This program is designed for functional fitness athletes that have specific goals they need to work on. It will allow you to put together your own custom functional fitness plan, that focuses on improving your specific weaknesses. Keep reading to put together your own program.
As the title implies this is a continuation from (Part 1). Feel free to start with part one if you want a longer program using a similar style to this one.
This program was designed first and foremost to be flexible, allowing for each athlete to focus on what they need to improve the most. Having been a functional fitness athlete for over a decade, I can tell you that the most common error I see athletes make is not hammering their weaknesses.
How often do you see someone who always shows up on days that they are going to do well, and mysteriously disappears when their personal weaknesses show up on the whiteboard? This might be the athlete who never misses a chance to squat, or conversely, the athlete who is always going for a quick run right after class.
Now there is nothing wrong with working out as you see fit, and personally I would much prefer to do a lot of strength work and completely neglect my aerobic conditioning, but I know this will really hold me back as an athlete and as a person. Hence the reason I’ve created this program.
The other big reason I’ve created this program is that I get a lot of requests to provide custom programming for athletes who follow Tier Three Tactical. I really like doing this but, it does take hours of my time, and I can’t do that for free or my wife would probably hit me. This program is nearly as good as a full custom functional fitness program, and it has the distinct benefit of costing you nothing.
The Custom functional fitness Program Rules
Having worked my way through the first part of The Custom functional fitness Program Generator, I can tell you there are some best practices that have helped me.
Pair Opposites with Accessories
I would imagine you already have a good idea of what you need to work on which is why you want to do this program. For me, I need to work on my conditioning, which means I generally select more conditioning accessories in my custom program.
If the prescribed session is a strength session then make sure you pair that with a conditioning accessory. Research generally shows that performing your strength session before conditioning minimizes interference effects.
Technique With WOD
I have also found that technique work really helps me warm up for the WOD. So if you are working on lifting technique, don’t be afraid to spend 15-20 min of focused effort there, and then transition to getting ready for the WOD.
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General Rules
If you read part one, then you’ll understand that this program is meant to be done in order, using as much or little volume as you want. You could pick one session per day and always pair it with an accessory, or you could do several sessions per day and only occasionally add in an accessory move.
Personally, I made it a habit of always adding in an accessory when I was doing a strength block as I need to improve my conditioning, and only maintain my strength.
After a week or so you’ll have a good idea how to integrate the accessory moves into your plan. It simply takes a little trial and error. Don’t stress too much about whether you are doing this 100% correctly. If you pay attention to your diet and nutrition, and are recovering well then you will see progress.
Download the Custom Functional Fitness Program Generator (Part 2) Here
The Custom Functional Fitness Program Generator (Part 2)
Now that we’ve gone over the ground rules, we can get into the next couple of months of programming. Here is cycle three.
You’ll see that each session is color coded denoting a strength, WOD, or conditioning session. As I stated above you can do as many or as little sessions as you want per day, but you need to be adding in accessory work.
The darker blue session blocks indicate that this is a deload. There will still be intensity here, but not as much volume. This means that you need to make sure you aren’t going overboard with your accessories as well.
I have changed up some of the strength moves, and no doubt some of this will be novel to you. I would imagine not to many of you have done banded dips with the band anchored to the floor!
Make sure you are doing a thorough warm up. I generally recommend 3-5 minutes of running, rowing, or assault bike, and then some specific stretching for the muscle groups you will be using, then some technique work with those movements.
I also recommend you end your sessions with 10 minutes of cooling down on the assault bike or rower. This is paced incredibly easy, roughly around 50-70 watts of power output.
This allows your body to increase circulation to your muscles, which allows clearance of waste products and a jump start on your recovery processes. You’ll also find that you feel much better after doing this.
If you want to learn even more about creating your own custom functional fitness program check out my ebook !
Final Thoughts
This program is really a choose your own adventure style plan. This latitude can leave many wandering if they are doing this correctly. That is understandable but try not to stress over this. If you are absolutely the type of person that likes to know exactly what to do each day then I recommend you check out some of my other programs, as they are much more prescriptive.
By far the most important part of your progress will be the work you put into the program. It doesn’t matter how exactly you go about it, only that you are working hard, and recovering well! Now get out there and get after it!
