The Gerard Butler Workout: How to Look Like Leonidas

Not since the former Mr. Universe (a.k.a. the current governor of California) first flexed his pecs as Hercules has there been a more powerful-looking badass on the big screen. King Leonidas came along, leading his brave 300 into glorious battle and even more glorious death.

But something else was just as glorious in the movie—the 300 impossibly toned physiques on display.

Gerard Butler, the man behind the beard and all that muscle, cut quite an imposing figure as the mighty Spartan king. But achieving that look didn't come easy. In order to get it, he worked with two different trainers simultaneously, six hours a day for four whole months prior to filming. Training consisted of several different exercises that focused on building muscle strength and endurance, as well as burned fat, all in the shortest amount of time possible. According to Butler, the training was so intense, “By 13 minutes you're vomiting on the floor.” Clearly, all that hard work and dedication has paid off.

If you want to look like a Spartan and have ab muscles so defined you could stick your fingers between them, here's the Gerard Butler workout, also known as the 300-rep Spartan workout:

25 pullups
50 deadlifts with 135 pounds
50 pushups
50 jumps on a 24-inch box
50 floor wipers (Laying on the floor, hold up a 135-pound bar. Keeping your legs straight the whole time, lift and bring them up so your toes touch a plate on one end of the bar. Lower your legs back to original position on the floor, then lift them up to touch the plate on the other end of the bar, lowering your legs again afterward. That's one rep. For beginners, try doing this using an empty bar, and in the absence of weight plates, simply bring your feet to within eight inches of the bar.)
50 single-arm clean-and-presses using a 36-pound kettle bell
25 more pullups

Take no rests between exercises. If you're a beginner, start out with 10-25 reps for each exercise, and slowly increase until you can do all 300 of them. Substitute exercises like Swiss-ball crunches, dumbbell curls and jumping jacks for variety.