Now that we’ve gone over specific functional fitness exercises, let’s pull them together to build a workout routine!

For most beginners, I recommend creating a full-body practice at first, which includes:

  • Quads (front of your legs).
  • Butt and hamstrings (back of your legs).
  • Chest, shoulders, and triceps: (“push” muscles).
  • Back, biceps, and grip ( “pull” muscles).
  • Core (abdominals and lower back).

Since we prioritized compound exercises in today’s post (because they are more aligned with functional fitness), our muscle groups will overlap when we build our routine.

That’s a good thing.

Using the exercises covered earlier, our Functional Fitness Workout could be:

  • Quads: Bodyweight Squats
  • Butt and hamstring: Deadlifts
  • Chest, shoulders, triceps: Push-ups
  • Back, biceps, and grip: Pull-ups
  • Core: Bear Crawl

That’s it! If you start doing this once a week you’ll be well on your way to building functional fitness.

If you want to do this twice a week, maybe switch out some exercises:

  • Instead of push-ups, try the overhead press
  • Instead of squats, try lunges
  • Instead of pull-ups, try bodyweight rows

One important point: no matter what routine you pick, always warm-up first!

 

Warming up is important because we want your muscles engaged and loose before we jump right into our training. So warm-up for about 5 minutes before jumping into your workout.

As long as you include your warm-up, you now have what you need to start your training.

If you want more help building a functional fitness practice, I have a couple resources for you:

  1. How to Build Your Own Workout Routine: our guide will walk you through building your own training practice. We’ll teach you what exercises you should do, how many sets and reps you should perform, and how often you should work out. It’ll help you start performing functional fitness exercises today.
  2. Our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program: if you want a more customized approach for your exact situation (kids, an old injury, you turn into a werewolf once a month), then check out NF Coaching. We’ll build you an exact plan of attack on how to become a functional fitness master.