
The two most useful tips to aid in recovery is to complete a 10 minute cool down. I do this by sitting on an Assault Bike for 10 minutes at 60-80 watts. This allows your body to return to its resting state more quickly. It also allows your body to clear out some metabolic waste products faster, which aids in recovery.
The second method is to wear compression tights. This article covers the relevant research. However, you’ll find that wearing tights during, and after a hard lifting session really reduces muscle soreness, and can increase muscle growth. Try it. I bet you’ll be surprised how well it works. Now let’s finish this article up.
Final Thoughts
These functional workout plans are designed to give you every chance to succeed. Remember that the first week is often the hardest week. You’ll find that you’re the most sore, and you haven’t yet built the habits that will lead to success.
It’s a good idea to make a commitment to building a habit from day one, but do not become overly rigid. If you can only do 4 days per week of a program, and have to modify some movements, then that’s perfect. Whatever keeps your daily routine intact. Making healthy decisions is the right choice for you.
I fully expect you to modify the program to fit your schedule and your individual needs. Hell, I modify the programs I write for myself! Life gets in the way, but don’t let it become an insurmountable obstacle. If you have a training question put it in the comments section below and I’ll get you an answer. Now get out there and get moving! Don’t forget to join the email list below.
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. Furthermore it’s recommend that you consult a medical doctor prior to exercise. Always exercise under the guidance of a qualified professional.
