Poop Shute

THE 300 WORKOUT

Take the above link, it's a short video demonstrating the workout.

When I watched it, I could tell that it would be a great challenge, and that it looked like fun, but I also knew that this video couldn't be all of it. There had to be more to it. There is no way those actors did this same routine everyday, there had to be something else.

Turns out, there is. I did some digging, and I found MARK TWIGHT. He is the guy that built the training plan for those guys. Take this link to see a video of him laying out what he did with these actors and why.

That first routine, released by Men's Health, is just one day. They most definitely performed that workout, but they only did it once. Mr Twight had them do a completely different routine every day they worked, each one more grueling than the last. The idea behind that is they are constantly throwing new challenges at their bodies, so they never stop adapting and growing, they never get into a training rut. Men's Health just labeled that one THE 300 workout, because they're a magazine, and one neat little routine would sell more issues than a big article about Mark Twight's training philosophy. Though, personally, I would have wanted to read that too, but that's just me.

Anyway, so I have put myself on this sort of schedule. I'm always looking to experiment with new training philosophies. If it doesn't work, then cool, I learned another thing NOT to do. If it does work, then I have just added a valuable tool to my bag o' training tricks.

I started with that first routine.

I got through the 25 pull-ups with little difficulty. It took me two sets, one of 13 and one of 12. Then, I trudged through the 50 dead lifts with a moment of rest at about rep 27 I think. Then the push-ups took me three sets to get them all in. I pounded through the box jumps with sheer force of will, and then...

I just knew that any second I was going to throw up. I picked up the bucket that I had brought with me for just that purpose, and paced the room with it until my heart-rate and breathing had eased up a bit, at which point I sat on the gym floor, clutching my bucket to my chest. Somewhere after that, I kinda passed out. Not fainted, but I just kind of lowered myself to the floor and fell asleep. I woke up about twenty minutes later when my girlfriend was standing over me with a near-panicked look on her face. She said she got worried when she stopped hearing grunting noises from the gym.

That was yesterday. Today I hurt SoooOOoooOOOOOooo bad EVERYWHERE. Good lord.

I learned my lesson though. I'm going to spend the next three weeks or so doing high intensity endurance work and lots of cardio and then I'm going to try it again. I just was totally unprepared for the type of workload that this workout is because I've been bad about cardio, and only doing heavy weights with low reps. I'll let you know how next time goes.