When was the last time you tried something that scared you? That challenged you physically and mentally, so you could emerge feeling stronger than ever?
The
Spartan program follows suit, offering six weeks’ worth of workouts that get your body moving in new and challenging ways. Designed to help anyone improve athleticism, build fitness and enhance muscle endurance, it gets you ready to take on life’s toughest obstacles, whether that’s on the course or not. And while the workouts are difficult enough to get you out of your comfort zone, they’re still easy to scale to your skill level.
During each workout you’ll build strength to dominate rigging obstacles (think: improving shoulder mobility and grip strength), nail a rope climb and cover carry challenges and crawling obstacles (crab walks, bear crawls and Spiderman push-ups).
To sufficiently challenge and improve all the different skills that you'll need to succeed in your first Spartan Race, you're going to need to actively train five days a week. Two of those days will be dedicated to strength, two for speed and one day will be your long-run endurance day. The other two days will be reserved for active rest days.
Use big, compound movements that will build functional, total-body strength rather than isolating individual muscle groups. Perform plyometric exercises, like jump squats or clap push-ups, as these explosive movements have been shown time and again to improve power and agility—which is important for the aspiring or veteran Spartan athlete.
To give you a good foundation, perform one minute of each of the following exercises, one after the other:
Push-ups
Pull-ups
Walking or jump lunges
Vertical Jumps
Squats
Burpees
Planks
Pick variations on each movement that work for you. If you struggle with pull-ups, for example, do jumping pull-ups. Perform this circuit once at first, working your way up to three full circuits.
Speed days are all about using interval training to help you build a solid base. You'll need a stopwatch or other timing method for these workouts.
Start with a 30-second brisk walk
Jog at a steady pace for 20 seconds
Sprint for 10 seconds
Do this for five minutes (a total of five times) before walking briskly for two minutes
Repeat this entire set three more times. The exact speed at which you walk, jog or sprint will depend entirely on you, so listen to your body and try to gradually ramp things up from week to week.
For endurance days, remember just one word: run. Keep up a steady pace for an hour. If you can't run for the full hour, take walking breaks if you need to, but, whatever you do, keep moving. To keep things interesting, you can swap in cycling, rowing or swimming on these days.
The term "active rest" isn't a contradiction. The idea is to not allow your days off to become off days. Go for a walk or a leisurely bike ride. Get some chores done around the house. Just do something. This allows you to stay moving and reinforces healthy habits, while still giving your body a chance to recover from some of the higher-intensity stuff you've done throughout the week.
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