If you perform a google search for “fitness tips” you will receive over 12 million results. This leaves us with a bit of a conundrum, statistically speaking. We know that all these resources can’t be worth while. Sure, some will be great, most will be ok, and some will be downright wrong, or dangerous. So where are we to go for quality advice? Keep reading to see the 7 Best resources for functional fitness training.
Fitness and Training Websites
This area is probably the most over populated in terms of total volume of information, but there are a couple of handy tips to winnow out the wheat from the chaff. First, I always ask myself if the author has any practical experience with the subject.
For example, if you see an article from an author discussing training Olympic lifters, but that coach only has experience with athletes, you might want to look elsewhere. Likewise, someone who’s only ever trained others to compete in power lifting probably has limited knowledge in training running. That’s not to say that these folks don’t have anything valuable to say, only that others with real, first hand experience, can probably add more value to the conversation.
1. Strength Theory (www.strengtheory.com)
This website is run by Greg Nuckols, who has a degree in exercise science, and has also set world records in raw power lifting. More importantly, he has years of experience training athletes of all levels, and has the ability to distill fairly difficult scientific literature into easy to understand information that can have a real practical impact on your training.
He writes for his audience which is primarily power lifters, but any good athlete knows that you need to get stronger to get better, and where better to learn how to do this than from some who has year’s specializing in it?
My favorite part about his writing is that his information is rooted in science and informed by experience, which is to say he is very knowledgeable about current literature, but understands that it often lacks behind current training practices, i.e there are very few research studies on functional fitness because it is so “new.”
Give his website a read and I promise you’ll learn something that makes you stronger.
2. Catalyst Athletics (www.catalystathletics.com)
This website is run by Coach Greg Everett, who has years competing and coaching in olympic weight lifting. He has coached his team to a National Championship in US Weightlifting, which is no mean feat. He has also published numerous books, articles, and guides on the sport.
More importantly for us, he has tons of valuable resources on his website including: demos of all exercises used in olympic weightlifting, and literally dozens of free workout plans.
If you struggle with olympic lifting then you need to be reading this website.
3. Crossfit Invictus (www.crossfitinvictus.com)
No one in the industry has had more experience coaching games and regionals athletes to success than Crossfit Invictus, and Coach C.J. Martin. He run’s a great set of gyms, and his website is a gold mine.
He has a free daily program for competitive athletes, but be warned it’s not easy, as it’s designed for those who want to make it to the Crossfit Games. If you want to see our analysis of CJ’s excellent programming, read our article examining their competitors programming for one month.
Check this website out if you have higher competitive aspirations.
4. Look Great Naked.com (www.lookgreatnaked.com)
The name may be a little hokey, but I think it’s safe to say that the owner,Brad Schoenfeld has forgotten more about getting jacked, and muscle hypertrophy, than I’ll ever know. He not only has a Ph.d in exercise science, he is also a certified strength and conditioning coach C.S.C.S .
If I have questions about current research, or want to investigate a topic related to nutrition, hypertrophy, or weight loss, I always check out his website. It is one of the few sites where he will tell you about his research, and break it down so even Marines like me can understand.
I also like that he is a researcher, and a practitioner which is extremely uncommon. Normally if you are a Ph.d, you do your research, get published in a journal, then four other Ph.d’s argue with your statistical methods, and no one really uses the research.
Read this website if you want to gain muscle mass, and get a little smarter doing so.
Fitness Podcasts
1. Barbell Shrugged (daily.barbellshrugged.com)
These guys have been around for several years, and they have a wide variety of backgrounds, from olympic lifting, to MMA, to fitness. They have over two hundred episodes of their podcast, which gives you over 500 hours of content to listen to.
They like to interview athletes, coaches, and researchers. They can always make their information relatable to the audience. I also find that the podcast is a great way to get a lot of detailed information pretty quickly.
You should listen to this podcast if you want up to date information on the industry, and best practices for training.
2. Wodcast Podcast (www.wodcastpodcast.com)
This podcast is probably the most fun you are going to find. Even if the topic they cover isn’t something I am trying to find out about, I will generally give them a listen just to be entertained.
They do featured top level athletes, coaches, and you gain some valuable insight into the sport, but I’ve always felt that they fall more on the side of entertainment than education.
Listen to this if you want to have a good time and learn something along the way.
Physical Training Books
1. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding : The Bible of Bodybuilding, Fully Updated and Revised)
I know, this might seem like an odd choice given that it he is a bodybuilder, and that is generally not the type of training we discuss here. Well there are several reasons why this makes the list.
First, it is a great general resource that discusses concepts such as sports nutrition, exercise selection, and many other topics. I find that athletes often don’t appreciate the basics of lifting because from day one they are just shown how to do something and they do it. They generally don’t understand the why.
I mean just ask any average lifter what muscle groups you use in a pull up, and you’re likely to get crickets. I’ve had my copy for close to 15 years now and I still refer to it.
Read this if you feel like you could use a solid grounding in the basics of any training and nutrition program.
2. Dr. Timothy Noakes (Lore of Running, 4th Edition)
I know first I recommend a bodybuilding book, and now a running book. As the Dude says, “This aggression will not stand man,” but this book is a great resource for many reasons.
First, the author is a medical doctor, and marathoner, who conducts research into running performance. As such, he debunks a lot of commonly held myths such as the lactic acid myth. I’ll give you a hint, that burning in your muscles you feel when you workout isn’t lactic acid, it’s waste products from cellular metabolism. You can’t feel lactic acid in your body.
This is just one insight found in the book, which is a great resource for information on how to train various energy systems, which all athletes use.
Read this if you aren’t afraid to tackle a book with a lot of scientific literature inside, you won’t be sorry.
Both links for the books are affiliate links from Amazon.com. If you purchase the books after clicking on the links, you will pay the same price as normal, and you will be able to support this website. Everyone wins.
Review
You’ll notice that most of the resources I recommended are not strictly dealing with functional fitness, this is for several reasons. Functional Fitness hasn’t been around long enough to have a lot of scientific literature written on it, and secondly, it is really just energy systems training, in a variety of workout domains, i.e doing cardio using weights.
I’ve always found that you can learn the most about a topic by examining other topics that are only indirectly related. It expands your horizons, and can bring insight into your training that you otherwise would not have had. So get out there, and check out these resources to see what impact they’ll have on your fitness.
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