FITNESS AUTHOR
Nick Martinez
FIND YOUR INNER SPARTAN n Check out Nick Martinez’s
experience training for and competing in the Spartan Race.
R
unning a Spartan Race sounds intimidating, but does it take an actual “Spartan”? I’ve always wanted to attempt the race since I first heard of it in 2010. During high school, I pushed it to the back burner until I signed up for my first Spartan Race after seeing an Instagram ad post-college. However, I’d never trained for one. During high school, I played sports like football and track, so my training was tailored toward athletic ability and power. In college, I switched to bodybuilding training. I decided to run the 10K Super Spartan Race; I wanted to go allin. However, I only had a month to prepare. After researching, I realized I needed to learn how to jump over 7-foot walls, climb monkey bars, complete a rope climb, grapple on walls, carry a 60-pound sandbag and more.
JULY 2022
The Training
The catch was I didn’t know which obstacles came first. I switched from bodybuilding-style training to a mixture between CrossFit and athletic-style training. I had a solid strength foundation, but my problem was grip-strength, so I worked lots of farmer’s carries and unilateral movements involving weight on one side of the body.
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As I got the hang of a new training style, I started incorporating mileage into my post-exercise routine. Many wondered why I did this at the end instead of the beginning. My philosophy was simple — the obstacles are testing my strength and endurance. Therefore, it was best to incorporate mileage at the end when my glycogen stores in the muscles were depleted. It took my training to a different level.
