Looking for a rotation to get ready for a Spartan!

tricia

Cathlete
Hello everyone,

I am signed up for the Spartan Sprint in a little over a month, and am coming off the January rotation from Cathe's calendar. I need to change up my routine to prepare for the running, pulling myself up over walls, agility tasks like rope climbing & mud crawling, etc. I am hoping this preparation will in turn help me steamline my body. I want to get lean, toned and trim. (Want to lose about 15 pounds weight-wise.) SO, I need some suggestions on workouts or a rotation that will help me do all that.

My idea is to try Shaun T.'s Insanity (my MIL got me one for Christmas and I haven't done it yet.) I've read that this is great for pushing your cardio to the next level.

In addition to that - which I realize is heavily plyometric & should help with jumping, I need suggestions for supplementing weight work in. My thinking is the I could do something from STS to include pull/ups (Meso 1, maybe)? But aside from that, I don't know which way to go - more High Reps to build endurance or slow & heavy like 4 Day Split, the S&H Series, Muscle Max or Muscle Endurance, etc. I also don't know how many days to sub in weight, or just stick to every other day i.e. 3 days/week cardio & 3 days/week of weightwork?

What benefits do Push/Pull & Supersets help you gain? I've never really honed in on what those do for you, exactly.

I have almost all of Cathe's workouts with the exception of the most recent releases (X10, Party Rock 1-2, Great Glutes, etc.)

I would love to stick with Cathe along with the Insanity workouts so that I don't get burned out on Shaun T. (I never get sick of Cathe!)

So anyone who has ideas to share or what worked for you, I'd love to hear from you! (BTW-I have posted this in the DVD questions/comments Forum also.)

As always, thanks in advance~
 
I am not sure about what other things u can do but I'd say one DVD that pops in my mind when I read climbing walls and agility drills is afterburn.. That one with the push-up jacks and the mountain climbers to me with the disk is harder then no disk because it requires more core and thighs to move the disks back and forth and I have been in the military and we did a lot of running a lot of agility drills a lot or climbing and repealing. That was just five years ago for me so it is all fresh in my mind! And I was 38 doing basic so every time I do afrerburn I think man I wish I had this DVD to do during basic! It would have made all the things we had to do a lot easier!
Of course I'd say also add I in some running with fast intervals in there and muscle max. Also I think supercuts is one that you can do that would help not for the intensity but for the whole body and core conditioning it gives and you use that one on a day that u need a light day. I think drill max comes to mind and cross fire and x10 and maybe crossfire as well . I know sounds like a lot but I am positive you should add after burn ! No doubt in my mind on that one at all.
 
I think that a good investment for the Spartan Sprint for you would be X10. It is very challenging and pushes you.

As for an opinion on Push pull/Supersets...I generally only use these on lazy days when I don't want much of a muscular challenge, but want to do something. I just have never been a huge fan of these two workouts...as I don't feel really challenged by them.
 
Not supersets Supercuts one of her x train videos. It also isn't as challenging and I use it on light cardio days but I think it is good for full body metabolic training in my opinion. I may be wrong I'm not as knowledgable on all this stuff as most these ladies but from what I can tell the Supercuts and a lot of metabolic workouts would work. And her muscle max and sts total body. Sorry if I got that confused!! I usually do have a bunch of typos lol.
 
Thanks, Tracy -

I have the same response to Push/Pull & Supersets. It's a good workout for a light day.

Renee, I had asked about those two in my post, so no worries - you didn't mistype it! I do love Supercuts as well, it's great for an overall day along with STS Total Body & Muscle Max. I have also been looking into X10, just from the comments around here it sounds like it's totally worth it!

Thank you both for your input - I always like to get others' opinions & never trust my own rotation making ability!
 
I agree with the X10 recommendation!

Other cardio pumpers are XTrain's Tabatacise.

I'd consider doing the Plyo Legs from STS.

For upper body strength, I like STS Meso 2, you could add in your own Pull Ups. XTrain's Burn Sets is also great and really pushed my strength to a new level.

Core work is important too, I think Mindy Mylrea's All About Abs has some tough ab exercises.

Good Luck!
 
Aroo fellow Spartan!

I don't use a scheduled rotation, but when I'm in full obstacle-course mode I try to run 3-5 miles about 2-3 days a week, and then do lots of metabolic or boot camp style workouts in between. X10, Afterburn, CCC, Drill Max, Flextrain, etc. At least one heavy upper body weight workout would be a good idea as well. Many of the obstacles are very upper body and core intensive - monkey bars, rope climb, Herculean Hoist, etc.

Practice your burpees as well! Do 30+ at the end of a run when you're tired. If you fail an obstacle (I have yet to successfully get my javelin in the target) you MUST do 30 burpees before you can move on. Practice makes it easier.

Have fun! Spartans are some of the most exuberant, friendly people I've ever had the pleasure to know.

Signup for those interested: Sign Up With Me And Try The #1 OCR.
 

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