Tag: Spartan Race

  • The Best Workout Plan for Your First Obstacle Course Race

    The Best Workout Plan for Your First Obstacle Course Race

    Signing up for your first obstacle course race or Spartan Race can be an emotional combination of excitement and a little intimidation, and that’s completely normal. Even as an athlete my entire life, I was a little nervous going into my first race. So, you’re not the only one.

    Related: 30 Days to Beast: How I Trained for a 21K Spartan Race

    The key to success in your first obstacle course race is to race your own race and shift the way you work out so it’s catered specifically to Spartan racing. Chances are you’re going to be running on tough terrain, face elevation, you’re going to be pulling stuff, carrying stuff, climbing stuff, getting into weird positions, you name it.

    Here’s the plan to get prepared.

    Pick Your First Obstacle Course Race Wisely

    For a Spartan Race, you’ll most likely race a Sprint, Super, Beast, or Ultra. A Spartan Sprint is a 5K with 20+ obstacles, a Spartan Super is a 10K with 20+ obstacles, a Spartan Beast is a 21K with 30+ obstacles, and a Spartan Ultra is a 50K with 60+ obstacles. The main thing that changes in your workout plan is the distance you’re running. It’s highly recommended that if it’s your very first race, sign up for a Spartan Sprint.

    Related: The Best Exercises to Prepare for Spartan Race Obstacles

    Your First Obstacle Course Race Workout Plan

    The following accelerated program takes the exercises listed above and compiles them into a full weekly training program that you can perform week over week, no matter which race you plan on tackling.

    Monday: Uphill Walk at Low Intensity

    For Sprint Prep: Incline walk at 12% grade for approximately 15-20 minutes.
    For Super Prep: Incline walk at 12% grade for 20-30 minutes (with weight vest, if possible).
    For Beast Prep: Incline walk at 12% grade for 40+ minutes (with weight vest, if possible).

    Tuesday: Pull and Carry

    • Plank (3 sets x as long as possible)
    • Side Plank (3 sets x as long as possible on each side)
    • Sit-Up (3 sets x 25 reps) or Hollow Hold (3 sets x for as long as possible)
    • Farmer Carry (3 sets x as long as possible, with 40-70-pound dumbbells or kettlebells)
    • Pull-Up, Inverted Row, or Dead Hang (3 sets x as long as possible on each side)
    • Pull-Down (3 sets x 10-15 reps)
    • Reverse Curls (3 sets x 10-15 reps)

    Wednesday: Tempo Runs

    For Sprint Prep: 2 miles at easy and harder paces throughout
    For Super Prep: 4 miles at easy and harder paces throughout
    For Beast Prep: 4-6 miles at easy and harder paces throughout

    • 30-90 burpees

    Thursday: Active Recovery

    Friday: Lower-Body Strength

    • Plank (3 sets x as long as possible)
    • Side Plank (3 sets x as long as possible on each side)
    • Sit-Up (3 sets x 25 reps) or Hollow Hold (3 sets x as long as possible)
    • Squats (3 sets x 30 seconds)
    • Lunges (3 sets for 30 seconds)
    • Weighted Step-Ups (3 sets x 10-15 reps)
    • Sumo Deadlift (3 sets x 8-10 reps)

    Saturday: Active Recovery

    Sunday: Long Run

    For Sprint Prep: 4 miles at a comfortable pace
    For Super Prep: 6 miles at easy and harder paces throughout
    For Beast Prep: 8 miles* at easy and harder paces throughout
    *Increase mileage by 10% each week.

  • The Best Exercises To Prepare for Spartan Race Obstacles

    The Best Exercises To Prepare for Spartan Race Obstacles

    For first-time obstacle course racers, nothing will ever compare to getting out there and practicing on the actual obstacles themselves. That’s where you’ll truly learn the technical skills, bodily control, and the muscular demands to get them done. The ideal situation — if you ever plan to get competitive — is to be out there consistently doing as much race simulation as possible, both logging miles on the trails and performing the obstacles.

    However, if you’ve signed up for your first Spartan race, haven’t raced in a long time, or don’t have much time to train (but still want to beat your friends or coworkers), here are the best exercises for the hardest obstacles you’ll face in on the course.

    Related: The Best Workout Plan for Your First Obstacle Course Race

     

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    The Rope Climb Obstacle

    Contrary to what you might think, the Rope Climb is a full-body exercise — not just an upper-body one. Why? The pros know that to be as efficient as possible while climbing, you should be practicing a J or S hook. These are technical skills that involve wrapping your feet around the rope, enabling you to save your arms while leveraging your legs to support and power you up. Definitely practice the leg hooks, but make sure those arms and legs are strong as well with the following exercises.

    • Squat
    • Tuck Jump
    • Dead Hang, Pull-up, or Inverted Row
    • Pull-Down
    • Reverse Curls

    The squats will strengthen your legs, the tuck jumps will enhance your lower-body power, the dead hangs, pull-ups, inverted rows, and pulldowns will improve your upper-body vertical pulling strength, and the reverse curls will strengthen your forearms.

    The Atlas Stone Obstacle

    The Atlas Stone is a bend and lift. You’ll have to really turn on all of the muscles in your core and use a lot of your legs to save your back. Then, rely on your arms to do some carrying.

    • Plank
    • Side Plank
    • Sit-Up or Hollow Hold
    • Weighted Front-Rack Carry
    • Sumo Deadlift

    The plank, side plank, and sit-up (or hollow hold) will develop your core strength from multiple angles, the weighted front-rack carry will also strengthen your core, legs, and shoulders. The sumo deadlift will strengthen your back, glutes, and hamstrings.

    The Olympus Wall Obstacle

    The Olympus Wall is awkward as hell. Age Group winners and Elites alike say that there seems to be a few different ways to do this one efficiently. But either way, your legs, arms, and grip will be truly tested. No matter how well-trained you are, when it comes to race day, you can only pray that no one from the Spartan Media Team is capturing any photographic evidence of your attempt to traverse this often burpee-inducing obstacle.

    • Isometric Squat Hold
    • Plate Pinches
    • Dead Hang

    The isometric squat hold will simulate what it would be like to prop yourself up with your feet into the Olympus Wall, and the plate pinches will improve your grip strength by taxing the small muscles in your fingers along with your forearms. Similarly to the plate pinches, the dead hang will improve your grip strength while also strengthening your shoulders and back.

    The Sandbag or Bucket Carry Obstacle

    The Sandbag and Bucket Carry are at about equal suck level, depending on who you ask. While the Atlas Stone is heavy, it’s a relatively quick challenge in comparison to the slow and painful slog of the Sandbag and/or Bucket Carry. Again, this is another obstacle with different techniques depending on personal preference, but you’ll want to build as much strength and muscular endurance in your legs as possible.

    • Squats
    • Lunges
    • Weighted Step-Ups
    • Weighted Incline Walk

    The squats and lunges will strengthen all areas of your legs while the weighted step ups and weighted incline walks will simulate the muscular demands of an uphill carry.

    The Barbed Wire Crawl Obstacle

    The Barbed Wire Crawl is sneakily tough. How tough can crawling be? Well, very, especially when you need to stay low enough not to slice yourself open. (And when it’s anything further than about 10 or 15 feet … and up a hill.)

    Your core, legs, forearms, and shoulders will be burning like hell the whole way.

    • Bear Crawl
    • Crab Crawl
    • 90s Stretch
    • Pigeon Pose
    • Burpees

    The bear crawl is a perfect simulation of the Barbed Wire Crawl obstacle. It will strengthen your core, legs, and shoulders. Flipping over and crab crawling will counterbalance the bear crawl by strengthening the opposing muscles. This will eliminate any weaknesses or imbalances. The 90s stretch and pigeon pose will improve your hip mobility in the event that you need to get even lower to the ground at certain points. What purpose do the burpees serve? To race fast, you need to train fast.

  • 30 Days to Beast: How I Trained for a 21K Spartan Race

    30 Days to Beast: How I Trained for a 21K Spartan Race

    There’s something special about the 21K, 30-obstacle Spartan Beast for a first-timer with a little bit more grit and fitness than a true first-timer. It’s long, but not too long. If you can run a 5K or 10K fairly efficiently, sure, you could do a Sprint or a Super like most would. But why not take the plunge into Spartan World by trying the Beast first? I tried it myself and survived, so here’s how you can, too. Also, if you want to race, don’t pay full price! Get 25% off by using the code HFP25 at checkout on spartan.com

    First, some background:

    The last time I did any sort of obstacle course was around 2013. I ran a short sample course at Reebok Headquarters in Canton, Mass. with Joe De Sena himself as a part of a campaign for the magazines that I was working for at the time. I followed Joe and carried logs, climbed walls, and failed the rings. He watched me do 30 burpees. Every single one of them. (Seriously, he counted.)

    The second time I dabbled in OCR was at the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, Colo. in 2015, where I did what was similar to a Spartan Super — about 6 or 7 miles with obstacles. Surprisingly, I did fairly well, although my lungs weren’t used to the altitude. Fast forward almost a decade, and I got hooked on OCR. Coming off of a brutal shoulder surgery and frustrating chronic pain, I wanted to prove to myself that I’m still tough and gritty enough to crush my way through.

    I chose the Vernon, NJ Beast — the fifth-most difficult Spartan course in the country — on April 30, 2022 and ran in an Open heat with the goal of having fun on the obstacles (which I’m obsessed with) and just getting through. I finished in 4 hours and 21 minutes, but — in hindsight — I honestly think I could have broken 4 hours. It was tough, but it was fun as hell.

    So here’s the deal: If you’re pretty fit (both physically and mentally), go ahead and skip the Sprint and Super and take on the Beast!

    How 30 Days to Beast Works

    First, I needed to strengthen my weaknesses, which were primarily running endurance and adaptability to rough terrain and elevation.

    I wouldn’t consider myself an endurance athlete — never was one. I would consider myself a hybrid athlete, but with more of a background in traditional strength training and cross training. Regardless, I’m definitely not a runner, so I needed to build up to longer distances. Every Sunday was a long and slow run that progressed week over week, peaking at 14 miles. Every Wednesday was a shorter distance run that I did at a significantly faster pace. This provided a nice balance.

    I live at sea level, and while I have experience running on sand (which was helpful), my technical trail running is mediocre at best. Anywhere I run is typically dead flat, so going uphill is always hell. I knew that I needed to get at least one day in per week on a trail. In addition to my Wednesday shorter-distance runs, I threw in some hill sprints or short runs on the beach with a weight vest. On both running days, I would also perform burpees, muscle-ups, and/or toes to bar to simulate racing.

    The other days of the week were either lower-body strength in the gym to keep my legs strong, or upper-body pulling to keep my back, shoulders, and forearms primed for obstacles. A day of complete rest was baked in for recovery. Fortunately for me, I’ve got a good upper-body strength and some general athleticism, so carrying heavy things, playing on monkey bars, and swinging on rings sounds like a party to me.

    Is this program for highly-competitive Age Groupers? Probably not, but will it help a first-timer get through feeling healthy and strong? Absolutely.

    The 30 Days to Beast Program for First-Time Spartan Racers

     

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    Sunday: Long and Slow Run + Burpees

    Week 1: 8 miles + 120 burpees

    Week 2: 10 miles + 90 burpees

    Week 3: 12 miles + 90 burpees

    Week 4: 14 miles + 60 burpees

    Monday: Upper-Body Strength and Obstacle Prep

    Bird dog (5 sets x 10 reps)
    Pull-ups (5 sets to failure)
    Rows superset with floor presses (5 sets x 10 reps)
    Farmer carries (5 sets with 50 pounds for max distance)
    Crawling (5 sets x 2 minutes each)

    Tuesday: Easy Uphill Walking Slog with Weight Vest

    30-60 minutes at 2.8 mph with a 15% grade

    Wednesday: Shorter, Quicker Run + Sand

    3-5 miles + ½ mile beach run with weight vest (or simply add the vest and run on whatever terrain you have available)

    Thursday: Lower Body Strength + Additional Dead Hangs

    Traveling lunge (2 sets x 10 reps each direction — forward and reverse)
    Single-leg deadlift (3 sets x 10 reps)
    Front squat (5 sets x 10 reps)
    Split squat (3 sets x 10 reps)
    Chops (3 sets x 10 reps each side)
    Dead hangs (5 sets x as long as possible)

    Friday: HIIT Session

    4 rounds for time: 500-meter row, 800-meter run

    Saturday: OFF

    Rest and recovery

    Commit to Your First Race

    If you can easily run a 5K, commit to a Sprint.
    If a 10K is a breeze, commit to a Super.
    If a half-marathon is no problem, commit to a Beast.
    If you can run a marathon (and/or are downright crazy), commit to an Ultra.