TRAIN LIKE A GLADIATOR!

It's a fact that Roman Gladiators were some of the most legendary fighters in history. Typically they were slaves or prisoners of war. Some free Romans also chose to become gladiators to pay off debts or perhaps for the thrill of the arena. One thing that was common among all gladiators was their hard training. Yes it was tough, but at the same time their trainers understood the importance of rest and cycling intensity. They couldn't always train all out at full intensity. They knew that recovery was important. Things like Interval Training, Weight Training, and Weapons Training were all done by the ancient Roman Gladiators. A fact that makes me laugh when people talk about so-called "New" or "Revolutionary" workout methods. They're not so new when you realize they've been around for more than 2000 years!

TETRAD TRAINING SYSTEM - FOUR DAY CYCLE

Gladiators generally trained on a Four Day Cycle known as the Tetrad Training System. The schedule was a s follows.

DAY 1 - PREPARATION. This was a HIIT day which stands for High Intensity Interval Training. In other words, periods of high intensity exercise followed by a short rest. Running part way around a track fast followed by a walk is an example of this. Punching the heavy bag for timed rounds is another. And we also have things like bodyweight circuits where you'd do Squats, Burpees, etc. Primarily this was a day to train endurance and also to prepare the body for the heavy strength and power day coming up next.

DAY 2 - STRENGTH AND POWER TRAINING. This is the big one! This was the day for heavy strength and power training. So this will be the day to work on things like Deadlifts, Squats, Chinups, Bentover Rows, etc. If you train with swords, hammers, axes, and other weapons, this would be the day for that was well.

DAY 3 - REST. Very light exercise or complete rest is what's needed for this day. As stated earlier, the ancient trainers knew the importance of rest if they wanted their gladiators to perform at their best. 

DAY 4 - FIGHTING SKILLS. This was a day to specifically practice fighting skills with both weapons and hand to hand fighting. So speed and power in your strikes, practicing angles, sparring, and all those things are done here.

After this, the cycle is repeated and this goes on until fight day. After a fight in the arena, gladiators were allowed some time off to recover. And that was it. It's a pretty tough schedule, but that's how it was done. The schedule is apretty versatile one. If you look at it, two out of the four days have a healthy dose of fitness training and all three training days can incorporate fighting specific skills and attributes. However this can be adapted to other sports as well. You can just as easily use this same schedule if you're a basketball player. As you can see, split routines or Bro Splits were not done back then. So much time had to be spent for fight specific training and endurance that such a split routine could never work. The entire body was trained was one unit.

So there you go. You might not be prepared to fight to death in the arena, but that's no reason why you can't be in shape to do so if you wanted to!