Omnifitness

I have been training online clients for a little over ten years. It started out with people in my gym wanting to do long endurance sports while maintaining their strength and hitting their gym workouts. My primary role was managing balance and fatigue, and because most of the events involved running, it kept them from getting injured. (Running is the most injury-producing sport on the planet.)

As the years passed, people changed from wanting to do triathlons to obstacle course races and, lately, hyrax. Over the years, I also began to focus on longevity and heart health, and since the workouts that were good for those were also good for these events, I worked them in whenever I could.

Now, a new kind of fitness is popping up everywhere, and it doesn’t look like the usual routine; it looks a lot like how I have been programming for years for my clients.

It’s not just lifting weights or going for runs. It’s about being strong enough to move heavy things, fit enough to handle long days, mobile enough to avoid injury, and mentally tough enough to keep showing up. Training prepares you for real life, not just gym life.

And it’s catching on for a reason.

Welcome to the era of Omnifitness.

What Is Omnifitness?

At its core, Omnifitness is the practice of training across multiple domains, including strength, endurance, mobility, and mental toughness, to become capable, adaptable, and ready for anything life throws your way.

It’s not about being the best at one thing. It’s about being good at many. The Omnifit athlete can chase their kid across a park, crush a 5K, help a friend move a couch, or carry a 40-pound pack up a hill without needing a week to recover.

Think of it as functional fitness 2.0. Strength meets stamina. Grit meets grace.

Where Did This Come From?

The roots of Omnifitness go way back, think warriors, hunters, and explorers. These were people who had to be generalists. If you were too specialized in one area, nature didn’t care. You either had range or you were replaced.

In modern fitness history, a few trends set the stage:

• CrossFit popularized “constantly varied” functional fitness, blending Olympic lifting, gymnastics, and cardio. While polarizing, it sparked the idea that training for everything was possible and maybe optimal.

• Military training programs have always emphasized well-rounded readiness: strength, endurance, and durability.

• Hybrid athletes like Nick Bare and Alex Viada showed that if one's training was smart, one could run marathons and squat heavily in the same season.

All of this paved the way for what is now being called Omnifitness.

What Does Omnifitness Look Like Today?

In 2025, Omnifitness is hitting its stride.

You’ll see it in HYROX events, GoRuck challenges, and Murph-style workouts. You’ll see it in the rise of tactical fitness, soft fitness, and Zone 2 training. It’s in gyms, garages, trails, and backyards worldwide.

Most importantly, it’s showing up in people tired of training for aesthetics alone. They want performance, longevity, confidence, and capacity. They want to feel capable at 30, 50, or 70.

Here’s a sample week that captures the spirit of Omnifitness:

Sample Weekly Omnifitness Training Plan

Monday: Strength + Zone 2 Cardio

• Back Squats 5x5

• Accessory: Bulgarian split squats, glute bridges

• 30–45 minutes Zone 2 bike or jog

Tuesday: Functional Conditioning + Core

• 3 rounds: 500m row, 15 KB swings, 10 push-ups, 20 walking lunges

• Core finisher: planks, V-ups, ab wheel

Wednesday: Mobility + Recovery

• Full-body mobility (30–45 min)

• Optional: easy walk, yoga, or hike

Thursday: Deadlift + Sprint Intervals

• Deadlift 5x3

• 6x200m sprints with walk-back recovery

Friday: Hybrid Metcon

• 4 rounds for time: 10 DB snatches (each side), 10 burpees, 15 air squats, 400m run

Saturday: Long Endurance + Grit

• 60–90 min ruck, trail run, or long bike ride

• Optional: cold plunge or contrast therapy

Sunday: Off or Active Recovery

• Light movement, sleep, stretching, and journaling

This template isn’t rigid. It flexes. Depending on age, goals, and training history, you can scale intensity, duration, and load. That’s the beauty of it, it’s a framework, not a prison.

Why Omnifitness Works

Let’s break down the benefits:

1. You’re Always Ready

You don’t need a 12-week prep cycle to join your friends on a hike, compete in a local race, or jump into a community workout. You’re ready now.

2. You Train for Life, Not Looks

Yes, you’ll look better. But the win isn’t the mirror; it’s confidence, capacity, and quality of life. You train to do more, not just weigh less.

3. Built-In Longevity

Omnifitness incorporates recovery, mobility, and low-intensity work (like Zone 2 cardio), which supports heart health, joint integrity, and nervous system regulation. You’re building for the long haul.

4. Mental Toughness

These workouts don’t just train your body, they shape your mindset. You learn to stay calm in discomfort, show up when it’s hard, and finish what you start.

The Importance of Coaching

Here’s the truth: Omnifitness isn’t easy to self-manage. With so many moving parts, strength, conditioning, endurance, and recovery, it’s easy to burn out or under-train if you're not careful.

A great coach acts like a filter and a guide. They help:

• Structure your week so you’re not redlining every day

• Adjust for your lifestyle, injuries, and goals

• Monitor volume and intensity to keep you progressing without breaking down

• Push you when you’re slacking—and hold you back when you need rest

Omnifitness isn’t about grinding harder. It’s about training smarter. And a smart coach helps you stay consistent, accountable, and on track for years, not weeks.

The Tech Boost

Wearables like Whoop, Oura, and Garmin are helping omnifit athletes track sleep, HRV, and strain to manage recovery. Apps and programs are popping up that let users toggle between strength and endurance blocks without sacrificing either. The data is improving, but the principle stays simple: move often, lift heavy, stay humble, and recover hard.

The Challenges

Is Omnifitness perfect? No. It requires intention and balance. You can’t go hard every day. Without innovative programming, it’s easy to overtrain or stall out. That's where recovery, sleep, nutrition, periodization, and an intelligent coach matter.

It’s also not for those chasing hyper-specialization. You likely won’t squat 800 pounds or win a marathon. But you can deadlift your bodyweight and still chase your dog up a hill.

Final Thoughts

Omnifitness is less about being elite and more about being ready for your kids, your job, your next adventure, and your next decade.

If you’re curious about starting this kind of training, here’s how to begin:

1. Find a Coach or Gym Look for a coach who understands both strength and conditioning, or join a gym that offers functional fitness or hybrid programming. Here is my website: JoshuaGrenell.com, I can help.

2. Start Simple: Pick 2–3 movement categories to begin with: one strength day, one endurance session, and one mobility/recovery session.

3. Track Recovery Use a basic heart rate monitor or wearable to avoid overtraining and help pace your effort.

4. Prioritize Consistency Over Intensity. You don’t have to crush every workout. Just show up and build momentum.

5. Build Gradually Layer in more complexity—like sprint intervals or metcons—as your body adapts.

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s progress. Train to be capable, not just for one event but for everything life brings.