‘300′ Fitness Facts
How did Butler end up looking like King Leonidas of the 300 hall of fame?
He worked out crazy for four months. He had help from a world class mountaineer and a Venezuelan body builder. The 300 Spartan workout which is hitting headlines in a big way isn’t that easy. Imagine doing “25 pullups, 50 deadlifts with 135 pounds, 50 pushups, 50 jumps on a 24-inch box, 50 floor wipers 50 single-arm clean-and-presses using a 36-pound kettle bell, and 25 more pullups. All this, in addition to utilizing other unconventional yet equally taxing training methods, such as tire flipping and gymnastics-style ring training”(Excerpt from this fantastic article by Jeff O’Connell:Spartan Workout Secrets from the Star of 300). At the end of the sweat-till -you -are -dead routine, you end up looking like a comic book super hero with fantastic chiselled abs and superhuman physique.
The Spartans were a clannish lot who had the highest standards of perfection of the body. Legend has it that weak Spartan babies were often abandoned as it was a sure sign that they were unfit for their future life as warriors. I guess the twenty first century is a better place to be in. We debate and discuss body image problems. We create dialogues and market products. We never give up on imperfection. We profit from it:)
Some misconceptions about the 300 workout that Mark Twight(one of the fitness trainers at 300) has clarified here.
Spartan 300 workouts, Gerard Butler
April 16th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Maybe it was a bad idea to just abandon the Spartan babies. Perhaps id they were allowed to grow and tried some weightlifting fitness exercises, they would have been OK.
Just a thought.
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Thanks for posting the link to Mark Twight’s site. I liked being able to cut through the bull and get the real story.
That said, the cast looked amazing.