Spartan Race Preparation Tips

When the going gets tough, the tough Toughen Up!

 

 

1. 3+ Miles - 5km Assault course
2. Multi terrain course: Fields, Concrete, Tarmac, Woodland, Rivers, and Bogs, not including 15 + obstacles.
3. Rope Swings, Cargo Nets, Fire, Ice Baths, River Crossings, Monkey Bars, 12ft Walls… you name it, this course will most probably have it.

If you are training to complete a Spartan Race and think you are going to complete it with relative ease because you can ace a half marathon with a degree of ease, then think again! Cardiovascular conditioning is a significant element, but not your only concern. This course will challenge your body to climb or crawl over, under, around or through various obstacles whilst at the same time coping with some tricky terrain and the mental doubt of “can I complete this” ringing in your ears.


Forget L.S.D (Long slow duration) cardio, it’s all about the use of sprints and hill sprints for complete conditioning. It is important to also focus on increasing functional strength and agility using push-ups, pull-ups, dips and squats – essentially compound exercises utilising multiple muscle groups at once.
Ideally you want to picture the event in your mind, the obstacles involved and they types of terrain you’re going to encounter. Use the videos on the Spartan website as part of your plan for how you are going to train and hopefully conquer this event.

You want to picture the event in your mind, the obstacles involved and the types of terrain your going to encounter.

 

Fundamentally, endurance, grip strength, power to bodyweight and flexibility/agility is what’s required. The way the courses are set up, they are designed with a stop start pattern. High intensity exercises, followed by well spaced runs through varying terrain .

When formulating your plan of action don’t forget to try and stick to a hybrid type workout whereby you tag explosive weight training such as kettle bell swings/presses with short and sharp sprints, possibly even with a weighted back pack for extra authenticity!
The stop start nature of this event demands that you are well versed in using high-energy demands followed by short rest periods. Adapting to this scenario will stand you in good stead for Spartan Race Day.

Remember having a decent level of fitness to start with is great. As a minimum I would suggest being able to do a straight 3 mile run non-stop in a fairly decent time. However it will be those event specific skills that you will need to hone that will enable you to hang, climb, lift and balance your way across those tricky obstacles that will make you a contender to finish and not just another statistic or casualty that didn’t complete it!

And remember to Toughen Up!

Improve Your Metabolic Health

Lose Weight and Get Fit - whilst you can

 

 

Today’s adults are so unhealthy they are medically 15 years older than their parents were at the same age, according to a new study.

 

Two thirds of UK adults are now overweight or obese

Despite life expectancy having improved over the last few decades, the younger generation is 15 years ahead of the older generation in terms of metabolic health because of the prevalence of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Researchers from the Netherlands followed 6,000 individuals for up to 16 years and compared the health of people in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties.
At the start of the study, 40 per cent of men in their thirties were overweight. But a decade on, and the proportion of overweight men in the next generation of 30 year olds had increased to 52 per cent.

Meanwhile, women in their 20s were twice as likely to be obese as those 10 years previously.
The researchers also found that blood pressure had increased among the younger generation of both men and women. Additionally, young men had a higher risk of diabetes than their fathers or their grandfathers.
Author Gerben Hulsegge, from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said: “The prevalence of obesity in our youngest generation of men and women at the mean age of 40 is similar to that of our oldest generation at the mean age of 55.

“This means that this younger generation is '15 years ahead' of the older generation and will be exposed to their obesity for a longer time.”

Experts warn that the effect will mean a slowing of the increase of life expectancy, or even a complete reversal.

An excess of fat, sugar and salt in our diet as well as inactivity means that diabetes, blood pressure and obesity are higher than ever before.
Since 1996 the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has more than doubled from 1.4 million to 2.9 million, and by 2025 it is estimated that five million people will have the condition.
High blood pressure, one of the biggest causes of heart disease and stroke, affects one in four of the adult population or around 12 million people in the UK.
And with two-thirds of people in the UK classified as overweight or obese, on present trends this figure looks likely to reach 90 per cent by 2050.