Dave’s 300, a 300 Workout Variation
Those of you’ve who’ve seen the movie 300 know the Spartan warriors were depicted as the ideal of muscular manhood. There were more abs in that movie than in a season of Baywatch!
But those ripped physiques didn’t come easy. Not long after the movie emerged, new exercise routines, inspirational titled “the 300 workout”, quickly appeared. A 300 style workout typical includes moderate weight exercises done so that the total number of reps equals 300. Do an Internet search and you’ll see all types of varients on the 300 workout theme.
To save you the time and effort of wading through all the different 300s out there, I’m going to give you one. A good one. Although the Spartan warriors of the movie showed plenty of rippling muscles, 300 style workouts are typically not muscle builders, the exception being for those people who haven’t done resistance exercises in while.
If you’re already a muscle head, a 300 style work will shred the fat off you while allowing you to keep the muscle you have. If you’ve haven’t done any reistance training in a while (or never), the workout will both add muscle and trim fat. All of this is contingent on the proper diet for your goals of course.
So here’s Dave’s 300:
Workout 1
- Superset Squats and Hanging Clean to Press, 5 sets of 10
- Superset Bench Press and Pull-ups, 5 sets of 10
- 100 Sit-ups (2×50 or 4 x25, etc…)
The Final 300 Total:
- 50 Squats
- 50 Hanging Clean to Presses
- 50 Bench Presses
- 50 Pull-ups
- 100 Sit-ups
Workout 2
- Superset Dead Lifts and Military Press, 5 sets of 10
- Superset Incline Bench Press and Chin-ups, 5 sets of 10
- 100 Sit-ups (2×50 or 4 x25, etc…)
The Final 300 Total:
- 50 Dead Lifts
- 50 Military Presses
- 50 Incline Bench Presses
- 50 Chin-ups
- 100 Sit-ups
What’s a Superset?
A super set is where you do the first exercise and then immediately go do the second with minimal rest in between. So in Workout 1 above, you do your 10 Squats and then immediately go do you 10 Hanging Clean to Presses.
You can rest between supersets, but try to keep the rest to no longer than a minute.
How Much Weight Should I Use?
As much as you can. Seriously though, you want to pick a weight were you can get 10 reps, but not get them too easily, especially in sets 4 and 5. A good place to start is to use about 50% of your max, maybe a little more if you’re already in good shape. As an example, I squat 250 – 275 when I’m doing a set of 5. When I’m doing squats for my 300, I do 155.
I keep the weight the same for all sets, but you can experiment with starting a bit lower and going up. I recommend waiting on that though, and just keeping the weight the same to start.
How to Do Dave’s 300
Do the workout 3 times a week, alternating workouts, with a day off in between, and two days off after workout number 3. Use your off days for low intensity cardio. Here’s my schedule:
- Monday: Workout 1
- Tuesday: Jog 2 miles
- Wednesday: Workout 2
- Thursday: Jog 2 miles
- Friday: Workout 1
- Saturday/Sunday: Jog 2 miles on one of these days
A 300 style workout is pretty brutal and will suck the wind out of you faster than a 400 yard dash. Ease into it. Rest between sets inside the superset if you need to. Rest longer between the supersets themselves. If you can’t do the pull-ups ans chins, use a lat pulldown machine.
Push yourself though. There’s no reason to be puking in the corner, but don’t be a baby either.
It’s so important I’ll say it again: make sure you’re eating a good diet – plenty of protein, low/slow carbs, limited simple carbs.
Give it it a try…. unless you’re too much of a wuss.
See you on the fields od Sparta!
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