“Functional Fitness” vs “Hybrid Fitness”…

“Functional Fitness” Bro’s are on the resurgence. Probably because Hybrid is also growing in huge popularity. Whilst I’d say that more people are familiar with the concept of functional fitness, or at least, it’s been around longer in terms of it being a fitness genre that people identify with, more people are getting confused between functional fitness and hybrid than ever before.

For many people, the idea of becoming the size of a Mr Olympia bodybuilder put them off the idea of weight training, or at least the idea of using a more traditional bodybuilding structure for their training. They didn’t want to be a hulking ox that couldn’t touch their toes, instead they opted for a more movement based exercise regime, often using things like kettlebells and bodyweight exercises over barbells and dumbbells.

Ironically, the idea that you see a Mr Olympia bodybuilder - someone that is chock full of many cycles of ever increasing anabolic assistance, as well as many, many years (often 20+) of dedicated hard weight training, and think that is going to happen to you over a matter of weeks is deeply troubling.

It’s like saying you aren’t going to try any swimming, just in case you become as good as Michael Phelps.

The downside to this immediate divergence from using what we all know to be the most efficient ways to build strength and quality muscle mass is a problem - but don’t worry, that’s where the functional fitness bro’s can come in to save the day.

Don’t worry, they said, holding a kettle bell for a topless shoot that they got in shape for using traditional bodybuilding methods. You too can look and - more importantly - “perform” just like us, without having to ever train like one of those chunky bodybuilders.

And so that’s what many people did. They sacrificed the best years of their training lives, opting to not build strength, or to really build any credible fitness because they attached their identity to the “functional” scene, where sub optimal programming is rampant, and a lack of progress seems to go unnoticed by trainer and trainee alike.

Enter the concept of the Hybrid Athlete. I’ve had so many conversations with people that often go something like this. It’s usually in a casual setting, because obviously, despite this being my career, I do have a life outside of it, and when I meet new people and they ask me what I do, it’s hard to explain sometimes.

“I’m a fitness coach” I usually say. Then I say, just incase they do already know what Hybrid is, something like, “but more like a strength coach meets ultra running coach” - my coaching is all about building strength and endurance capabilities at the same time”.

Often, but not all the time, people will immediately confuse what I do and say “ah yeh I know exactly what you mean, you do those crazy Hyrox races!” Not quite, I say, (often wondering at this point I bother to labour the expansion of the point of concurrent strength & endurance) or they’ll confuse what I do even more and say they’ve been training that for years too, always way preferred to be more “functional”.

And this is the crux of the confusion around what is actually “functional”…

Is it…the application of movement patterns that are unconventional, as in, they challenge the body to move outside its usual planes of movements, like animal flow, or oddly weighted transverse kettlebell movements? Maybe.

Or is it…Building strength so that those movement patterns aren’t a challenge for a person due to their strength capabilities, which you can still train through more dynamic effort strength sessions and to some extent “specific” blocks of training when needed. Coupled with a fully functioning, broad set of energy systems that allow for large training volume, work capacity and recovery? Definitely.

In essence, good Hybrid training is always going to be far more functional than “functional” training.

The functional scene, whilst it definitely has it’s place as a way of keeping people healthy, doesn’t do much for you if you trying to really push the boundaries of what you think your body is capable of.

There is a huge divergence when it comes to what the concept of performance actually means between the functional and Hybrid space, and whilst Hybrid performance is measurable and uses the training methods that we already know are used by elite athletes…the other does not.

I know which one I’m choosing.

Choose Life. Choose Hybrid.