A classic is a tough act to follow. You don’t have to tell the makers of 300: Rise of an Empire, which premiered at number one on March 7. The first film was released to little fanfare but became an instant favorite for guys everywhere for its classic story and brutal, bloody action. The conditioning level of the cast became its own legend, too: the 300 workout, designed by Mark twight of Gym Jones, became a craze all its own.
Of course, many people didn’t realize that there was no single workout; Twight varied it on a day-to-day basis. The same goes for the sequel. What appears here represents a single day of training in Twight’s overarching plan, and it’s a doozy. “The goal is twofold,” Twight says. “The first is to ‘uncover’ muscle that already exists and to harden that muscle. Second, our job is to injury-proof the guys—and gals—so they can tolerate the stunt- and fight-training. Whole-body, full-range movements that tie everything together are ideal to achieve this goal.”
The 300 Workout Sequel
Kettlebell Mountain
The exercises are:
Kettlebell Swing Goblet Squat Push-Up
Climb the mountain, then descend using this rep ladder:
5-10-15-20-15-10-5
With a 20kg kettlebell, do five reps each of swings, goblet squats and push-ups. Next do 10 reps, and so on.
Max-Reps Push Press
Load a barbell to 75 pounds. Set a timer to go off every 30 seconds for 7.5 minutes. Do max reps of a front squat-push press, repping out for 30 seconds, then resting 30 seconds. Don’t set the bar down the entire time.
Upper-Body Finale
Grab a pair of dombbells between 25-35 pounds. Perform 10 reps each of the upright row, curl, and bentover row. Then get on a flat bench and do bench-press reps to failure with the bar and 40 pounds of chain. Perform the finale three times.
