The Truth About “Functional Fitness”—What Actually Works?
By Coach Dan — Tri-State Training | Mindset. Movement. Memorable.
Functional fitness gets talked about everywhere — CrossFit gyms, strength programs, and pretty much any group training environment. The problem is that the term has been used so loosely, it almost doesn’t mean anything anymore.
So instead of trying to label everything as “functional,” I want to bring the focus back to what actually helps athletes move better, stay strong, and build skills that carry over into sport and everyday life.
From both a coaching perspective and an athlete perspective, functional fitness is real — it just isn’t always what people think it is.
A better way to define functional fitness
When I think of functional fitness, I think of training movement patterns that genuinely help an athlete become more capable. Things like squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, bracing, rotating, sprinting, and learning to create force through the hips. These are movements that support almost every sport, and they teach athletes how to coordinate their bodies under different kinds of stress.
The issue is that, especially in the CrossFit and general fitness communities, functional fitness sometimes becomes “anything that looks cool” instead of “anything that serves a purpose.”
A butterfly pull-up or a handstand walk might be useful in a CrossFit workout, but that doesn’t automatically make it functional. Same with advanced variations of Olympic lifting. They’re all great skills to have — but the word “functional” shouldn’t be a blanket label for every high-skill movement in the gym.
Where athletes start running into problems
One of the biggest things I see with functional fitness programs — especially in group settings — is athletes jumping ahead of where they actually are in terms of strength and control.
People want the advanced variations before they’ve developed the foundation:
Kipping before strict pulling
Muscle-ups before they can stabilize dips
Full snatches before they can overhead squat
High-skill barbell cycling before they can hinge well
It’s not a lack of effort. It’s enthusiasm. But when the foundation isn’t there, the “functional” movement becomes dysfunctional really quickly.
Another issue is novelty. Social media moves fast, and athletes want to try every new skill they see online. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to learn new things — but there still has to be a purpose behind what you’re doing.
Functional fitness only works when the hour you’re training has intention behind it, not just movement for movement’s sake.
Where Olympic lifting fits into all of this
Olympic lifting is one of the most misunderstood areas in the functional fitness world.
My stance — and Tri-State’s stance — is this:
Olympic lifting absolutely belongs in a functional fitness model, but it needs to be taught the right way.
Not everyone needs to snatch from the floor.
Not everyone needs to full clean.
Not everyone should be throwing heavy barbells overhead under fatigue.
But almost everyone can benefit from:
Hang variations
Hip-extension drills
Pulling mechanics
Speed under the bar
Coordination and timing
Controlled receiving positions
These are highly functional skills, and they carry over to almost any sport.
When I’m coaching CrossFit athletes or general strength athletes, the approach is always:
Technique first. Load second. Full movements later.
And yes — once an athlete has the strength and stability to support it, lifting under fatigue is fine. But there’s a big difference between adding intensity and skipping steps.
What functional training should actually accomplish
If the goal is to be functionally fit, then the training should:
Improve movement quality
Increase the ability to produce force
Make the athlete more resilient
Support longevity
Build coordination
Strengthen positions, not just skills
Create progressions that make sense
And for coaches, the goal should be to build these things in a way that keeps athletes excited about training — without skipping the steps that keep them safe.
Functional training doesn’t need to be glamorous to be effective. Most of the work that truly matters looks simple, consistent, and repeatable.
The Tri-State approach
At Tri-State, we use Olympic lifting as one part of a bigger system that helps athletes move better — not because it’s trendy, but because it develops qualities every athlete needs: timing, explosiveness, coordination, and position-specific strength.
We teach lifts in phases.
We progress athletes based on readiness.
We build stability before we increase speed.
We help CrossFit athletes improve their lifting without sacrificing the rest of their training.
And we make sure movement quality always comes first.
Functional fitness doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to be purposeful.
If you want to train with more intention…
Whether you’re a CrossFit athlete wanting cleaner lifts, a strength athlete wanting more explosiveness, or someone who just wants to build a better foundation — this is exactly what we do.
When you’re ready, you can join one of our training blocks, book a strength call, or start with any of our coaches.
We’ll help you train smarter, move better, and build strength that actually carries over.
