Workout Log (Spartan 300 style)

This is the first of my posts resurrecting the workout log. I now have more motivation as I have signed up for a Tough Mudder event that will take place in Fed 2013. Our team name is “99 Problems But Mud Ain’t One” (nice one Doug).

Today’s workout was aimed at “taking it up a notch” in intensity. So this is the sort of workout I have been doing, but this time I made sure it added up to a Spartan 300 type workout and I watched the rest times a bit more closely (although I don’t carry a watch or my phone when I workout, but today there were some people doint cross fit style stuff with a trainer, so I used them for timing). Anyway I tried to keep to 1:30 to 2 minutes rest. The workout was broken into 5 circuits of 6 exercises each and went as follows.

Exercise	Reps	Notes
Circuit #1
Hanging Leg Raises	10	Try to touch hands with feet (I used rings)
Pushups	20
Pull-ups	10	Full hang (no kipping please)
Dips	10
Inverted Rows	10
Box Jumps	10	Box height about mid thigh
Circuit #2
Cats’ cradle / Slow return	5	Go up into cat’s cradle then slowly lower the legs back down. Don’t drop all the way to the ground, then go back up (Again on rings)
Hand clap push ups	10
Pull ups	10	Same as above (rest 10 sec after #6 and do 2 and then again if you can’t do 10 in a row)
Box jumps	10	As above (switching the order to keep things interesting)
Dips	10
Inverted Rows
Circuit #3
Hanging Wipers	16	Hanging from rings raise legs (I have to do bent – not strong enough to do it legs straight yet) and do wiper blade motion from side to side (One side is 1)
Combo: Pushups and jump to pullup	10	Do a push up, then jump up to a bar you can’t reach (about a foot or so) and do a pullup (repeat) Counts as two exercises
Dips	10
Box jumps	10
Inverted Rows	10
Circuit #4
Hanging Leg Raises	10	As above
Wide offset pushups with reach	20	Use a very wide push up stance, then do a push up with your body offset to one side. Thenmove your hand to 2:30 (on clock) and repeat then to 2, 1:30, 1 then back by steps to 3 so that you have done 10 on that side, then immediately do the other side.
Pull ups	10	As above (using the rest method if needed) – or find a lower bar and jump up and slowly lower yourself (negative rep)
Dips	10
Box jumps	10
Inverted Rows	10	If too hard use a higher bar so your torso is higher than your feet to make it a bit easier
Circuit #5 (almost there)
Hanging side bends	20	Hanging from rings raise your feet to the side (feel it in your obliques) 10 each side
Combo: Clapping push ups and jump to pullup	10	Same as above, but with clapping pushups instead of normal pushups (Counts as two exercises)
Swinging Dips	10	Start in up dip position and swing your legs forward and then back (keeping legs straight) so that you get to parallel to the ground. At that point go down into a pushup and swing through (you will then be in down dip position) and then dip back up and repeat. This is hard. I usually do mostly negatives, where I go down into pushup/dip and have to stop, reset and start over.
Inverted Rows	10
Box Jumps	10

What about warm-up and cool down you may be asking?! Good question. I jogged 2kms to the workout area, did the workout, then jogged 2kms back. Total time about 1 hour. Then did about 10min of stretching hamstrings, quads, chest, back, obliques.

This is a nice workout (maybe not so nice as you’re puffing through circuit #5), that hits most of the body and keeps the intensity high. It also (importantly to me) keeps the interest level high by keeping the circuits varied.

Try it out, let me know how you go, and what variations you come up with.