#functional workout

A free workout, full body functional workout that you can practice three times per week to develop strength, speed, endurance, & more!

Hey gang! I recently uploaded a full-body, follow-along workout that needs zero equipment (except an optional jump rope) and can be completed in 30(ish) minutes. The aim was to show how you can train for multiple traits (strength, speed, endurance etc.) all at once and STILL get a decent stimulus for each, in a relatively short time. Some people were asking me to share a written version of the…

As you incorporate these techniques into your training, you should find yourself beginning to gain in strength and mobility.

There’s another piece of the puzzle that’s missing though and if you don’t incorporate it, you will be limiting your potential progress. That’s ‘grip strength’, which you need in order to improve every other lift in the gym and all your bodyweight moves. The true kings of functional strength are the ‘old-time strongmen’ of old. These guys would lift insane amounts of weight in all kinds of unusual manners – such as lifting barbells over their head with just one hand.

The ‘anyhow lift’ was a lift that challenged a man to life as much weight as he possibly good with any technique he wanted! And key to the training of these old-time strongmen was grip strength. Why? Because they knew it was the key to being able to move weight around more confidently. And this is something that you need to learn as well.

To train your grip, you need to simply incorporate some grip training into your workouts. You can do this with towel pull ups for instance, or by doing pull ups on a finger board. Likewise, you can also use bars that are slightly wider for your other lifts. You won’t be able to lift as much but you’ll get a far more impressive full-body workout that will increase your true strength.

Overcoming Isometrics

Better yet, you can also try using overcoming isometrics – which are a type of training used by some of the strongest men in the world even today. Bruce Lee used overcoming isometrics and so does Dennis Rogers – pound for pound the strongest man alive (Dennis is so strong that he appeared on Stan Lee’s: Superhumans!)

So what is overcoming isometrics?

Well, isometric training is any kind of training that involves no movement at all. This is the opposite of dynamic training or of plyometric training (the latter of which involves exploding up out of the movement).

There are two kinds of isometric training. One is ‘yielding’ which means you simply hold a position that is quite tough but not impossible until you wilt. An example would be plank, where you hold the plank position for about 2-3 minutes.

The other type of isometric training, the one we’re looking at now, is ‘overcoming’. Here, you’re attempting to lift a weight that’s too much for you and then just pushing against it as hard as you can. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be a weight; you can even just press against a wall and try and push it down!

When you do this, your body recruits as much of your muscle fiber as it can and treats the challenge as though you were trying to lift 100% of your one-rep max. As far as your muscles are concerned they’re maxed out and it makes no difference if anything is moving or not. The result is that the brain tries to recruit all of your strength – which doesn’t normally happen – and learns that it needs greater control over your muscle fiber. The result is that your mind-muscle connection strengthens and the next time you try this move, you should have developed the ability to move more weight.

You can’t train with just this type of training because it doesn’t involve any ‘range of motion’. But as a compliment to compound lifts, it can greatly increase your power. What’s more, is that many of the best types of overcoming isometric training do involve the grip.

And example? Trying to bend an iron bar. Don’t have an iron bar around? Then how about trying to roll up a frying pan. Or just crush a stress ball? If you want to use something that feels a little more rewarding, try investing in a power twister. These are bars that have a powerful spring in the middle and let you bend them to train your crushing power. They go all the way up to 100KG so they can provide an amazing challenge!

TRX and gymnastic rings mix things up a little because they involve bodyweight training instead of lifting weights. Bodyweight training is actually ideal for general fitness and for functional strength in particular. The reason is that bodyweight training means you have to lift your own body – something that we regularly have to do in real life. If you can get stronger faster than you get heavier, then you can increase your strength-to-weight ratio and that in turn will make you far faster on your feet as well as more agile and flexible.

Another advantage of bodyweight training is that it forces you to utilize all the smaller supportive muscles in your body. When you perform a press up, you are using muscle in your abs, obliques, legs, lower back and more to keep your body rigid and in position. The same is true when you perform a pull up – and if you try and cheat through the pull up, then your body will wobbly around in the air and you’ll end up wasting energy and tiring out faster.

This gets far more impressive as you start to approach more advanced movements. Imagine the kind of total-body control that is used when you perform a handstand press up, or planche press ups (press ups where your feet don’t touch the ground!).

If you want to see an example of someone who is truly in command of their own body and their own strength, then look up ‘Ido Portal’. He moves like an inhuman and will blow your mind regarding the potential of the human body.

How to Approach Bodyweight Training

The problem is that many people approach bodyweight training all wrong. If you’re just pumping out a set number of press ups and sit ups every day, then you can’t expect to progress much. Instead, you should be challenging yourself with increasingly difficult moves in your 8-10 rep range and you should be using techniques to push past failure.

In bodyweight routines you can’t change the weight itself but what you change instead is the way you’re lifting it – which can be just as challenging.

Find press ups easy? Then how about training with clapping press ups and trying to launch yourself in the air? This move requires acceleration in the muscles, which the body treats just the same as heavy weight. The result is that you’ll recruit more of your fast-twitch muscle fibers in order to explode off the floor.

And now if you try and perform some ‘normal’ pushups, you’ll find it’s a lot more challenging.

Likewise, if you perform a push up with one hand, that will also make it harder, as well as requiring you to strengthen your core to avoid tipping. You can build up to this by placing both hands on the floor but putting 80% of your weight on one hand. As you get tireder, move more and more weight onto the other side. Now you’re controlling your distribution of weight in order to maximally challenge the muscle.

You can also just move your arms back closer to your waist, which puts you in a position called a ‘maltese pushup’. This movement lengthens the lever arm – just like the Indian club. Now your weight is further away from your hands, which forces you to work harder.

The Mechanical Drop Set and Progressions

A great tool at your disposal here is a technique called the ‘mechanical drop set’. Here, you perform as many reps as you can of an exercise and then make it slightly easier by changing the position. For instance, you might do as many pushups as you can and then change immediately to press-ups on your knees. This enables you to go past the point of failure but still keep going, which makes it much harder.

And in terms of each workout, the goal is to keep challenging yourself to perform more and more difficult movements which are called ‘progressions’. Once you can easily do 10 maltease pushups, you can then challenge yourself to do a single planche push up.

Ultimately, you should aim to get to the point where you’re performing feats of ‘hand balancing’ which will involve moving from one impressive bodyweight position on your hands to another, all in a slow, controlled manner.

Thus far, your training regimen has consisted primarily of compound movements, with some relaxed stretching and self-myofascial release thrown in for good measure.

Congratulations!

Your training programme is already miles ahead of the majority of people in the gym and will benefit your functional strength, as well as your overall health and fitness.

However, there is one drawback... it's quite boring!

Consider how, in the real world, we rarely find ourselves repeating the same five actions. Indeed, in the real world, our 'form' for each movement is completely unique.In the wild, you would not squat, but rather pick up randomly shaped boulders.Similarly, you'd be forced to perform pull ups on branches that were the wrong shape and size or run across uneven terrain.Then take on a lion.. (maybe).

In other words, if training is to truly mimic the real world and be truly 'functional,' it must be constantly changing and varied.

So how do you ensure your workouts fit that bill? Simple: you introduce some interesting tools and techniques that will mix things up for you. Here are some cool examples...

Kettlebells

Kettlebells have grown to become some of the most popular tools for use in the gym as more and more people have been waking up to the importance of functional strength. Kettlebells are essentially weights that can be used similarly to dumbbells but have a completely different shape.The dumbbell is specifically shaped like an iron ball with a handle protruding from the top.

This means that when you lift it, the weight is directly beneath your arm.This now means that it is capable of swinging and developing its own momentum, which you must control and combat in order to complete repetitions.This forces you to engage your core in movements that would otherwise be relatively isolated.Similarly, it forces you to lift at inconvenient angles and generate power in unexpected ways.

All in all, kettlebells are more functional than dumbbells and provide some interesting new training options.

But perhaps their most important use is the kettlebell swing. This is a movement that involves clasping the handle with both hands and then swinging the weight between your legs while going through a squatting and ‘popping’ movement.

This replicates the movement used in deadlifts but eliminates the need to find space in your home for a full barbell that will be dropped repeatedly on the floor. Additionally, it means that the exercise is much faster, which makes it an excellent fat-burning and muscle-building move.

When you combine these benefits, the kettlebell is alone one of the most versatile and important pieces of training equipment in your arsenal.

Indian Club Training

The kettlebell inspired the development of another extremely popular piece of training equipment: the Indian club. The Indian club does not appear to be anything special; rather, it resembles a stick with a heavy ball attached to the end.However, like the kettlebell, its strength comes from its awkwardness.When you wave the Indian club around, the weight is not where your brain anticipates it to be, and you are essentially lifting it against a long lever arm.Due to the combination of these factors, you're once again forced to engage your core and grip in order to maintain control.The Indian club is a lot of fun and an excellent tool for training if you have a garden.

However, if you use it in hoes, you can expect to smash nearly everything you own...

Which brings us to another intriguing option: making do with what you already have.You don't need to invest in expensive training equipment because nearly everything in your home is unevenly weighted and can be converted into workout equipment. A superb illustration?

A chair that is capable of being lifted and swung around.

Again, the weight is significantly heavier at the end, and if you hold the top of it, you'll be forced to engage a variety of muscles simply to keep it in place.

Barefoot Running

Another craze that has taken off alongside the whole functional movement... movement... is that of barefoot running.

Barefoot running entails removing your shoes prior to jogging, typically through a rural environment with trails that require you to jump over ditches and weave around roots and stones.

When you do this, your toes can splay across the ground, preventing you from falling or twisting your ankle while also allowing you to propel yourself forward using the small muscles in your foot.

Barefoot running should also improve your gait by forcing you to land on the ball of your foot.

This provides greater cushioning for your fall than striking the floor with your heel first (as the majority of us do) and allows the leg to bend like a leopard's in the food, the ankle, the knee, and the hip.

Of course, barefoot running does not always imply going completely barefoot, as this would be imprudent in areas where glass or sharp stones are present. Alternatively, you can wear barefoot footwear such as the Vibram Five Fingers.

These provide pockets for your toes, allowing them to move freely while still providing adequate protection.

TRX

Another very exciting piece of equipment you can use for training in a functional manner is TRX. TRX is a device that can attach to a pull up bar (which you can get for your doorframe for about $10) and which then provides suspension straps for your hands and feet to rest on. This then enables you to perform a variety of cool moves, including bodyweight rows (holding the handles and pulling your upper body toward the bar) and suspended push ups and bodyweight dips (both of which require you to stabilise your body as the handles wobble).

However, refrain from purchasing TRX.

Why?

Because TRX costs approximately $200 and the same thing can be accomplished with a pair of gymnastic rings.

Gymnastic rings that are less than $20 and are actually more versatile.

Important: It's critical to mention health and safety at this point.Shoulder injuries are common when using TRX/gymnastic rings.Similarly, barefoot running frequently results in knee injury (and Vibrams).

That’s not to say these aren’t good for you, it just means that you have to be careful and introduce them slowly into your routine while taking care to get proper instruction.

The exercise moves associated with functional fitness aren’t complicated at all. All the moves you’ll learn when it comes to functional fitness are those that you already practice in your everyday life.

For beginners, functional fitness is the best way to go to develop muscles and strength

If you’re starting out from a very low position, and it’s your first time working out then there’s no pressure. Don't run into hard core workouts that grind you to the bone. Don’t jump right into lifting weights as you’re likely to just injure yourself.

Most fitness moves can be toned down to a low impact move so you don’t risk harming yourself. If you feel that something’s too hard for you, don’t be afraid to tone down your exercise. Find an easier move or work out for a shorter period of time.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of things though, don’t be afraid to push your limits a little further and try new moves. Add in more time and bring some weights into play. Working out more can only lead you in one direction and that’s forward. Once you’ve gotten a functional flow, make the most of it and try not to miss any days.

Given below are some general moves you’re going to find in all functional fitness routines, regardless of your level. These moves can be added to one another, they can be made either high or low impact and they all reap their own benefits on your body’s performance.

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