Spartan King Leonidas: This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they die!

Captain: On these shields, boys!

Spartan King Leonidas: Remember this day, men, for it will be yours for all time.

     From the age of seven, Spartan boys no longer lived at home, but were raised to be soldiers.  Training was intense, but effective, their was no place on the battlefield for overweight warriors.  Aside from combat training, they learned to swim, run, jump, wrestle, and box.  Spartan warriors exercised like that fought on the battle field with incredible intensity which made them superb warriors.  The actors in 300 were ripped, so you may be asking how they got these ordinary men in such superb shape for the movie.  After the movie was released, an interview with the trainer who was assigned to get the actors from 300 into peak shape revealed that he used a high intensity, no rest period workout.  The training for the movie for 300 was as follows:

25x Pull-up

50x Deadlift @ 135 pounds

50x Push-up

50x Box Jump @ 24" box

50x Floor Wiper @ 135 pounds (one-count) (A floor wiper works the abdominals)

50x Kettle Bell Clean and Press @ 36 pounds

25x Pull-up

300 reps total all done in less than 20 minutes.  There was no rest between exercises!

The Science behind the 300 Workout

Talk about high intensity training!! So is this workout complete hype or could you expect similar gains in lean muscle mass and reduced bodyfat from this type of workout?  This type of workout is the ultimate stimulator of a powerful anabolic hormone: Growth Hormone (GH).  There are several components 300 workout that are critical for the stimulation of GH: high intensity exercise, short to no rest periods, and the usage of large muscle groups.  You don't have to follow the exact workout to get large increases in GH; however this type of workout represents the Pinnacle of high training intensity.