300 Movie Workout

There are already a couple of threads on the Off Topic forum for the movie 300 (Spartans), but none yet on how the actors got in such great shape.

Thats is until now!

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/300/journals/journal3_300.asx

I’m certain that some of you will find this interesting, as the Hollywood roundtable article seemed to have gotten a lot of attention.

thanks man that is interesting to watch

hell of a program they got them on. would love to try it

for the training alone this movie has to the get the T-Nation thumbs up.

Looks a bit like Crossfit.

Good for them though.

-MAtt

The guy doing the overhead presses wasn’t using proper form! (Tisk tisk tisk). Actually, that looks like one hell of a tough training cycle. I’d be up for kicking my own ass like that sometime.

It’s nice to see that they were not doing curls on a stability ball, or any other “hollywood” workout regimen.

[quote]ocn2000 wrote:
It’s nice to see that they were not doing curls on a stability ball, or any other “hollywood” workout regimen.[/quote]

Agreed.

As long as they’re not doing lunges with 5lbs in each hand, I’m happy.

Ahhh… To be paid to workout. If only we all had that luxury. G-Flux anyone? How many hours a day do they workout?

This video was discussed ages ago, when the first post of the film showed up.

It reeks of Crossfit.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The reason it looks like Crossfit, is because Mark Twight, the trainer, was very heavily influenced by Crossfit training, and his gym was a Crossfit affiliate up until a few months ago (that split is really not something that needs to be discussed any more.)

This is what Twight had to say about Crossfit:

"You can talk all you want about being in good shape until you do a few CrossFit workouts. And then you will realize – like I did – that what you have been doing is likely training strong points, rarely working on weak points, and training efficiency to such a degree that the workouts you do are less effective than they might be if you mixed energy modes, duration, and types of work.

You probably know something about climbing-specific training because of books like Ex Alp, Clyde’s book, Dale’s book, and maybe Will’s. But none of this will prepare you for what is to come if you make even the slightest effort to follow CrossFit. Coach invited me to CrossFit HQ for an instructor seminar. I was the weakest guy in attendance, by at least 50% during every workout we did over the three days. Those days changed my life. I could “what if?” my old training program and all the years I missed when I thought I was fit but I was nowhere near my potential but the key is to move on when you know that something better is out there, without second-guessing. I don’t believe I will find anything better than CrossFit for developing power, endurance, lactate tolerance, stamina (local area endurance), balanced muscle groups, efficient neurologic pathways (in the context of movement), etc. The bottom line: I started toying with the CF protocol last April without truly understand
ing it. I improved in some diverse areas of fitness but had not seen the light or my own potential yet. I went to CFHQ 1 December. Since then I have lost 12lbs, leaned out, and I am approximately 25% stronger across the board without significant negative effect on endurance despite the short duration of our workouts (nothing longer than 25 minutes, with the norm being half that or less).

On to the subject of commitment. CF requires character. Some climbers have it, many don’t."

Mark’s site, Gymjones.com, has shitloads of effective and challenging workouts on it, and his articles section is pretty awesome too.

Caution should be used in making direct correlations between the type of training performed and the results of that training. MANY other factors must also be considered.

That’s not to impune the training these actors underwent. I’ll have more to say about that soon…

[quote]Burger King wrote:
There are already a couple of threads on the Off Topic forum for the movie 300 (Spartans), but none yet on how the actors got in such great shape.

Thats is until now!

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/300/journals/journal3_300.asx

I’m certain that some of you will find this interesting, as the Hollywood roundtable article seemed to have gotten a lot of attention.
[/quote]

Impressive. I’ll bet most of the CrossFit bashers don’t train so hard.

I would love to do that,they wouldn’t even have to pay me.If they let me do that crap and fed me,I’d do it as long as they wanted me too.

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Impressive. I’ll bet most of the CrossFit bashers don’t train so hard.[/quote]

Didn’t look they train any harder than anyone that takes it semi-seriously.
Not that they were dogging it but lets not make it out to be more than it is.

The main actor Gerard Butler kept using another trainer on the side while still working out with Mark Twight. So I wonder how much of his physique can you attribute to Mark Twights workout routine. Here’s the interview with Gerard Butler.

http://movies.about.com/od/300/a/300butler072406.htm

"I started in LA and we had the trainer from the film Mark Twight, so I was training with him and he has a very particular style of training, but I also kept my own trainer so I was training with two guys every day - so that was about four hours of that. (Laughing) Yeah, I kind of overdid it.

Then I also, on top of that, had to go into the valley in LA and do two hours of sword fighting and shield and spear work as well, because a lot of guys use swords but it?s actually learning to use a spear is a whole different thing. And starting to work on some of the maneuvers so I was doing that six hours a day, every day."

Quote from Gerad Butler the main star of the show.

So about 5 hours of intense training every day? Yeah ok.

Watching the trailer for this movie, I was amazed that all the guys who played the spartans seemed so uniformly ripped and powerful-looking. I thought for sure it was done with computer effects, like a lot of stuff. Guess I was wrong. I want to try this program as well. pushups with rings,for example is something I never thought of, but seems like it would be really effective. Running against bungie cord resistance to grab a kettlebell? not sure what that is supposed to do, but looked pretty intense. (edit:upon watching it a second time, it seems to suggest there was no “program” there, and they had to “shock” the actors’ bodies by never having them do the same movement twice. rough stuff. Designed to make a man look like he does nothing but kill people with a spear all day, I guess)

“Watching the trailer for this movie, I was amazed that all the guys who played the spartans seemed so uniformly ripped and powerful-looking.”

In addition to the workouts, Zach Snyder also intentionally cast people who were already in at least decent shape.

There’s a story in something I read about Gerard Butler showing Snyder his abs at lucnh after he was concerned that the british actors weren’t in shape.

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Impressive. I’ll bet most of the CrossFit bashers don’t train so hard.

Didn’t look they train any harder than anyone that takes it semi-seriously.
Not that they were dogging it but lets not make it out to be more than it is.[/quote]

Exactly… What makes it so “hard” looking? It’s a highlight reel, not a video of a workout.

I’m not a crossfit basher, in fact I have used it in the past to get in shape for the preseason, but let’s not watch a video and make assumptions…

I thought someone was actually gonna post the workout called “300” from Mr Twight’s place. Sometime last year the 300 crew was getting into condition at the GJ site. The log they have at the GJ site has generally what the workouts each day were and how certain individuals did it. The “300” Workout is fun to do though. No, it does not include tire flip n jumps nor acceleration runs with bungees. It was a part of the training schedule though.

I heard about Twight thru some Dan John posts. Other than that, politics and physical fitness doesn’t mix.

Don’t like lunges with 5lb weights? The Inside Out warmup DVD isn’t a sissy bunch of stuff you find in a commercial gym. The only time I’ve used 5lb & 10lb DBs everyday. lol