Table of Contents
PART 1
Getting Started
Introduction
You mightve seen the movie when it came out in 2007. The film is a screen adaptation of a graphic novel that was based upon the Battle of Thermopylae in August or September of 480 B.C.,as chronicled by the Greek historian Herodotus. During the battle, Greece was invaded by the Persians, who were led by their king Xerxes and his armies, which numbered in the millions. At the time, Greece was not a unified country but many city-states, each led by their own ruler. The Spartan army was the main force and was led by King Leonidas I. He and 300 of his royal guard, along with men from several other city-states, built an army of about 7,000 warriors to hold off the overwhelming Persian army.
The Spartans from the city-state of ancient Greece have been known through the ages as a very fierce band of people. The men were raised from birth to be self-sufficient and expert fighters. They learned sword-play, hand-to-hand fighting, and the use of the bow and spear from a very early age. They trained hard so that they would be victorious on the field of battle. Modern historians believe the Spartans were very lean and athletic due in part to their warrior life-style and the scarcity of food. The Spartans had to learn to survive long periods with little or no food while continually training or fighting.
In order for the films actors to look like the characters they portrayed, director Zach Snyder hired well-known fitness expert and climber Mark Twight to whip the cast into shape. Twight crafted an intense, five-month training program that not only chiseled the actors but also enabled them to handle the rigors of filming the fight scenes, which often took hours.
If you think you already have what it takes to be a Spartan, take the challenge on page 7 and go from there. What if you cant do a perfect pull-up or push-up, or youre just getting back on the fitness track? No problem. Spartan Warrior Workout details the exercises that make up the workout and provides programs to make you stronger, faster and more powerful while helping you burn off unwanted fat.
Author Dave Randolph gives some pointers.
The Spartan Warrior Workout
Training methods such as bodybuilding or powerlifting create, in most people, bulky, non-functional muscles rather than lean, lithe, coordinated and healthy bodies that should be our ideal. Big, bulky muscles are not a survival trait. They require a lot more energy to maintain and are, in most cases, not functional, slow you down and can limit your range of motionall of which can get you killed in the field of battle. Mark Twights training program utilized a wide variety of equipment and lots of bodyweight exercises (calisthenics), focusing on exercises that require full-body control, coordination and awareness, to get the cast ripped while retaining their athletic build. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) and functional whole-body movements prevented his charges from getting big and bulky.
Using barbells, kettlebells, calisthenics (pull-ups and push-ups) and strongman exercises (e.g., heavy tire flipping, sled pulling and pushing), Twight pushed the actors hard for one to two hours every day for four months before filming began and they continued to train during the filming. His workouts were very intense and never done more than once. This made them physically challenging since the actors never knew in advance what theyd be doing; their bodies were always kept guessing. The arduous workouts also forced the actors and crew to develop the warrior mindsetif you give up, quit or dont put forth maximum effort, you will die. The end result of all this hard work was a group of actors and crew that was extremely fit and mentally tough and looked like what we think the Spartans probably did, based upon the many Greek and Roman statues from that era.
One of the workouts the actors did came to be known as the 300 Workout. It was designed to see how far the actors had come in their conditioning and strength training. Basically, the workout taxes the bodys major muscle groups and focuses on pulling and pushing movements in the horizontal and vertical planes. While this workout was one of many, it was actually a test that Twight put the top performers through. The workout consisted of:
25 dead-hang pull-ups
50 deadlifts
50 push-ups
50 box jumps
50 floor wipers
50 kettlebell dead clean and press (25 per side)
25 dead-hang pull-ups
These were to be done as quickly as possible, which meant little to no rest during the workout. One actor from the film, Andrew Pleavin, completed the workout in 18 minutes, 11 secondsa grueling pace!
Training Overview
Some fitness experts break down and design training programs based on whether a movement is a vertical push like a squat (pushing up from the floor), a vertical pull like a pull-up, a horizontal push like a push-up/bench press, or a horizontal pull like a rowing machine. In addition, the movements can be further subdivided into upper and lower body.
Upper body vertical pullpull-up
Upper body vertical pushthe press
Lower body vertical pulldeadlift or kettlebell clean
Lower body vertical pushsquat
Upper body horizontal pullrowing machine
Upper body horizontal pushpush-up or bench press
Lower body horizontal pullhamstring curl on a machine
Many times trainers try to combine movements from all these categories into a workout. Others may focus on only one or two elements, depending on their clients goals.
Some exercises, especially kettlebell movements or the Olympic lifts, have many of these elements in them. The dead clean is one example. Its a vertical pull from the floor, but theres actually a squat component with an explosive upward extension of the hips, knees and, in some cases, ankle. The minor element is an upper body pull with the trapezius, but thats about 10 percent of the overall movement.
Twights workout incorporated movements in these different planes to stress the body in ways that are natural, using the whole body to generate force rather than isolating body parts like bodybuilders do. Because the actors were trying to get lean and werent training for a specific task like that of a sport, Twights training programs always changed, never letting the body adapt to any one thing but instead preparing the body for whatever was thrown at it. This is known as General Physical Preparedness, or GPP, in the fitness industry; you can think of it as being in shape.
In reality, GPP is merely a base upon which an athlete would build the skills necessary for his/her specific sport. For example, a fighter would build up his GPP and, as his base improved, his training would concentrate more on the techniques of punching, kicking or grappling. Football players build their GPP before the season starts; as the start of the season nears, they focus more on honing the skills needed to be the best they can at their position. Well talk more about GPP on page 111. The next step after GPP is known as sport-specific preparation, or SPP; this is where the athlete practices specific skills to master a sport or game.
THE EXERCISES
Throughout this book youll learn six specific exercises that are done in this workout: pull-up, deadlift, push-up, box jump, floor wiper, and dead clean and press. Youll also learn variations of the main movements and a number of assistance exercises that augment the primary movements. For example, the incline push-up is a push-up variation, while the bench press is an assistance exercise to the push-up. For those of you who need some extra attention (maybe youre barely able to do a push-up or unable to do any pull-ups), weve designed the programs so that youll be doing 5 to 10 or more without a break in no time.
