In October, Gym Jones, the team of trainers infamous for whipping 300’s Spartans into shape, came to London for their first ever UK seminar, hosted by Optimal Life Fitness. MF’s Joel Snape was there for the course, which covered the basics of Gym Jones theory on movements, training, progression and programming. Of course, it wouldn’t have been the same without a practical element, so the group also went through the following mini-workouts. Give them a try. You can read the full report in the March issue of Men's Fitness.
Tail Pipe
This is a tag-team workout designed to teach correct breathing technique. Technically you should do it with a partner but if you haven’t got one, time your rows and hold the kettlebells for as long as the 250m takes you.
P1 – Row 250m
P2 – Hold two 24kg kettlebells in the ‘rack’ position
Swap places with your partner, then repeat until you’ve done three rows and three racks.
Jonescrawl
One of Gym Jones’s most deceptive workouts – the deadlifts prime your legs, the box jumps fry them. If you’d like to go in cold, just go ahead and do the workout. Otherwise, the trick is to do stiff-legged deadlifts, leaving your calves fresh for the jumps.
10 deadlifts with 115 per cent of your bodyweight
25 box jumps
Repeat three times.
30/30
30 seconds to do as many reps as possible, then 30 seconds of rest. Repeat four times for a total of four minutes, then take a two-minute break before the next exercise.
Burpee
Frog squat (squat with elbows on knees)
Jumping lunge
When we did these in the Gym Jones seminar, we were told to pick our favourite two exercises and do those… then, after the first eight minutes, we were told that we’d also have to do whatever we didn’t pick. If you want to make this harder, rest in a stressed position. Gym Jones founder Mark Twight did a dead hang from a pull-up bar during his rests.
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