Obstacle-specific training guides, programming, injury prevention
There’s a specific kind of frustration that every OCR racer knows: you’ve trained hard, you show up to the start line feeling strong, and then you hit a rope climb — or a wall — …
Ask any experienced obstacle racer what separates finishers from DNFs, and grip strength will come up in the first three answers. More athletes fail on monkey bars, rigs, and rope climbs than on any other …
One of OCR’s most appealing qualities is that you don’t need an expensive gym membership or specialized equipment to get race-ready. The sport rewards functional fitness — grip strength, endurance, balance, and the ability to …
Your Body Is Ready. Is Your Mind? You’ve done the pull-ups, the hill repeats, the grip training. Your body can handle the course. But somewhere around obstacle 15, when your forearms are screaming and the …
Why Warming Up Matters More in OCR Than Almost Any Other Sport In a road race, you can ease into your pace. In OCR, the first obstacle might be 200 meters from the start line …
Ask any experienced obstacle course racer what separates finishers from DNFs, and the answer is almost always the same: grip. You can have the cardiovascular endurance of a marathon runner and the leg strength of …
You’re in decent shape. You hit the gym, you can run a 5K without dying, and you’ve watched enough OCR videos to know there’s a wall involved. But watching and doing are completely different beasts. …
Difficulty: Beginner Equipment: Bodyweight (optional: resistance band, stability ball) Obstacles This Helps With: Barbed wire crawl, low crawls, tunnel obstacles, any ground-based obstacle The barbed wire crawl is one of those obstacles that looks straightforward …
Difficulty: All levels Equipment: Sandbag, heavy backpack, or actual bucket with gravel Obstacles This Helps With: Bucket carry, sandbag carry, atlas carry, tire drag, any loaded carry obstacle Nobody fears the bucket carry before their …
Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate Equipment: Bodyweight, box or bench for step-ups Obstacles This Helps With: 4-foot wall, 6-foot wall, 8-foot wall, inverted wall, slip wall Every OCR athlete has a wall story. Maybe it’s the …
Difficulty: Beginner Equipment: Bodyweight + basic gym equipment Target Audience: First-time Spartan racers You signed up. Maybe it was a New Year’s resolution, a dare from a friend, or a social media rabbit hole that …
Difficulty: All levels Equipment: Pull-up bar, kettlebell or dumbbell, towel Obstacles This Helps With: Monkey bars, rope climb, Twister, multi-rig, Tyrolean traverse, bucket carry, atlas carry Here’s a truth that every experienced OCR athlete learns …