Gladiator Abs Workout: the Routine

This weekend, Michal will start his Gladiator Abs Workout and we thought it would be a good idea to give you some idea of what is going on in this workout and what we had in mind while designing it. The workout is a product of a number of members who wanted us to push the ancient theme. Michal is a perfect trainee for this very special routine: first, he really needs a good abs training and second he enjoys to be pushed hard in his workout.

Part 1: Posing and Warm-up

One of the main tasks of the gladiator is to entertain. It is not only the fight and training but skill to show himself off that is important. So we start the training by stress exercises where the boy needs to show off his abs:

5-minutes on the knees, carrying a weight pole on the shoulders. Knees are spread wide, chest is pushed out and abs flexed. The pose gives us the first glimpse of the boy’s abs that are about to suffer. You will also have a chance to admire the trimmed-back loincloth.
5-minutes on the knees holding cable weights. This “spread-eagle” pose serves also as a good stretch while working all muscle groups. At the same time, it really offers a great look at the boy’s physique.
3-minutes reverse plank while holding a medical ball on his thighs. The exercise is hard to perform perfectly: sometimes the ball slips away or the body is not sufficiently flexed. This exercise earns the boy his first punishment: 50 push-ups and 50 burpees. We are just getting started!

Part 2: Bear Crawl

5-minutes bear crawl reach out on the bench. The exercise is designed to really get the blood pumping but also keep the trainee in an attractive angle for the audience. You can see how effective this exercise is: this is the first set of the main part of the training and the boy is already struggling. By the end of the set his back is covered in sweat.
because the boy takes many breaks we punish him with 50 additional push-ups before we move on to the next important part of the training.
Pain tolerance: we now introduce a third signature element in addition to strength and entertainment that make the gladiator trainings more realistic. This is called the pain tolerance segment. It is logical that while training young gladiators, they must be prepared for heightened pain tolerance to help to deal with their fights. This means that after bear crawl and push-ups, the boy must stands in place motionlessly, hands behind his head and receive 25 gut punches, which he must count aloud. The boy takes his gut punches without complaint and breaking the set, showing excellent pain tolerance. this is especially clear after the set, when the boy has a short rest when he lets his feelings show.

Part 3: Intense Reps (1)

What follows now is 3 consecutive sets of intense abs exercises:

50 reps of sitting crunch
25 reps of sit-up punches (in keeping with the Gladiator theme)
50 reps of bicycle crunches

After this the boy lay down on the mat, keep his arms behind his head and receive 25 gut punches. Again, he receives his pain tolerance training without breaking the set and without any complaint.

Part 4: Stress Pose

The next set combines training and entertainment. Here, the goal is to present his body while under considerable physical stress. We borrow the pose from our very popular “Double-sets Challenge”: the trainee lays on a bench legs stretched, holding a small ball behind the legs. At the same time he must also keep weights in his arms, which must stay at 90 degree angle. This pose works almost all muscles at the same time and is extremely strenuous. The boy must hold this pose for 5 minutes, which he fails. He takes 2 breaks.

Breaks mean 25 punishment push-ups.

The set again ends with pain tolerance training in form of gut punches. To keep it interesting, we have the boy change positions where his gut punches are administered. This time it will be on the knees, arms around an empty weight bar. One of the hardest things in this training is to keep the arms away from the abs. That is considered breaking the pose – so the empty weight pole comes as a great assistance.

Part 5: Intense Reps (2)

After relatively calm stress training, it is time to do some intense reps again and keep those abs working:

25 reps Beginner jack-knife
25 reps Cross toe touch (highly entertaining exercise)
And finally, scissors. After all those exercises, this seems to be a real killer!

Again, the set ends with gut punches while lying on the floor.

Part 6: Penalty

The penalty is in line with the Gladiator theme: first gut punches while on medical ball and second, gut punches while standing against the wall.

We hope that you will enjoy this new addition to our workout routines as Lukas and AJ are already lined up to go through the very same!

Write us with your workout ideas at agency@fitcasting.com