The Ultimate Functional Fitness Workout Program

Sure, there are days when you wonder how nice it would be to be so muscular that you would be mistaken for a young Arnold Schwarzenegger or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson but sometimes, if not most times, it’s best to keep your health and fitness goals realistic. Let’s be honest how practical would life be if you’re so muscular that you can’t even scratch your back or touch your own shoulders. That’s where functional fitness comes in to play.

Here’s the reality of what regular health and fitness is as opposed to the becoming a bodybuilding pro is: Very few of us will make a career out of building muscles. Most gym rats aren’t getting paid to be in the gym. They don’t have a lucrative career as a celebrity trainer nor are they the fitness model they claim to be. If they’re lucky they maybe have a loyal following on Instagram. For the rest of us who aren’t trying to make a living lifting the heavy iron there’s functional fitness. Every day movement is important as well as keeping our health in check as we age.

Now everyone at one point of their lives has some experience with facing the daily struggles against moving objects—toting carry-on luggage into the overhead bin, lifting a bag of dog food into the trunk of your car, or helping your buddy carry that oversized recliner up three flights of stairs to his new apartment. And it doesn’t even have to be all that difficult. It can be as simple as bending over to pick up the pencil of that cute girl in your class. Maybe your grandma needs you reach the top shelf of her cabinet.

And for that, we like to focus on the one thing every guy needs: practical, all-around strength and functional fitness.

Training

8 Compound Moves for Functional Strength

Focus on these basic, multi-joint lifts to manifest massive muscle.

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Directions

How to do it: This 3-day workout program is designed to build exactly that. Make sure to rest one day between workouts. Do 3 sets of each exercise. Use a weight that makes it challenging, but not impossible, to do about 10 reps of each move. Focus on maintaining good form above all else. Rest about a minute between sets, and about 2 to 3 minutes between each exercise.