If you want to gain muscle mass and conditioning with an awesome 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid program then you’ve come to the right place. In this program you’ll find a lot of lifting, with carefully paired WODs, designed to build muscle and conditioning. Keep reading to see why you should do this 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program. Fair warning, I hope you don’t mind high volume.
Historically bodybuilders and functional athletes haven’t gotten along well. Functional athletes tend to believe that bodybuilders care nothing for functional movements, or athletic performance. Where as bodybuilders generally view functional athletes as skinny nerds that try to kip everything. If you’re reading this article, then you are smart enough to realize that neither of these stereotypes holds much truth.
Like my other articles on hybrid training explain, it’s absolutely possible to build muscle mass through strength training, and WODs. Hybrid athletes also have a distinct advantage over those who only do endurance training, or strength work. The hybrid approach helps to build more work capacity, with lower body fat, improving body composition.
Moreover, bodybuilding and hypertrophy work (muscle size), are incredibly important for athletes looking for peak performance. In fact, for intermediate and advanced athletes, gains in muscle size explain 65% or more of the variability in overall strength. Gaining muscle mass is a great way to improve top end strength.
Research has shown that strength is one of the key predictors of performance in workouts that involve any kind of heavy weights like: Grace, Isabel, Linda, and dozens more. As far as I’m concerned, getting stronger with resistance training is a necessity. To do this we must first gain muscle mass. Here’s a quick overview of the 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program.
8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
4 Day split with 3 rest days
Ideal for advanced beginners, and intermediate athletes with proper form
WODs designed to build mass and conditioning as a primary goal
Part 1 of a 3 part series
The problem, up until now, is that to gain muscle mass you had to train just like a bodybuilder, leaving very little room for high intensity WODs and more traditional metabolic conditioning. This is why I’ve decided to put together an 8 week program designed to increase your muscle mass, while maintaining the conditioning you’ve worked so hard for.
The 8 week hybrid athlete training program targets your upper body and your lower body on separate days, with a carefully calibrated amount of volume for each body part. Because this is one of my hybrid programs, I’ve used the WODs to act as accessory work, complimenting the primary lifts.
8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
Before we get into the details of this program, we need to first discuss some other key aspects that will allow you to be successful. If you’ve read any of my other articles you know that you don’t have to have a Phd to maximize your muscle growth.
You need to follow a sensible nutrition plan, making sure you’re recovering well. In the next section I’ll review some easy to follow tips to help increase your muscle mass quickly.
Nutrition for Hybrid Training Protocols
Many functional athletes have a skewed understanding of nutrition. Sure, they’ve done diets like Paleo, Zone, Keto etc, but they don’t really understand what goes into those diets, and they don’t have a firm grasp of the basics.
We can help with that. First I would recommend reading the ultimate nutrition guide, so you will understand the principles behind eating like an athlete. You should then download this calculator that will help you track your progress, and calculate your macros, as well as overall energy requirements.
With these two resources you’ll understand what is and isn’t appropriate to eat, as well as how much energy you will need to gain muscle mass. The goal for us isn’t just to eat everything in sight, putting on fat and muscle.
We want to put on as much muscle mass as possible, with as little fat mass as we can get away with. I recommend reading this article on lean bulking. I think you’ll be surprised just how small of a caloric surplus you need to maximize your fitness goals.
Recovery for Hybrid Athletes and Bodybuilders
This is the most crucial aspect of a training plan to manage. Read that again. If you don’t recover from the work you’ve done, then you’ve just wasted your time doing it in the first place. This is one area that holds back many traditional bodybuilding athletes.
There are two factors that affect recovery, the amount of overall work you do in the gym, and the positive recovery factors, like sleep and nutrition, that you do to prep for the next session.
I have taken care of the plan portion, ensuring that the total volume and intensity of the program is not too much, nor too little. You can greatly help out your recovery by checking out this article discussing the science behind several popular recovery techniques. This will keep you from wasting your time with things like cold water immersion, which is terrible for gaining muscle mass.
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Now that we’ve covered some of the preliminary information, we can get to the details of the program. If you really want to see how much progress you can make, check out this calculator, which can predict your maximum muscle mass and strength limits. It’s based off of several hundred natural bodybuilders, and can be quite accurate.
8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
Because this is a 4 day split program, you have a lot of flexibility to implement it in your schedule. Most athletes will find that 2 days on, 1 off, 2 days on works well. The most important thing is to fit it in your schedule in a sustainable way. No single session alone will help you achieve your main goal of muscle mass. It’s the combined sum of training that will get you there.
This program is one of my most popular premium programs. As such, I’ve included several weeks for free, so you can see how you like this style of hybrid training. If you purchase the premium version, you’ll have much more info than I’ve included here. This is an example of the premium version below.
If you’re the type of athlete that likes to have all the details including: specific warm ups, percentages, and coaches notes, then you can purchase your own copy below. Otherwise keep reading to see more details about this awesome program.
This is the first 2 weeks of the program. As you can see, we have 4 compound exercises and some accessory work each session. This pattern of main lift and higher rep accessory work, will continue for the whole 8 weeks, with modifications to the sets, reps, and exercises as we progress.
If you’ve done any of my other programs, then you know that the first week will be one of the most challenging weeks. You’ll be very sore, as your body gets used to high training volume. This is normal, and the soreness will go down as your body starts to grow in response to the training stimulus.
Of note these aren’t supersets. They are to be done one exercise at a time, using a normal rest period between your sets, and exercises. Supersets and different training modalities come later on in part two of this hybrid training protocol.
Week 1. Note Reps on the WOD for day two should be 15 DB snatches
Week 2
Each movement should be between 60-80% of your 1RM. In the initial weeks, I would recommend erring closer to 60%. As you feel more comfortable with this volume, you can up the intensity.
You should feel like you could do one or two more reps at the end of each set, if you really had to. There are no sets going to failure in this program, as those sets eat up a lot of your recovery budget, and aren’t required to gain muscle.
Week 3
Week 4
Week 3 is the highest volume week for the first cycle. Week 4 is a deload week. You will notice that we keep the same workout plan throughout the first 4 weeks, by design.
Your body takes about that long to adapt to the compound movements. This means we need to switch them up for the next 4 weeks, to continue to drive lean muscle development.
This cycle has many of the same movements but the sets, reps, and intensity have all been increased. Recall that total training volume is a key factor for hypertrophy. You’ll notice that the volume isn’t as high as many pure bodybuilding programs. They often do too much per session, and aren’t really benefiting from this overly high volume.
If you read this article you can see that you don’t need that much volume to drive muscular growth. In fact, starting with very high volumes in the first weeks of any program, is the most common mistake I see athletes make.
Week 5
Week 6
The more astute readers will notice that there are some non-traditional moves in there as well including: rope climbs and cable extensions. These are important because we do need to drive hypertrophy to these specific muscle groups, as they are used very heavily in functional fitness.
I fully expect many of you may not have access to all of this equipment in your weight room. Check out this article where I cover how to scale WODs and Metcons for functional training. Remember, your muscles don’t know you aren’t doing the same movements I wrote down. They only know heavy weight and hard work!
Week 7
Week 8
Following the same template from the previous cycle, we can see that the third week is the most challenging, and the fourth is a deload. I know many of you hard charging athletes really don’t like deloads, but they are the week in which your body actually grows, and builds more muscle tissue. Next let’s talk about what muscle gains you can expect.
How Much Muscle Can You Gain?
This program is heavily based off of a previous article that utilized a systematic review of over 200 hypertrophy studies. In that article, we gave some estimates of daily muscle gain. Based off the particulars of this program, you can expect somewhere in the range of 4-8% muscle mass increase. That’s more than a little bit!
There is a range because some people are great responders to high volume, and others not so much. This will also depend on how seriously you’ve taken your nutrition and recovery practices. Let’s finish this article up with some of my final thoughts.
Final Thoughts
This type of cycle is great for the beginning half of a training year. You can then follow it up with something like this excellent strength program for functional athletes, which will help convert that muscle mass you’ve gained into functional strength.
If you have any questions, put them in the comments section where I can answer them quickly. Now, get out there and train! If you crushed this program then start Part Two of the Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program. It gets even harder.
If you want the full program, with every training session, you can purchase it 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.
123 thoughts on “The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program”
Are you doing the exercices in superset? Because I see that we train antagonist muscles. And what is the optimal rest time between sets in your opinion.
Superset if you like, but I’d probably take at least 30 sec or so moving between exercises. The goal isn’t really to kill yourself metabolically, just get a nice pump and push a lot of quality reps. Otherwise I’d probably do 90 sec between sets or so.
Nice and intense plan. Just one question, I see that some days there is a great interference between exercises for example doing high reps in bench press and Db press in the same day or bent over row and Db row the same day, is this necessary for developing Hypertrophy?
Good question. There isn’t any interference between different muscle groups. The key here for hypertrophy is that we achieve enough volume and intensity on each muscle group to promote growth. Pairing opposite muscle groups allows for more intensity as you would rapidly tire those muscles with 8 or more sets straight.
Interference in physiological terms generally refers to two types of training that that are very dissimilar and will interfere with the bodies adaptation to either stimulus. An example of this would be jogging and heavy back squats. Two get better at either the body needs to very different adaptations which interfere with each other.
If you are asking do these exercises affect one another, absolutely they do and they should. We need enough volume on the muscle group to promote growth. One exercise would not be enough to do so.
Hi. Looks awesome and exactly what I’ve been searching for! I’m a firefighter and I feel like I was neglecting functional fitness in favour of just doing 5×5 or 5/3/1. Anyways what are the benefits of buying the program vs the free one? (Free one looks pretty awesome)
The biggest difference is the coaching notes. I include things like the percentages, rest periods, and goals to shoot for. You will also get structured warmups as well. If you’re on the fence try the first weeks free, then pick up the premium version if you like it. Should work well for fire fighters I would think!
thanks so much! I’ve done 2 workouts so far and they have been awesome (kicked my butt but in a good way). Looking forward to running some more and seeing how it goes!
Awesome Shawn! Let us know how it goes!
Love that you keep coming out with awesome programs like this for us to try out! I haven’t found a planned program of yours that I don’t like! Keep up the great work!
Great work Jake. Question. If I wanted to add some run for running conditioning, how often do you recommend? Or would you recommend to follow your 8 week running programming or your sandwich running program? Thanks
You can do the aerobic capacity program and add in the sandwhich training if you like. Make sure you are eating enough, and try to separate the sessions as much as possible. Let us know how it goes.
GHD’s are an ab exercise, Push Jerks are an olympic lifting movement. Death by snatch means you do one rep on the 1st minute, 2 on the 2nd …increasing until you can’t make it. STOH is shoulder to overhead meaning any lift from shoulder to over head is ok. RDL is Romanian deadlift. If you aren’t familiar with the moves check out youtube. They have some good tutorials.
Good question. Barbell walking lunge should be performed with the bar for weight. Walking lunge is still weighted but could be with dumbbells or a bar, whichever you’d like.
Love your programming. We work out in our garage and have just about everything to do crossfit workouts. We don’t have a GHD or a machine to do cable triceps. What would be a good replacement for both? Could sit ups with a 14 or 20 lb wallball be a good replacement for GHD sit ups?
The best replacement for GHD is you have a bench is to sit sideways on it with your feet anchored and do situps going all the way down to the ground and back up. Its like 90% the same as a ghd. For the triceps push down you could get a cheap elastic band and do push downs on that. Or you can actually by a pulley, cable, snap rings and a cheap push down bar to make your own. I did and I think it cost like 40 bucks and works well.
Hay Jake, great looking program gonna give it a shot. I use to powerlift gonna try something NEW. So I’m reading this LEFT TO RIGHT NOT STRAIGHT DOWN? Just asking ?.
Will try also my wife pointed out the colors blue goes with blue gray with gray?????. WOW. That’s why she’s the better half.
Trust me I’m not smart enough to color coordinate that way. That was pure happenstance. lol
Hey Jake! Question on the metcon for week 1, day 2…how many DB snatches per round? Also for general metcon scaling, should we scale to a weight that enables us to keep moving (I.e less rest)?
In the first week on the second day, there’s a WOD but i can’t see the reps for the dumbell snatches. Is there something i dont get or is it just missed 🙂 ?
Quick question, if I wanted to do some running for conditioning, could I add the 3 day running program and replace a few of the WODs with some of the running sessions?
You could do that. Just know that running generally causes the most interference with hypertrophy. You’ll still gain size but you’ll need to eat more, and make sure that you’re recovery is very good.
Any general tips for scaling the WODs? I’m usually pretty exhausted after the lifting portions to do the Metcons RX or honestly at all. Should I just do one on a rest day? Love it so far!
Mike I would try a couple options. First make sure you take 10 actual minutes after your last lift before you start warming up on the WOD. You’ll be surprised how well you feel. Secondly It won’t hurt to have a somewhat sugary sports drink. Like those half sugar gatorades. They really do help out on a long workout session. Otherwise it can take a few weeks for your body to get used to that amount of volume. Keep up the good work.
Don’t worry to much about progression. Because the reps increase from week to week you can try a 10 pound jump on compound movements, and a 5 pound jump on the smaller ones each week. Part of training for hypertrophy is learning to feel what weights you can move on any given day.
This program seems like exactly what I am looking for with 1 half of my goals (build muscle and strength).
The other part is maxing my 2 mile run in April. Would it be detrimental to mix sprints or distance runs on recovery days? I know this is a tricky combo trying to build muscle/increase cardio fitness.
I’m curious about how this worked out for you, would you recommend to someone trying to gain strength with a little size while maintaining some level of fitness?
Hey, thanks for the great programming. This is the perfect thing I’ve been looking for to help me. I just have one question. I don’t have access to a rope for the rope climbs; if there a sub exercise I could change it to? Thank you in advance.
Just to clarify: day 1, week 1 I do 1 set of bench then do 1 set of bent over rows and then back to bench? Or is it 3 sets of bench followed by 3 sets of rows? Thank you!
That is up to you. If you want to keep moving a bit faster then you could super set. If you want to maximize the amount you can lift then go through and do all three sets of one exercise before moving on. No issue either way.
Brett, I am very simple about warm ups. I like to do some running, rowing, cycling, for 3-5 minutes. Then I warm up with the bar and increase into my work sets. Nothing fancy here lol.
Hi Jake! I’m loving your website. I’ve been looking for a way to combine body building and crossfit together and this is perfect! Just several questions:
1) Is it ok to separate the chunks into morning and evening sessions? For example, do two chunks in the morning and do the other chunks in the evening?
2) I’m currently participating in crossfit classes and doing class WODs with the coach and ppl. Do you think it’ll be ok to do your program WODs after the class WOD? I do feel like I always have some energy left over for some more.. or will doing two WODs defeat the purpose of this program..?
3) I’m also aiming for a bit of fat loss (gained too much weight) so I would like to incorporate some HIIT and cardio. Do you think it’s ok to do these during the rest days?
Sely thanks for the kind words. Regarding your first question you can separate as you like. I do not recommend doing two different programs, it’s just too much. If you are making progress with your gyms stuff then continue on, otherwise try mine. Don’t try and gain weight and lose fat at the same time. Pick one then do the other. It always works much better. Look around on the site I’ve got several fat loss programs and tons of other types as well. Let me know if you have more questions.
Thanks for this programming, that’s exactly what i was looking for. The explanation is easy to understand and very interesting too. I’m doing CF for 5 years now but i stopped gaining relevant muscle mass a few years ago.
Can’t wait to start this one, hopefully i can gain some muscle mass and get stronger.
Hay Jake, great looking program gonna give it a shot. I use to powerlift gonna try something NEW. So I’m reading this LEFT TO RIGHT NOT STRAIGHT DOWN? Just asking ?.
Thinking of jumping in on this program.
What you thinking of if i DO one Day extra each week with Oly lifting. Or just add before on a couple of days each week.
Im doing alot off oly lifting complex and just love it.
I think it’s doable. I’d try a week without oly lifting to see how you like the volume. By then you should know if you want to add a separate day or add it on to one of the workouts.
Hey Jake!
Thanks for another awesome program, started it yesterday to build some muscle after the Open! I have been following your previous programs and I have been only satisfied! Keep up the good work!
I have just one question about the fourth day of each week, which is a lower body day, but in each week there is the Cable Triceps Extension. Is there a mistake? Also there are weeks that you input that in both the first day (which is upper body, seems normal) and in the fourth day. Thank you in advance for your answer!
Thanks for the kind words Radoslav. Those tricep extensions should be in there. It’s a somewhat neglected muscle group and muscular size wise it is about 2/3rds of your arm so you can’t have big arms without it. Let us know how it turns out.
Pick what you want. Cut or build muscle. The two are generally mutually exclusive. You can do this program for either but what you eat depends on your goals.
Hey Jake! Awesome Program I’m a cross fitter but joined a new gym that doesn’t offer it but has a Crossfit Box so I was so happy to see your program! Just a few questions:
1- Is it ok if alongside this program I do cardio classes 3x a week as I’m trying to lose weight also (these classes are done before your program)
2- for the rest days can I do some HIIT training for 1 of the rest days and test the other 2 days?
3- You didnt mention if we need to do a Warm up before your workouts? I’ve been doing my own crossfit style warm ups but do you recommend anything else and how long should a warm up be???
Sorry for so many ??? N Thx again for this Awesome Program! Denise
Thanks for the kind words Denise.
1. It depends on your goal. If you want to lose weight while doing this program then cardio is fine. I would recommend it after this program if possible, or before by several hours. If you want to gain muscle I wouldn’t recommend that much cardio.
2. Rest days should be rest. Adding in more work will be counterproductive
3. Warm ups are a given. I recommend 3-5 minutes cardio then warming up the muscle groups you will use with calisthenics.
Michael, I’d make sure that your arm is recovered before starting this program. It’s very high volume and it might aggravate your biceps. If you find it doesn’t bother your arm you could sub a clean pull, or something like a good morning if you want to take the arms completely out of it.
Hey! Thanks for getting back to me. Much appreciated. It’s as good as it’s going to be. Fortunately, it was the upper part. I can do pull-ups, rows, curls. I’m just afraid to go after it with cleans. Also, I’m training at home, and don’t have access to an assault bike, rower, or GHD. Any suggestions there?
No worries Michael. I had a team mate that had a similar injury and he was able to do a fair amount while recovering. I would lay off heavy deadlifts and pulling in general like cleans. I think heavy good mornings are probably your go to for low back work. You could also do some taller box jumps for power production as well. If you have the space to run then sub a run for the same time duration that you would have done the assault bike. For example 15 cal assault bike is around a minute, so that would translate to 200-300m run. If you can’t run then do the same time duration of burpees or jump rope. Hope that helps.
Hey, Jake. First week on the program, and I am very much liking it. I am getting my ass kicked, not going to lie.
As many folks are, I am working out from home. I don’t have access to GHD, rower, or bike. Looking for good subs for these, as well as what you’d suggest as the sub for muscle-ups; seems like everyone has a different opinion on what to sub for those.
I love your progam. It is exactly what I was looking for, in order to improve my perfomance. Therefore, I would like to thank for sharing the programs.
I have just two questions:
When you establish repetitions for an exercise like lunges, step ups, dumbell biceps or triceps, I mean, when you exercise one side of your body and then the other one, are the repetitions in total or should I do 10 repetitions with my left side and then 10 repetitions with the other for example?
And, you have set the same number of repetitions for each set for each muscle group per day. Does it mean that I should increase the weight during the next sets? For example: during the same session, I have to do bench press, 3×12. For the first set, I put 55 kg. Should I keep using this weight for the rest of the sets during the same session or add more weight gradually? Then, in the next week I would add more weight, of course, and keeping the method.
Pablo these are good questions. As to your first, 3×10 lunge means each leg gets 10 lunges for example. You can try and increase weight across sets or if you know what load you’ll use then pick the same load for all sets. The goal is to make it challenging. Enjoy !
Jake,
This is awesome. Exactly what I have been looking for. I have been doing some Crossfit style workouts lately. It has been fun. Yet getting hypertrophy has been not so much. It looks like you have definetly hit the mark with this. I will be trying the first 2weeks, and then seeing if it works for me ,and purchase if so. Btw. I have looked for something like this for a while. Most say it can’t be done. I hope to prove them wrong by using your program .
Also great idea for the GHD at home with bench. Never would have thought that.
Hi Jake,
This type of programme is exactly what I’m looking for, i wail probably purchase the premium however I was wondering after the 8 weeks do you have other workouts I can continue with similar to this one and what the process is with paying for that?
Hi Jake, I just finished the hybrid program part one, I’m glad I did. Amazing how fast my body transfered to the current muscular form it is in right now.
I have one question, should I recalculate my 1rm before moving to the hybrid program part two? Best regards from the Netherlands
Hi Natalie. There is no difference for females. The WODs are scaled for male/female and the weights are the same intensity on the lifts. Give it a shot and see how you like it!
I am in the middle of your free program for functional fitness athletes (fitness competitors program) and I love it. I am thinking about not doing part 3 of that program and starting this hybrid program instead as it works better for my goals and time.
Given that I have completed the first two sections of the fitness competitors program (and seen some good gains) would you recommend doing this hybrid program or would you recommend a different one of yours? I am looking mostly for size gains and aesthetics, as well as about 4 days in the gym a week, one session per day instead of 5-6 days.
If you want to build mass then this is the program for you. The last parts of the competitors program are more cardio and WOD focused and less focused on building muscle and strength. I think the hybrid program is probably your best bet.
Currently in the 3rd week of the Program and just did the lower body workout. I felt super exhausted after the 4×10 Squats and could barely muster the strength for the 5×5 Deadlifts for which I can usually do 150kg for at least 6 reps and yesterday 5×140 were almost feeling like a 1rm attempt.
I was wondering if you recommend switching the DL with the Stiff Legged DL, change the sets & reps altogether or maybe even something as simple as decreasing the weight.
Sorry for the long message and thanks for your feedback.
No worries Daniel. Heavy sets of 10 will really take it out of you. I see you have two real options. One you can cut some of the reps down on the squats, or do the deadlifts first and then squats. You might find doing the squat later actually helps. Don’t be afraid to modify this for less volume if needed. Something like 4×6,8,10, 10 can work well too. Hope that helps.
In 4 weeks I’ll finish your 12 week muscle builder (using for fat loss) I’ll have exactly 15 weeks until the open. My plan is to grab the premium program of this to put on a bit of size, followed by your 7 week open prep course. What are your thoughts on that?
Yep. First thing check your spam folder. If you didn’t get it at all then send me an email at jjackson@tierthreetactical.com and i’ll look into the issue.
Hi Jake, this will be the 4th of your programmes that I will do, and I’ve loved every one, so thank you for that! But one quick question – am I right in thinking that I’d need to purchase the premium version to be able to see weeks 3 and 7? They’re blurred out on this page.
Thanks.
Hi Jake,
thank you for the awesome work, you have been training for something close to five years now, your programs are something else!
One quick question on the walking and barbell lunges portion of the program the number of reps is for each leg or total reps?
Hi
Awesome program Jake.
Currently on week 3 of the program and I’m loving it. I usually try to get in 10k steps along with this program (is it okay?).
I was wondering if I could swim on my rest days or just do my regular 10k steps or nothing at all and sleep in lol.
Thanks.
Hi Nikita. Both of those would be fine. Low level movement that doesn’t make you sore, or require a lot of resources to repair like heavy weight lifting can always pair with your lifting well. I would say give it a couple of hours between lifting and swimming though.
Thanks a lot Jake.
Also, do you recommend a 25 year old woman with hormonal issues and pcos , type 2 diabetic and an acute pancreatitis patient with chronic stress to continue with this program? Because it’s really hard for me to lose fat but I build muscle quite easily. Although surprisingly I have built quite some muscle on this program and been seeing some definition with no weight loss on the scale(which means I must be losing fat). And I also don’t feel super tired after the workout like I used to with bodybuilding(which I’ve been doing since 2020). I’m a heavy athlete with around 35% body fat and significant muscle mass.
What would you advise? Cause that’d really help with my dilemma.Just curious .
Thanks.
Are you doing the exercices in superset? Because I see that we train antagonist muscles. And what is the optimal rest time between sets in your opinion.
Thank you!
Answered in the other comment. Let me know if you have any questions.
Superset?
Recommence time of rest?
Thanks a lot
Superset if you like, but I’d probably take at least 30 sec or so moving between exercises. The goal isn’t really to kill yourself metabolically, just get a nice pump and push a lot of quality reps. Otherwise I’d probably do 90 sec between sets or so.
Nice and intense plan. Just one question, I see that some days there is a great interference between exercises for example doing high reps in bench press and Db press in the same day or bent over row and Db row the same day, is this necessary for developing Hypertrophy?
Good question. There isn’t any interference between different muscle groups. The key here for hypertrophy is that we achieve enough volume and intensity on each muscle group to promote growth. Pairing opposite muscle groups allows for more intensity as you would rapidly tire those muscles with 8 or more sets straight.
There is not interference in doing Bench press and dumbbell press the same day?
Answered other comment
There is not interference doing Bench press and Dumbbell press the same day?
Interference in physiological terms generally refers to two types of training that that are very dissimilar and will interfere with the bodies adaptation to either stimulus. An example of this would be jogging and heavy back squats. Two get better at either the body needs to very different adaptations which interfere with each other.
If you are asking do these exercises affect one another, absolutely they do and they should. We need enough volume on the muscle group to promote growth. One exercise would not be enough to do so.
Thanks Jake that was exactly what I was are asking!! I call it interference wrongly
Hi. Looks awesome and exactly what I’ve been searching for! I’m a firefighter and I feel like I was neglecting functional fitness in favour of just doing 5×5 or 5/3/1. Anyways what are the benefits of buying the program vs the free one? (Free one looks pretty awesome)
Thanks
The biggest difference is the coaching notes. I include things like the percentages, rest periods, and goals to shoot for. You will also get structured warmups as well. If you’re on the fence try the first weeks free, then pick up the premium version if you like it. Should work well for fire fighters I would think!
thanks so much! I’ve done 2 workouts so far and they have been awesome (kicked my butt but in a good way). Looking forward to running some more and seeing how it goes!
Awesome Shawn! Let us know how it goes!
Love that you keep coming out with awesome programs like this for us to try out! I haven’t found a planned program of yours that I don’t like! Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the kind words!
Great work Jake. Question. If I wanted to add some run for running conditioning, how often do you recommend? Or would you recommend to follow your 8 week running programming or your sandwich running program? Thanks
You can do the aerobic capacity program and add in the sandwhich training if you like. Make sure you are eating enough, and try to separate the sessions as much as possible. Let us know how it goes.
If I wanted to add the running program for some conditioning, could I substitute a few of the WODs with some of the running workouts instead?
See below
Hey Jake, awesome program man!
Quick question, if I wanted to add the
3 day running program for conditioning could I replace a few of the WODs with some of the running?
See comment below
What are GHDs, Push Jerk, Death by Snatch, STOH, and RDL?
Thanks
GHD’s are an ab exercise, Push Jerks are an olympic lifting movement. Death by snatch means you do one rep on the 1st minute, 2 on the 2nd …increasing until you can’t make it. STOH is shoulder to overhead meaning any lift from shoulder to over head is ok. RDL is Romanian deadlift. If you aren’t familiar with the moves check out youtube. They have some good tutorials.
I want to make sure I’m reading this right. The workout is from right to left? Or top to bottom?
Each day is vertical. Read from Left to right.
In the second cycle there is a barbell walking lunge. In the first it’s “just” a walking lunge. Does this mean it’s a bodyweight movement?
Good question. Barbell walking lunge should be performed with the bar for weight. Walking lunge is still weighted but could be with dumbbells or a bar, whichever you’d like.
Love your programming. We work out in our garage and have just about everything to do crossfit workouts. We don’t have a GHD or a machine to do cable triceps. What would be a good replacement for both? Could sit ups with a 14 or 20 lb wallball be a good replacement for GHD sit ups?
The best replacement for GHD is you have a bench is to sit sideways on it with your feet anchored and do situps going all the way down to the ground and back up. Its like 90% the same as a ghd. For the triceps push down you could get a cheap elastic band and do push downs on that. Or you can actually by a pulley, cable, snap rings and a cheap push down bar to make your own. I did and I think it cost like 40 bucks and works well.
Hay Jake, great looking program gonna give it a shot. I use to powerlift gonna try something NEW. So I’m reading this LEFT TO RIGHT NOT STRAIGHT DOWN? Just asking ?.
See previous reply
Will try also my wife pointed out the colors blue goes with blue gray with gray?????. WOW. That’s why she’s the better half.
Trust me I’m not smart enough to color coordinate that way. That was pure happenstance. lol
Hey Jake! Question on the metcon for week 1, day 2…how many DB snatches per round? Also for general metcon scaling, should we scale to a weight that enables us to keep moving (I.e less rest)?
Hi,
In the first week on the second day, there’s a WOD but i can’t see the reps for the dumbell snatches. Is there something i dont get or is it just missed 🙂 ?
Best Regards
Felix
There’s a very good reason for that. I forgot to put it in there lol. Its 15 reps. I made a note in the caption. Thanks for helping out !
Single arm dumbbell snatch, right? So, 15 per arm… 🙂
Nope it’s 15 total. Yes it’s an odd number just alternate arms you start with lol.
Awesome program Jake!
Quick question, if I wanted to do some running for conditioning, could I add the 3 day running program and replace a few of the WODs with some of the running sessions?
You could do that. Just know that running generally causes the most interference with hypertrophy. You’ll still gain size but you’ll need to eat more, and make sure that you’re recovery is very good.
Is the program one day on, one day off?
It’s however your schedule works but I normally plan on 2 on/1off, 2 on/ 2 off.
Any general tips for scaling the WODs? I’m usually pretty exhausted after the lifting portions to do the Metcons RX or honestly at all. Should I just do one on a rest day? Love it so far!
Mike I would try a couple options. First make sure you take 10 actual minutes after your last lift before you start warming up on the WOD. You’ll be surprised how well you feel. Secondly It won’t hurt to have a somewhat sugary sports drink. Like those half sugar gatorades. They really do help out on a long workout session. Otherwise it can take a few weeks for your body to get used to that amount of volume. Keep up the good work.
Jake, took your advice on rest and consuming a sports drink…worked wonders. Appreciate the tips! Thanks!
Good deal Mike. Glad it helped.
I‘ve problems with the weight. For week 1 start with 60% and then? How to increase? Similar to 5×5 but then the rep scheme changes?
Don’t worry to much about progression. Because the reps increase from week to week you can try a 10 pound jump on compound movements, and a 5 pound jump on the smaller ones each week. Part of training for hypertrophy is learning to feel what weights you can move on any given day.
This program seems like exactly what I am looking for with 1 half of my goals (build muscle and strength).
The other part is maxing my 2 mile run in April. Would it be detrimental to mix sprints or distance runs on recovery days? I know this is a tricky combo trying to build muscle/increase cardio fitness.
Jake, just to give you a heads up, I am finally enjoying a programming that adds bodybuilding exercises and some WOD. That was always an issue for me.
What programming should I start right after finish this one?
thanks a lot!
Absolutely,
I will jump on that and yes, I wanna gain some size.
Probably I should do the strength and go back to bodybuilding.
thanks so much!
Hi Jake,
since I need get some some volume too, do you think its a good plan follow this sequence?
1 – 8 WEEKS CROSSFIT BODYBUILDING HYBRID PROGRAM
2 – 6 WEEKS MUSCULAR GROWTH FOR CROSSFITTERS
3 – 9 WEEKS CROSSFIT STRENGTH PROGRAM
Yes that makes the most sense. Have at it and let us know how it goes.
I’m curious about how this worked out for you, would you recommend to someone trying to gain strength with a little size while maintaining some level of fitness?
Hey, thanks for the great programming. This is the perfect thing I’ve been looking for to help me. I just have one question. I don’t have access to a rope for the rope climbs; if there a sub exercise I could change it to? Thank you in advance.
If you can tie a rope to a sled then pull it that is the best. Otherwise something like ring rows or ring pull ups would work well.
Just to clarify: day 1, week 1 I do 1 set of bench then do 1 set of bent over rows and then back to bench? Or is it 3 sets of bench followed by 3 sets of rows? Thank you!
That is up to you. If you want to keep moving a bit faster then you could super set. If you want to maximize the amount you can lift then go through and do all three sets of one exercise before moving on. No issue either way.
Is there a certain type of warm-up that you recommend at the start of each training session?
Brett, I am very simple about warm ups. I like to do some running, rowing, cycling, for 3-5 minutes. Then I warm up with the bar and increase into my work sets. Nothing fancy here lol.
Hi Jake! I’m loving your website. I’ve been looking for a way to combine body building and crossfit together and this is perfect! Just several questions:
1) Is it ok to separate the chunks into morning and evening sessions? For example, do two chunks in the morning and do the other chunks in the evening?
2) I’m currently participating in crossfit classes and doing class WODs with the coach and ppl. Do you think it’ll be ok to do your program WODs after the class WOD? I do feel like I always have some energy left over for some more.. or will doing two WODs defeat the purpose of this program..?
3) I’m also aiming for a bit of fat loss (gained too much weight) so I would like to incorporate some HIIT and cardio. Do you think it’s ok to do these during the rest days?
Thanks.
Sely from South Korea 🙂
Sely thanks for the kind words. Regarding your first question you can separate as you like. I do not recommend doing two different programs, it’s just too much. If you are making progress with your gyms stuff then continue on, otherwise try mine. Don’t try and gain weight and lose fat at the same time. Pick one then do the other. It always works much better. Look around on the site I’ve got several fat loss programs and tons of other types as well. Let me know if you have more questions.
Thanks for this programming, that’s exactly what i was looking for. The explanation is easy to understand and very interesting too. I’m doing CF for 5 years now but i stopped gaining relevant muscle mass a few years ago.
Can’t wait to start this one, hopefully i can gain some muscle mass and get stronger.
Awesome Daniel. Let us know how it goes!
Hay Jake, great looking program gonna give it a shot. I use to powerlift gonna try something NEW. So I’m reading this LEFT TO RIGHT NOT STRAIGHT DOWN? Just asking ?.
Each day is a column. Its four days per week. Hope you like it!
Thinking of jumping in on this program.
What you thinking of if i DO one Day extra each week with Oly lifting. Or just add before on a couple of days each week.
Im doing alot off oly lifting complex and just love it.
I think it’s doable. I’d try a week without oly lifting to see how you like the volume. By then you should know if you want to add a separate day or add it on to one of the workouts.
Hey Jake!
Thanks for another awesome program, started it yesterday to build some muscle after the Open! I have been following your previous programs and I have been only satisfied! Keep up the good work!
I have just one question about the fourth day of each week, which is a lower body day, but in each week there is the Cable Triceps Extension. Is there a mistake? Also there are weeks that you input that in both the first day (which is upper body, seems normal) and in the fourth day. Thank you in advance for your answer!
Best regards, Radoslav!
Thanks for the kind words Radoslav. Those tricep extensions should be in there. It’s a somewhat neglected muscle group and muscular size wise it is about 2/3rds of your arm so you can’t have big arms without it. Let us know how it turns out.
What if you don’t have a cable for the cable extensions? Any substitute movements?
You can use an elastic band or you can also just sub something like skull crushers.
Got it. Another question for toes to bar, I assume since it’s lower body, it should be done strict?
Is this a good program if I’m wanting to cut and build lean muscle or can you recommend another.
Pick what you want. Cut or build muscle. The two are generally mutually exclusive. You can do this program for either but what you eat depends on your goals.
Hey Jake,
In week 6 on the first day concerning the EMOM; How many repetitions for the Power Snatch are planned?
Score is max reps of snatch. So you run and then in the remaining time for the interval max reps of power snatch.
Hey Jake! Awesome Program I’m a cross fitter but joined a new gym that doesn’t offer it but has a Crossfit Box so I was so happy to see your program! Just a few questions:
1- Is it ok if alongside this program I do cardio classes 3x a week as I’m trying to lose weight also (these classes are done before your program)
2- for the rest days can I do some HIIT training for 1 of the rest days and test the other 2 days?
3- You didnt mention if we need to do a Warm up before your workouts? I’ve been doing my own crossfit style warm ups but do you recommend anything else and how long should a warm up be???
Sorry for so many ??? N Thx again for this Awesome Program! Denise
Thanks for the kind words Denise.
1. It depends on your goal. If you want to lose weight while doing this program then cardio is fine. I would recommend it after this program if possible, or before by several hours. If you want to gain muscle I wouldn’t recommend that much cardio.
2. Rest days should be rest. Adding in more work will be counterproductive
3. Warm ups are a given. I recommend 3-5 minutes cardio then warming up the muscle groups you will use with calisthenics.
This program looks great! Really amped to start. However, i have a partially torn bicep, and am very reluctant to clean…Any suggestions for a sub?
Michael, I’d make sure that your arm is recovered before starting this program. It’s very high volume and it might aggravate your biceps. If you find it doesn’t bother your arm you could sub a clean pull, or something like a good morning if you want to take the arms completely out of it.
Hey! Thanks for getting back to me. Much appreciated. It’s as good as it’s going to be. Fortunately, it was the upper part. I can do pull-ups, rows, curls. I’m just afraid to go after it with cleans. Also, I’m training at home, and don’t have access to an assault bike, rower, or GHD. Any suggestions there?
No worries Michael. I had a team mate that had a similar injury and he was able to do a fair amount while recovering. I would lay off heavy deadlifts and pulling in general like cleans. I think heavy good mornings are probably your go to for low back work. You could also do some taller box jumps for power production as well. If you have the space to run then sub a run for the same time duration that you would have done the assault bike. For example 15 cal assault bike is around a minute, so that would translate to 200-300m run. If you can’t run then do the same time duration of burpees or jump rope. Hope that helps.
Hey, Jake. First week on the program, and I am very much liking it. I am getting my ass kicked, not going to lie.
As many folks are, I am working out from home. I don’t have access to GHD, rower, or bike. Looking for good subs for these, as well as what you’d suggest as the sub for muscle-ups; seems like everyone has a different opinion on what to sub for those.
Thanks. Great program so far!
When you say lunge or step-ups, is it 10 per leg or total?
Hey! Just finishing up this program. Where do i go from here?
hi!!!
so if you miss a day or a few days, do you just pick up from where you left off? or start over?
No need to start over. A few day break shouldn’t harm anything. Just do the workouts sequentially.
Hi Jake.
I love your progam. It is exactly what I was looking for, in order to improve my perfomance. Therefore, I would like to thank for sharing the programs.
I have just two questions:
When you establish repetitions for an exercise like lunges, step ups, dumbell biceps or triceps, I mean, when you exercise one side of your body and then the other one, are the repetitions in total or should I do 10 repetitions with my left side and then 10 repetitions with the other for example?
And, you have set the same number of repetitions for each set for each muscle group per day. Does it mean that I should increase the weight during the next sets? For example: during the same session, I have to do bench press, 3×12. For the first set, I put 55 kg. Should I keep using this weight for the rest of the sets during the same session or add more weight gradually? Then, in the next week I would add more weight, of course, and keeping the method.
Thanks.
Pablo these are good questions. As to your first, 3×10 lunge means each leg gets 10 lunges for example. You can try and increase weight across sets or if you know what load you’ll use then pick the same load for all sets. The goal is to make it challenging. Enjoy !
Jake,
This is awesome. Exactly what I have been looking for. I have been doing some Crossfit style workouts lately. It has been fun. Yet getting hypertrophy has been not so much. It looks like you have definetly hit the mark with this. I will be trying the first 2weeks, and then seeing if it works for me ,and purchase if so. Btw. I have looked for something like this for a while. Most say it can’t be done. I hope to prove them wrong by using your program .
Also great idea for the GHD at home with bench. Never would have thought that.
Good deal Gary. Hope you like it! Let us know how it goes.
Hi Jake,
This type of programme is exactly what I’m looking for, i wail probably purchase the premium however I was wondering after the 8 weeks do you have other workouts I can continue with similar to this one and what the process is with paying for that?
Yep if you go to the bottom of this page, you’ll see there is a part two. It also has a premium program. There is a part three as well.
Hi Jake, I just finished the hybrid program part one, I’m glad I did. Amazing how fast my body transfered to the current muscular form it is in right now.
I have one question, should I recalculate my 1rm before moving to the hybrid program part two? Best regards from the Netherlands
Yes I think getting a current 1RM would be the best way to go. Good luck!
Hi. No posible payment by PayPal, pls?
Not at this time. Sorry
Hi Jake,
Thank you for putting this program together. How do you recommend a female to approach this program?
How do you recommend a female to approach this program?
Hi Natalie. There is no difference for females. The WODs are scaled for male/female and the weights are the same intensity on the lifts. Give it a shot and see how you like it!
Hey Jake, looks legit.
I am in the middle of your free program for functional fitness athletes (fitness competitors program) and I love it. I am thinking about not doing part 3 of that program and starting this hybrid program instead as it works better for my goals and time.
Given that I have completed the first two sections of the fitness competitors program (and seen some good gains) would you recommend doing this hybrid program or would you recommend a different one of yours? I am looking mostly for size gains and aesthetics, as well as about 4 days in the gym a week, one session per day instead of 5-6 days.
If you want to build mass then this is the program for you. The last parts of the competitors program are more cardio and WOD focused and less focused on building muscle and strength. I think the hybrid program is probably your best bet.
Hey Jake
Currently in the 3rd week of the Program and just did the lower body workout. I felt super exhausted after the 4×10 Squats and could barely muster the strength for the 5×5 Deadlifts for which I can usually do 150kg for at least 6 reps and yesterday 5×140 were almost feeling like a 1rm attempt.
I was wondering if you recommend switching the DL with the Stiff Legged DL, change the sets & reps altogether or maybe even something as simple as decreasing the weight.
Sorry for the long message and thanks for your feedback.
No worries Daniel. Heavy sets of 10 will really take it out of you. I see you have two real options. One you can cut some of the reps down on the squats, or do the deadlifts first and then squats. You might find doing the squat later actually helps. Don’t be afraid to modify this for less volume if needed. Something like 4×6,8,10, 10 can work well too. Hope that helps.
Hey Jake,
Was wondering where would be a good spot to add or sub in squat cleans? Swap with deads or squats every cycle?
Yep I would put them in for deads.
Hey Jake,
In 4 weeks I’ll finish your 12 week muscle builder (using for fat loss) I’ll have exactly 15 weeks until the open. My plan is to grab the premium program of this to put on a bit of size, followed by your 7 week open prep course. What are your thoughts on that?
Cheers,
Pat
That’s what I would recommend. The 7 week program is going to be your best prep for the open, especially coming off of the hypertrophy program.
Legend! Thanks Jake.
Hi Jake, I purchased the 8 week functional body building hybrid programme but I’m having problems accessing it could you help ?
Yep. First thing check your spam folder. If you didn’t get it at all then send me an email at jjackson@tierthreetactical.com and i’ll look into the issue.
Hi Jake,
Could you send me the link to part 3 of this programme please I can’t seem to find it.
Jakerawlinson99@gmail.com.
Many thanks
https://www.tierthreetactical.com/the-8-week-functional-bodybuilding-hybrid-program-part-3/
Hi Jake, this will be the 4th of your programmes that I will do, and I’ve loved every one, so thank you for that! But one quick question – am I right in thinking that I’d need to purchase the premium version to be able to see weeks 3 and 7? They’re blurred out on this page.
Thanks.
Yes that is correct. Glad you like the programs so far!
Hi Jake,
thank you for the awesome work, you have been training for something close to five years now, your programs are something else!
One quick question on the walking and barbell lunges portion of the program the number of reps is for each leg or total reps?
thank you
If you see 3×10 lunges, that’s 10 reps per leg. Otherwise it’d be too easy lol!
Hi
Awesome program Jake.
Currently on week 3 of the program and I’m loving it. I usually try to get in 10k steps along with this program (is it okay?).
I was wondering if I could swim on my rest days or just do my regular 10k steps or nothing at all and sleep in lol.
Thanks.
Hi Nikita. Both of those would be fine. Low level movement that doesn’t make you sore, or require a lot of resources to repair like heavy weight lifting can always pair with your lifting well. I would say give it a couple of hours between lifting and swimming though.
Thanks a lot Jake.
Also, do you recommend a 25 year old woman with hormonal issues and pcos , type 2 diabetic and an acute pancreatitis patient with chronic stress to continue with this program? Because it’s really hard for me to lose fat but I build muscle quite easily. Although surprisingly I have built quite some muscle on this program and been seeing some definition with no weight loss on the scale(which means I must be losing fat). And I also don’t feel super tired after the workout like I used to with bodybuilding(which I’ve been doing since 2020). I’m a heavy athlete with around 35% body fat and significant muscle mass.
What would you advise? Cause that’d really help with my dilemma.Just curious .
Thanks.