12 Labours of Hercules
It’s taken years of testing, thousands of workouts, and who knows how much sweat from athletes at our box to have finally finished the 12 Labours of Hercules. These 12 workouts, are all tests designed to challenge an athlete from each aspect of fitness. Theres no hiding your weaknesses here, maybe the Nemean Lion goes really well, but the Mares of Diomedes takes you to a dark place. These tests are designed to test an athlete’s strength’s and weaknesses, provide benchmarks, and provide a path to improve our fitness. The programming will test one workout per week for the next 12 weeks.
These are all workouts you have seen in some capacity here at 12 Labours, and we have tested over the course of a few years with you all to determine what the best collective test could be. We will test different time domains, gymnastics and definitely your grunt work. Some test your strength, while others are simply bodyweight movements. Again, these are meant to test the overall fitness of the athlete as a whole. We cannot do that over the course of a single workout, or even a few, so we developed twelve.
These represent the 12 Labours of Hercules. If you are familiar with the Greek Mythology, these 12 Labours were given to Hercules as seemingly impossible at the time. One by one however they were completed. The Greeks had a term they used called “Pathos”. This term means “the experience of virtuous struggle and suffering which would lead to immortality”. Virtuous struggle and suffering is the work we put into the grind at the gym daily. We knowingly and purposefully put ourselves through a struggle to come out on the other side a better version of ourselves.
This is the groundwork in which 12 Labours was developed. Let’s test some fitness!
First: "Nemean Lion"
2 Sets - Each for Time:
20/15 Cals Assault Bike
15 KB Swings s(2/1.5pd) f(1/5/1pd)
30 Wall Balls s(30/20) f(20/14)
15 Burpees
20/15 Cal Assault Bike
rest 7-10 mins between sets
Second: "Lernaean Hydra"
27-21-15-9
Deadlift s(185/125) f(135/95)
Handstand Pushups f(pushups)
*s(35)/f(15) double unders between each movement*
Third: "Golden Hind of Artemis"
5 Sets - 3 Min AMRAP
Row Cals s(25/20) f(20/15)
15 Toes to Bar f(20 abmat situps)
Max Reps Ground to OH in time remaining s(135/95) f(95/65)
rest 3 mins b/t sets
***score is Ground to OH reps each round***
Fourth: "Erymanthian Boar"
For Time:
Row 2000m
100 Wall Balls s(30/20) f(20/14
50 G2OH s(95/65) f(75/55)
Fifth: “The Augean Stables"
45 Minute AMRAP
20/15 AB Cals
15 Air Squats
5 Wall Runs s(nose to wall) f(hands to hips)
Sixth: "Stymphalian Birds"
For Time:
1000m Ski
30 Burpees over the Bar
20 Squat Snatches s(155/105) f(115/75)
30 Burpees over the Bar
1000m row
Seventh: "Cretan Bull"
5 rounds for time
Run 400m
10 C2B Pullups f(Pullups)
5 Power Snatches s(135/95) f(95/65)
***25 minute cap***
Eighth: “Mares of Diomedes”
For Time:
1 Round
1 Mile Run
60 Air Squats
30 Pull-ups s(C2B)
2 Rounds
800 Run
30 Air Squats
15 Pull-ups s(C2B)
3 Rounds
400m Run
20 Air Squats
10 Pull-ups s(C2B)
Ninth: “Girdle of Hippolyta”
CrossFit Total
Max Weight for each lift
Bench Press
Back Squat
Deadlift
Tenth: “The Monster Geryon”
Snatch EMOM until Failure
Immediately into
Clean EMOM until failure
*Males increase by 10# each minute*
*Females increase by 5# each minute*
Eleventh: “Apples of the Hesperides”
Sport
20 down to 1
Burpees
*400m run before every set
Fitness
20 down to 2 (Even numbers only)
Burpees
*400m run before every set
Twelfth: “Cerberus”
For time:
Prowler Sprint
10 meters down - high bar
10 meters back - low bar
20 meters down - high bar
20 meters back - low bar
30 meters down - high bar
30 meters back - low bar
Rest 2-4 minutes between sets
Rest as needed
x 3 sets
S(45/25 per side)
F(25/empty per side)
Both locations will have updated leaderboards hung up at the gym with each of these 12 Labours workouts. So, if you want to live a life of immortality, the leaderboard awaits!