If you want to build strength and muscle mass, then you’ll want to take a look at these 5 best powerlifting programs for functional strength. Because we all have different fitness goals, I will include several different types of programs in this article. You can expect to see pure strength programs, as well as different hybrid programs. Each of these programs is designed to increase your strength using a well thought out progression. Keep reading for more.
As the title implies, these programs are designed to build functional strength. While this might be a somewhat ambiguous term to many, it’s really straight forward. Functional strength is the ability to exert force against heavy weights, using large muscle groups, across common movement patterns.
This is slightly different than pure powerlifting programs where you only focus on squat, bench and deadlift. Sure, you can build a lot of strength across all three main lifts. However, specializing in only three movements can cause muscle imbalances, and ultimately lead to injury.
I like my athletes to be strong on all common barbell movements, as well as things like weighted pull ups, and regular dumbbell lifts. I want you to be generally strong, not just awesome at a few movements. Here are the 5 training programs we’ll cover in more detail below.
5 Best Powerlifting Programs for Functional Strength
- 8 Week Hybrid Strength and Endurance Training Plan (most popular hybrid program)
- 4 Day Strength Program for Maximum Strength and Muscle Mass (pure strength program)
- 9 Week Functional Fitness Strength Program (most popular program for functional fitness)
- 6 Day Strength Training Program (high volume pure lifting program)
- 9 Week Advanced Strength Program for Functional Fitness (best program for advanced functional fitness athletes)
Before we get to the details of each program, I want to point out that several of these free powerlifting programs have extra items, like PDF downloads. Make sure you follow the links to the programs to see these extras, as I won’t be including them here.
I also want to point out that there are even more detailed premium versions of some of these programs. Those programs provide much more coaching advice like specific warm ups for each day, percentages, and rest times for the workouts. You can find all of my premium programs here. Without further ado, let’s get to the 5 best powerlifting programs.
The 8 Week Hybrid Strength and Endurance Training Plan
The 8 Week Hybrid Strength and Endurance Training Plan is my most popular hybrid program. As the name implies, this program is designed to build strength, and aerobic capacity. There are also a few functional fitness WODs thrown in there for good measure. This is my best powerlifting training program to build overall work capacity.
Traditionally, many coaches and athletes thought you couldn’t build endurance and strength at the same time. As it turns out, researchers have confirmed that you absolutely can. You just have to be smart with your programming. Here is a sample week of the program.
This is a 6 day per week program, where you will expected to complete two workouts per day, 3 times per week. As you might expect with any good powerlifting program, the barbell lifts are percentages of your one-rep max lifts, with many of the accesory movements controlled via reps in reserve or RIR. If that’s a new term to you then check out the link to this program, where I explain that in detail.
The best way to ensure success with this type of hybrid program, is to separate your gym work from your cardio. Most research confirms that 4-6 hours is a good starting point to separate your lifts from endurance training. This ensures that you aren’t sending overlapping, or contradictory signals to your body, once the recovery and repair process begins.
Because this program is somewhat complicated, I’ve created a premium version. It has a lot more detail, specific warm ups, and coaches notes on each portion of the daily program. You can get your copy of that program below.
As always, I want athletes to try the program for a while to see if it fits with their goals. If this program interests you, but you’re not sure about picking up the premium version, then follow this link to the program. You can see several weeks of it for free, and you’ll be able to determine if it’s a good fit for you. Now let’s get to one of my best powerlifting programs for the majority of pure strength athletes.
4 Day Strength Program for Maximum Muscle and Strength
Over my many years of coaching, I’ve noticed that athletes always want a high volume, train every day style of program. Unfortunately, they are rarely able to complete such a program, as real life tends to cause issues with scheduling and recovery.
That’s why I created the 4 Day Strength Training Program for Maximum Muscle and Strength. It’s a four day split program, which is heavily based around big compound exercises with a barbell. This training program is the one I recommend most often for intermediate powerlifters and strength athletes that need to build strength and muscle, but don’t have all day to spend in the gym. You know, the vast majority of you reading this!
You can see in this sample week that I’ve included more than the three big lifts. There is a lot of upper body pulling, and single limb work. Most athletes spend way too much time working both legs, or both arms at once. In the real world you’re rarely able to exert force evenly, in this fashion. This is why unilateral work, like split squats, and single arm rows, are important for functional strength development.
It’s worth noting that there is a free PDF for this program. You can find it on the program link above. Next, we’ll cover one of my most popular functional fitness strength programs. Before we get to that program, don’t forget to join the email list.
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9 Week Functional Fitness Strength Program
If you want to gain strength to be better at WODs and metcons, then the 9 Week Functional Fitness Strength Program is your best option. This program is based off of a popular 5×5 program from StrongLifts. I then created accessory work WODs to pair nicely with this proven strength training plan.
I often recommend this program for off season functional fitness athletes who need to gain strength. In my experience, maximal strength, and baseline aerobic capacity are the biggest road blocks for functional fitness athletes. Unfortunately, they rarely focus enough effort on these specific training modalities. Here is a sample week of the program.
Don’t let this week fool you, it’s a lot of work. When you go to the program article, you’ll see that I’ve linked to the StrongLifts spreadsheet for this program. It’s a nice spreadsheet that calculates your percentages for each session.
I’ve also paired a WOD that matches well with the muscles you worked with your primary lifts. I’ve found that the lifts will take around 45 minutes, and the WOD generally lasts 5-12minutes. Most athletes will find this program has them in the gym about an hour a day, five days per week.
Because this program was so popular, I took the liberty of making a premium version. It has the benefit of putting the daily workout info like: percentages, rest periods, and more in one convenient location. If this looks like your type of program, then check it out below.
Next on the list of best powerlifting programs, we’ll cover my highest volume, pure powerlifting program. Fair warning, you’ll be spending a lot of time in the gym, and might need to buy bigger doorways after finishing the program!
6 Day Strength Training Program
The 6 Day Strength Training Program, is a lot of hard work. As the name implies, you’ll be doing a powerlifting workout 6 days per week, focusing on heavier weights for your upper body, and lower body. If you read the link to this program, you’ll see that I highlight some excellent research on training volume.
Without getting into all the details, most researchers confirm that it doesn’t actually matter how often you lift, it matters how much total volume you lift. The only benefit of writing a 6 day split program, is that it allows you to do more work per muscle group, per week, than something like my 4 day program from earlier. Here is a sample below.
You can see that each of these training sessions isn’t super high volume. That’s by design. I want you to use a lot of intensity on each set, work on some key assistance movements to hammer weak points, and then get out of the gym! You don’t gain strength and muscle mass by spending hours in the gym. You do so by working hard and recovering from that work!
I often recommend this program for intermediate to advanced lifters that want to gain full body strength. Because it’s fairly high volume, you can gain a decent amount of muscle mass as well. It’s worth noting that I’ve included a free program PDF download for this training plan too. Just follow the link to the program page, and you’ll be able to download the full plan.
Last but not least on the list of best powerlifting programs, we’ll talk about my most advanced strength training plan for functional fitness athletes. As you’ll see, it incorporates advanced techniques like using resistance bands and chains to create variable resistance. This was made popular by gyms like Westside Barbell, which was one of the strongest powerlifting gyms in the world.
9 Week Advanced Strength Training Program for Functional Fitness
If your strength levels have plateaued, then the 9 Week Advanced Strength Training Program for Functional Fitness is your program. As I alluded to earlier, it relies on variable resistance training techniques to help you increase your strength levels rapidly.
Variable resistance training is a type of training that incorporates bands and chains into traditional lifts. This training technique is well studied by researchers, and consistently yields rapid strength gains. It does this by adding resistance across the entire lift. If you picture a banded deadlift, you’ll understand what I mean.
The bands anchor the bar to the floor. As you lift, the elastic tension increases, all the way to the top of the rep. This is quite different from a traditional deadlift that becomes easier as you get past your knees, which is the most common sticking point. This is why variable resistance works so well. Here’s a sample week of the program.
You can see that many of the lifts incorporate variable resistance, but not all. Some movements just don’t lend themselves well to this style of training. It’s also important to note that variable resistance training is a good idea for a few months at a time, but shouldn’t be the bulk of your yearly training. Your body quickly adapts to this stimulus, and it stops being as useful, if it’s over done.
You’ll also notice that I’ve included three functional fitness WODs per week. These are designed to maintain your current level of anaerobic fitness for metcons, and WODs. This program should be done in your off season, well away from when you want to build to peak fitness. Three WODs per week is sufficient to maintain your fitness while minimizing impact on your ability to build strength.
If you need to break through a strength plateau, then I highly recommend checking out the premium program. It takes the guess work out of combining the resistance from the normal weight and elastic bands, plus much more.
Now that we’ve covered all 5 of the best powerlifting programs, we can move on to some other important tips to maximize your gains.
Nutrition, Recovery, and Performance Enhancement
I feel obliged to cover a few tools, and tips to help you attain your fitness goals. First, and foremost, your recovery has to be reasonable. Notice I don’t say it has to be perfect, or overly complicated. As long as the majority of your food is coming from nutrient dense sources of proteins, carbs, and fats, then you’re probably ok.
For these five best powerlifting programs, I recommend that you start out eating as you currently are, and then gradually increasing carbs until you notice weight gain, week to week. You can then hold your intake at that level, or back it back down slightly.
It’s a good idea to check out this nutrition calculator that I put together a while back. It will help you calculate your calorie burn, and give a good place to start for your nutrition.
Performance Enhancement Methods
No we’re not going to talk about Tren you degenerates! In this section I’m going to cover a few awesome tips that will help you lift more reps, recovery faster, and improve your fitness with any of these best powerlifting programs.
My first, and most useful tip to lift more, is to practice hyperventilation breathing. If you read this article, you’ll see that you can actually lift up to 30% more reps using this breathing method. It artificially lowers the pH in your cells, which rises drastically when you exert yourself on a big lift. This breathing technique allows you to work longer than you otherwise might. I tend to use HV breathing on my hardest sets and it always helps out.
My next tip is to wear compression tights, either during, or post workout. Research has shown that it reduces delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. At first this seemed like nonsense, but after trying it I find that it really works well. While it doesn’t mean you’re ready to go immediately afterward, it does quicken your overall recovery. Plus, you don’t groan when getting up from a chair after finishing a leg day.
If you really want to track your recovery, then it’s a good idea to pick up a smart watch, like my favorite Garmin Epix 2. The feature you really want is heart rate variability tracking. Garmin uses this metric, along with sleep, and many other scores to track your recovery and training readiness. It works well and helps you figure out what your body likes, and doesn’t like.
Final Thoughts
One of the most common questions I’m asked is how to modify my programs. The answer is you may never do so, each one is a masterpiece! Just kidding, I’ll give you a few pointers about this. The easiest modification is to add in extra rest days and keep the same workout order. This works for most athletes.
If you don’t have a piece of equipment or can’t do a certain movement, then your best option is to pick a movement that you can do, that is very similar to the prescribed movement. If bench presses hurt your shoulder, but dumbbell bench is ok, then go with dumbbell bench.
Lastly, I generally discourage adding in a lot of extra work to these programs. In this article I’ve included low to high volume options. You’d be better off picking the one that fits your needs rather than trying to combine two programs for double the gainz!
You’ll find that a lower volume program, executed with great intensity, maximum effort, and attention to recovery, will yield better results than too much weight and volume executed poorly. If you have any questions put them in the comments section below and I’ll get you an answer. Now get out there and get training!
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