Thread: Spartan Health Regime

I wasn't in great shape when I got here (Thailand) over a year ago, but since then my health has gone down hill. Eating all that bullshit street and fried food that seems so deleicious and such a bargain at first, has taken it's toll. On days where I don't down half a dozen big leo's, it's a few litres of soft drink. Probably got 10kgs heavier than when I got here.

The last 2 weeks I been on a fruit fast, just eating fruit and drinking water and 100% fruit juice. Follow this e-book I got a few years ago by a crazy Aussie guy, Anthony Bova, called 'The Spartan Health Regime' (PM me if you want a copy). The book recommends 5 day fruit fast to detox but my body's taken such a hammering lately I figure I needed more. Today, day 14, is the last fasting day.

I gotta tell you it's been tough, real tough. Not just the craving food, that goes after a few days. It's the sickness from all the toxins coming out of your body. Only 2 days ago I stopped feeling sick, and now feeling fantastic, just a little hungry. But the sickness was teerrible. Sniffling, sneezing, pain in every joint, pissing every 10 minutes, hot / cold sweats, insomnia. Fasting means no drugs either so no valium or weed, no smokes so add various withdrawal symptons, the worst IMO being processed sugar.

The E-book is pretty good if you can bare the ramblings of the nutter author in between the excellent information. It's all common sense and nothing new but good for someone not in the know. It's basically a caveman diet, so lots of fruit, and meals of fatty meats and green vegies. The meat should be game as possible (liver is best) and eaten raw or barely cooked. The author really stresses organics, and disses anything even slightly processed. The theory is that we are at optimum health when we eat the way our bodies were designed to in cavemen type environment, and everything else is just poison. Harvesting of grain was the downfall of human health.

The excercise program is sensible and simple. Running and body weight training (chin-ups etc). He scoffs at all the complex gym eqpuipment zeroing in on small muscles.

Anyway just posting here coz I'm pretty stoked I made it through the detox and managed to excercise through the sickness every day. Now I can't see myself becoming a spartan health fanatic, but want to stick to it stictly until I have the desired fat / muscle. I don't weigh myself but the 2 week fast alone has considerably dropped weight, everyone I have seen has commented. Now I'll still be eating fruit for the first half of the day, then can gorge on meat and vegies. I'm off now to fry a nice piece of salmon I picked up this morning. Can't bloody wait!

the ramblings of the nutter

you need to eat a normal diet.

If you watch that historically-correct film "300", the Spartans all had well-defined "6-pack" abdominals, and were pretty good fighters, so it would seem that Spartans were pretty healthy and that this might be a good regime to follow.
If you don't achieve the same level of actual fitness and muscularity you could similarly just use CGI technology to create the illusion.

Good luck.

It desn't sound like a very healthy diet for the long term. Still, it helped you stop going down a bad path. Maybe tinker wih it a bit to make it more mainstream?

Originally Posted by taxexile

the ramblings of the nutter

you need to eat a normal diet.

The diet the author suggests is actually pretty far from 'normal'.

Just ate that salmon steak, first meat in two weeks, lightly fried, downed the lot skin and all. The funny thing is I'm so full now, couldn't eat another bite. Before a lite meal of sallmon and veg wouldn't nearly do.

Originally Posted by gingsa

It desn't sound like a very healthy diet for the long term. Still, it helped you stop going down a bad path. Maybe tinker wih it a bit to make it more mainstream?

For sure. One thing, I never ate fruit before and I think that has changed permanantly now, as I like it so much more than before. And the thought of soft drink doesn't seem appealing right now.

Originally Posted by 9999

The excercise program is sensible and simple. Running and body weight training (chin-ups etc). He scoffs at all the complex gym eqpuipment zeroing in on small muscles.

He can scoff all he wants, but the fact is that the vast majority of people aren't strong enough to do a set of proper (pronated/overhand grip) pull-ups, chin-ups, dips, or even push-ups.

^ I can just do a chin-up, so doing push ups etc until I get there. He recommends adding weight as soon as you can do 3 sets of 5 (pull ups or chin ups) to gain strength. I can't do all of the ab work-out either so just do normal sits ups / crunches instead.

Originally Posted by gingsa

It desn't sound like a very healthy diet for the long term. Still, it helped you stop going down a bad path. Maybe tinker wih it a bit to make it more mainstream?

By the way, the author argues that this diet is the optimum for long life and health. I'm no expert here just going with the program I've chosen. I'd like to hear why or why not others think eating the way this book suggests is the healthiest way to go. The reason I went with the Spartan is 'coz a mate who is right into health and fitness said it would be right for me if I'm deicated.

If it works then do it!

Here's the '300 Workout' from the film that the actors were put through at the end of their training:

The 300 Workout

The workout gets its name from the total number of repetitions. But those 300 reps weren't done daily, as some media accounts report, Twight says. Rather, the 300 workout was the finale of months of training, a kind of graduation test, after actors had weight lifted and trained with tools such as medicine balls and Kettlebells (cast iron weights with handles).

It's daunting, and includes these weight-training moves:

• 25 pull-ups
• 50 deadlifts at 135 pounds
• 50 push-ups
• 50 box jumps with a 24-inch box
• 50 "floor wipers" (a core and shoulders exercise at 135 pounds)
• 50 "clean and press" at 36 pounds (a weight-lifting exercise)
• 25 more pull-ups -- for a total of 300 reps

There's no rest between movements and the score is based on total time, Twight says.

^nice work. Do you ever add weight to a belt for pull ups? The Spartan Regime is actually designed for people like yourself already strong to improve.

I eat only a bag of peanuts everyday before 6pm - can I be a spartan?

Originally Posted by 9999

^nice work. Do you ever add weight to a belt for pull ups? The Spartan Regime is actually designed for people like yourself already strong to improve.

I used to, but I rarely do these days (mostly because I never replaced the chain I lost that allowed me to hang plates from my belt...)- I'm trying to get to 20, which I've never been able to hit (18 is a great day, but some days I might only get 16 or 17- pull-ups are tough).

I generally do a max set to start my back work-out, do another set for whatever I can manage (10-12 usually) then do a couple sets of close-grip 'V-bar' pull-ups (for me 12 is a decent set at that point)- doing those helped add a few reps to my regular pull-ups.

There's a great site- Bodybuilding.com - The Future Of Bodybuilding! Huge Bodybuilding Site.- go to 'supersite' then to 'exercises'- there are a load of body-weight movements that you might find beneficial.

This is Spartan!

The Spartans weren't allowed to masturbate. No wonder they were so angry.

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Here's the '300 Workout' from the film that the actors were put through at the end of their training:

The 300 Workout

The workout gets its name from the total number of repetitions. But those 300 reps weren't done daily, as some media accounts report, Twight says. Rather, the 300 workout was the finale of months of training, a kind of graduation test, after actors had weight lifted and trained with tools such as medicine balls and Kettlebells (cast iron weights with handles).

It's daunting, and includes these weight-training moves:

• 25 pull-ups
• 50 deadlifts at 135 pounds
• 50 push-ups
• 50 box jumps with a 24-inch box
• 50 "floor wipers" (a core and shoulders exercise at 135 pounds)
• 50 "clean and press" at 36 pounds (a weight-lifting exercise)
• 25 more pull-ups -- for a total of 300 reps

There's no rest between movements and the score is based on total time, Twight says.

I tried this routine and its bloody hard work. It took me a while to build up to be able to do all the reps in each exercise. (except the 25-pull ups) It was all going great until the day I reached 9 pull ups and something popped in my shoulder and my stomach muscles cramped up.