Image courtesy of Men’s Health
In an effort to promote their new show “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” Starz network asked in January 2010 the editors at Men’s Health to create a workout that is inspired by the show. As a result, the Spartacus workout, designed by Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., was created and is now one of the most popular workouts in Men’s Health history.
Benefits
The Spartacus workout is aimed to reduce body fat and redefine muscle. The workout’s main purpose is to change the way a person looks: leaner, fitter self. A person who does the Spartacus workout will redefine his or her body by the loss of fat and increase in muscle. Both a person’s lungs and heart will be challenged and strengthened as well as his or her body with the workout. Also, the workout shows significant results in fat-loss and muscle increase when paired with a low-calorie, protein-focused diet.
Original Spartacus Workout
The Spartacus workout consists of 10 intense exercises that a person performs in 60 second increments, also called 60 second-stations. A person performs as many exercises in a certain station as he or she can in the 60 second allotment before moving on to the next station and designed exercise. After completing the circuit, or 10 exercises, he or she rests for 2 minutes before starting again. The overall workout lasts roughly 40-50 minutes. Moreover, there are 3 complete circuits in the Spartacus workout, and it must be performed 3 times a week for optimal results.
Station Exercises:
Although there are many different versions of the Spartacus workout—2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 versions— the workout’s original station exercises by Men’s Health include:
- Goblet Squat
- Mountain Climber
- Single-Arm Dumbbell Swing
- T-Pushup
- Split Jump
- Dumbbell Row
- Dumbbell Side Lunge and Touch
- Pushup-Position Row
- Dumbbell Lunge and Rotation
- Dumbbell Push Press
These exercises, especially when repeated, serve to sculpt every part of a person’s body. The newer versions have some additions to the station exercises, including added push-up and curls to existing exercises and newly created plank walk, squat thrusts, and Russian twists, which adds more muscle movements. But a person can decide to follow any version in order to ultimately increase muscle and reduce body fat.
Sources:
http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/high-intensity-circuit-routine/
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/spartacus-workout
http://voices.yahoo.com/spartacus-workout-will-chiseled-greek-6129120.html
