You’ve seen the movie 300 and you’ve seen how freaking jacked those guys are.
Well, as it turns out, many of the actors in the movie went through a certain routine that they had to finish in order to be considered “ready.”
I love this routine because it’s a full body workout that teaches both strength and endurance.
Every day in a gym I see guys working out their forearms, doing 5 different triceps exercises to hit the arms from all different angles, specializing in tiny muscles. For this 300 workout, each exercise is a compound exercise, working multiple muscle groups simultaneously.
Think about it: 2000 years ago, these warriors didn’t have cable pull machines and exercise balls and Nautilus machines – they had their body weight, they had heavy things to pick up, and things to hang off of. That’s it…oh yeah and they had to fight for their lives every freaking day.
They were in peak physical shape and scared the crap out of every other “army.” I guarantee if a Spartan walked around in that loin cloth thing nobody nobody would question it.
Gerard Butler (who plays King Leonidas in 300) told Men’s Health: “You know that every bead of sweat falling off your head, every weight you’ve pumped — the history of that is all in your eyes.
That was a great thing, to put on that cape and put on that helmet, and not have to think, shit, I should have trained more. Instead, I was standing there feeling like a lion.”
Yeah, I want to feel like that.
So here the routine. If you can complete this test, you’ve completed the final level, you beat the last boss, you did it. So what is this routine?
- Pullups – 25 reps
- Deadlifts with 135lbs – 50 reps
- Pushups – 50 reps
- 24-inch Box jumps – 50 reps
- Floor wipers – 50 reps
- Single-arm Clean-and-Press with 36lbs Kettlebell – 50 reps
- Pullups – 25 reps
To see what these moves look like, check out Craig Ballentyne’s explanation for each:
There you have it!
-Steve
