So you’ve hit a fitness plateau. This program will fix that. Chances are if you are reading this, that you have been training for several years and you’ve hit the end of your easy progress. This program is strength oriented and is designed to get you through your intermediate phase into your advanced training phase, which will require increasing your absolute strength in all the basic lifts. Keep reading to get your free PDF for the 9 week advanced functional fitness strength program.

As the title implies, this is not a program for beginners or even intermediates. Rest assured there isn’t any secret sauce that newer athletes aren’t ready for, it just doesn’t make sense for someone to try more advanced methods when simpler ones are going to be just as effective, not to mention easier!

What Makes This Program So Effective?

If you’re a subscriber to our email list, or a regular reader then you will no doubt have read the article where I outlined delayed undulating periodization, and how it can work very well for more advanced athletes. If you haven’t, then give this article a read. It explains periodization in common sense terms.

If you’re really a die hard Tier Three Tactical reader then you might have uncovered this gem in the archives, where I detail the benefits of variable resistance training, sometimes called accommodating resistance training.

As a quick review, variable resistance training is a training style where elastic bands and chains are looped onto the barbell. This makes each rep more difficult as more tension from the band, or more links of the chain are added to the lift. This kind of training has been shown to be wildly effective for strength and power athletes, and it works just as well for all athletes.

I have taken the liberty of combing through the scientific training literature and creating this program that is designed on a daily undulating periodization model, with the vast majority of lifts using variable resistance in the form of elastic bands. Trust me, you aren’t going to see this program in your average gym!

Equipment Requirements

This program will be fine for the advanced athlete in most well equipped gyms, but you will need at least one pair of elastic bands to loop on your barbell. These are the same bands that newer athletes use to assist them with pull ups, so most normal gyms will have them.

If you are in a non functional fitness gym, or perhaps a home gym, then you can pick up a full set for pretty cheap on Amazon. Note, you will need to order two of the linked items as they come with only one band at each weight.

If you have chains feel free to use them, but honestly bands are more effective for most lifts, and are much easier to carry around in your gym bag!

As a side note you can do this program without VRT, but you will seriously compromise your strength gains.

Setting the Bands Up

For almost all exercises the bands will be attached to an anchor on the ground. This can be a set of dumbbells, or any object that is heavy enough to provide resistance as you lift.

Before we get into the details of setting up banded exercise make sure you understand these principles of VRT training.

Never Use Bands on Olympic Lifts, it is extremely dangerous Bands should provide 20-30% of overall resistance 70-80% of the resistance comes from the actual bar and plates

This is an example of setting up a band for a squat. You could easily loop the bottom around a large dumbbell.

Here is an example of setting up a deadlift with long bands

Here is an example of a banded bench press. Again, you can use dumbbells or kettlebells as an anchor.

Here is an example of banding a pull up down, to make it harder as you get closer to the bar.

This should provide you with everything you need to perform the variable resistance moves. This means we can now get into the nitty gritty of the actual program. Bring on the strength gains!

If you like fitness programs and want to get our 3 free training guides, then click here to join the Tier Three Team. It’s totally free, and thousands have already received their strength programming, fat loss, and their bonus guide.

The 9 Week Advanced Functional Fitness Strength Program [with PDF]

This program is designed to be completed 5 days per week. It’s listed as Monday straight through Friday, but honestly I don’t care how you do this. You should aim to get 5 training days in per week, and take two days of rest.

Here is the PDF for the 9 Week Advanced Functional Fitness Strength Program

Each session should last around 60 minutes in total with a good warm up and cool down. Incidentally, don’t skip the cool down as this article on recovery for athletes shows that easy aerobic movement increases muscle mass.

This is not an extremely high volume program, but it will be heavy. The green blocks are the exercises to be done with bands. Make sure you are following the guidelines on the correct resistance.

My experience has shown that athletes new to VRT training can stick with the same band tension for the duration of this program and primarily increase resistance by adding plates.

As the program states you should aim to increase lower body lifts by 10 lbs each week, and upper body lifts by 5 lbs. You won’t be able to do this every week, but I want you to get into the habit of setting a new training PR every week with the specified lifts, as often as good form allows.

Incidentally I don’t mean you should set a true personal record every week, but if you completed your 3×5 bench last week with 150lbs of straight weight, and 30 lbs of band weight at the top of the lift, then you should aim for 155lbs of straight weight with the same band setup next week.

Week 1

This will be your intro week to this style of training. You’ll be feeling out your setups and getting used to picking the right ratio of band tension to straight weight.

You’ll note that we only have three WODs per week. This will allow you to maintain your conditioning, and put the vast majority of your bodies’ resources into getting stronger.

Week 2

In this week you should have a good idea of what weights you need to be using. Really aim to increase the weights when you can, keeping in mind these are technical maxes (TM), meaning the heaviest weight you can lift with no appreciable form break down.

Those of you who read the periodization article will understand why these specific rep ranges are picked for the movements, and why each movement generally shows up twice per week.

Week 3

This is our heaviest week. I really want you to challenge yourself here, and go as heavy as strict form will allow.

Some of you might be wondering why I don’t have shoulder pressing movements using bands. Well I can tell you from personal experience that bars with weight tend to rocket down on your head when you miss a lift! It definitely doesn’t hurt much or anything!

Week 4

This is our deload and it is crucially important on this style of training. Bands place a lot of strain on your body, and we are doing a lot of lifting so take your recovery seriously, and don’t over do it this week.

This week you don’t have to push quite as hard with the banded lifts. Pick a moderately heavy TM and practice moving that weight quickly. Let your body tell you if you are ok to increase in weight or be more conservative.

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Week 5

This starts our first week of the second cycle. We’ve made a few changes on rep ranges and movements, but nothing drastic.

By now you should be feeling stronger on the banded moves. For the reverse banded pull ups you might need to increase to a larger band, or find a way to increase the tension on your current band.

Week 6

Our pattern from last cycle continues. Try to increase 10 lbs on lower body lifts, and 5 on upper body. If you are having trouble doing this for all sets in the movement, then try to just increase on the first few sets, as you are able.

Week 7

You’ve started to see the light at the end of the tunnel and your new PRs are almost here, but you’ve got to get through this week, the hardest week in the whole 9 week program.

Week 8

This is our deload prior to our PR week. As I stated above, don’t go crazy here, and go moderately heavy. Save the big lifts for next week.

Week 9 PR Time !!!

Fire up that Instagram, and get ready to post some PR’s! This is the week you’ve been building up to.

It goes without saying that this week we will not be using bands, and these are all actual PR attempts. I advise my athletes that they should perform a thorough warm up, and pick 3 attempts at the lift.

The first should be fairly conservative, right under your old PR. The second should be a PR you’d be happy with, and the third is a shot for the stars. If you are having a great day then you can take a 4th attempt but you should understand that the more PR attempts you take the more likely you are to incur an injury. So don’t get greedy!

Final Thoughts

This program will be quite a departure for most athletes, and it is meant to be. You cannot continue to progress using the same methods you have always used.

I would expect that many athletes will be around a 20-30 lbs PR in lower body lifts, and 10-15 lbs in upper body lifts. Obviously, some will show much greater improvement, and other a little less. But as Mark “Smelly” Bell says, “strength is never a weakness.” Now get out there and start training.

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