FitMethod

The “300″ is one of the year’s most popular flicks. I actually have not seen it yet, but I am somewhat obsessed with it. Why? I am impressed by the amount of physical preparation that the actors put in. The cast and crew enlisted at the Gym Jones facility in Utah to prepare themselves to be Spartan Warriors. They did not train to look like Warriors; they became them. What’s the difference? Instead of using machines and traditional single-planar exercises that bodybuilders use, the actors trained like elite athletes in tough and grueling conditions that mimicked the type of workouts that the Spartans used to go through. Take a look at this clip to see for yourselves.

The clip is narrated by trainer Mark Twight at the Gym Jones Gym in Utah. As you can see, the workouts that the actors went through were intense, total body inclusive, and lacked traditional gym equipment. The idea was that such workouts would be very efficient in increasing both the body’s metabolic rate and muscle synthesis. In the words of Mark Twight, “appearance is the consequence of fitness.” The training that the actors went through did indeed lead them to physiques that reflected the hard work that they had put in.

So what was a typical workout? There was no such thing. One of the most fundamental principles of fitness is that spontaneity is necessary for improvement; if the body gets accustomed to a workout, then its perfromance plateous. Therefore, to see constant improvement, workouts have to be mixed up so that the body never adapts to the workouts. With this in mind, the actors rarely did the same workout twice. However, there is one workout that sheds light onto how the actors trained. The trainers at Gym Jones dubbed it the “300″ Workout. It goes as follows:

25x Pull-ups
50x Deadlift at 135 pounds
50x Push-ups
50x Box Jumps on a 24 inch platform
50x Floor Wiper at 135 pounds
50x KB Clean and Press with a 36 pound Kettlebell
25x Pull-ups.

Thats 300 reps total. This workout served as a rite of passage on the set, and though only half of the cast and crew were able to complete it, symbolizes a typical workout session at Gym Jones. I actually decided to give it a try yesterday. It encompasses a lot of different movements and muscles, so it allows for you to do excell in some parts of it, while suffering through others. So for instance, because I don’t do too many deadlifts and clean and presses, I had a hard time with those. However, I flew through the pushups and pullups. If you are brave enough, I dare you to try it out for yourselves!

From reading about the training that went into the “300″ I have became a fan of Mark Twight. His training philosophy is very similar to mine, albeit more philosophical. To put it simply, he believes that through proper fitness we can truly learn about who we are and really experience the essence of living. I will let you read more about him and Gym Jones at your own leisure. And don’t forget to try out the “300″ workout to truly appreciate the hard work that the actors of the movie put into preparing for it.