The Deadly Dozen: A New Fitness Race Coming to Macclesfield

The Deadly Dozen (DD) has been designed to be one of the hardest yet most accessible fitness races in the world.

The race involves 12x 400m runs, which we refer to as “Journeys,” and 12x exercise stations, which we refer to as “Labours.” The Labours only use bodyweight (BW), kettlebell (KB), dumbbell (DB) and weight plate (WP) exercises. Therefore, race training is incredibly accessible in any setting, whether in a gym, at home or outdoors. Ultimately, an individual could effectively train for the event with just a pair of KBs.

Another benefit of only using KBs, DBs and WPs is that they are easy to store and transport and extremely unlikely to break or get damaged.

Official Deadly Dozen races are held on athletics tracks (both outdoor and indoor) and involve running a 400m lap (2x 200m laps indoors) before crossing over into the centre and completing a Labour and repeating the process until the athlete has completed all 12 Labours – 6 of the Labours move between a 30m lane (Distance Labours – D Labours) and 6 are stationary (Rep Labours – R Labours).

Of course, Deadly Dozen races can hosted on an open area with a 200-400m loop.

The Deadly Dozen Labours (exercises) have been selected so that they develop a well-rounded training program that develops the Half Dozen Fundamental Movements: Hinge, Squat, Lunge, Push, Pull and Carry, all of which require some level of bracing and/or rotational movement.

The Deadly Dozen Fitness Race works off a Dozenal (duodecimal) system. Therefore, all distances and reps are based around the number 12 (a superior highly composite number) and can be increased or decreased by 25, 50 or 75% while maintaining round numbers – this is a key element of the training methodology.