Spartan Race Program- Day 1 | Specific Routines | Forum

Here's a sample of my Mondays.  It's a little experiment I've been doing for about 6 weeks now.  Instead of raising the weights or reps I have lowered the recovery in between each sets.  MY goal is approx. 45 seconds to 1 minutes between each set.  Some of these I've gotten down to about 30 seconds…It's important to note that when I did it my first day I was getting over a cold and cardio is basically built into this workout because of low rest time.  I ended up throwing up 3 times in the shower afterwards and that was with about 2 minutes rest between each set.  Yeah, I'm sure the cold didn't help, but this workout IS that intense…

Monday's workout:  Total time:  weight-approx. 35 minutes, cardio approx. 20 minutes

Squats- 3 sets of 20 @ 225lbs.

The third set is crucial, and yes I'm VERY anal about going parallel, honestly, I'm probably a little bit past it.  Each set last probably about 30-35 seconds.  The hard part is keeping your rhythm and not taking a mini-vacation in the middle of each set…. suck it up, deal with the burn, you'll be feeling for the next 4 days anyways.  These are mentally tough.

Plyometric Deadlifts- 3 sets of 20 @110lbs.

The recovery here is less, about 30 seconds. I do my 20, set the weight down, walk to the end of the gym and back… then again we go.  As for the difficulty in these…. It's a @#$ing deadlift with a jump, how tough do you think it is to do all 20 for 3 sets without  taking a break.  Yeah, for someone who squats 450 lbs. 110lbs. is like, but don't make the mistake of thinking these are "easy,"  you'll be disappointed.

Prone hamstring curls- 3 sets of 20 @ 60 lbs.

These have the worst burn of all the exercises, but I threw them in because I'm working on increasing my sprint again.  After squats and dead, they are pretty wiped to begin with, this is enough to finish it off.  The recovery here is about 40 seconds each set.

Calf extensions- 3 sets of 20 @ 220lbs.  

I remember during the 4th week of this workout plan my hamstrings were burning so bad that when my calves cramped during the third set I was excited because my legs didn't hurt so bad anymore….  The hamstring burn was there for about 3 hrs btw…

Pull-ups- 3 sets of 10

Each week the recovery is less and less… think i'm down to about 20 seconds right now.  We all know pull-ups are going to be used in the race.  Probably, over a wall or with a rope.

Curls- 3 sets of 20 @ 45

These are on a cable machine, so it's a bit heavier than 45 lbs…  The recovery here is about 50 seconds, normally.  I normally don't do much Biceps work, but I feel I need a little bit extra for carrying things and after pull-ups is prime time for them.

Ugh… I hate doing this workout… I wake up monday morning and swear at myself because I have to do this and I usually can't walk until friday morning without a limp from soreness.  I have lost about 2 1/2% bf and gained about 6 inches of muscle while doing this routine though, so something must be right..   (Just what I need, another reason to bring this workout back in the future… )

We wanted to but there isn't one around here. :(

I think it's funny how every1 dreads the obstacles… we're gonna hate when they end because they'll be a piece of cake and we'll have to go back running…  I used to run 800m in track… but not 16 of them back-to-back… :(

I did forget to mention the cardio though.  Monday and Wednesday's we go down the street from work, we found a hill that is on the road it's about a 35 degree incline.  It's almost exactly .1 miles ( a little over actually).  We walk down and sprint up 10 times… that's our 2 miles for the day