8 Functional Training Exercises for Weight Loss

Functional Training Exercises for Weight Loss

There are plenty of exercises that can help you with weight loss.

Lunges, front plank, side plank, pull-ups, burpee, push up, farmer’s walk, and squat are excellent exercises to lose weight.

There are dozens of exercises that you can implement in your training routine that can make you even more good-looking. 

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What Is a Functional Fitness Workout?

Functional fitness workout is a form of training that can strengthen your muscles using your body weight, dumbbells, medicine ball, or other resistance tools. 

But this kind of training is different compared to a regular weightlifting program.

Your body performs better because it enhances the connection between your brain and muscles. 

To keep balanced and maintain good posture throughout each functional training exercise, you must pay close attention to how you move. 

You can hire a personal trainer to help you build your body or incorporate balance and posture exercises into your weekly strength training sessions.

Functional Fitness Workout for Weight Loss

Functional fitness exercises for weight loss are a type that shouldn’t waste your time and therefore doesn’t take too much of your time.

Try these exercises if you want to burn calories and slim down but don’t wish to join a gym. 

Let’s not spend any more time and begin with 8 exercises that will help you lose weight and slim down your body since you can perform all of these in the comfort of your own home.

1. Weighted Push-up

Man performs weighted push-ups

Push-ups that require weight are more complicated.

You can add weight to the traditional bodyweight exercise to help build your shoulders, chest, triceps, and core by wearing a weighted vest or placing a weight plate on your back. 

How to Perform a Weighted Push-up

  1. Put yourself in the push-up position using your hands and knees.
  2. Reach behind you and place the weight on your back, or use a weighted vest.
  3. Spread your legs apart gradually to prepare for a push-up. Push-ups are performed.
  4. Get back into a tabletop or push-up position on your knees to release the tension from your back.

2. Trx Row

Woman performs TRX rows

The TRX row exercise is beneficial for enhancing upper back strength.

Along with the shoulders and core, the key back muscular groups targeted by the TRX row are the lats, rhomboids, and traps.

How to Perform TRX Rows

  1. Standing with your feet hip-distance away, hold a TRX handle or ring in each hand with your palms facing one another.
  2. Walk your feet forward until your torso is at a 45-degree angle to the floor, your arms are fully extended, and your body is straight. 
  3. To make this challenging, take a step forward with your feet so that your shoulders are lower to the floor. The more sophisticated version would have the body nearly parallel to the ground.
  4. Keep a strong core and straight legs with your feet or heels on the ground, bend your elbows behind you while maintaining them close to your body, and bring your chest toward your hands.
  5. To complete one rep, lower your torso while keeping your arms straight.

3. Lunges

woman performs lunges in the comfort of her home

Lunges are an excellent exercise for legs that belong to hinge and squat movement patterns.

It stimulates the hamstrings, glutes, hips, and calves, among other muscles.

How to Perform Lunges

  1. Place your feet hip-width apart as you stand at the beginning.
  2. Step forward more slowly than you would usually to position your front leg in front of your back leg. Your foot should stay flat once it makes contact with the ground.
  3. Starting to rise off the ground will be your back heel.
  4. Knees bent at about a 90-degree angle. Lower yourself. Remember to maintain your back straight and your core tight.
  5. Push off with your front leg firmly to get back to where you started.

4. Front Plank

Man performs front plank it the gym

Front plank is an exercise that belongs to anti-lateral flexion movement patterns.

It activates the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae muscles.

How to Perform a Front Plank

  1. With your forearms and toes on the ground, begin face down in a plank position. Your elbows are directly below your shoulders, and your forearms are facing forward.
  2. Draw your navel toward your spine by contracting your abdominal muscles. 
  3. No torso twisting should occur, as your body should remain straight from your head to your toes.
  4. This posture shows a neutral spine. Check that your shoulders are not tense and not sloping upward toward your ears.
  5. Keep your body in this position for 20 seconds. Work your way up to one minute and even beyond that.

5. Side Plank

woman performs side plank on her left elbow

Side plank is an exercise that belongs to anti-lateral flexion movement patterns.

It activates muscles such as your obliques.

How to Perform a Side Plank

  1. Contract your abdominal muscles to bring your navel toward your spine.
  2. As you lift your hips and knees off the mat, exhale. Your torso is straight; there is no slumping or bending. Maintain posture.
  3. Once you’ve taken a few breaths, exhale before pushing yourself back to the starting position.
  4. One minute should be the goal. Change sides and repeat.

6. Standing Overhead Press

woman does overhead press with a weight plate in the commercial gym




Standing overhead press is usually referred to as the shoulder press.

Pressing the weight above your head involves using your stomach, lower back, and the muscles around your shoulder blades.

Your quadriceps, hamstrings,  and glutes are also called upon to provide stability to this shoulder exercise if you advance to a standing variation of the movement.

How to Perform a Standing Overhead Press

  1. Take a shoulder-width grip. Hold with hands no wider than shoulder-width apart, and keep your elbows directly underneath. 
  2. Concentrate on squeezing your shoulder blades together to begin the lift and start the bar moving. Make sure your shoulders are engaged and control the weight correctly.
  3. Engage the abs, contract the lats, and tuck the chin before starting the press.
  4. Keep the barbell in the palms of your hands and drive it straight into the air to press. Once the barbell passes the head, contract the shoulders and shrug slightly to push your head through the bar.
  5. With control, return the bar to its starting position.

7. Pull-up

Man does pull-ups on a regular pull-up bar



Pull-up is an excellent exercise that belongs to vertical pull movement patterns.

It activates muscles such as your lats, traps, rear delts, and biceps.

How to Perform a Pull-up

  1. With your palms facing front and approximately shoulder-width apart, place your hands on the bar to start.
  2. Lift your arms while extending your chest and slightly bending your back.
  3. Pull yourself upwards toward the bar until it is at chest height while inhaling. 
  4. Take a deep breath in and gently return to the starting position.

8. Single-Leg Deadlift

woman performing single leg deadlift with the help of a partner



Single-leg deadlift is a great exercise that belongs to deadlift movement patterns.

It activates muscles such as the glutes, hamstrings, lower back, and core muscles.

How to Perform a Single-Leg Deadlift

  1. Start by standing with your feet hip-width apart and parallel to the ground. Hold a dumbbell in your hands and place it in front of you.
  2. Put all your weight on one leg as the other engages and begins to extend behind you while leaning forward with your hips.
  3. Once your body is in the “T” shape stance, lift the extended leg. While carrying the weight, your arms must hang directly down. Your standing leg should continue to be slightly bent.
  4. Slowly put your extended leg back in your starting position. Likewise, move the other leg.

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FAQs

Can You Lose Weight With Functional Training?

Yes, you can lose weight with functional training. Your body will feel more comfortable with functional training. It is simpler to lose weight using more popular workouts when you perform these exercises.

Which Type of Training Is Best for Fat Loss?

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is the finest fat-loss activity among all the best fat-loss exercises. With higher-intensity activity, you’ll burn additional calories during and after the workout, allowing you to achieve more quickly.

What Are the 5 Best Exercises to Lose Weight?

5 best exercises to lose weight are lunges, plank, push-up, squat and sprinting. If you add these to your workout, you can expect to lose weight faster than usual.

”Sprinting is often used as a form of HIIT that improves your work capacity, endurance, and explosiveness. It is great for weight loss and performance in sports, but it also progressively overloads ambulation.” – Adam Sinicki, AKA The Bioneer, author of the Functional Fitness and Beyond

What You Must Do to Lose Weight With Functional Training?

Regular practice is required for functional fitness activities to produce effects. But if you follow them consistently, you’ll see a significant improvement in how your body looks and feels.

Try to perform your functional program two or three times a week.

Your heart rate and metabolism will improve when different muscle groups work. It’s impossible to go wrong!

As you become stronger and more coordinated, add new exercises that challenge the lower body and movements that build strength and coordination in your trunk and core.

Want higher weight-loss results?

What’s the plan for your future weight loss functional training session?

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Picture of Vanja Vukas

Vanja Vukas

Student at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education and a hardcore functional training enthusiast. Heavily inspired by Michael Boyle, a strength & conditioning specialist, and by Adam Sinicki, the founder of Bioneer. Vanja believes that transitioning to a movement-based exercise program can drastically improve your fitness, balance out your muscles, and support your current lifestyle.

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