Spartan Health Regime

Right, I didn't go to the gym yesterday.  Boo hoo.  No big deal though.  Did some exercise but not much, just enough to get the heart going.  Eating was good; no crap, same breakfast and lunch as usual, half a corn on the cob as my wishful pre-gym snack, dinner was spag arrabiata with prawns, had a couple of dates, my molasses and cod liver oil.  Plenty of water to drink, no lemonade but will have that tonight.  Good sleep.

As I've got little to report on, I thought I'd give a review of a diet plan I've done in the past (more than once).  Well, I say diet plan, but that really doesn't cover it.  I really mean lifestyle choice.

Spartan Health Regime

I'm going to have a bit of difficulty reviewing this because I don't want to reveal too much of what goes on in the book.  Antony Bova, the author, put a lot of time and effort into putting this together and I wouldn't want to take anything away from him.  I've also gained a lot from it, and I believe such a good service would be poorly rewarded by me revealing the "secrets".  However, I'll do my best and try to cover the regime without revealing anything that isn't already freely available.

Now, let's get the key (potential) downside out of the way.  The cost.  I bought this program (3rd edition I believe, we are onto the 4th now) in 2004/5 when I was a student.  I got the Gold Edition at about AU$300, which due to a mercifully fortunate exchange rate I got for a bit less than GB£150.  That's a lot of money, even with a good exchange rate.  It came with the actual Spartan Health Regime itself, a hefty collection of Spartan newsletters plus seven short guides guides covering training plans to recipes to lessons from history.  That last might sound a bit silly to some people but the stories are genuinely inspiring and one in particular has stuck with me through all of my training since (and when I've retold the stories to other fitness people they've gotten interested in it to).  Today, the Gold is unavailable sadly.  But the regime itself, with the 7 extra booklets, are available at a special price of $157.95, down from $199.  That's still expensive, but given the inflation over the years since I bought it I reckon that's a come down from what I paid.  Still, it is expensive. 

Is it worth it?  For me, yes.  Undoubtedly yes.  If I had money to burn I would buy the $500 dollar recorded edition.  I consider myself pretty well educated when it comes to diet and training.  But what I learned from the diet section was new to me, and pretty revolutionary.  If you knew this stuff, would it still be worth it?  Possibly, because Bova writes in such a way that it pushed pushes you (well it did for me) to work for your results.  His no bullshit attitude, down to earth style combined with tying in Spartan imagery, as well as other cultures, captures my imagination no end.  But then if you knew all this info and are already applying it, I'd guess you'd be pretty disappointed to have dropped so much money.  As I'm not going to give you many details about the diet if you were thinking about purchasing but don't want to pay for knowledge you already, just give Bova an email.  The guy got back to me on my questions pretty rapidly, and that is definitely a service you don't get from many other authors.  Also, go to his site and download the free first chapter, see if you like his style.

Okay, onto the program itself.  The book is split into diet, physical training and mental training.  I'd say it's 50% diet or thereabouts.  Which is fine, because you don't need endless pictures and descriptions of exercises (go to the Bodybuilding Supersite in my links bar if you want tons of exercise options for all your muscles) but there is plenty most of us could learn about our diets.

The diet, without getting specific, is focused on cleaning up your diet and increasing the nutrient density of your food significantly.  So far, so simple right?  However I promise you if your like 95% of people, including most educated gym goers, you won't know about what is written inside.  I went on this diet when I first got the program.  I lost fat.  My endless colds went.  My sleep was better.  Hell, sorry to disgust the more sensitive among you but my bowel movements even improved.  The reason this all happened it because the aim is, at it's core, to improve your health.  It can be played around to suit your training goals, be they fat loss, strength gains or size gains, but ultimately it's about having a healthier, more efficient body.  Brilliant!  Downside?  Well, it depends.  If you don't like your fruit and veg your not going to be pleased.  I love the stuff though, so I didn't find it hard.  The other issue is, again, cost.  Your going to have to improve the quality of your eating which, at least for me, involves spending a chunk more on my weekly shop.  Remember though, this is your health your talking about.  The increased cost buys you a higher quality of living. 

The training section.  This is focused upon improving your strength and CV endurance through hard work.  Solid base of regular CV work and intense sessions of compound exercises with progressive resistance.  There are a number of supplementary exercises to round off your training and improve a couple of areas that are often forgotten in most other training regimes.  The goal of all this is real-world, functional strength and endurance that will not only look good but serve you well throughout your life.  All the info here is good, however, it's not exceptionally different to what you'll read in other publications whose goal is functional strength.  Like the rest of the book however Bova's enthusiasm crosses over so, at the very least, you do find yourself motivated and ready to push yourself.  I have, since reading this years ago, intergrated Bova's core strength workout into my training and found it to be very worthwhile.  Just a shame my own motivation doesn't match Bova's, I have no doubt I would be seriously stronger and fitter if I had committed to his approach over the years, rather than dipping in and out of training.  Any downsides?  Well Bova's training is primarily for the hardcore fitness lover, so if you wanted to become a 'Spartan', you will be putting a lot of your life into it.  If your that kind of person anyway, you'll take to it like a duck to water.  My brother in law would do this with all of his current rugby training without even noticing the extra effort.  Me though, I'm not like that.  I like my bed and I like good DVD boxsets.  Personally, this kind of training is not for me for life, but I can certainly do it for periods.  If I get back into kung-fu/kickboxing I could see me doing this in run ups to tournaments, or just if I want to look my best for summer.  But over a lifetime?  I'll moderate myself a little bit more. 

Now the last section is about mental training.  This feels kind of fluffy, yet is genuinely useful.  There's bit's here on self-hypnosis for goal setting, little tests of your determination and a range of inspirational topics to keep you focused.  It rounds off the package that you get in the first two sections and helps guide you into the lifestyle.

Overall, I love the SHR.  It has influenced all of my training ever since, it has improved my health when I've applied it, continues to impact my diet choices and perhaps most importantly put up a great bullshit barrier up between me and whatever "health" articles or books I read.  I would gladly buy it again.