300 Challenge Begins!

Saturday I got into the gym around 11am to begin the 300 challenge! For those who haven't been following, the 300 Challenge is 300 reps performed in 20 minutes, and is "supposedly" the workout test used for the guys training for the movie 300. Here's what the normal challenge looks like:

• Pullups - 25 reps
• Barbell Deadlift with 135 lbs. - 50 reps
• Pushups - 50 reps
• 24-inch Box Jumps - 50 reps
• Floor Wipers - 50 reps
• Single-Arm Clean-and-Press with 36 lbs Kettlebell - 50 reps
• Pullups - 25 reps

With that said I'm a little limited on equipment. I wasn't able to find an affordable box for the jumps and my kettlebells only go up to 20 lbs. Also I tried lifting the 135 up from the ground for the floor wipers, but I just didn't feel safe holding that weight like that without help. The link above has a modified version of the 300 workout and I picked a few of the modifications from it. Instead of the box jumps I'm doing body weight squat jumps (go down into a squat, and then jump straight up), and instead of floor wipers I'm doing V ups. I'm actually modifying the V ups too and doing them with a ball. Basically I take the ball between my arms, come up into a V and pass the ball to my legs, then bring the ball all the way down. Then I bring the ball back up and put it back in my arms, and once I've put the ball back down over my head I have completed 1 rep. Finally I'm just going to stick with the clean and press with the 20 lb kettlebell. Either that or use the 30 lb weights I have, even though for day 1 I used the kettlebell.

So my plan for this program is to start with 15's on everything instead of 50 (half for the ones that are split or only use one arm, and always rounding up), and once I can do a workout in under 20 minutes I'll add 5 to everything. That's how it started. So my first try at 300 looked like this.

• Pullups - 8 reps
• Barbell Deadlift with 135 lbs. - 15 reps
• Pushups - 15 reps
• Bodyweight Squat Jumps - 15 reps
• V-Ups - 15 reps
• Single-Arm Clean-and-Press with 20 lbs Kettlebell - 16 reps (8 each arm)
  
• Pullups - 8 reps

And here's the results of that. Well, I did it. In fact I did the whole thing in 8 minutes and 34.9 seconds. That's a hell of a lot faster than I thought I would, and much much shorter than the 20 minute goal. Like my plan says, this means I'm going up to 20's and 10's this coming Saturday. However, I must must say that at the end the workout I felt absolutely terrible! Drained like my soul got sucked out. I flew threw it trying to beat 20 minutes, and while I did destroy the 20 minute barrier I don't know how much more I could have done. 20's and 10's is going to be tough next week. That said, I can apparently take a few more breaks than I did last time, so maybe that'll make it easier.

To document it, I did the first 10 minutes of Core Synergistics before starting 300 so I'd have a nice warmup. That felt good.

Today starts P90X Lean with the girlfriend! We're both very excited to get moving! Also afterwards I have Stronglifts today. Wish me luck!

Bring it!