The Crossfit 300 Challange

Everyone loved the movie 300 right?

Us guys got to watch some of the best action footage filmed to date - whereas the ladies got some beefcakes to drool over.

Of course the guys in this movie went through some grueling physical conditioning to get the tone and definition required to give the Spartans their credit due. In fact, these guys trained (on top of 4-5 hours a day worth of fight training) between 90 minutes and 2 hours a day, 5 days a week for 4 months. This wasn't weight training or bodybuilding as you would find in most of America's gyms.

The workouts were much more along the lines of CrossFit principles - a movement that is on the rise (see www.crossfit.com). All exercies were "functional", meaning that they were composed of compound movements and (mostly) didn't require modern training machines. Instead they used body-weight exercises such as pull-ups and push-ups; more primitive tools such as the Kettlebell - an old Russian "toy" that has gained popularity lately, which resembles a cannonball with a handle on it - along with medicine balls, dumbbells, and barbells.

Out of the training that took place for these individuals came an "exercise" that is starting to become relatively well-known, especially among extreme athletes. This "exercise routine" is called the "300 Challenge" or just "300". Notice I put "exercise" in quotations intentionally. This is not because I don't classify this routine as an exercise - believe me, anyone who spends a lot of time on the bench press or in a gym will be destroyed by this "workout". Here is how it works:

25 pull-ups
50 dead-lifts (135 lbs)
50 push-ups
50 box jumps (24")
50 floor wipers (135 lbs)
50 clean & press (36 lb kettlebell)
25 pull-ups

You complete each exercise in succession, attempting to finish the repetitions for each in the fewest sets possible - and the total challenge in the least amount of time possible. At the end, you have completed 300 repetitions total.

In reality, this is not a "workout" that the actors performed, but instead a challenge that was completed toward the end of the 4 months of training or when one of the actors/stunt-men were deemed ready for it. And believe me, you need to be ready before attempting this. An article at WebMD.com cautions that exercise physiologists caution that this challenge is so intense that the break-down in muscle fibers that results can actually be toxic to your kidneys. Exercise in itself is an oxidative activity, which results in toxins in your bloodstream which get filtered through your kidneys. This challenge, to the untrained person, can be so gruelling that it will actually cause enough toxicity to be dangerous.

That being said, I performed this circuit challenge today for a benchmark, to see where I stand. I plan to do this again in 3 months and see where I stand.

Mind you, I am in pretty good physical condition. I can perform 85 push-ups (to Army standards) in under a minute. I can run 2 miles in under 14 minutes (working for that 13 minute!). I bench press about 260 pounds - just to name a few of my credentials.

Despite being in relatively good shape, I did not complete this challenge.
I wrote down what I did for each event - the number of sets that it took me to complete each exercise and my total time for the portion of the event that I completed. My next step is to analyze my results. I need to know my weaknesses and my strengths - which areas I need to work on and which I can neglect for the purposes of improving my performance in this challenge.

In order to do this, I am going to start working with the principles of CrossFit. Other than the rowing machine, I will not use exercise machines. Follow my blog as I detail what I have done for exercises over the next 3 months to obtain my goal. One of the actors from 300 (only 2 completed the challenge) finished this routine in 18:11. My goal is to get close to that.

My next blog will show my results from my benchmark trial and outline my plan. Keep in mind that any good plan should be maleable and have contingencies. It may change along the way if I think my initial planning was not optimal for reaching my goal. At the end of the 3 months, I will again perform the challenge and post my ending results. After that, I will continue this blog by showing some of my daily routines from before the challenge and then repeat the same routines afterwards (these routines are more geared toward standard current day strength training). Without focusing on events like the bench press, we will see if my 300 training has maintained my strength, stamina and endurance in those events; if it has decreased my performance; or if it enhances them.

After that, it will be time for my next challenge. See you soon!