The Men's Health Blog

I love the movie 300. Absolutely love it. It's a brilliantly different kind of movie experience, and intense beyond belief.

Truly a man's movie.

If you haven't seen it (WTF?), I highly recommend you do so. In fact, at the time of this post, 300 is probably my third favorite movie of all time -- behind Gladiator and The Departed (also movies you MUST see).

Any way, I found this great article on the now famous 300 workout that really peaked my curiosity. One of these months I'll dedicate some time to building up to and taking the 300 test.

The workout gets its name from the total number of repetitions. But those 300 reps weren't done daily, as some media accounts report, Twight says. Rather, the 300 workout was the finale of months of training, a kind of graduation test, after actors had weight lifted and trained with tools such as medicine balls and Kettlebells (cast iron weights with handles).

It's daunting, and includes these weight-training moves:

* 25 pull-ups
* 50 deadlifts at 135 pounds
* 50 push-ups
* 50 box jumps with a 24-inch box
* 50 "floor wipers" (a core and shoulders exercise at 135 pounds)
* 50 "clean and press" at 36 pounds (a weight-lifting exercise)
* 25 more pull-ups -- for a total of 300 reps

There's no rest between movements and the score is based on total time, Twight says.

Behind-the-Scenes Work
But before that graduation test, Twight says, there were months of work, transforming the actors and stuntmen not just physically but mentally, he notes. "Zack [Snyder, the director,] wanted the Spartans to appear as though they had been fighting together since they were children," he says.

Continue reading...

That's motivating.

Anyone out there done the 300 Workout?

Oh, and no post about the movie 300 would be complete without a shot of the queen herself, Lena Headey.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Cheers.

UPDATE 12/17/2008: A buddy of mine at work sent me this video. Dude's almost 40 years old and did the 300 Workout in 24:50.



Just makes me want to do it more.