It’s no secret that I’ve been writing free functional programs for several years, and I’m regularly asked in what order they should be performed. This article will explain exactly what order I would do them in, and how to add in my specialty programs, to help attack your weaknesses, without overdoing it.

As the title implies if you add up the total amount of free programming that I’m sending your way it will add up to around 72 weeks, and that’s with no breaks apart from planned deloads.

Obviously no one should really do this much work with out taking a week or two off here and there. This means that you are looking at almost two years of programming!

Who is this Programming For?

This plan is designed and sequenced to take the intermediate athlete and help them become an advanced athlete. Here are the standards that we use to judge an athlete’s status.

Standards Intermediate Data

Here is where we are trying to get to. For the full list of standards click here.

Advanced Standards Data

As you can see this is quite the improvement. For an average male athlete you are looking at a starting deadlift max of 342 lbs, and a finishing weight of 418lbs. No big deal, just a 76 lbs personal record!

We are also looking at huge improvements in our benchmark WODs. Using Fran as an example we are looking at moving from a 5:45 time to a 4 minute flat time. These are huge PR’s!

You need to keep in mind that there are no free lunches here and you will absolutely be putting in many months of hard work to achieve these improvements.

The Programs

Before we do a deep dive into the programs and discuss why they are sequenced the way they are. Let’s first look at the over all plan.

The Overall 72 Week Program

You can see that all the primary programs on the left are black. The programs on the right, in red, are speciality programs that are designed to be done in conjunction with the primary program. Not everyone needs the specialty programs, but if you do, this is where I recommend performing them.

The 7 Week Open Prep Program

The 7 Week Prep Program has been around for a while and is very popular with a lot of athletes. It’s challenging, but not impossible for a newer, intermediate athlete to perform. Here is a sample week.

Week 1

You can see this is very similar to other programs with a planned strength portion that is paired with a WOD. Be warned this is the lowest volume program that I have!

You will also notice that I have this program paired with the 6 Week Pressing Program . This pairing is for athletes that have a specific lack of pressing strength. If you don’t need that particular emphasis then don’t worry about this add on program and focus on the 7 Week Open Prep Program.

The 6 Week Muscular Growth Plan for Parts 1 and 2

This Muscular Endurance Program for athletes, is a total of 12 weeks in length as it is split in two parts. Here is part one, and here is part two.

Here is a sample of the programming.

Week 2

You can see that this is similar to the 7 week program, but we have added in some additional strength work, as strength is one of the key factors that increases overall performance.

You’ll also notice that I’ve included the option to do the 8 week aerobic capacity program here if you so desire. Again, this is only for those that need to build up that specific energy system, it isn’t mandatory.

From here we move on to what is by far my most popular program.

If you like free programs, but want to learn how I created all of these then check out my ebook and learn to create your own!

9 Week Strength Program for Functional Fitness

In this portion of our plan you will be doing a lot of heavy lifting, and I do mean a lot! It is split into two parts. Here is part one, and here is part two. You will generally be performing 3 main lifts each session with a WOD on most days to supplement your strength work. The goal of this program is to build strength as quickly as possible and maintain your conditioning.

Here is a sample week.

9 Week Strength Cycle Week 2

This program does take quite a while in the gym as the lifting alone is around 45 minutes on heavy days. You’ll notice that the WODs are intentionally kept shorter so you aren’t spending all day in the box.

Now that we have built a base of strength we need to shift gears into maintaining it and building our specific capacity even higher.

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10 Week Advanced Program for Functional Fitness

This program is what I used last year to prep my athletes for fitness tests, with great success. This program is split into three parts: part one, part two, part three. Here is a sample week.

Week 2

Here you can see that instead of multiple strength moves we have one strength move, and two WODs more or less. This is important as it will roughly double the amount of conditioning time you have, and really hammer your anaerobic energy system.

This is a lot of work, but for those following along at home you should be well prepared for it by now.

You will also notice that you have the option of adding on the 8 Week Running Plan. This is a great add on for those that need to run as a job requirement, for PT testing, or for those that really like running. Again if you don’t need this specific add on then don’t worry about it.

The 8 Week Bodybuilding Hybrid Cycle for Functional Fitness

This is another popular program and I’ve had great luck with this for athletes that are finishing their competitive season, whether that is the a local comp, or some other competition they are preparing for.

Here is the link to the 8 Week Hybrid Cycle.

Here is a sample week.

Week 2 Hybrid Cycle

This cycle entails a lot of lifting, but it will not be as heavy as some of the strength cycles you have done previously. The goal here is to prepare you for the next training year by increasing your muscular size, which will then allow you to ultimately gain more strength. This leads us into our last program.

The Fitness Competitors Program

This program was written for advanced athletes and by now you most likely have reached that milestone, or are very close to it. It totals 6 months in length, and it is very high volume.

It is split up into 5 parts: part one, part two, part three, part four, part five.

It’s important that you check out the links for this one as there are a lot of downloads including: PDFs, spreadsheets, and calculators. Most of these downloads make it super simple to figure out what you are doing from day to day, but they are a little too much for what is already a pretty long article.

Additional Resources

So far we have strictly covered only the gym portion of this program, but honestly that might be the least important aspect of increasing your fitness, and moving up the fitness ranks.

You will need to learn the basics of nutrition. I recommend you check out the ultimate nutrition guide. It covers the basics very well, and I’m constantly surprised how often my athletes don’t have a solid understanding of this.

Once you’ve read that I recommend downloading the calculator in this article as it will give you the total caloric intake you need and your individual macro break down.

That should adequately cover nutrition which leaves us with this article that covers recovery practices that have been scientifically proven to work. Hint, Hint, that foam roller isn’t as great of a tool as you might think, and neither are ice baths.

Final Thoughts

This might seem like a lot of work, and it is, but that is only because you are looking at it in it’s entirety. Once you start looking day to day, and week to week, it’s really not that much more than you are already doing.

If you have any questions or comments then put them in the comments below where I can answer them quickly. Now get out there and start training!

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