The movie 300, which was released in 2007, is a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae. There are many interesting aspects to the movie 300 such as the historical details of the battle of Thermoplae, the battle field strategies, and the political strategies. I enjoyed the movie and even though it was put down in the popular press here in Australia I thought it was great story very well told.
One of the features of 300 that was commonly discussed was how physically fit the cast members that played the 300 Spartan soldiers looked in the movie. We where told that no CGI was performed on the cast and instead the cast undertook a special workout program in the months leading up to the start of shooting. I don't think it is commonly known how the cast members trained so I thought I would comment on it here.
Introducing Gym Jones, which has been likened to "fight club for the gym". Gym Jones was started by Mark Twight in Salt Lake City in the US. Mark had a background as an adventure / endurance athlete undertaking alpine climbing and other types of endurance challenges. Mark developed a training philosophy that toughened both his physical being and his mental state to allow him to push further his limits of endurance. From this philosophy, others joined him and Gym Jones was created.
Some quotes from their web site:-
On the Gym Jones web site there are a collection of videos and essays that are all very good and certainly worth a look to anyone who enjoys challenging training sessions and really wants to push their fitness further. I found a lot of commonality between the philosophies discussed on the Gym Jones web site and those taught to me in Karate dojos. For example:-
- The emphasis on the responsibility of everyone within a team to do their best every night for the entire benefit of the team.
- Within a Karate dojo, if you are more senior you have a responsibility to train hard with other members at such a level that you do not injure them but also not too soft so as to weaken them and that by making your team members stronger you make yourself stronger as they then train back at you.
- You must apply to join and train with the people at Gym Jones
- Within a Karate dojo, tradition dictates that you should ask the sensi for permission to train at the dojo. While this is not commonly undertaken in Western dojo's a weeding out approach is instead often used, and I have seen it many times. When an interested new member attends the dojo on their very first night they will be pushed to their physical breaking point. This approach means many people who don't have the mental toughness simply don't return and therefore the integrity of the team is maintained. In certain circumstances, having an open door approach doesn't strength your team and instead can weaken it.
- The activity based approach to training
- You move and you keep moving. You use your body weight to strength your body. A very simple yet powerful approach to exercise that helps you create real core strength. All the complicated pulleys and machines in a gym are really not that helpful.
Check out the Nothing But Pull-ups video to see what others are doing on the chip up bar.