Spartan "300" home workout challenge

Spartan 300 challenge

25 pull ups

50 pistol squats (25 each leg)

50 push ups

50 split jumps (L/R=1 )

50 toes to bar

50 reverse burpees

25 chin ups

I came across this link today for a race called the Spartan death race. A crazy 3 mile or 8 mile gauntlet type of race. Looked really interesting. I found some interesting videos on youtube about the race as well. After checking out those videos I came across some old videos of the "300" workout. A workout put together by Mark Twight at Gym Jones in Salt Lake City. Gym Jones is the place where the cast of the movie "300" trained to get ripped for the movie. The "300" workout is no joke. I have done it once or twice before a long time ago and I remembered how brutal it was. Well I decided to put together a little home workout version of this workout as described above.

I finished this version in 30 min and 44 secs. The first set of pull ups I managed unbroken. The pistol squats or single leg squats were brutal. I decided to do a full set of 25 on each leg before moving on to the next instead of alternating each leg. The left leg was a real struggle for me. Hard to do them and keep my heel on the ground. I kept loosing my balance on the way up as well. Not sure what the issue was there. I need more practice with these. The right side was much better. Faster and better technique. Push ups were unbroken. Then came the split jumps. Basically in a lunge position jump and switch your legs and land back in the lunge position. Left side then right side equaled 1 rep. The lactic acid built up really fast in my quads on these. I managed 17 then 15,10 and 8 before finishing. The toes to bar were not bad. I finished them in three sets. I think it was 25, 15, 10. The reverse burpees were awesome. I have never attempted a reverse burpee before. I loved them. Fun and challenging. This slowed me down more than I had expected. From lying on your back position you rock a hard sit up so you can come up to your feet. Stand up then do a hand stand. When you come back down just go to your feet and then back down tell you are lying on your back again. I really enjoyed them. I finished the chin ups in two sets.

A great home workout. I would really like to see someone finish this faster. 20 mins maybe. Try this "300" workout if you think you are spartan tough.

Here is a video explaining the actual 300 workout. Which you should also try if you are familiar with these lifts.

Here is a video of a couple of guys doing the reverse burpees. Fun exercise. Give them a try.

Here is a cool video of Mark Twight training the crew for the movie

Tabata this

Tabata- 20 secs work with 10 secs rest X 8

Pull ups 44

Toes to bar 40

Push ups 94

Air squats 130

Studies have shown that when athletes perform tabata intervals, they increase both aerobic (endurance) and anaerobic (short bursts of energy) capacities more than any other type of cardio. Tabata intervals can be used as a fat burning method and can also improve performance in most aerobic and anaerobic sports.

One tabata interval is only going to last four minutes. Trust me, it is going to be the longest four minutes of your life. When you try this, pick a couple of exercises and use lighter weight or body weight only.

Remember, in order to get the best results you have to push yourself. Go for the highest reps possible in 20 secs and then rest for ten. When the 10 sec rest is up get right back to work and have fun. Helps to have some sort of timer handy.

Progression Ladder and "Annie"

Every minute on the minute perform 1 pull up.

In the first minute do 1 pull up, in the second minute do 2 pull ups, the third minute 3 pull ups and so on until you are unable to perform the required reps in the one minute.

I finished with 12 rounds + 7.

I woke up this morning not feeling so great. I feel a cold coming on. So I just wanted to take it easy a bit today. I like these sort of progression ladders. You get a nice warm up in the early sets and get blasted in the end. Not my strongest effort in this sort of workout. I was doing the pull ups on a bar that was about 6 inches away from a wall. So this made my pull ups very strict. I could not get any kip out of them.

After the progression ladder I wanted to have a go at "Annie" a crossfit wod that is short fast and effective. 50-40-30-20-10 reps for a time of Double Unders and Sit ups. I have only done this one time before and I think I did it in a 7 min and some change. This time I finished in 6 min and 47 secs. A bit faster. I did not even think to anchor my feet for the sit ups. This would have made it way faster. The double unders were pretty easy. I did every set unbroken. No problem there. I think the best way to improve on this is to have my feet anchored for the sit ups.

I am just going to rest up the next couple of days and hopefully I will feel better by turkey day. I hope to get a good Thanksgiving day workout in. Then I wont feel as bad about all the food and beer I am going to consume.

30 Burpee-Pull up-Toes to bar

30 Burpee-Pull up-Toes to bar for a time:

I came across this quick wod sometime ago on Ricky Frausto's Strength Development Inc. website. Ricky is the owner of Crossfit Omaha and has several sites that I visit regularly for information on nutrition @ Nutrisimple or strength training advice and or inspiration and competition on the Crossfit Omaha main site. I thought this one looked really fun and simple and I figured I could bust this out just about anywhere.

I had plans to go climbing in Eldorado State Park so I figured I would get a nice fast work out in this morning. I just jogged a few blocks up the road to a park that has a few swing sets. I figured I would use the top of the swing set for my pull ups. I could just barely jump and hold on to the top of the set. The ground was also wet so when I did the burpee and then jumped up grabbed the bar It felt really insecure and I couldn't really get any momentum. This one factor made this wod just that much harder. Which was for the better. Everything else was pretty easy. I finished in just under 8 mins. I think 30 reps might have been too little however since I was planning on getting worked over climbing in Eldorado SP this was just what I wanted this morning. In the future I might try to do 100 of these for a time. Overall this was my first time performing a burpee pull up combo and I liked throwing in the toes to bar. Fun, Fast and Effective.

Here is a quick video of a bad ass doing 100 burpee pull ups. Imagine throwing in the toes to bar. Sick, Bluh!

Cindy round 2

"Cindy"

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of

5 pull ups

10 push ups

15 squats

A crossfit benchmark workout. The first time I did this wod was about one year ago and I finished with 24 rounds. A very challenging workout mentally and physically.

This time around I was shooting for 28 rounds. I finished with 26 and 2 push ups. An enormous effort. Not a huge jump up but I will take it. I know for sure I was very sore going into this workout from the two previous workouts. I tried to spend about 20 minutes going through a thorough warm up. This didn't really help much. Starting out I was moving really slow in the squats. I think allot has to do with my diet and my sleeping habits. I need to make a few adjustments for sure. From the 10 to the 15 th round I was moving pretty slow and taking time between each round. After 15 I started moving pretty fast. The last couple rounds were an enormous mental challenge. Overall I am happy with the slightest improvement.

I am looking forward to the next couple days. Going climbing.

Short, Fast, and Heavy

3 rounds for a time of:

3 squat clean thrusters 185 pounds

4 weighted pull-ups 55 pounds b/w the legs

100 meters buddy carry ( Fireman style)

I finished in 6 min 51 secs. I really wanted to do something that was short, fast , intense and Heavy. All of this was pretty heavy for me. The squat cleans being the heaviest. Thinking about this workout now I think I have exposed a weakness in my training. That would have to be core strength. During the squat clean thrusters I would pull forward in the squat clean making it that much harder to come out of the squat and get the weight over head. With a stronger core I would be able to keep good allowing me to be able to do these no problem.

During the Fireman carry I recruited a kid from the gym who weighed about as much as I do about 190 pounds. With in the first 25 meters I would slump forward in the core making it harder to breath and carry this kid the full 100 meters. I will definitely make this a focus of mine to improve my core strength so that I can go again stronger and faster. On the positive side I did finish every round unbroken. That has sort of become a new theme of mine UNBROKEN! That is the chant I have in my head when faced with these difficult tasks. Keep going! Keep Pushing! UNBROKEN!