“Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty… for tonight, we dine in hell!” This is what King Leonidas (played by Gerard Butler-star of the movie 300) yelled as he readied his warrior army on a hill at Thermopylae. Butler did more than demonstrate the power of his voice during this movie. Remember the surreal looking musculature each soldier had? It was thanks to an intense regimen the actors, all playing warriors, followed to get in shape for the film. In the process, Butler and the rest of his Spartan army inspired a fitness craze that came to be known as the “300 workout.”
The 300 workout consists of 50 repetitions of 7 exercises including simple standard moves like pull-up’s and push up’s, as well as lesser known movements like the kettle bell clean and press and floor wipers. If you tally it up, you are performing a total of 300 mind-boggling reps. The evil mastermind behind this workout is Mark Twight, a former world class mountain climber. According to an interview Twight gave to WebMd.com the workout is based on a person’s starting point. For example, if your exercise program consists of one set of chest presses and one set of squats, then that is your starting point. You should continue training within your limits until you can perform the entire routine. Twight believes a person’s “rate of change” is directly affected by how intensely they work; this routine then becomes a measure of a person’s hard training. Most people have to train long to meet the physical demands this workout imposes. The complete routine would be the “final test.”