T Nation

Spartacus Workout

Conditioning
#1

I stumbled upon the Men’s Health Spartacus Workout after I recently finished watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Its a good show if you like just blood and sex. Anyways, its a circuit workout of 10 exercises mostly using only dumbbells. You perform one set of each exercise for 60 seconds (15-20 reps) with 15 seconds of rest between each exercise. After the circuit is completed you rest for 2 minutes. Then you repeat the circuit twice. This program is for 3 days a week, supposedly promoting a lean build. Anyways, I wanted to know your thoughts about this program and especially critiques of those who have used this workout before. Thanks in advance.

Heres the link to the pdf of the exercises:
http://www.starz.com/SiteCollectionImages/Spartacus2009/downloads/MH_Spartacus_Workout.pdf

#2

You’re gonna get a lot of people calling him a skinny bitch or hating on the workout 'cause it’s not “bodybuilder friendly”, but I think it looks pretty tough. You definitely shouldn’t rely on that one workout 3 times a week as your only form of training, but it could be a cool, challenging way to do some conditioning on an off day from the weightroom. I might give this a shot on Wednesday. Thanks for posting.

#3

It’s just fine, for fat loss. I think it is a good approach only if you have some decent mass. Just look at the midsection of Spartacus, it just looks weird and nasty. If he had 10-15 lbs. more mass he would look phenomenal.

#4

I’m definitely not planning on relying on just this one workout. I plan on doing my usual lifts 4-5 days a week, and integrate 2 days a week of this workout. I figure that this might be counted towards the cardio I rarely do. Also, from what I’ve seen from the actors on the show who used this workout, they definitely weren’t skinny. If you want more details about this workout you can check it out at menshealth.com/spartacus

#5

Just one of the numerous circuit variations. With same success you can create your own knowing the basic rules and your goal. Instead of doing this 3 times a week i’d do 3 different circuits to ensure that my body wouldn’t adapt that quickly to the imposed demand. Rotate workouts and exercises. Never do same thing over and over again it’s very taxing to your CNS. Bring variety and freshness into training and you won’t suffer from plateau effect or overtraining issues.

Check this out: http://tnation.tmuscle.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_conditioning/hiit_favorites?id=3572295&pageNo=1 That’s where some of the Circuit routines posted. You might like to try it.

#6

I like the dumbbells and hands only format. Helps keep rest periods down.

#7

[quote]swarhili wrote:
I stumbled upon the Men’s Health Spartacus Workout after I recently finished watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Its a good show if you like just blood and sex. Anyways, its a circuit workout of 10 exercises mostly using only dumbbells. You perform one set of each exercise for 60 seconds (15-20 reps) with 15 seconds of rest between each exercise. After the circuit is completed you rest for 2 minutes. Then you repeat the circuit twice. This program is for 3 days a week, supposedly promoting a lean build. Anyways, I wanted to know your thoughts about this program and especially critiques of those who have used this workout before. Thanks in advance.

Heres the link to the pdf of the exercises:
http://www.starz.com/SiteCollectionImages/Spartacus2009/downloads/MH_Spartacus_Workout.pdf

is the blood and sex parts of the show in seperate scenes? or is it just a bunch of bloody sex?

[/quote]

#8

It’s funny because the Spartacus workout they had in M&F didn’t resemble this in the slightest. Makes you wonder exactly who’s writing the programs that appear in the muscle mags.

#9

[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
It’s funny because the Spartacus workout they had in M&F didn’t resemble this in the slightest. Makes you wonder exactly who’s writing the programs that appear in the muscle mags.[/quote]

Yeah, the M & F one includes some heavy lifting and looks more complete…I also remember there being several incarnations of the 300 workouts. Frustrating when you are trying to recreate similar results. The actor who played Leonidas also spent the last six weeks training with a BODYBUILDER training bodybuilding style, although the rest of the cast apparently used only the circuit/crossfit style of training. I think the take home message is that any of these circuits used with intensity will yield excellent results.

#10

[quote]decoffeen wrote:

[quote]swarhili wrote:
I stumbled upon the Men’s Health Spartacus Workout after I recently finished watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Its a good show if you like just blood and sex. Anyways, its a circuit workout of 10 exercises mostly using only dumbbells. You perform one set of each exercise for 60 seconds (15-20 reps) with 15 seconds of rest between each exercise. After the circuit is completed you rest for 2 minutes. Then you repeat the circuit twice. This program is for 3 days a week, supposedly promoting a lean build. Anyways, I wanted to know your thoughts about this program and especially critiques of those who have used this workout before. Thanks in advance.

Heres the link to the pdf of the exercises:
http://www.starz.com/SiteCollectionImages/Spartacus2009/downloads/MH_Spartacus_Workout.pdf

is the blood and sex parts of the show in seperate scenes? or is it just a bunch of bloody sex?

[/quote]
[/quote]

haha most of the times its separate. but there are a few scenes where theyre mingled together. i would totally recommend the show just to watch the bloodbath that occurs in the last episode.

#11

^^Yeah the show is bad ass. I watched it all on netflix a few weeks ago.

.greg.