Since his emergence on the Spartan scene in February of 2011, Hobie Call has come to exemplify the Spartan spirit.  Winning more Spartan races than any other individual male or female, he leads the way in performance, ability, and discipline.  He’s had a target on his back for most of his ascent, but he’s rarely been bested and often left a gaping hole for those trying to catch up.  He took home the Spartan World Championships and the $10,000 pay day that went along with the victory.

A familiar face has emerged as a challenger and he’s taking on Hobie Call in Texas where all of Sparta will undoubtedly be watching the showdown.  Quentin Leadbeter won two Spartan Races in 2011, both events Call was notably absent but Leadbeter was disappointed in that fact.  The naval academy student was quoted as saying after his Virginia victory, which he won in just 22 minutes, “Well, when I signed up for the race, I knew he [Hobie] was on his quest and I figured it would be fun to run against him… It would have been fun to run against him and give him a little competition.”

A little more about our challenger: Leadbeter is a Midshipman at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he just completed Freshman year. He still has three more years of school and then can commission as either a Marine or Navaal officer.

A competitive wrester, the 2010 Northern High School graduate of Owings, MD owned a 147-16 career record and was a four-time state place winner (6th, 3rd, 5th, 3rd)  Leadbeter also placed sixth at the National Wrestling Coaches Association Championship while wrestling at NAPS.

Check out these links for more details: http://www.navysports.com/sports/m-wrestl/mtt/leadbeter_quentin00.html and http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=644254

~By James Villepigue CSCS & Hobie Call

Hobie Call

How are you, Spartans? If you’ve been following the weekly WOD, you will surely be seeing the fruits of your labor by now.

We have another mighty WOD for you today and it’s brought to you by Gaspari Nutrition…sports nutrition for the best of us!

Today’s WOD is a full body barrage and can be done with minimal equipment. All you’ll really need is a sturdy ledge, branch or Pull-Up bar and you’re off to the obstacle races!

Today we’ll be focusing on a strength exercise followed by a run.

You’ll be executing a total of 8 exercises, which makes up one full cycle. You may repeat cycles based on your level of conditioning.

Here’s how each superset sequence will look and work:

1.  1 set of 20 Pull-Ups – Here’s the deal. If you can do full fledge Pull-Ups, do them – if you need to take a quick rest before you’ve hit the 20 rep mark, use your muscle math and jump back in from where ever you left off and add two reps for each rest you take. For those of you who cannot YET do a full Pull-Up, get yourself some sort of a platform so that you can easily hold on to the bar with arms fully extended (I don’t want you having to jump up to grab the bar) and for each Pull-Up, jump into the rep to give yourself bit of a boost. Make sure that your upper body is responsible for the bulk of the work and not simply the force generated from your legs and inertia.

2.  Run for 3 minutes at a moderate speed

3.  1 set of 14 Pushups into arm opposing leg lifts – Perform a full Push-Up and at the top, immediately raise your right arm and lift your left leg high. Perform another full Push-Up and now switch the arm/leg. Make sure that your arm and leg lifts happen right as you push up to the top position…it should be a seamless transition.

4.  Run for 5 minutes – First 2.5 mins at faster pace and last 2.5 mins at moderate pace

5.  Jump Squats & Speed Squats – Perform 15 Jump Squats and finish with 25 speed Squats – Proper form is a must here-Head up, chest out, shoulders pulled back and kept down, abs tight, arch the lower back and stick the butt out. Bend at the hips first, not the knees. I want you to lower your body slowly and from the bottom position, explosively jump as high as you can!

Once you’ve completed 15 consecutive Jump Squats, without rest, perform 25 bodyweight speed Squats. Your legs will be fired up!

6.  Run for 5 minutes at a moderate speed – Your legs may be exhausted, so be conscious of them and stay strong during your run.

7.  1 minute Plank into 30 Bicycle Maneuver into 1 minute Plank into 30 Bicycle Maneuver

8.  Run for 3 minutes at a fast pace – rest if you need to, but when you can, get right back into it!

Repeat 2-3 Times!

As always, please have a timer with a beep indicator to ensure that you keep tabs on your work time. At the end of each cycle (the 8th exercise), you’ll have a 1 minute break.

If you need to take more rest, do so, but no cheating yourself!

As always, please have some cool water, a towel and a timer with you.

Please remember to let Hobie and I know how you did!

Keep Going!

James Villepigue & Hobie Call

Did you catch last weeks feature WOD in this series?  CLICK HERE

Does reading this WOD make you want to register for a Spartan Race?  To find a race near you CLICK HERE

by Jason Jaksetic

Another week has past, and now you are another week stronger.  You are one step further along on your own personal transformation.  Be a work in progress. 

These WODs can be customized to suit your needs.  Make adjustments depending on your ability, age, and goals.  You don’t have to be able to do each WOD in it’s entirety.  You also don’t have to be able to do each week in it’s entirety.  BUT study the WODs in their entirety and the week of WODs in its entirety, and aspire to do it.

Or maybe you are an athlete with a background in marathons, 5ks, Triathlons, or similar endurance sport?  Start using these WODs to adapt your training so you can start dominating at a Spartan Race, the world leader in Obstacle Racing.

Stay strong, stay focused.  We’ll see you at the finish line. – Jason Jaksetic

Not receiving your WODs in your inbox?  Want to?

www.spartanrace.com/wod

WOD for 5.7.12

“No matter how slow you go, you’re still lapping everyone on the couch”

Check out this video of the Chris Davis Project that is documenting his amazing weight loss.

Grab your sandbag! It’s t ime to workout! No excuses!

WOD

5 Reps  of main set for time:
400m run (uphill, if possible) with sandbag
20 walking lunges with sandbag
20 back lunges with sandbag
20 sandbag push press
10 burpees

Be sure to warm up & cool down with a good stretch!

Monday

WOD for 5.8.12

Sweet are the uses of adversity. ~ William Shakespeare
Set aside the time to get this done.  You’ll thank us race day.

WOD

5-10K run near race pace
50-150 lunges
50-150 body weight squats
30 burpees
5 minute plank

WOD for 5.9.12
Today’s Workout of the Day was brought to by Gaspari Nutrition.  Here’s the link:

http://blog.spartanrace.com/wod-for-wednesday-may-9th-brought-to-you-by-gaspari-nutrition/

WOD 5.10.12

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

-Mohandas Gandhi

You get faster by running fast.  It’s supposed to be difficult.  It’s supposed to hurt.  So just have fun with it.

Mile repeats. (track is optimal, but road/treadmill is fine)

3-5 one mile intervals with negative splits.  This means you run a one mile split at 5k pace and then recover, planning on running your next mile split faster..  Each interval you run try to push it a little bit faster.  Recovery intervals should be no longer than half the time it took you to run 1 mile.  Jog or walk your recovery interval.

An example workout would look like this

warm up:  10 minute jog with 4-6 30 second accelerations to race pace

1 mile in 7:30
3:45 recover
1 mile in 7:00
3:30 recover
1 mile in 6:45
3:22 recover
1 mile in 6.30

10 cool down walk/stretch

Wod 5.11.12

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
-Henry David Thoreau

Less dreaming, more doing.  Time to hammer out some character 800 meters at a time.

You don’t need lots of expensive gear to get a wicked workout in.  Here a box is enough.  For our minimalists, use a box-ish rock or box-ish tree stump.  Whatever!  Just no excuses.

WOD

warm up with an easy one mile jog

main sequence:

Run 800 meters hard
20 Squat jumps

Run 800 meters hard
20 box jumps
Run 800 meters hard
20 Tuck jumps

Run 800 meters hard
20 Lateral Jumps over box

cool down with easy one mile jog

WOD for 5.12.12

Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
-George Dana Boardman

Master WOD Archive

The weekend is the time to log your miles and put quality fitness time in the bank.  Get up early on the weekends, not late!  Time for that 1 to 3 hour run.  Don’t worry so much about distance or speed, just focus on quality time in your aerobic zone.  You’ll need the endurance come race day – especially if you are thinking of doing a Beast!

WOD for 5.13.12

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don’t let fear be what is keeping you from completing your first Spartan.  Today is the day to tackle what you are most afraid of.  What is that for you?  Running or swimming?  Power generating workouts or speed producing workouts?  We all have strengths and weaknesses – focus on your weakness, tomorrow.  Not sure what your weaknesses are?  Here’s a WOD that might let you know:

WOD

warm up:  1 mile jog, 5-10 minutes jump rope, 20-40 burpees

main set

run 5k at fast tempo

50-100 lunges

25-100 push ups

50-100 body weight squats

10-25 pull-ups

run 1 mile full speed

cool down:  stretch it out.

~By James Villepigue CSCS & Hobie Call

WOD are you Spartans up to today? Here’s today’s Spartan Workout of the day, presented by the one and only, Gaspari Nutrition…sports nutrition for the best of us!

Today’s WOD is a little off the beaten path, but that’s what obstacle race training is all about; stepping off the pavement and into some wild terrain!

Today we’ll be focusing on upper body, cardio and core. You’ll be focusing on pull-ups, chin-ups, jump rope and the standard plank exercises.

You’ll be executing 20 total sets of exercise today, performing a specific superset sequence using two exercise movements for 10 sets and then another pair of exercise movements for another 10 sets.

Here’s how each superset sequence it will look and work:

• 1^st: 5 Sets of 10-12 Pull-ups X 5 sets of 1.5-minute Plank – 1-minute rest
• 2^nd: 5 Sets of 10-12 Chin-ups X 5 sets of 75 reps of the Bicycle Maneuver – that’s 75 per side! – 1-minute rest
• 3^rd: 5 Sets of 150 jump rope X 5 sets of 1-minute Plank – 1-minute rest
• 4^th: 5 Sets of 100 jump rope X 5 sets of 1-minute Plank – 1-minute rest

Please have a timer with a beep indicator to ensure that you keep tabs on your work time. At the end of each 5^th set, you’ll have a 1 minute break – It’s not a lot of rest, but it’s the type of training develops race worthy conditioning!

As always, if you feel like you need to take more rest, take it, but DO NOT sell yourself short, Spartans!!!

Exercise Descriptions:

Pull-ups: You’d be surprised where you can do a chin-up or pull-up. Look in your home for a sturdy ledge or outside for a fairly low hanging horizontal branch. Make it fun and challenging!

Take a shoulder width overhand grip and grip that handle as hard as you can (grabbing the handle with a tight grip will help to prepare your body for the exertion – Make every muscle in your body rigid just before you begin pulling up).

Before you begin, stick that chest out, keep those shoulders pinned back and depressed down, abs tight, arch that lower back, bend at the knees and interlock your ankles, look up to where you want to pull and as you pull up, begin your exhale and think about driving your elbows down into the ground below you.

Chin-ups: Take a shoulder width or narrower underhand grip and keep those elbows closer to your sides. Now, follow the same form as the Pull-up.

Plank:  Get on the floor and face downward. Take a modified pushup position, where your forearms are positioned on the ulna/pinky down with palms facing each other, but fists clenched. Forearms are in straight line, parallel to one another. Get up on your tiptoes and keep them rigid. Legs are completely straight and maintained in a tight position. Keep a neutral spine and make sure that the spine is straight and doesn’t dip down or peak up. I want you to focus on keeping your abdominals contracted throughout the full 1-minute, as this will both help to keep a rigid and straight spine, plus will further engage those abdominal muscles.

Jump Rope: Nothing fancy here, folks. Feet are hip width or closer. I want you to keep your hands down low and when you jump, allow the wrists to flip with the jump, so that the rope follows your jump pattern. This will ensure that your timing is accurate and will help prevent the rope from catching your toes. The objective is to keep the jump shallow, but keep the jump rope speed as rapid as you possibly can! If you find that you keep catching the rope on your toes, hang in there…it’s a simple timing issue and will be solved with some patience and commitment. I promise!

As always, please have some cool water, a towel and a timer with you.

Please remember to let Hobie and I know how you did!

Keep Going!

James Villepigue & Hobie Call

As Chris Davis continues his journey towards the healthiest life possible, he continually reaches new milestones.  After officially hitting a milestone of 50% of his total weight loss last week, he hit another one over the weekend walking over 20 miles.  As he settles into his new life in Pittsfield and under the watchful eye of Dr. Jeff Godin and one of Spartan’s Founding Few Joe Desena he is achieving levels of success he never thought possible.  Here is his journal entry for March 7, 2012. 

Check out Chris Davis’s Week Three Video HERE.  

5/7/2012

This weekend was a great weekend for me, I spent most of the weekend walking and I was able to walk over 20 miles, with an elevation climb of over 2,200 feet. I never thought I would walk 20 miles in a weekend. It funny to think I that soon will be doing that in a single day. I am so happy with the progress I am making here. In a few short months I will be walking 20+ miles a day a couple times a week. That is just going to be so cool!

This morning, my body felt good considering what I did to it over the weekend, but when I went to stand up I got a little light headed. Over the weekend Dr. Jeff Godin left me a glucose meter to try and keep an eye on my blood sugar levels when I get light headed like this. So I took emailed him and I ran the test. It was low, very low, so I ate a couple of oranges and I started to feel better. I guess this is something we are going to have to keep a close eye on days where I push hard to find my new limits.

It sounds like Mondays are now going to be my day to recover, so I have been taking it easy on the exercise today, and I have taken time to reply back to emails from fellow Spartans, and to go through and read the comments on Facebook and on the blog site. Thank you for all of your support, it is really helping me to keep my mind in the game.

Master WOD Archived

Spartan Race WOD Archive 5.1.12 to 5.6.12

by Jason Jaksetic

Are you signed up to receive your daily inspiration and WOD in your inbox?  If not, CLICK HERE.

WOD for 5.1.12

We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.
-Aristotle

Perform.  Nothing fancy.  Just perform.

WOD

warm up with jump rope or easy jog

Push ups to failure
Run 1-3 miles
Pull ups to failure
Run 1-3 miles
20-100 crunches

cool down with a stretch

WOD for 5.2.12

Another great WOD brought to you by Gaspari Nutrition!

http://blog.spartanrace.com/wod-for-5-2-12-brought-to-you-by-gaspari-nutrition/

WOD for 5.3.12

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. 

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

The goal of training is to push you to your limits.  Get there and hang tough and you will get stronger.

WOD

Warm up: 1 mile jog and/or jump rope.

Main Set:

2-5 mile tempo run.  (What is a tempo run?  It’s not a jog, that’s for sure.  10k race pace is a good place to start.)

2-5 100 meter sprints a 3-4 minutes recovery

25-100 crunches

10-50 burpees

Cool down:  stretch

WOD for 5.4.12

From one thing, know ten thousand things.
― Miyamoto Musashi

The burpee is an exercise that works you from top to bottom.  There are no fancy gadgets involved.  It’s just you and a movement, that, when done right will rip you up for whatever your goals are.

WOD

30 minutes of burpees

Every minute to a set number of burpees.  Example, 1 burpee per minute for 30 minutes will give you a 30 burpee workout.  Start there if you are a beginner.  If you are more advanced you can shoot for 3-5.  NEVER sacrifice form for reaching higher numbers.  It’s easy to brag about high numbers when you use bogus form!

WOD for 5.5.12

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. 

- Albert Einstein

Get outdoors this weekend.  Try something new that will work new muscle groups.  If you are traditionally a runner, go kayaking or canoeing.  If you are tearing it up in the weight room all week, try running.  We are only as strong as our weaknesses.  Find your weakness, decide to eliminate it, and then stick to this resolution

Wod for 5.6.12

Rest is for the weary, sleep is for the dead.

Today you should have been smart by training a weakness of yours.  Tomorrow go long your favorite discipline.  Runners, cyclists, swimmers, hikers – let’s see some high mileage.  If you are in the gym, make it a long sessions.  You will benefit from that extra time you bank!

CLICK HERE FOR THE PREVIOUS MASTER WOD ARCHIVE

There are days when the sun rises and sets without any distinguishable features.  The hours seem to slip by without any fanfare and without incident.  Then there are the days when something happens, something so impossible to believe that the world itself hasn’t stopped turning.  Today was a day like that for Chris Davis.  Today, he became half the man he once was. 

Here is his journal entry for today.

5/2/2012

Last night I left the office, and walked back to Spartan Camp, we have decided to add a second climb up the mountain in the afternoon to help keep our progress on track. The walk went great, I was running a few minutes late for kung-fu, and I will just have to make sure I get out of the office a few minutes earlier to make sure I am not late for kung-fu today.

This morning, I was woken up by Joe and the film crew… There is nothing better than waking up to a camera recording.  It took me back to my days of being on-call as a Network Engineer for Comcast. Talk about going from 0-60 in 15 seconds, that will do it.

After waking up, we drove down to the Bikram Yoga Studio, where I had my second session, I feel that I did a lot better this time, but I know I have a long way to go. I the only part I had a real problem with was lying flat on my back… I guess it is a side effect of being so heavy for so long. I am sure that as I continue to lose weight, and get more flexible that this will work it way out like the other issues I have experienced so far…

Then came the big news.  After Yoga, we weighed me and I am down to 344.4lbs. That means I have now lost over 50% of my original weight when I began this journey. I am literally half the man I was and I feel great! 

(Note from Chris:  I really need to take a minute and thank my fellow co-workers located in the Detroit XOC, Atlanta XOC, and Central Division Offices. Without your support I would not have made it this far. I also need to personally thank Wayne Pennington, for watching over our servers in Detroit, and Jimmy Gatt for watching over our servers in Atlanta, during my leave of absence. Also I need to thank Shane Portfolio for inviting me to join him during the Atlanta Spartan Sprint Race; his invitation changed my life forever.)

~By James Villepigue CSCS & Hobie Call

Ready for today’s WOD? Hope So!

When it comes to race specific training, I love breaking up the monotony and keeping things fresh.

Switching things up and working on many training variables at once, is the essence of obstacle race training.

One of the things that I do to keep this constant flow is to often include jump rope (or any other fast paced endurance based movement) in between each of my resistance training exercises.

Call it active rest or no rest at all, whatever you call it, this is the flow that you’d optimally like to keep on the race course. If you’re a Spartan racer, then you’re likely in it to win it, so training with a high-intensity pace is the name of the game.

Today’s WOD will take place outside (rain or shine) and will consist of bodyweight resistance exercise combined with high output/short duration based cardio Bursts.

We want you to find a hill, preferably a grassy hill with a steep incline and long enough to allow an all out sprint. We’re not as concerned about the amount of time it takes you to get up that hill, as much as we are about making sure that you get up it as fast as that body can get you there.

The beautiful thing about uphill sprint training is that it happens to be one of the safest ways to perform high intensity interval training. When you run uphill, you limit the need for your legs to fully extend, which takes stress off of your knees and hips. The angled position upward provides resistance to your body, making moving and accelerating difficult, which limits the typical ballistic weight that bears down on joints when running on flat pavement.

Another thing that makes uphill springing so awesome, is that the more you use your arms to propel forward, the more speed and torque you gain and this now means that the upper body is also working hard. For you advanced Spartan’s, strap some wrist weights on when you sprint and use an over exaggerated arm swing just as much as you use those legs to move.

Okay, so, you will preform one body weight movement followed by an uphill sprint.

You will perform 20 reps on each bodyweight exercise and without rest, immediately follow-up with an uphill sprint.

Take one full minute to recover between this superset, but no more. Keep tabs on your rest time and stay focused. If you feel like you need to take a rest, take it, but if you don’t need a rest, then stay strong and DO NOT QUIT!

Here’s the list of exercises – 20 Reps/All Out Sprint Superset

1.  Incline Pushups – Simply position your body on the angled upward hill, facing up. This position will help transfer the bodyweight resistance to your upper pectoral and anterior shoulder muscles. Keep the spine straight and rigid. You can vary the width of you hand position on each Burst/Set. The wider your hands the more shoulder and outer pectoral muscle fiber recruitment and the narrower your hands, the more triceps and inner pec stimulation.

X

Uphill Sprint

2.  Angled Alternating Lunges – Begin with 10 uphill lunges (10 per leg) and then right to 10 downhill lunges. During the downhill lunges, be careful to control the negative (lowering aka the lunge downward) and step down far enough to keep the knee from going beyond the knee.

X

Uphill Sprint

3.  Downhill Shoulder Pushups  – Face down on a steep portion of the hill and take a pushup position with fully extended arms. This time, bend at your hips and stick your rear way up high, so that your upper and lower body forms an arch. This position will transfer the body resistance to your shoulders. If you have very difficult time performing these downhill, try them on flat ground or for even less difficulty try them facing uphill.

X

Uphill Sprint

4.  Hill Dips (Triceps) – Lay on your back with your feet facing up the hill. Now, bend at the knees and keep your feet flat on the grade incline. Do your best to take a sit-up position and quickly place your hands at your sides, with palms down and fingers facing behind you. Simultaneously push off with your feet and hands, so that your butt is elevated off the ground. Keep the elbows tight to the sides of your body and focus on the triceps as you lift and lower your rear off the ground. To make it more intense, try staying on your tip-toes through the 20 reps.

X

Uphill Sprint

5.  Downhill Plank – Exactly what you’d imagine it to be – Dig in and stay focused!

X

Uphill Sprint

Repeat All Sets 2-3 Times!

As always, please have some cool water, a towel and a timer with you.

Please don’t forger to let Hobie and I know how you did!

Keep Going!

James Villepigue & Hobie Call

by Jason Jaksetic

4.24.12

Every week we are pleased to present a WOD brought to you by Gaspari Nutrition.  CLICK HERE for this week’s WOD that is hosted on our blog.

4.25.12

Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.

-Victor Kiam

Faster is a quality goal. Let’s work on speed.
WOD

Mile repeats. (track is optimal, but road/treadmill is fine)

15-20 minute warm-up run, put in a handful 100 meter accelerations to loosen up

3-5 one mile intervals with negative splits.  This means you run a one mile split around 5k to 10k race pace.  Each interval you run try to push it a little bit faster.  Recovery should be no longer than half the time it took you to run 1 mile.
.
Cool down with a jog, walk, then stretch

4.26.12

The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.

-Max Lerner

We are all growing as athletes daily.  But you have to take the first step to get on the path and start the process so that the rest will fall into place.  Here is a great workout to do even if you have limited time during the day.  Try not to obsess about how many reps and sets you do as you structure the numbers below according to your needs.  Doing 10% of a WOD is better than throwing yourself 100% on the couch.
WOD

warm up:  fast walk/jog/jump-rope

Main Set:
50-200 body weight squats
20-100 push-ups
jump rope
4 minute plank
50-200 lunges
10-50 pull ups

cool down:  stretch or hit up a yoga class

4.27.12

An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.
– Mae West

Time to stop reading WODs and saying ‘if only…’. Time to start training now, not ‘next week’. Not later now. Now now!
WOD

1 mile warm up jog

Main Set (repeat 3-8 times)

400 meters hard run then 30 burpees
1-2 minutes recover
30 burpees, then 400 meter hard run
1-2 minutes recover

10 minute cool down jog and stretch

4.28.12

The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.

- John Madden

Hill Repeats.  Get after them!
WOD

warm up: 15 minute jog

6-8 hill repeats on steepest gradient you can find.  Run 30-90 seconds HARD.  You can do a set time for interval or set distance.  Recover 2 – 3 minutes between sets.  If you are doing this right you should be exhausted after 2-3.  Stay strong to the end.

Cool down:  Walk then stretch

4.29.12

There is no secret to success. What exists is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. 

-Colin Powell

WOD

Sunday is our long day for aerobic conditioning. Make it a fun run through the park or a suffer-fest of hiking. What is your ‘long’ workout? That is up to you.  But make it count.  Back off on your usual intensity and stretch this cardio workout out so that you spend at least one continuous hour with an elevated heart rate.

4.30.12

Tomorrow’s WOD in it’s entirety can be found at our blog.  It’s is the third installment in our Signature Founder’s WODs where the people behind Spartan breakdown their favorite workouts.

Barn Workout WOD

1. 30 Burpees
2. 30 Burpee/Pullups
3. 30 Pullups
4. 30 Box jumps
5. 30 Medicine Ball Squat Throws
6. 100 Jumping Jacks
7. 300 crunches
8. 30 body weight squats
9. 30 side kicks (each side)
10. 30 jumping lunges
11. 30 curls
12. 30 Tricip overhead presses
13. 30 frog jumps
14. 30 squat jumps
15. 3 x rope climbs

Stretch

Typically a workout like this is done after an outdoor workout.  Here is a short one to do first:

1. Stretch for 5 minutes
2. 10 x 100 yard sprints with 1 minute break between
3. 100 burpees
4. Slow 1 mile jog
5. Stretch for 5 minutes

All of Spartan HQ and a large portion of the Spartan community has become captivated by the Chris Davis story.  His journey from obese to healthy and active is one that many can identify with.  He’s not alone.

The sad fact, according to the World Health Organization is that in the United States, nearly 2/3 of the population are either overweight or obese.  The National Center for Health Statistics recently found that 34% of Americans are clinically obese.  That’s a startling statistic.  Additionally, nearly 50% of women and 25% of men classify themselves as “being on a diet” and are counting calories of limiting their food intake. 

National Geographic recently published the following facts about mortality and the links to obesity in the United States.  It was published that the top three most statistically likely causes of death were heart disease (with a 1 in 5 chance), cancer (with a 1 in 7 chance), and stroke (with a 1 in 24 chance) are directly linked to obesity. 

It’s clear that something has to be done, but diets are often unsuccessful in the long term.  The National Institute of Health has estimated that dieters can expect to regain two-thirds of their lost weight within a year of completing their diet plan. These dieters can expect to regain all of their weight, and possibly more, within 5 years.

What is required for long term weight loss and management is a change in lifestyle.  Chris Davis is currently going through that process in Pittsfield under the watchful eye of Dr. Jeff Godin and Spartan Race founder Joe Desena.

Chris has hit a road bump in his training physically and mentally.  He is finding out that his limitations are very real and he will have to keep pushing himself to be successful. It’s not easy to change a lifestyle so radically and what Chris is going through will not be the first or the last of his struggles.  His most recent blog demonstrates that. 

Here is Chris Davis’s journal from yesterday. 

4/30/2012

It has been a couple of days since my last blog; this has been for a couple of reasons, the first being my body has started to fail me. This has happened because Joe tried to push it a little too hard over the weekend. On Saturday I walked 5.2 miles from the lodge to the office at 4:15 am to go to my first Bikram Yoga class that lasted for 1.5 to 2 hours. Bikram Yoga is an incredible experience, and I recommend everyone try it at least once in there life. For me it pushed me to my limits and a little beyond. After the session I felt light headed and sick to my stomach,  but I have never sweat more in my life. I think that even after my time at Spartan Camp I will continue to do the Bikram Yoga. After yoga we headed back to the lodge to meet with the Spartan Trainer Candidates, which were going though there certification classes this weekend. About 1.5 miles from the lodge Joe had me get out of the car and walk the rest of the way to lodge. When I got there, everything was spinning, I and It took everything I had left in me just to make it to a chair and sit down. After a few minutes of sitting down, I was able to drink a small glass of Orange Juice, and eat an apple. After a few more minutes Joe said told me to get to bed, and just relax. When I got back to my room, I could not stop shaking; this when on for about a half hour before I finally fell asleep. I slept until about 4pm, after getting backup I came and got me for kung-fu. After kung-fu I went back to the lodge talk to some of my friends before going to bed.

Sunday, was It another long day, I walked over 7 miles throughout the day 3.6 miles of that I was caring my best friend the Green Spartan Pancake, By the end of the day feet felt like they were going to explode. I am currently fighting some blisters on my right foot, and a sore spot in the ball of my left foot. Dr. Jeff Godin thinks that changing from cotton to wool socks should help with the blisters, so I am looking forward to seeing it makes a difference.

This is now my 18^th day here at Spartan Camp, and I am starting to break down, mentally. I have been on an all fruit and raw vegetable diet, since arriving at Spartan Camp, while this has been great for losing weight, and my complexion. I have been having some problems with some of the side effects like having a foggy mind, and problems focusing on mental task. I understand that it part of the trade off, for focusing on my health, but where do I draw the line. Another issue that is currently weighing on my mind is I am having a trust issue with Joe right now. Part of it comes different points of views; His point of view is that I can only handle part of the information at the time. So one example is I was supposed to be on the fruit and vegetable cleanse for 14 days. To me, I took that as a goal to be meet, once it was done we were going to be moving on to the next goal. Joe’s though process was “if I tell Chris that we are going to do an all fruit and vegetable diet for a month Chris would not go of it, so I will tell him we are only going to do it for 14 days so it is something that is less daunting.”

This is hard for me because I feel like I’ve been lied to.  If he did not have any intention to ending the food cleans on day 14, then I would have liked to have known about it. Joe and I have talked about this this morning, and I am hopeful we can rebuild the trust between us. I know that if I am going to stay here we will need work this out.

[Editor’s Note:This morning Joe sent an email that said simply, “42 lbs in 19 days. Needless to say, he’s a believer now.”]

by Margaret Schlachter, Spartan Chick

“It is not inertia alone that is responsible for human relationships repeating themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and unrenewed… But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes nothing, not even the most enigmatical will live the relation to another as something alive.“ ~ Rilke

In life sometimes we are presented with opportunities. These opportunities may only present themselves once so when given the chance you can either continue along with your life or take the opportunity and see where it goes. A couple of months ago I was in a conversation about a new program starting through Spartan Race called the Certified Spartan Coach Program. I was lucky enough to make into the first certification weekend. This is how I found myself in Pittsfield this past weekend, experiencing a life changing two days surrounded by truly incredible people. But it all started with the application…

THE APPLICATION

Not just anyone can apply to be a Certified Spartan Coach, the mandates include training specific from one or the major organizations (ACSM, NSCA, NASM or ACE) or a four year degree in Exercise and Sports Science. Yes, this is a no joke certification. It was even asked for proof of this certification. All applicants were required to have five years working experience and a resume to back this up. We were each required to write two different essays the first of many more essays to come regarding our ideas on coaching and training.

To prove we weren’t just gym rats we were asked if we had completed in the last five years this short this: 30 Day Bikram Yoga Challenge, Marathon or longer, Century bike ride, or 50 mile mountain bike ride, 2 mile swim,  Super Spartan or greater. Again here we needed to include proof of results from races. A major part was do you live by the Spartan Code which included a list of several aspects of life.

Finally, the most rewarding part of the application was the letters of recommendations, eight from former or current athletes and an additional five character letters of recommendation. This was the most rewarding for me. I had letters of recommendation spanning from 10 year olds up through one of my former athletes who is now a Division 1 college athlete. It was wonderful to get to read what they all had to say about what they had learned from me. The most rewarding aspect was finding out the pieces that stuck with them the longest were the other pieces for many it was the emotional support I gave them and this struck home with me.

Dr. Jeff Godin who is in charge of the process I thanked as I submitted my 30+ page application for the exercise within itself was reward enough for me. However, I found out I would be making the initial cut and thus I found myself packing my bags on Friday and heading down the road.

THE PACKING LIST

Dr. Jeff is a veteran of the Death Race so when I got the packing list for the weekend I was not surprised at the randomness of some of the items. Our packing list included many basics; notebook, pens, pencils, snacks, workout attire, extra socks, calculator, copy of your consent form, jump rope, resistance band, and extra socks. None of these things stood out in my mind as strange items for a certification weekend.

The came the items that had the Death Race and Spartan Race flair to them; backpack, sleeping bag, headlamp, swim goggles, duct tape, first aid kit. But still being a Wilderness EMT and living in Vermont all of these items still seemed logical. Although this was the point where I was thinking we were going to be spending more time then they were letting on outside (sleeping bag).

Finally, the items that made you say WTF and scratch your head; “extra rope” no detail for what it was for, Aluminum foil, oven mitt (my thought cooking might be involved), and finally a copy of your favorite non-exercise book.  It was at this point I started to think carefully about what this weekend would actually entail. I sent Jeff an email:

Hi Jeff,

Not sure if your packing list is DR style or if you are actually going to give me a helpful answer. I spend far too much time around Joe. In the things you need list I had a question or two. 

1. Extra Rope – are we talking paracord like for rescue scenario or are we talking more like climbing rope or something like that. Also what lengths? I don’t need to begin to know what we are doing just want to have the right thing.

2. Aluminum Foil – For cooking or survival as in a foil wrap or heat blanket. I am assuming cooking but want to be sure.

3. Backpack, full on camping pack or light pack used for training.

His answer, DR style. So it was going to be one of those weekends. I packed with this thought in my head the whole time knowing it was a weekend which would most likely include very little sleep, high stress physically and mentally, and you would be judged at all stages of the weekend.

CERTIFICATION WEEKEND

Nothing with Spartan Race is easy nor is it ever a straight line. A weekend in Pittsfield is also never as it seems on paper. As I pulled into Trailside Lodge just 5 miles from my house armed with all I would need for the weekend I knew it was on. Quickly I got to meet my fellow candidates, an impressive group of people. We had trainers who work with college and professional athletes, CrossFit trainers, strength guys, MMA specialist, gymnastics backgrounds, Parkour Trainer, Movement Specialists, and many more. Over thirty people applied for the certification only seven were picked from this pool and an additional seven were invited based on experience and expertise. We had a highly knowledgeable and diverse group of individuals.

Friday

The weekend started off nice with some time to chat and get to know one another. At dinner we had a lively round table discussion regarding nutrition and supplements. This was the most relaxed the weekend would be. After our discussion the first of three tests began. We had two hours to answer over 350 multiple choice questions. Remember those scantron sheets you had in high school, yup it was one of those tests. The test was comprehensive to say the least, detailed questions regarding the all aspects of the body function and how it applies to fitness were asked. If you want this certification you better know all about ATP, the respiratory system, muscle development, how to train children, VO₂Max and many more topics. The topics were diverse and at the end of two hours I found the questions blending together. I was also still about twenty short of the last one when we had to hand the test in. Yes, wish I had studied more for that one! Only two people in the room actually answered all the questions and one is a current doctoral student finishing his PhD in exercise science.

After the test we met as a group and were informed that Bikram Yoga would start at 6:00am and we had two options A) Run (5 miles) to yoga or B) Run back to breakfast after the yoga session. This was the easiest decision of the weekend. Yes it cut into sleep time but knowing Bikram running home was not the better option. Also the run there was all downhill. We were then told we could go to bed. Knowing Spartan Race I felt as if we were going to be messed with overnight. I slept in my yoga clothing with shoes and essentials less than a arms reach away.

(More to come from Margaret on Spartan Coaching weekend)

Earlier this year we announced the inclusion of the Ultra Beast.  A 26.2ish distance event to coincide with the Beast in Vermont in September.  IN addition to the new distance race, we announced that the race (both Ultra and regular Beast) would be mostly unsupported.  That means the athlete’s will have to provide for themselves their own nutrition, hydration, and fuel for the race.  To help athlete’s prepare, we have begun a series of posts designed to educate those taking part.

As a Race Director, I’m always trying to find new and creative ways to safely challenge our competitors.  Given the nature (and history?) of our Killington event its important this race continues to set the bar high.  Most of the Spartan Founders come from an Adventure Racing background; races lasting anywhere from 4 hours to 9 days with multiple disciplines, intensive navigation, and little to no support.  You could go days without seeing another person.  Proper planning of nutritional needs could mean a top ten finish versus needing to call in for an evacuation.  Even a “sprint” race required forethought on what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat.  Thus we thought it fitting to add an unsupported element to the event.  As you prepare for the Killington Beast, I want you to start thinking about those three things:

1. What

2. When

3. How much

If you can’t answer them as you face the start columns then you are going to have a hell of a time.  Consider these tips as you start to create your plan.

Water/Hydration.  You need it.  If you don’t carry any on the course you risk cramping, nausea, heat stroke, and a 99% of not finishing the race.  Start with 20 oz per hour and adjust as needed.   If it’s a hot day as you climb a double black diamond with a sandbag then you will wish you had more.  Since everyone will be on course for more than three hours, you should consider adding an electrolyte supplement (especially if you don’t get enough through your calorie supplements) to help prevent muscle cramps and keep your body working most efficiently at many levels. 

Calories.  The longer your race, the more you need per hour.  The more intense the activity, the more you need per hour.  Stay away from high fat and protein dense items, your GI tract will thank you later.  Stick with relatively high glycemic index foods, and shoot for around 100 calories per hour.  Big Spartans will need more, little Spartans could work with less. 

My next blog will include some specific examples of what to eat/drink.  In the meantime, do some homework of your own (some Google searching can be very effective), you’ll learn 10x more than my few blog entries can accomplish which will empower you to have more effective training and successful racing moving forward.

Aroo!

When Chris Davis drove into Pittsfield to embark on his weight loss journey, Spartan was ready for him.  The Spartan Coaching program, which is actively being developed under the watchful and thoughtful eye of Dr. Jeff Godin, who also happens to be a Death Racer, was ready for him. 

The program  was developed and ultimately designed to help Davis transition through his journey deliberately and with measurable goals accounting for the various stages he’ll go through physically, mentally and emotionally. 

Here is the breakdown. 

Stage 1: (April 11-May 1) (Goal: 10 mile walk, Bikram yoga, lose 40 lbs)

Enthusiastic beginner (D)-A new athlete is usually motivated, enthusiastic and excited about the opportunity to do something new and move to a new place. This person is already very motivated, requiring only a limited amount of support from Spartan. What the person doesn’t have is much information about the tasks and-what exactly is needed, how best to approach the task, etc. They will listen during this period extremely well. 

How: (Kung Fu, Raw food, walking with pancake)

Stage 2: (May – June1) (Goal: 20 mile walk, 4 Bikram yoga classes in a row, lose 40 lbs.)
Disillusioned learner/student (D2)-This stage of a transition occurs when “the honeymoon is over.” At this stage, the initial excitement of their new life has worn off, and some aspects of the Joe’s tasks have proved more difficult than originally anticipated. Because the athlete is still learning and has little to show for his or her effort, the difficulties new pain are especially frustrating. Expect the student to become vocal about his/her frustration and start to look for outside confirmation of the logical reasons he should quit.

How: (Kung Fu, Raw food with introduction of SOME other food, walking with pancake, swim 2 hours)

Stage 3(June 1-Aug15) (Goal: back to back 20 mile walks, Seven Bikram yoga classes in seven days, lose 60 lbs.)

Capable but cautious contributor (D3)-Once new athlete is completing a big task successfully, they demonstrate that they will reach their goal. But having only completed small success, the new athlete hasn’t had enough time to gain confidence in their abilities. As a result, the athlete tends to be overly cautious and reluctant to repeat their success with the job.

How: (Kung Fu, Raw and healthy foods, short jogs, Bikram Yoga)

Stage 4(Aug15-race day) (Goal: jog 20 miles, complete two Bikram Yoga classes in one day, swim five hours)
Self-reliant achiever (D4)-At this stage of development, an Athlete has demonstrated competence and commitment to doing the job that was asked of them, and has essentially become self-managed and can not only maintain their new life but might now help others.

How: (jogging with pancake, Bikram yoga, diet will depend on where we are weight wise)

Other:

-Ideally long walks, jogs will take place on Sundays.

-There will be many days that more work is added than planned.

-The targets will be “moving” based on small successes noticed.

-Days off will be active swimming

This winter I had the pleasure of training with Joe Desena most weekday mornings.  We’d usually snowshoe up a nearby mountain with 40lbs sandbags.  Joe often accessorized with a 40lbs weighted vest.  The idea being to just get our strength and endurance fired up in an intense workout of climbing steep gradients usually lasting 60 minutes.  We’d wind down with the following Barn workout before starting the work day.  This WOD works great alone or when paired with a cardio based workout. – Jason Jaksetic

Barn Workout WOD

1. 30 Burpees
2. 30 Burpee/Pullups
3. 30 Pullups
4. 30 Box jumps
5. 30 Medicine Ball Squat Throws
6. 100 Jumping Jacks
7. 300 crunches
8. 30 body weight squats
9. 30 side kicks (each side)
10. 30 jumping lunges
11. 30 curls
12. 30 Tricip overhead presses
13. 30 frog jumps
14. 30 squat jumps
15. 3 x rope climbs

Stretch

Typically a workout like this is done after an outdoor workout.  Here is a short one to do first:

1. Stretch for 5 minutes
2. 10 x 100 yard sprints with 1 minute break between
3. 100 burpees
4. Slow 1 mile jog
5. Stretch for 5 minutes

by Jason Jaksetic and Chris Davis

4/27/2012

Yesterday when I said it was going to be an interesting day, I had no idea just how interesting the day would have turned out.

After I wrote my blog, I did some looking back on my run keeper account and found that that my 5.18 mile walk to the Spartan HQ office was the longest walk I have ever completed. I love the fact that I am breaking all of my previous records for walking up here.  Records are made to be broken.

Later in the day yesterday I had my first interview with a newspaper reporter. It is a surreal experience knowing that every word you say is being recorded, and will be used to make a story.   To say it’s a cool feeling is an understatement, and I feel nervous to see how it comes out.

After the interview, I got back to the office and Joe told me the words I had feared all day, “Chris, you get you walk back to the lodge tonight.”

I know the walk this morning for the most part was downhill, so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to the walk back home. Over five miles uphill on an empty stomach were in store for me.  With this on my mind, I started on my way back to the lodge.

I have been walking on the roads for two weeks now and I have only seen a couple of people that I know as I walk, but today was different.  It seemed like everyone I knew in town stopped by and asked if I wanted a ride back to the lodge, and I passed every time feeling like someone was testing me to see if I was going to give up.

I am glad to say I passed.  I made it all the way back to the lodge under my own power. After it was all said and done, I walked over 11 miles yesterday. A new personal record. Two records in one day… what a great feeling.

CLICK HERE:  for The Chris Davis Project Part 6

CLICK HERE:  for Chris Davis Project Part 4

Spartan Race’s mission is to rip one million people off of their couches and encourage them to start living a healthier, more fit lifestyle!  In honor of us hitting one million Facebook fans and one million people “liking” this mission, we’ve decided to launch a special, rewards program for our friends!  

Here are the details:  Refer your friends to register for a Spartan Race and we’ll reward you with a FREE race!  In addition, for each referred registration, we will be donating $1 to Team in Training (TNT)!  Team In Training is a fundraising program of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), a non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)3 organization and the world’s largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer.

For every 4 people you refer and get registered for a Spartan Race, you will earn a FREE pass to any Spartan Sprint Race!  

For every 8 referrals, you will get a FREE pass to the Spartan Race of your choice (a Spartan Sprint Race, a Super Spartan Race or a Spartan Beast Race)!

If you get 15 referrals, you will earn a FREE season pass!  That means, you can register for free to any and all Spartan Races of the 2012 season, as you’d like!

Get started HERE!

Chris Davis is Shrinking

My Journey to Sparta – The Chris Davis Project:  Part 4

by Carrie Adams and Chris Davis

Since arriving at Spartan’s HQ in Pittsfield, VT Chris Davis has lost 28.2 lbs., well on his way towards his goal.  Under the watchful eye of Dr. Jeff Godin, the Director of Spartan Coaching a new part of Spartan Race, Davis is being monitored and his stats tracked as he trains and eats his way to a new life.  The picture below shows Chris’s progress from where he started at over 700lbs.  Here is his blog installment of April 24th. 

4/24/2012

Last night I started out taking it easy because I was still nervous about my hip. But as I progressed though my workout, I started to feel more and more confident.  By the end of the workout my hip was sore, but it did not give me any additional issues, so I hope we are over that potential injury. Now I just have to work to strengthen the muscles in my hip so I do not continue to have these kinds of scares.

This morning I had to wake up a little earlier than normal so I could get in a quick workout before going to my first speaking event. So I started out my morning with a two mile walk from the lodge towards Spartan Camp at 5:30am this morning. My ride showed up and took me the rest of the way to Camp. Once I was there we started starting doing ‘burples’, not quite burpees but close, followed by walking up the stairs with the 35Lb Yellow Spartan Pancake. We did this for about an hour.  So much for kung-fu this morning, but there is always tonight and tomorrow.

After my morning workout, I headed over to Castleton College and spoke to Andy Weinberg’s (A Spartan Race Founder) class on my experience on how I got to 700lbs and some of the challenges both physical and physiological that you cope with when you are that heavy. It felt good to tell them about my experience, I hope that my story will help them understand some of the challenges larger people deal with.

CLICK HERE:  for The Chris Davis Project Part 3

CLICK HERE:  for The Chris Davis Project Part 5

Chris Davis in Vermont

My Journey to Sparta, The Chris Davis Project:  Part 3

by Jason Jaksetic and Chris Davis

 Last week we began to see how training at Spartan HQ was beginning to affect Chris Davis both mentally and physically.  This week we see the stress of training begin to take it’s toll even more.

There will always be bad days.  Sometimes the bad days roll into bad weeks.  And sometimes we can bounce right back.  Does Chris Davis have what it takes to lose so much weight and meet his goals of participating in the Vermont Ultra Beast?  Time will tell, we suppose. 

4/23/2012

Last night was a bad night for me.  I had started out the night doing my normal evening Kung Fu lessons, and things were going great.  I had completed several sets of stretches and I was working on my kicks when my right hip gave out. It felt like someone a had ripped my leg out of my socket.

I slowly made my way over to the wall and tried to some pressure back on it and that seemed to be ok.  So I tried to walk on it, and I started out limping badly, but the more I walked the better it felt.  So I kept walking on it for about 5 minutes. That was when Joe arrived back from the Indiana Spartan Race. He had me do some more stretches and then sit ups using the rope, and we called it a night.

I felt so disappointed in myself after my Kung Fu session. We have been working so hard to push my body without hurting it, and the one night I try to go through my work out without supervision I mess my hip up. Now the good thing at this point is that it looks like I just over exerted one of the new muscles that I have started to use. At this point I do not think I did and real damage, I just need to take it easy on it for a bit and slowing continue to build up strength in these new muscles.

This morning I woke up with a very sore back.  I think it is because I changed rooms last night at the lodge and the new bed… well it’s a little harder that I am used to.  OK, a lot harder that I am use to.  But I am sure that after a few nights of sleeping on it one of two things will happen:  my body will adjust to the new bed, or I will not be able to stand up.  It will be fun to see what happens!

This morning workout went good, my hip was a little stiff, but for the most part it did what I asked it to do without complaining too much.  Nothing like yesterday, which is a very good thing.  That helps me to believe that whatever I hurt yesterday is just temporary and should not set me back in the long run. So today is a good today.

Here is a video recap of Chris Davis’s first week in Pittsfield: CLICK HERE

~By James Villepigue CSCS & Hobie Call

www.ConquerAnyCourse.com

Hey gang! Todays’ Spartan WOD is once again brought to you by Gaspari Nutrition, pioneers in sports supplementation, including pre-race, intra-race and post-race performance.

Today’s WOD is a metabolic resistance training Burst Bout – In other words, we’ll be using resistance during each exercise Burst, but moving at a rapid pace to ensure an intense cardiorespiratory effect.

Your objective should be to try and use a ton of weight – you can use heavy weights, but please don’t sacrifice the quality of the exercise Burst for quantity, as your results will suffer. Choose a weight that is challenging, but something that you believe you can handle for the duration of today’s 40-second work time Bursts.

If you find that you must stop during your work time, then listen to your body and stop, BUT, if you don’t need to stop, then don’t quit! If you do need a breath, take it and then get right back into the Burst for the remaining work time.

Your goal with these types of metabolic resistance training workouts is to progressively add weight or repetitions during each successive workout – In other words, let’s say you used 40 pound dumbbells for the Incline Dumbbell Press and did 15 repetitions, the next time you perform that exercise during a WOD, either jump up to 45 pound dumbbells or shoot for 20 reps…or do both! If you did a Pull-up during today’s WOD and hit a 20-rep mark, next time shoot for more.

So, let’s get to it! Each of today’s Burst Bouts exercises will be performed using a 40/10 Work-to-rest ratio. Advanced exercisers should perform 3-5 Bouts aka Rounds of the 12 exercise Bursts. Beginners can start with 1-2 bouts and take it from there.

So that’s 40-seconds of non-stop work time and no more then 10 seconds rest as you transition from one movement to the next.

Again, remember: You want to keep the movements fast and smooth, but remember to always go at YOUR OWN PACE!

If you ever feel dizzy, nauseous or just weird, STOP, assess your condition and take it from there.

Here are your WOD Burst Bouts Exercises – 40/10 W-T-R

1.  Step-Ups – Set up either a workout bench or at least a sturdy chair or some other type of platform to step up onto. Remember to force the stepping leg to do all of the work and do not push off the back foot for help! Alternate legs.

2.  Chin-Ups – You’d be surprised where you can do a chin-up or pull-up. Look in your home for a sturdy ledge or outside for a fairly low hanging horizontal branch. Make it fun and challenging!

3.  Incline Chest Press – If you don’t have a bench, fold a bunch of towels up and prop your upper torso up, so that it’s angled from the floor – This angled position will allow you to focus in on the upper chest muscles and front shoulders.

4.  Piston Presses – Sit upright in a chair or 90 degree bench. Press one arm up at a time, creating that piston motion effect. This will both force each side of your body to work hard and will also engage the core to maintain that upright-seated position.

5.  Narrow Stance Squats – For focus on the outer quadriceps, take a less than shoulder width stance. When you squat down, really push the toosh out, stick your chest out and bring your shoulders back and down to ensure proper posture. Keep those knees behind the toes. Go as low as you can, getting as close to parallel, to really engage those legs and glutes!

6.  Pull-Ups – Same as chins.

7.  Flat Fly – You can either set up a bench or even lay flat on the floor for this one. One of my favorite pieces of training gear is a blow up fitness ball AKA Swiss Ball. They are incredibly versatile and quite inexpensive. Remember, that when you fly, you are only supposed to be moving from the shoulder joint and not extending or flexing at the elbows. As you’re bringing the dumbbells together, imagine hugging around a tree – This arching motion will help to keep the focus on the chest muscles.

8.  Upright Row – Take hold of two dumbbells and take a hip width stance, with feet straight, knees slightly bent, abs tight, chest pushed out and shoulders pulled back and held down. Bring the dumbbells in front of your body with palms facing your thighs. Now, lead the motion with the elbows angled up and out to the sides of your body and drag the dumbbells up the length of your body, keeping them about two inches away from your body. Stop when you reach chin height. As you drag/pull the dumbbells up, allow your hands to flex down, so that the dumbbells are actually held by your fingers. If you try to keep your wrists straight, you could apply too much pressure to the wrist muscles and connective tissue.

9.  Close Grip Bench Press – Just like the traditional barbell bench press or dumbbell bench press, where you lay flat on a bench or on the floor, but here you want to keep those elbows held in tight to the sides of your body. Now press the dumbbells up and focus on keeping the resistance upon the triceps muscles. The more you think about contracting your triceps, the more likely you’ll be to really fire them up!

10.  Incline Dumbbell Curl – For this one, you can either keep those towels propped up or invest into that fitness ball we mentioned. Lay back to create that upper torso angle and allow the arms to hang straight down to the floor (yes, your body will have to be adequately elevated to allow this). With arms fully extended, you will feel a nice stretch in the biceps muscles. Now flex at the elbow and keep those elbows pointing directly toward the floor throughout the movement. As you reach the midpoint of the exercise, contract aka “flex” your biceps muscles as hard as you can and then return to the start position.

11.  Dumbbell Kickbacks – I love this exercise, because it forces those triceps to really work hard. It’s easy for the chest to take over during most triceps exercises and with this one, those tris will be forced to do the muscle hustle! Take a pair of dumbbells that aren’t too heavy – Guys, put the ego top the side and trust me on this! Hold the dumbbells in a neutral position, where your palms are facing the sides of your body. Now, bend over at the hips, arch your lower back to create a tight and maintained lumbar curve, bend at the knees, keep your abs tight, chest out and pin your elbows against the side of your body, so that your upper arm (Humerus) is positioned horizontal to the floor). With the elbows pinned and your lower arms (Ulna, Radius & Hands/DB’s) hanging down vertically, contract the triceps and extend at the elbows, bringing the dumbbells back and even with upper arms. Make sure to briefly hold this position, by contracting the triceps muscles as hard as you possibly can!

12.  Reverse Curl
- Take a hip width stance, bend the knees slightly, bring elbows to the sides of your body and pin them there. Palms are facing behind you in a pronated grip. With abs tight, chest out and shoulders retracted back and down, flex at the elbows and reverse curl the dumbbells up. Make sure to keep those elbows pinned to your sides and focus on allowing the forearm muscles (Brachioradialis) and outer biceps (Brachialis) muscles to do the work. These are the muscles that often get injured during rope climbing and monkey bar obstacles and are usually due to a weakness in those arm muscles.

1 Minute Rest Between Bouts

As always, please have some cool water and a towel with you. Please let Hobie and I, know how you did!

Keep Going!

James Villepigue & Hobie Call

Erica Green emailed me with her story and I felt compelled to tell it as it had a familiar ring to it.  How many women put others first time and time again until they find themselves at their lowest point and their highest weight.  Erica shares her story of triumph and her journey towards a Spartan finish line.  Here is her story in her own words.

A little over a year ago, I was close to my heaviest weight I had ever been. I couldn’t run a lap around a track or walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. I had been a 3 sport All-County athlete in high school and received a full college volleyball scholarship to a Division 1 school. But, that was SEVERAL years ago.

You never hope you change your lifestyle when things are going well. I was in great shape when I was in college…I had to be; my scholarship was riding on it! And I loved the fact that I was “athletic looking” not some skin and bones size 0 model. So, why didn’t I keep up my workouts and trainings after I graduated from college? I have no idea. Hind sight is 20-20, and if I could redo it again…I would have. But, I didn’t.

Nope, instead of keeping up with running and lifting…and even eating right…I let it all go. I graduated from college and immediately went for my Masters degree in education. While in grad school, I was also going through a rough time at home, as my younger sister was battling Leukemia and my mother was suffering from MS. Between the pressures of school and watching my sister dwindle away from her heinous disease and my mother in constant agony, I never had the chance to think about what was best for ME; how I should be at the gym relieving my stress with weights instead of eating away at it with cheeseburgers. Gaining 5 pounds turned into gaining 15 pounds and then 25. But it only gets worse…

My sister ended up passing away from her long illness in 1998 and my mother’s condition ended up taking a turn for the worse. I hit rock bottom, literally. No drive, wouldn’t work, let alone work out. My soon-to-be husband had to force me to get out of bed some mornings. He finally convinced me to seek counseling, which I did. I was given some anti-depressants and ballooned up even more. Over the next few years, I had two children. They are truly a blessing, but of course, my weight continued to sky rocket. And, as a parent, I felt that I needed to put my kids and family first. My weight and unhealthy lifestyle became a backseat to their soccer practices, football practices, my husband travelling for work, school projects etc. I think I had truly lost my identity.

At my heaviest weight, I was probably a little under 300 pounds. I gained over 100 pounds in the time between college and raising my 2 kids. I was embarrassed not only at how I looked as a former college athlete, but how unmotivated I had turned out. I tried dieting on my own, but that didn’t work. I tried joining a gym, but all I did was keep paying monthly fees for a membership I never used. I knew I had to stop this rollercoaster ride I was on and realized there was still something missing – EXERCISE! The “athlete” that had been hidden inside of me for all those years was DYING to emerge! Next step…get a personal trainer.

I’ve worked with various personal trainers over the years…some male, some female; some older and some younger…but none of them made a lasting impression on me. I was their “client”. When I left, after the hour was done, and they received credit for my session, I was nothing to them until the next time I returned. That all changed after I met my most recent trainer, Brian.

As a scholar athlete, I have been pushed for most of my life. I have been taught to strive for goals which may seem out of reach. However, I have never been both mentally and physically transformed as I have since I started working with Brian early in 2011. He pushed me WAY beyond any limits I thought I had. His workouts were grueling, challenging and extremely mind-blowing. But, he believed in me…and more important, he made me believe in myself. Brian never allowed me not to finish something I started, never allowed me to EVER say the words “I CAN’T” never allowed me to take the easy way out without feeling guilty and most importantly, never allowed me to be satisfied with anything but the best.

Throughout my months of training, I found that I was able to actually make it around the track again – many more times than I had thought. In fact, I was doing so well with my training, that Brian had mentioned the “Warrior Dash” to me. He said it was a “short, 3 mile obstacle race.” My first thought…there is NOTHING short about 3 miles! I immediately told him he was crazy but he said he would actually run the race with me and help guide me through it. Hesitantly, I signed up for the Warrior Dash in South Florida in December 2011…had SUCH a great time that we even ran another one in Central Florida the following month, but this time, without him by my side.

And then…Brian popped the dreaded question – “How about running in a SPARTAN RACE now?” No clue what that was, I asked him if it was similar to the Warrior Dash. He explained that it was, except that instead of 3 miles, it was 9 miles…and instead of 12 obstacles, it actually turned out to be 30 obstacles! My first thought now – the guy has lost his marbles! I knew I had been improving, but 9 miles? 30 obstacles? Yeah, right! But besides the actual petrifying THOUGHT of competing in this race, I had been having some knee problems (which turned about to be arthritis) and had NEVER gotten above 7 miles total at a time…let alone, with added obstacles! My nerves were at their peak. The race was expensive and I didn’t know if I would be able to complete it. I had just ran the two Warrior Dashes and would find it difficult to justify to my husband to spend that much money on another race – but this time, one that I might not be able to finish because of my knees. I contemplated for weeks, all while I continued to train for it with Brian…until I came up with an idea. The idea was far-fetched, but I decided I wanted nothing more than to be able to complete that race!

While doing some research on the Spartan Race, I decided to contact them and explain to “Sparta” my situation. My email was forwarded to a helpful gentleman by the name of Tom McCormack who said, “I want to see you out there…if you are serious about participating in the race, I will get you in!”

Looking back, I think there was actually a small part of me that was hoping Tom would say that there was nothing he could do to help me. That would have been my easy ticket out. But, nonetheless, on February 25^th, thanks to Tom’s help with registering me…I rode down to Miami, with Brian, to combat Spartan. I don’t think that I can recall anything I talked about or did on the way down as my nerves had eaten away at me. But the next thing I knew, there I was, race bib pinned on, standing at the starting line with hundreds of runners, fire blazing, counting down…listening to Brian say “HAVE FUN” as he smiled, high-fived me…and took off!

FUN?? I thought I was going to be sick – literally! I knew Brian wasn’t going to run this race with me as he did the first Warrior Dash, as he had his own personal goals to attend to, so it was going to be a lot of intrinsic motivation on my part to keep me going. But what if I couldn’t finish? What if I couldn’t’ walk half way through because of knees? I knew financially that I had lost nothing…but what about pride? What about my self-esteem and sense of accomplishment? Not only would I be letting myself down, but I would also be letting my trainer down…one who believed in me and devoted so much time to help me conquer this race. My only goal I had – FINISH THE RACE!

It was a few miles into the course that I had come to my first obstacle that I was not able to defeat…the monkey bars. I was soaked from the trudge through a lake that my grasp just slipped out from the bars. In Spartan land – that was 30 Burpees heading my way. So far, I had been feeling fine. The swims and crawls through the water was a nice break from the run, but how would I handle the burpees?

About 2.5 hours into the race, I finally was in sight of the finish line. I was also in sight of the approximate 7 obstacles in a row I had to overcome before I crossed that finish line. By now, my knees were killing me. I was wet, exhausted and completely covered with mud. After emerging from the mud crawl, I had failed at the next three obstacles in a row…that’s right, 90 consecutive burpees.  I did the burpees – all 90 of them – and with tears of both joy and pain streaming down my face, I finished the Spartan Race. It was just over 3 hours, but I accomplished my goal!  As I kept staring at the blue Spartan Medal I EARNED that hung around my neck while I inhaled the water…

I finally located Brian. At first, no words were needed. We smiled at each other knowing it had been a long morning…longer for me, but just as exhausting for him. He congratulated me on finishing the race and although he is not the type to say it, I think he was thinking that he was actually proud of me for completing it. But as we walked toward the car and we compared “war stories” of the different obstacles and parts of the race, I actually was thinking how proud I was of HIM. I mean, I knew HE would finish the race…but the fact that he was able to take a person – SO overweight and out of shape…and transform her into a Spartan…is simply amazing! I think that was equally as impressive for him that day as was his race.

I have lost most of the weight I had gained since college and, as I get ready to turn 40 this year, I am in the best shape of my life. My physical transformation is incredible! I actually look forward to exercising and get upset if I have to miss a work out. I still train with Brian and, in fact, I decided to have him train my volleyball players I coach in high school, so they can benefit from him as well. Not surprising, their progression is also incredible.

Although my knees still aren’t doing too well, I do have aspirations of running in another Spartan Race next year and would love to complete a half marathon before then. When I contacted Tom to thank him and tell him about my amazing experience at the race, I had told him that if there was anything I could do to show my appreciation for his help, to let me know. He said to me…”In fact there is, tell your story for our blog.” So here it is. Hopefully it motivates someone else who is questioning their ability to GET UP…and GET MOVING.

People hope that they have the ability to manage their problems on their own, especially when it comes to weight. But sometimes it takes an outside source, or person, to get you moving in the right direction. I lucked out. I finally came across someone who not only understood where I wanted to be, but knew exactly how to get me there. And it just wasn’t by giving me a weight to lift. It was changing my mentality. It was by proving that he actually was interested in my progress and not just my payment. It was by displaying confidence in my potential and it was by making me believe in myself…and pushing me, even when I felt as if I could not go on. Whatever or whoever it takes to get you moving in the right direction – take advantage of it.

A little over a year ago, I was close to my heaviest weight I had ever been. I couldn’t run a lap around a track or walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. Today, I am a SPARTAN FINISHER. I stare at my medal hanging around my rear view mirror every time I get in my car and still feel that same sense of pride I did crossing that finish line in February. I hope you are able to conquer that “Spartan Race” of your own someday…whatever that may be.