Spartacus Workout: Season 1 Finale, and the Season 2 Mini-Series

Back in September I decided to honor the passing of Spartacus TV star Andy Whitfield. I was going to do the same workout he and many of his co-workers did to prepare for the show. The workout was very hard and intense for me. I made a commitment to do one additional workout each week until I did six in the final week. Between an out of town visitor and a desire to not puke after every workout, I failed to meet my promises.

I limped to a finish, and finally completed the Spartacus workout cycle I set out to do in September. It took me two weeks to eke out the final two workouts.

Despite the poor season finale, I made a lot of progress from when I started. I was doing almost 700 more movements by the end of my workout than I did on day one. I definitely lost some body fat and put on some muscle. And I absolutely got stronger.

So, now that I’m all done and winter is settling in, what am I going to do?


Tools of the trade

Be honest with myself

I got in a weird spot with my original workout. I used to lift weights a lot when I lived in Oregon. Everything I did was structured around my workouts. My diet changed based if I was on a “build phase” or a “cut phase.” Because it’s hard for me to put on mass, I was eating 5000 calories a day. I was eating every two hours, and I had to eat a little bit before my workout and then immediately after. I was spending up to two hours a day in the gym, and my life pretty much revolved around picking up heavy things and putting them back down again. That was good for about two years, and then I just had enough and imploded.

The Spartacus workout made me feel like I was back in those days. I sweat a ton during the workout, and I was drinking vast amounts of water to stay hydrated. I went back on creatine to help me finish the workouts, and that of course demands more water. I experimented with working out before or after I went to work. I performed better by working out in the evenings, but that meant I had to be really careful with what I ate, and I had to have a pretty sizeable snack at about 2PM instead of my usual graze.

The workout itself wound up taking about 75 minutes. I had a warm up stretch and a cool-down stretch in addition to the workout itself. If I obeyed the recovery time rules, the workout was supposed to take just a little bit over 45 minutes. However that was usually not the case, and I doubled the 15 second recovery time between movements, which stretched the workout.

Do less to do more

I’m going to cut my Spartacus workouts down to three days a week. I will fill in Tuesday and Thursdays in with a different workout. I hope this keeps my right knee from getting worn out. I am standing full-time at work again (I’m in week three, and I’ll write more about that later), but my knees were taking a real beating by the end of the series.

My hope with the “mini-series” is to keep the compound movements of the workout intact and respect the interval-style pacing. I also hope to cut the amount of time it takes to do each workout. This should remove one of my most popular excuses for skipping a workout.

I plan on doing one set of the movements with twice the weight of my regular season. I’ve done two workouts so far, and this allows me to give 100% on each exercise. I don’t have to worry about pacing myself through three rounds. It’s also a lot faster, and I won’t need to watch my diet and water intake as much, since the workout is 2/3rds shorter than the original.

Get a buddy

Reducing the length of the workout makes it short enough for Sedagive? to do it with me. She already works out every morning, but the duration of the full-blown Spartacus workout was too much. She goes to work earlier than I do, but the mini-series format should allow us to work out together. It is easier for me to start a workout when I have a partner.

So, let’s see what happens. I am going to try this for two months or so and see how it goes. I have to be sensitive to the holiday season and also our impending move come the end of the year.

Wish me luck!

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