The Heracles Workout, the second in our series of Legendary Hero Workouts. Workouts inspired by ancient legends. Born of Zeus, cursed by Hera, and tested beyond measure — Heracles stood as the symbol of unstoppable strength and endurance. These strongman circuits take their name and purpose from his myth: twelve trials to test your strength and will, mirroring the hero’s own battle for redemption. Face your labours. Conquer your monsters. Earn your legend.
Click the link below to skip the introduction and go straight to the workout!
🏔️⚡ Strongman of Olympus
Welcome to The Heracles Workout, a strength and endurance programme inspired by the greatest of all Greek heroes.
This workout draws from Strongman training, known for its raw, functional power. These exercises build strength that translates to the real world — lifting, carrying, dragging, and holding under heavy strain. They test not only the body but the will to continue when fatigue hits.
Welcome to The Heracles Workout, a strength and endurance programme inspired by the greatest of all Greek heroes.
This workout draws from Strongman training, known for its raw, functional power. These exercises build strength that translates to the real world — lifting, carrying, dragging, and holding under heavy strain. They test not only the body but the will to continue when fatigue hits.
👶 The Son of Zeus
In Greek mythology, Heracles (Roman: Hercules) was born of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, making him half-god and half-man. His immense strength was both gift and curse. Hera, queen of the gods and wife of Zeus, despised him as a living reminder of her husband’s infidelity.
Her hatred was relentless. She tormented Heracles throughout his life, driving him to madness so that he killed his wife and children. Broken and repentant, he sought atonement from King Eurystheus, who imposed twelve impossible tasks — the Twelve Labours. Each was meant to destroy him. Instead, they forged him.
Two of the labours of Heracles. (left) Heracles takes on the Cerberus (the hound of hell) and the Nemean Lion (right).
From slaying the Nemean Lion to capturing Cerberus, the hound of Hades, Heracles faced monsters, kings, and gods themselves — each trial proving not his divine birthright, but his endurance as a man.
Train Like a Demi-God
This workout mirrors the twelve labours — twelve stations of effort that demand your full strength, balance, and willpower. They represent the physical struggle against resistance and the inner battle against doubt.
Heracles wasn’t defined by his divine blood but by his refusal to yield. That’s the spirit this workout calls for: no excuses, no surrender, just raw persistence in the face of overwhelming challenge.
💪 About Strongman Workouts
Strongman training builds functional strength, power, and endurance through heavy, full-body movements. Using compound lifts and loaded carries, it develops muscle, grip, and cardiovascular capacity while torching fat.
Benefits include:
- Increased total-body strength through heavy compound lifts.
- Improved functional movement for real-world power.
- Enhanced muscle growth and fat burning from high-load effort.
- Greater grip and core stability, improving performance across all sports.
- Breaks training plateaus by shocking the body with new stimulus.
Strongman circuits build a stronger, more capable athlete — and prepare you for anything, inside or outside the gym.
Including Strongman training in your regular circuits can have numerous benefits.
“The gods will not save you. Save yourself.”
— Heracles, Greek Myth
💪🏛️ Olympian Circuits
🦾 Aim:
Build raw, functional power through strongman-inspired training that channels the strength, endurance, and grit of Heracles himself. This workout focuses on heavy compound lifts, loaded carries, and total-body effort — forging strength that moves mountains.
⚙️🔩 Breakdown
- Structure: One full-body workout built around 12 heavy compound movements — The Twelve Labours. Each exercise targets strength, stability, and functional power.
- Purpose: Develop maximum strength, explosive drive, and muscular endurance through classic strongman principles.
- Equipment: Barbell, dumbbells, sled or prowler, sandbags, tires, kegs, ropes, or available gym alternatives.
- Load: 70–80% of 1RM for most lifts.
- Reps/Sets: 3 × 6–8 reps for most exercises (unless otherwise noted).
- Rest: 3–5 minutes between sets for full recovery.
- Recovery Tip: Train light the day before and use active recovery or full rest the day after strongman training.
Warmup
🏋️♂️ 12 Labours Circuits
12 Labours Circuit 1
- Barbell Clean and Press: 3 x 6-8 reps.
- Weighted Dips: 3 x 6-8 reps.
- One-Arm Cable Row: 3 x 6-8 reps (each side).
- Lat Pulldown: 3 x 6-8 reps.
- Deadlift: 3 x 6-8 reps.
- Racked Bar Squat: 3 x 6-8 reps.
- Barbell Rows: 3 x 6-9 reps.
- Sled Push: 6 x 25 m.
- Tire Flips: 3 x 10 reps.
- Heavy Sandbag shouldering: 3 x 10 reps.
- Push Press: 3 x 6-8 reps.
- Farmers Walks: 5 x 25 metres carry.
12 Labours Circuit 2
Just in case you ever feel like outlifting a Greek demi-god, here’s an alternative workout to try.
- Resistance band pushups: 3 x 10 reps.
- Sandbag thrusters: 3 x 10 reps.
- Tire carries: 6 x 25 m.
- Heavy battlerope slams: 3 x 30 reps.
- Keg dashes: 6 x 25 m.
- Keg over-shoulder throws: 3 x 6-8 reps.
- Sledgehammer strikes: 3 x 20 reps.
- Heavy Turkish get-ups: 3 x 3 reps (on each side).
- Keg sit-ups: 3 x 10 reps.
- Zercher squats: 3 x 10 reps.
- Lateral raises: 3 x 6 raises each side (hold for 20 seconds).
- Sandbag lunge walks: 6 x 10 reps (each leg).
🧠 Training Notes:
- Tempo: Controlled lift, explosive drive.
- Rest: 3–5 minutes between sets — recovery is key to maintaining maximal output.
- Form First: Technique under load always outweighs chasing numbers.
- Recovery: Follow with mobility, stretching, or active recovery next day.
- Mindset: Each lift is a labour — conquer one at a time, just like Heracles.
⚒️ Final Thoughts
Strongman training brings a different kind of challenge — one built on raw power, grit, and full-body effort. Added to your regular routine, these sessions break monotony, test your limits, and build real-world strength.
⚖️ Training Smart
This program is designed for experienced lifters in good physical condition. The heavy, awkward loads used — kegs, tyres, sandbags — demand proper technique and respect for the movement. If you’re unfamiliar with compound lifts, take time to learn the fundamentals from a qualified personal trainer before attempting heavier variations.
Start light. Master the movement patterns. Build gradually. Strength earned properly lasts longer and keeps you unbroken.
Recovery matters: strongman sessions are brutal on the body. Fuel up with quality protein sources — shakes, nuts, eggs, or lean meats — and give your muscles the rest and nutrients they need to rebuild stronger.
🛠️ Strongman Equipment Tips
Don’t stress if you don’t have access to specialty gear — creativity goes a long way.
- Tires: A large tire makes a versatile tool for flips, drags, or pushes. Try local garages, farms, or tire shops — many will happily let you take old ones off their hands.
- Kegs: Check with local breweries, pubs, or bars; they may sell or donate old barrels. If not, substitute with a barbell or heavy sandbag for similar effect.
- Sleds / Carries: A wheelbarrow or weighted sled works just as well for pushes and pulls. The goal is load, movement, and intent — not fancy gear.
Whichever workout you undertake. Remember to cool down, stretch and drink water!
Workout Complete!
Even demigod’s have to rest up.
Appendices: ⚡ About Heracles: The Strongman of Olympus
If you’ve ever been drawn to tales of strength, endurance, and redemption, the story of Heracles (Roman: Hercules) stands above them all. His legend captures both the power and tragedy of being half-god, half-man — forever torn between divine expectation and human weakness.
Click on the links below for more on Heracles and his legend.
👶 The Son of Zeus
Born to Alcmene, a mortal princess, and Zeus, king of the gods, Heracles was a demigod gifted with immense strength. His birth enraged Hera, Zeus’s wife, whose jealousy shaped his destiny from infancy. She sent two serpents to kill him in his cradle — but the child crushed them with his bare hands.
As a man, Heracles became a hero of the Greek world, known for defending the gods and mortals alike. Yet Hera’s vengeance never ceased. She struck him with madness, driving him to kill his wife and children. When his sanity returned, grief consumed him. Seeking purification, he turned to Apollo, who decreed that Heracles must serve King Eurystheus of Tiryns and complete twelve impossible tasks as penance.
💪 The Twelve Labours
Each labour was designed to break him — yet each only made him stronger.
- 🦁 Slay the Nemean Lion – A beast with impenetrable skin; Heracles strangled it bare-handed.
- 🐍 Slay the Lernaean Hydra – A serpent with regenerating heads; he burned each stump to stop its growth.
- 🦌 Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis – Swift and sacred, caught after a year-long pursuit.
- 🐗 Capture the Erymanthian Boar – A monstrous beast subdued in the snow.
- 💦 Clean the Augean Stables – Diverted rivers to wash away decades of filth in a single day.
- 🦅 Defeat the Stymphalian Birds – Man-eating creatures driven away with divine bronze castanets.
- 🐂 Capture the Cretan Bull – Wrestled and carried alive from the island of Crete.
- 🐎 Steal the Mares of Diomedes – Horses fed on human flesh, turned upon their master.
- ⚔️ Obtain the Girdle of Hippolyta – Won in battle against the Queen of the Amazons.
- 🐄 Seize the Cattle of Geryon – Defeated a three-bodied giant at the world’s edge.
- 🍎 Steal the Apples of the Hesperides – Outsmarted Atlas to claim the fruit of immortality.
- 🐶 Capture Cerberus – Wrestled the three-headed guardian of the Underworld and brought him to the surface.
🔥 After the Labours
Having completed the labours, Heracles continued his adventures — joining the Argonauts, battling giants, and challenging kings. But his end came through tragedy. His wife Deianira, deceived by a poisoned gift from a dying foe, unknowingly sent him a tunic soaked in venom. The poison burned his flesh and drove him to agony.
Knowing death was near, Heracles built his own funeral pyre on Mount Oeta (later confused with Etna), laid upon it the skin of the Nemean Lion, and faced his fate. Zeus, moved by his son’s endurance, took him up to Olympus, granting him immortality and a place among the stars.
🏛️ Legacy
Heracles embodied both strength and suffering — a hero defined not by divine birth, but by endurance through pain and redemption through effort. His story became the model of perseverance: a man who turned punishment into purpose and suffering into legend.
📜 Glossary
- Eurystheus: King of Tiryns who imposed the Twelve Labours on Heracles.
- Labours of Heracles: Atonement tasks symbolising mastery of body, mind, and spirit.
- Nemean Lion: Mythical beast whose hide became Heracles’ iconic armour.
- Argonauts: Band of heroes who sought the Golden Fleece; Heracles joined them early in his career.
- Mount Oeta: The mountain where Heracles met his mortal end before ascending to Olympus.
The Twelve Labours of Heracles — proof that ancient workouts came with a body count.
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