Move better and feel stronger with this two-week functional training plan.
“Training movements over muscles makes your overall training time decrease, but your volume and intensity increase,” says personal trainer and the founder of Hoyles Fitness, Steve Hoyles. By taking an overarching view of physiology and how the body moves, you can put together more efficient and effective workouts and training program templates.
Rather than focusing on say, a biceps exercise, you would look at upper-body pulling variations where you’ll train your back, your shoulders and your biceps in one movement. You can still do accessory work such as curls, but these fit in around the compound movements.
To begin with, your training program needs to contain each of these movements in order to be truly balanced. This allows you to maintain a training intensity without over-relying on single movements or muscles, which potentially increases injury risk.
Now you have an idea of movements and exercises, you can look at manipulating load (weight), volume (sets and reps) and intensity (rest periods) to bring about different results.
You can do that within a single week by alternating heavy days with lighter days, or periodise it into blocks, such as a strength block where you’d only lift heavy, or a hypertrophy block where you’d increase volume.
It’s a training approach designed to be as versatile as possible.
The seven functional human movements
Squat
Exercises: bodyweight squat, goblet squat, back/front squat
Lunge
Exercises: standard lunge, step-up, reverse lunge, split squat
Push
Exercises: press-up, bench press, shoulder press
Pull
Exercises: bent-over row, high pull, pull-up, deadlift
Hinge
Exercises: kettlebell swing, deadlift
Rotation
Exercises: Russian twist, barbell rotations, medicine ball rotations
Gait
Exercises: walking, running, sprinting
Two-week functional training plan
Across this two-week functional training plan, you’ll perform each of the movements your body is capable of. The plan is to use a variety of different weights, sets and rep ranges.
You’ll also be performing cardio work to keep your engine going and ensure a high calorie burn.
Each functional movement workout has a focus, such as strength, conditioning or volume, and you’ll only be using a maximum of three items of kit per session.
WEEK 1 of the functional training plan
DAY 1: Barbell strength
1. Front squat
- 6-8 reps / 5 sets / 90 secs rest
2. Bent-over row
- 6-8 reps / 5 sets / 90 secs rest
3. Romanian deadlift
- 6-8 reps / 5 sets / 90 secs rest
4. Chest press
- 6-8 reps / 5 sets / 90 secs rest
DAY 2: Conditioning
1. Rower sprints
- 20 x 100m / 15 secs rest between efforts
2. Burpees
- 100 as fast as possible
3. Russian twist
- 20 reps / 4 sets / 45 secs rest
4. Swiss ball roll-out
- 10 reps / 2 sets / 45 secs rest
DAY 3: High-volume resistance training
1. Jumping pull-up
- 10 reps / 5 sets / 60 secs rest
2. Kettlebell swing
- 25 reps / 5 sets / 60 secs rest
3. Single-arm kettlebell high pull
- 15 reps / 5 sets / 60 secs rest
4. Hand-elevated push-up
- 15 reps / 5 sets / 60 secs rest
5. Hanging leg raise
- 10 reps / 5 sets / 60 secs rest
DAY 4: High-volume strength training
1. Dumbbell squat
- 12 reps / 4 sets / 60 secs rest
2. Single-arm row
- 12 reps / 4 sets / 60 secs rest
3. Incline dumbbell chest press
- 12 reps / 4 sets / 60 secs rest
4. Bulgarian split squat
- 12 reps / 4 sets / 60 secs rest
5. Calf raise
- 25 reps / 4 sets / 60 secs rest
Grab a pair of these space-saving adjustable dumbbells
WEEK 2 of the functional training plan
DAY 1: Whole-body conditioning
1. Treadmill sprints
- 15 secs sprint / 15 sets / 45 secs recovery jog
2a. Kettlebell swing
- 20 reps / superset
2b. Push-up
- 10 reps / 5 sets / 60 secs rest
3. Jump squat
- 20 reps / 4 sets / 60 secs rest
4. Row
- 1,000m sprint as fast as possible
DAY 2: Strength
1. Deadlift
- 6 reps / 5 sets / 90 secs rest
2. Chest press
- 6 reps / 5 sets / 90 secs rest
3. Slow-tempo pull-up
- 6 reps / 5 sets / 90 secs rest
4. Barbell lunge
- 6 reps / 5 sets / 90 secs rest
5. Barbell upright row
- 6 reps / 5 sets / 90 secs rest
DAY 3: High-volume resistance training
1. Dumbbell thruster
- 10 reps / 5 sets / 60 secs rest
2. Feet-elevated push-up
- 10 reps / 4 sets / 60 secs rest
3. Biceps curl
- 10 reps / 3 sets / 60 secs rest
4. Barbell shoulder press
- 10 reps / 2 sets / 60 secs rest
5. Burpees
- 10 reps / 1 sets / 60 secs rest
6. Feet-elevated push-up
- 10 reps / 2 sets / 60 secs rest
7. Biceps curl
- 10 reps / 3 sets / 60 secs rest
8. Barbell shoulder press
- 10 reps / 4 sets / 60 secs rest
9. Burpees
- 10 reps / 5 sets / 60 secs rest
DAY 4: Bodyweight HIIT
(5 rounds / 2 mins rest between rounds)
1. Run 2.4km
2a. Jump squat
- 30 secs on / 30 secs off
2b. Burpees
- 30 secs on / 30 secs off
2c. Swiss Ball dorsal raise
- 30 secs on / 30 secs off
2d. Plank
- 30 secs on / 30 secs off
2e. Push-up
- 30 secs on / 30 secs off
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