Trainer Marcus Filly Just Shared an Introduction to Functional Bodybuilding

Former CrossFit Games athlete Marcus Filly is a proponent of “functional bodybuilding,” and in a new video on powerlifter Mark Bell’s YouTube channel, he offers a primer on what he considers to be the foundational “pillars” of this school of fitness, including time under tension and mixed modal conditioning.

Filly starts out by talking Bell and bodybuilder Nsima Inyang through his technique for the single-arm kettlebell press, which he then supersets with a trap bar deadlift, ensuring that he keeps the movements slow and controlled. “I’d want that set to take somewhere between 45 seconds and 55 seconds just on that arm,” he says, “so we’re going to get around 90 seconds of time under tension on the press, then we’re going to deadlift for a minute straight, so keep the tempo slow.”

“Tempo resistance training teaches people a little bit easier motor control, mind-muscle connection,” he continues. “That alone is going to protect people from their own mental worst enemy, which is like, ‘I think I can lift the universe today,’ and they go in with sloppy technique and they hurt themselves.”

Filly then demonstrates some of his go-to “functional pump conditioning” work. Unlike with the previous lifts, the goal here is to complete each round as quickly as possible, but without sacrificing technique. “To ensure we’re not going too fast and losing form, we pick exercises that specifically will slow you down, by the nature of how you get in and out of them,” he says.

In this instance, Filly chooses the dumbbell floor press, going from 10 reps down to one, the kettlebell swing, and sled pull. “If one of your greatest assets as an athlete is your strength,” he says, “then leverage it in these conditioning workouts so that you can get good cardiovascular work capacity, but use things that you’re really confident with to elevate and develop intensity.”

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