An Inside Look: AI Spartan Circuit Workout
Spartan Beast Prep (Ep 2)
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Training for the Spartan Beast Cincinnati has officially begun!
Since part of this training prep is putting AI to the test and letting AI dictate a lot of my training, I figured I’d share one of my workouts it put me through and how we got there in the first place.
So without further ado, let’s jump in!
AI Philosophy
When it comes to AI, I have a strong belief that, while AI is powerful, it can never fully replace human intelligence.
Afterall, it’s called Artificial Intelligence, not Artificial Human Intelligence.
For instance, an AI system can beat a grandmaster at chess with ease. Yet, that same AI system can only recognize a picture of a cat with about 85% accuracy…a task that a 4 year old can do almost perfectly.
So humans and AI are clearly different.
Thus, using AI to assist in human tasks, like coaching an athlete, should never be done without human intervention.
With generative AI, this means a few things:
We need good prompting for the AI system so it generates actual helpful content
You need an underlying knowledge so when AI spits out something dumb, you can correct it, the AI system can adapt, and hopefully you are left with a killer AI coach.
I say all that because for my Spartan Beast training plan, I can’t just go to ChatGPT and prompt “make me a Spartan Beast top 10 contender.” I have to have general training philosophies, theories, and ideas already.
One of those ideologies is “circuit training.”
Circuit Training
Circuit training is what it sounds like, and it’s nothing new whatsoever.
It seems like years ago now that the term HIIT workouts became popularized. If you have never heard, HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training.
Or…circuits.
This is where you do one exercise for a certain number of reps (or time) and then move on to the next exercise with little to no rest.
Typically, you would run through say 8 exercises, then rest for a minute or so and then repeat the whole 8 exercises. You would do that for a certain number of sets.
OR, a more popular option is to do these as an AMRAP.
That stands for As Many Rounds As Possible within a time threshold. So instead of doing 3 rounds, you’d set a timer for 45 minutes and just do as many rounds as possible.
The goal of these types of workouts is to get your heart rate up and work under duress. This definitely can help build our VO₂ max and lactate threshold.
Quick aside in case you don’t know those definitions:
VO₂ max: this is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can absorb and use during intense exercise. The higher your VO₂ max, the more oxygen your muscles get — which means more energy, more power, and better endurance at high effort levels.
Lactate threshold: When your muscles use energy, they create lactate — like a car engine producing exhaust. Normally, your body clears it out efficiently. But as you move faster and burn more fuel, you eventually hit a point where you’re producing lactate faster than your body can flush it. That point is your lactate threshold. The higher it is, the longer you can sustain hard efforts without crashing.
All that to say, these systems are super important to train for a Spartan race!
Spartan Circuit
The idea of a “Spartan” circuit actually came from seeing how Hyrox athletes train. If you don’t know what Hyrox is that’s ok, I’ll probably talk more about that later this year…hint hint.
But Hyrox is a hybrid sport, meaning it combines running and functional strength workout stations. There are 8 different exercises you perform in between 1K runs.
When these athletes train, a lot of times they train with these high intensity circuits, but the exercises they perform are the specific exercises they will see on race day.
Spartan races are a little more nuanced and random than Hyrox, but it doesn’t mean we can’t do the same thing.
We know of some standard obstacles to train like anything involving hanging and grip strength, steep running, rope climbs, and all in all upper body fatigue.
So designing a circuit workout that involves those things and pushes me to my limits is the goal.
The Power of AI
This is the point at which the power of AI comes in handy. I know the equipment I have for an at home circuit: a monkey bar treadmill, a rope for rope climbs, a punching bag, a steep hill, weights, etc etc.
With AI, I can give it my equipment and the goal of creating a Spartan circuit workout, and then what I get back is a killer workout that actually achieves the goals I’m going for.
Or at least, that’s what I’m testing out.
The Workout
I had AI design all my workouts for me in this fashion. This became more nuanced because 2 workouts every week are at home and 3 are at the gym. I also have 2 of these Spartan circuit days, 1 of which is at home and the other is at the gym.
So I’d say it did a great job!
Today, though, we aren’t talking about all the workouts just yet. I don’t want to give it all away.
But I wanted to share my at home circuit workout and how it went:
Spartan Circuit (AMRAP in 45 minutes, Minimal Rest)
Hill Sprint (30m, full effort)
Sandbag walking lunges (12 per leg)
Monkey Bar Beater Bar Traverse x10
Rope Climb or Rope Pulls (weighted if possible) x5
Punching Bag Ground & Pound (30 sec fast strikes)
Plate Carry (50m, grip endurance)
Burpee Broad Jumps x10
So this circuit is an AMRAP style workout. When AI first assigned this, it said to do 3 rounds. But again, we need that human intervention and I decided doing this as an AMRAP would be more beneficial in the long term.
I figured I could build up the duration of this workout over time to get closer to race time.
Now, when I first read this workout I figured it wouldn’t be too bad. I even started to doubt AI a bit.
But let me tell you, I’m writing this article the morning after doing this workout and I feel like a train hit me.
When I started the workout I actually figured I’d do a 1 hour AMRAP and had to cut it short at 45 minutes. I ended up doing 4 rounds total.
Here is how I approached and what I thought of each exercise:
Hill Sprints
Hill sprints were up my driveway, which is probably around 30m, but I didn’t measure it out.
Walking Lunges
Sandbag walking lunges were more taxing on the 3rd and 4th round than you’d think. At first I scoffed at 12 per leg. So naive.
Monkey bar treadmill
Monkey bar beater bar (or the monkey bar treadmill) felt good and I’m starting to get the hang of that thing and how to do it more efficiently.
Rope climb or rope pull
For the rope climb or rope pull, I opted for the climb. I actually have a climbing rope hooked up to a tree limb, and finally got to utilize our crash pad for outdoor climbing.
We’ve had this thing for over 2 years, the tag is still on, and we’ve yet to go outdoor bouldering. Glad I got to put it to good use! Also, the rope climb was harder than I remembered and could only do like 3 reps each round.
Punching bag round
The punching bag round was great for just keeping the heart rate high and trying to exhaust my arms. Which led great into doing the plate carry.
Plate farmer’s carry
For the plate carry, I have 2-25lb plates. One has a handle and the other I had to pinch to hold. I don’t know what 50m is so I just set a timer for 1 minute on those.
Burpee broad jump
The burbee broad jumps are a classic Hyrox exercise, but they utilize like every muscle and keep the heart rate high.
*Bonus 8th exercise
Finally, I added my own 8th exercise. Every Spartan race has a classic spear throw.
This is the most failed obstacle, and this year they re-introduced burpees as a penalty for the spear throw.
Before ~2022 all obstacle failures meant 30 burpees. Then around 2022 they changed it to penalty loops (so just more running), and now in 2025 the penalty loops are still the same, but if you miss the spear throw, it’s 30 burpees again.
I have a makeshift spear and target, so for my 8th exercise I would do a single spear throw and if I made it, I moved on, if I missed then I did 15 burpees. I figure I’ll increase that as I go.
Embracing Discomfort
All in all, this workout reminded me that this race is a different beast…pun intended. It reminded me that even trail races affect the body differently than a road marathon.
My heart rate will be all over the place, whereas in the marathon the goal is to keep a level heart rate.
It actually reminds me more of training for my blackbelt test over a decade ago.
And so all in all, I loved this workout! The fact that I’m sore and I struggled immensely in the workout is a great thing. It means I have a lot of growth potential and I’m excited to see where it goes!
I think it can be easy in life to see discomfort or see something you aren’t good at and give up or be discouraged. But we know that Scripture says just the opposite.
“And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.” (Romans 5:3-4 CSB).
“Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4 CSB).
When we embrace discomfort, that’s when we grow.
I know that’s cliche and I know it’s easier said than done. In fact, it’s easier to embrace discomfort in things as simple as a workout than it is in real life. But I’ll flip the script. If we can’t even embrace discomfort in a simple workout, then how will we ever embrace it when it truly matters?
In conclusion, AI is doing an amazing job so far and I’m excited to see how I grow!
Until next time, run with joy!