Actors from '300' had to endure physical pain to become characters
By Valerie Vedral
For RedEye
Published March 29 2007
Before they could star in the hit film "300," the actors had to pass a test worthy of the Spartan warriors they play.
Gerard Butler and his co-stars had to transform their bodies into top physical shape and their minds into a warrior-like mentality.
"We would do competitive circuit training against each other, running around with very primitive tools such as kettlebells and medicine balls. You were dead by the end of it," Butler, who plays Spartan King Leonidas, told the L.A. Daily News. "That was mental conditioning, too; you really had to endure exhaustion and pain."
Anyone who has seen the Spartans in the film, or posters of the movie, knows the results. Butler and his co-stars look as if they'd spent their lives fighting with swords and shields.
The man responsible for those ripped abs and fierce physiques is former world-class mountain climber Mark Twight, who trained the actors for eight weeks prior to filming.
"We trained for fitness first, and the look just happened to be a result of what they did," Twight told RedEye recently.
The buff bodies you see on screen, he said, are the end result of the actors' hard work. The only supplements the actors took were multivitamins, antioxidants and fish oil, he said.
"There [was] no magic," Twight said. "All was the result of eating right and hard work. We were lucky to have eight weeks or more to get these guys ready for [filming]."
Butler has admitted in several interviews that he wasn't in top shape, and Twight said most of the actors had limited experience in the gym.
Vincent Regan, who plays the Spartan Captain, made the most dramatic transformation, Twight said. The British actor lost 40 pounds in eight weeks and improved his dead lift from 205 pounds (his body weight) to 355 pounds. Like Regan, most of the actors were put on strict diets and a rigorous training regimen, Twight said.
"Part of our job was to give these guys the type of self-confidence that comes across on screen," Twight said. "That kind of confidence is one of things that comes from constantly changing and increasing the challenges they faced."
Twight kept the actors on their toes by changing up their workout routines on a daily basis. Each day, each cast member would find individual instructions for his own specific workout created by Twight. Among Twight's drills for the actors: flipping giant tracker tires across the gym; playing catch with medicine balls; swinging a kettlebell, which is a canon ball-like weight with a handle, and training on gymnastics-style rings.
"Nobody was allowed to be lazy," he said.
Twight, whose private, invitation-only Gym Jones is in Salt Lake City, frowns on traditional isolation exercises, where one or more muscles are targeted with a specific move. Unlike traditional workouts, the training done at Gym Jones is meant to prepare for a specific sport or activity. It was the same for the "300" actors and stunt crew, whose workouts were designed to emulate the challenges a Spartan might face on the battlefield.
To accomplish this, Twight said he kept the actors off-balance with random physical challenges. For example, at one point he had Regan perform a one-legged dead lift holding a weight in one hand—while blindfolded.
"We wanted them to never know what was coming," Twight said, "because that meant they had to react truthfully."
The actors' accomplishments were tracked and posted so everyone was aware of one another's performance—good or bad. This was a way to get the cast to work as a team, Twight said.
"They became a fighting force that is believable on the screen," he said.
All the hard work seems to have paid off as audiences have flocked to the movie, which has made more than $163 million domestically as of Monday, according to boxofficemojo.com.
Twight said he found it a little surreal to see the men he took from less-than-fit actors to larger-than-life Spartan fighters onscreen. "It was shocking."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The '300' test
By Valerie Vedral
For RedEye
Published March 29 2007
Think you could play a Spartan warrior? Trainer Mark Twight invited some of the "300" stuntmen and actors, including star Gerard Butler, to do the following test at the end of their eight-week boot camp. They did all the exercises—300 reps total—without resting in between.
By Valerie Vedral
For RedEye
Published March 29 2007
Here are three of the less well-known—but extremely difficult—exercises that trainer Mark Twight included in workouts for the "300" cast members and stuntmen.
The floor wiper
Lie flat on your back with your heels touching the floor. Hold a barbell weighted to 135 pounds above in front of your face as if you are doing a bench press. Keeping your feet together and legs straight, raise your legs up and touch your feet to one plate. Lower legs to starting position, then raise them and touch other plate. This is one floor wiper.
Kettlebell swing
From a standing position, lift and raise the kettlebell, extending your arms to about a 45-degree angle parallel to the floor. Lower it back to the floor. This helps to develop strong core and shoulder muscles.
Get up or Turkish get up
Lie flat on your back and hold with one hand a weighted bench press barbell above your face. Work your way to a standing position while keeping the barbell stabilized above your head at all times.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
and here i thouoght the presidents council on physical fitness test was a challenge
being a spartan is hard work
By Valerie Vedral
For RedEye
Published March 29 2007
Before they could star in the hit film "300," the actors had to pass a test worthy of the Spartan warriors they play.
Gerard Butler and his co-stars had to transform their bodies into top physical shape and their minds into a warrior-like mentality.
"We would do competitive circuit training against each other, running around with very primitive tools such as kettlebells and medicine balls. You were dead by the end of it," Butler, who plays Spartan King Leonidas, told the L.A. Daily News. "That was mental conditioning, too; you really had to endure exhaustion and pain."
Anyone who has seen the Spartans in the film, or posters of the movie, knows the results. Butler and his co-stars look as if they'd spent their lives fighting with swords and shields.
The man responsible for those ripped abs and fierce physiques is former world-class mountain climber Mark Twight, who trained the actors for eight weeks prior to filming.
"We trained for fitness first, and the look just happened to be a result of what they did," Twight told RedEye recently.
The buff bodies you see on screen, he said, are the end result of the actors' hard work. The only supplements the actors took were multivitamins, antioxidants and fish oil, he said.
"There [was] no magic," Twight said. "All was the result of eating right and hard work. We were lucky to have eight weeks or more to get these guys ready for [filming]."
Butler has admitted in several interviews that he wasn't in top shape, and Twight said most of the actors had limited experience in the gym.
Vincent Regan, who plays the Spartan Captain, made the most dramatic transformation, Twight said. The British actor lost 40 pounds in eight weeks and improved his dead lift from 205 pounds (his body weight) to 355 pounds. Like Regan, most of the actors were put on strict diets and a rigorous training regimen, Twight said.
"Part of our job was to give these guys the type of self-confidence that comes across on screen," Twight said. "That kind of confidence is one of things that comes from constantly changing and increasing the challenges they faced."
Twight kept the actors on their toes by changing up their workout routines on a daily basis. Each day, each cast member would find individual instructions for his own specific workout created by Twight. Among Twight's drills for the actors: flipping giant tracker tires across the gym; playing catch with medicine balls; swinging a kettlebell, which is a canon ball-like weight with a handle, and training on gymnastics-style rings.
"Nobody was allowed to be lazy," he said.
Twight, whose private, invitation-only Gym Jones is in Salt Lake City, frowns on traditional isolation exercises, where one or more muscles are targeted with a specific move. Unlike traditional workouts, the training done at Gym Jones is meant to prepare for a specific sport or activity. It was the same for the "300" actors and stunt crew, whose workouts were designed to emulate the challenges a Spartan might face on the battlefield.
To accomplish this, Twight said he kept the actors off-balance with random physical challenges. For example, at one point he had Regan perform a one-legged dead lift holding a weight in one hand—while blindfolded.
"We wanted them to never know what was coming," Twight said, "because that meant they had to react truthfully."
The actors' accomplishments were tracked and posted so everyone was aware of one another's performance—good or bad. This was a way to get the cast to work as a team, Twight said.
"They became a fighting force that is believable on the screen," he said.
All the hard work seems to have paid off as audiences have flocked to the movie, which has made more than $163 million domestically as of Monday, according to boxofficemojo.com.
Twight said he found it a little surreal to see the men he took from less-than-fit actors to larger-than-life Spartan fighters onscreen. "It was shocking."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The '300' test
By Valerie Vedral
For RedEye
Published March 29 2007
Think you could play a Spartan warrior? Trainer Mark Twight invited some of the "300" stuntmen and actors, including star Gerard Butler, to do the following test at the end of their eight-week boot camp. They did all the exercises—300 reps total—without resting in between.
- 25 pull-ups
- 50 dead lifts
- 50 push-ups
- 50 jumps onto a 24-inch box
- 50 floor wipers
- 50single arm clean-and-presses using a 36-pound kettlebell
- 25 pull-ups
By Valerie Vedral
For RedEye
Published March 29 2007
Here are three of the less well-known—but extremely difficult—exercises that trainer Mark Twight included in workouts for the "300" cast members and stuntmen.
The floor wiper
Lie flat on your back with your heels touching the floor. Hold a barbell weighted to 135 pounds above in front of your face as if you are doing a bench press. Keeping your feet together and legs straight, raise your legs up and touch your feet to one plate. Lower legs to starting position, then raise them and touch other plate. This is one floor wiper.
Kettlebell swing
From a standing position, lift and raise the kettlebell, extending your arms to about a 45-degree angle parallel to the floor. Lower it back to the floor. This helps to develop strong core and shoulder muscles.
Get up or Turkish get up
Lie flat on your back and hold with one hand a weighted bench press barbell above your face. Work your way to a standing position while keeping the barbell stabilized above your head at all times.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
and here i thouoght the presidents council on physical fitness test was a challenge
being a spartan is hard work 
