Trainer Marcus Filly Explains the ‘Functional Bro Split’ He Uses to Get Jacked
Marcus Filly might have competed in the CrossFit Games no fewer than six times, but when it comes to his workouts he takes a more holistic approach, eschewing some of the speed and intensity-focused CrossFit techniques and training for stability and longevity as much as for strength. A proponent of "functional bodybuilding," Filly elaborates on how he programs his workouts in a new YouTube video.
"I have learned that training the way we move, rather than specific body parts, has a lot more carryover to my life outside of the gym, and it's also super fun," he says. "Don't sleep on how important fun in training actually is. Avoiding boredom and burnout is key to staying consistent."
Traditional "bro" splits will see you planning your week with upper body days and lower body days, or push days and pull days. But after 25 years of training, having tried all different kinds of workout styles, Filly believes the best training split is whichever one you can follow long enough to see results. And for him, that means combining various lessons he has learned through both his functional training and his CrossFit experience, to create the "functional bodybuilding bro split."
Here's what a typical chest and back day looks like in Filly's gym.
#1 Chest:
6-8 incline dumbbell bench press
10-12 ring pushups
60-75 double unders on a weighted rope
"We're choosing a classic chest exercise where you can push heavier for more strength," says Filly. The rings, he adds, make your bodyweight exercises much more challenging and allow you to explore instability. And while the double unders might not seem like they fit into a conventional bro split, he points out that they put constant tension on the shoulders, chest, and triceps.
#2 Chest:
6-8 barbell floor press
10-12 burpees over barbell
45 seconds arms only on the assault bike
"I like pairing something fast and explosive with something slower, like the barbell floor press," says Filly. Note that the assault bike mimics this pushing motion, extending time under tension. And sure, this is cardio-heavy compared to other bodybuilding workouts, but Filly explains that he wants his sessions to be balanced so he can build "fitness, work capacity and muscle all together."
#3 Back:
6-8 barbell bent over rows
12-15 body rows
45 seconds rowing
Filly advises overloading the weighted move here, then increasing the reps as you decrease the weight in subsequent exercises, saying: "increasing time under tension is a great strategy for hypertrophy."
#4 Back:
6-8 weighted pullups
12-15 dumbbell bent over rows
45 second rope climbs
"I like to combine different angles of the same movement pattern together," says Filly. "Bent over rowing with vertical pulling, this is going to distribute the work around different parts of the back. This also affords us the ability to recover one area of the body while we work another."
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