Fallen Off a Bit? Get Back in Spartan Shape NOW With These 5 Simple Moves
Even the most hardcore Spartan warriors fall off track every once in a while. With the stressors of a global pandemic, it’s even more understandable when you need to get back in shape at home. Whether you’re trying to hold down a full-time job while homeschooling your kiddos or are on the front lines of healthcare, many of us have less time and energy to crush our workouts these days.
But there’s always a path back — that goes for those of us who are preparing for a future race day and those who want to be strong for themselves and their families. Because many of us are sheltering at home for the foreseeable future, we asked our Director of Training, Sam Stauffer, to put together the five essential moves that will help you get back in Spartan shape ASAP. He's quarantining with Spartan founder and CEO Joe De Sena in Vermont, and he made sure that these exercises can be done easily at home.
And if you want to take these moves to the next level, Stauffer explains how to do so using Spartan gear.
Related: The Spartan Guide to Building an At-Home Gym
5 Expert Moves to Get You Back in Spartan Shape at Home
Move #1: Reverse Lunge
The reverse lunch improves the single-leg movement pattern and overall athleticism. It's crucial for fixing asymmetries, as you have to train each leg individually.
Level Up: Make it a weighted reverse lunge by throwing the Spartan RAMroller on your shoulder to intensify this exercise.
Move #2: Single-Leg Deadlift
The single-leg deadlift is the ultimate hip-hinging exercise: It will not only build incredible single-leg strength and improve your overall stability, but it will strengthen all of the tiny stabilizers in your lower body (ankles, knees, and hips). This is paramount for injury prevention.
Level Up: Load up the single-leg deadlift with a Spartan Pancake to challenge your stability and build your hip strength. The Pancake will also challenge your crush-grip strength, and we all know how important that is.
Move #3: Squat Jump
The squat jump will accomplish three things: build lower-body strength, build lower-body power, and train your landing mechanics, all essential things to get back into race shape.
Level Up: Add the Resistance Loop to this exercise to reinforce your abductor strength. Focus on landing softly, with your knees tracking over your toes. If you find your knees caving in during this exercise, scale it back to just a squat so you can hone in!
Related: Hit Every Muscle, Top to Bottom, in 30 Minutes With This Intense At-Home Workout
Move #4: Push-Up
The push-up is just a great exercise to do for overall strength: It will strengthen your upper body and teach you how to activate your core. Teaching the two to work properly together will pay dividends out on the course.
Level Up: Throw a Spartan Pancake on your back: Not only will this add resistance to the pushing motion, but your core will have to work overtime to keep the Pancake from falling to the ground.
Move #5: Pull-Up
Just like the push-up, this is a fantastic exercise regardless of race prep! The pull-up is one of the best exercises a Spartan can do. Think about it: Most of our obstacles require you to hang onto something. The pull-up will reinforce your grip, elevate your upper-body strength, and improve your shoulder stability.
Level Up: Change it up by adding the Climbing Rope into the mix and making this a seated pull-up. This will train your crush-grip strength and get different muscles into the mix.