Month: June 2019

The very first time I even heard about the Savage Race was while checking out videos of Tough Mudder.

I always love to compare obstacles on different mud runs to the most difficult and easiest ones I’ve tried, so how does this one do?

Well if you’ve done the Warrior Dash or Rugged Maniac, then about half the obstacles on this course are very similar there so you’ll be able to get through fine. There’s also some that bear a resemblance to the Spartan Race and Tough Mudder. But there are 7 which are completely unique to those other mud runs…

Basic race information:

There are 3 versions of the adult race on this mud run:

The basic Savage Race: Generally it’s 5-7 miles long.

The Syndicate event: Same exact race event but for people who try this mud run more than once in a year. The main prize is a finisher’s medal.

The Pro event: There is an extra fee to participate in this, but it’s the regular course, with cash prizes. However, there are very, very strict rules, not just for the whole event, but even each obstacle. The pro event is worth trying if you’ve completed the Savage Race before and feel confident about beating it again or you’ve tried and beaten a more difficult mud run. 

There is also a “junior” division. The course here is half a mile long and for kids only.

The 7 one of a kind obstacles you’ll find on this mud run (with preparation tips)!

Mud Walls: A dirty and watery trench which has several, chest height, climbable walls on them. 

The thing about any water level that’s at least 2 feet deep or more is that the more you try to struggled in moving through it, the more tired you’ll get and with the Mud Walls you have to climb, it is important to slowly maneuver through the water because nothing zaps your strength more than trying to maneuver through any “deep” water.

Don’t forget, there’s plenty more challenges awaiting you which is why if you move slower but so that you don’t get too much resistance in the water, you’ll be able to save that energy.

The way I would advise preparing for Mud Walls is to go into a pool or sea. Then (if it’s the sea) walk in about 3-4 feet deep and start trying to walk about 100 feet sideways (parallel to the shore, otherwise, you’re just walking into deep water). And if you’ll try this in the pool, just stay in a shallow area.

Feel the resistance the water gives you the harder more you try to move through it. That’s what zaps the energy so you have to try to move with the least amount of effort, but still maintain a motion. If you can move at least 100 feet like this without getting tired, you will very prepared to beat mud walls. You should also occasionally try give more resistance to train your legs to withstand the resistance. 

Tree Hugger: I have never seen a challenge like this. You have 3 pieces of tall wood with an equally tall metal pole in between each one (3). You have to go from the piece of wood to the metal pole, then back to the next piece of wood and on until you reach the end. You cannot touch the ground or you will be eliminated.

There are a number of go about preparing for Tree Hugger. If you live near a playground or have a gym where there are poles used for pulls ups, you can practice holding onto the vertical side of the pull up bar with 2 hands and both your feet. You will get a better balance if you keep one foot on top of the other. 

Now to move onto another pole you have to practice, letting go of one hand and one foot holding onto the pole and being able to fully reach out. Usually most pull up poles have about a 3 foot distance between each vertical pole so you can hold onto one vertical side, let 1 hand and 1 foot go and try to have them reach the other, then when you have a handle on the other pole, release your other hand and foot and swing to the other. If you can do this, you can beat Tree Hugger.

Big Cheese: A semi octagon shaped challenge where one side has big holes cut out in them to make it look like swiss cheese. You have to use your hands and feet and find the holes to pull yourself the challenge.

If you hike, then Big Cheese is easy to beat. If you don’t have any hiking areas, then using something like a stair master machine at the gym will be fine, except you should use your hands on the stairs instead of the handles on the side. .

Pole Cat: There are multiple railings involved here, but you use 2, put your feet on one with your hands on the other and walk across this railing.

A good way you can get ready for Pole Cat is to use 2 beds that are 4 feet away from each other, plant both feet on one bed and both your hands on the other, then travel across the beds back and forth. If there is actually an area where you live where there’s 2 poles that close to each other, you can also do it there. 

Squeeze play: A crawl on dirt water and underneath barrels. 

If you can do military crawls, Squeeze Play is easy.

Wheel World: There are 4-5 hexagon shaped metal bars you hand onto. They also spin around and you have to use that to get from one of these bars to the next. Remember, there are up to 5 of them. 

Unfortunately there is no real life obstacle that can recreate this one other than the Savage Race, but if you can climb monkey bars, you should practice reach one end of them, turning around (while holding on) then going back. That motion of swinging from one direction and then going back around will help you get used to it.

On the fence: You scale across a fence.

Gloves might be helpful here because it can hurt your hands clenching onto the fence for a long time. This is not really a difficult challenge and if your hands do get tired, put most of the pressure on your legs. Being that they are also pushing against the fence, you’ll have more reliance. 

There are more than 7 challenges (see the rest) on the Savage Race, but if you do these exercises and the other recommended exercises in this post, you won’t have problems with this race!

In my opinion, the Savage Race is very fun and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, but personally, I prefer races like the Spartan Beast, and Tough Mudder.

Of all the obstacles I have faced on various mud runs, it appears that Tough Mudder may have the most challenging ones. There are up to 25 of them.

Now keep in mind that for this and many other mud runs, these obstacles change, so you may see new ones if you decide to try one, or even some that are on this list, not appear on the ones you do.

Also having gone through Tough Mudder twice, here’s info on my experiences for the first one, and here is info on my experiences for the second one.

First, there are 5 different types of Tough Mudder:

1) The regular race: It is up to 12 miles long and the one most people do (I will be doing mine in October!). And also, don’t mistake this event for the Spartan Race. Here are the differences between them.

2) The half version: You only do 5 miles or half the distance of the regular event. Also some of the hardest challenges you’d find on the regular event are not in this one. 

3) The one known as the “Toughest Mudder”: Basically the regular race, but you do it at night. Supposedly there’s new obstacles coming out in 2017!

4) The 24 hour event where you run through a the same course as many times as possible. BattleFrog has this type of race as well!

5) Then there is a kids one which is only a mile long.

If you are a beginner, do the half (5 mile) version. If you are intermediate or higher, the regular race will be challenging enough (or you can try these other mud runs)! And if you’re an insane athlete, the 24 hour one might be the most appropriate challenge for you!

Now, we have the list and wow…it’s not a joke…

Artic Enema: Many Tough Mudder races begin with this obstacle. You jump into an icy bath to get you started! Sometimes it is dirty (if it’s further down the event and people who already were dirty when they got in had it on them) and sometimes it has a coloring over it. If you’re not used to taking cold showers or even diving into icy water, you better get ready!

Update: In the Tough Mudder I did, this obstacle appeared about halfway into the race.

The “Block Ness” Monster: This a team effort challenge where you have to maneuver over several blocks that are floating above water and rotate as you try to climb over them. The key to beating this challenge is letting one or more team members climb over it while the remaining one hold it at the bottom and as one or more members crawl, they push the block over to get them over it. It’s like a push but it can make the obstacle less difficult for the climber. 

Then if the person gets over it, he or she has to hold it from the other end so it doesn’t flip while the people who were originally holding it can now get over. You’re probably going to have other teams doing it with you so make an effort to work with them so that you all get over this without losing too much time.

King of the Swings: This is a scary challenge where you swing across a pole, not rope, then take a major risk by letting go and trying to hit a bell in mid air. Then after that, whether or not you hit it, you’re still going to fall into dirty water. 

I honestly thought this was the coolest obstacle I did, but it didn’t appear in the second Tough Mudder I did, which actually happened to be in the same location.

Pyramid Scheme: This is an obstacle where you have to cross a triangular prop that is about 7-8 feet high, but it is extremely slippery so often just running up to it and up may not work.

A lot of teams actually completely this hurdle by laying on the side of one of the pyramid walls and letting their teammates walk above them as a way to keep their grip, then there’s also other people at the top who will often help you up. 

If you and your team choose to do it the first way (where you lay down), then it’s your job as the person who climbs above them to help the members at the bottom reach the top.

Cage crawl: You basically swim on your back with a cage literally touching your face. It creates a bit of a claustrophobic effect (helpful tips for this challenge!) but the key is to use the cage to move your body through this obstacle. Don’t focus on the water or that it’s scary, focus on pushing your body using your hands and nothing else. 

Birth Canal: Well…this is an interesting obstacle in that it somewhat resembles you being born? That’s certainly one way to describe Birth Canal, but in reality, you’re crawling on dirty with a heavy prop weighing on you the entire way.

The Liberator: You grab a piece of wood and have to use it to climb a wall. There are holes on the wall you have to plug in with that wood you have and basically that is used to get you over.

Mud Mile: It’s not actually a mile long, but it’s basically a bunch of mud mounds like you see in Warrior Dash. It’s very slippery and very, very dirty.

Everest: A run up a very high wall. Usually the faster running start you get on Everest, the more chances the momentum will be able to carry you to the top. This obstacle is very similar to the one on American Ninja Warrior!

Berlin Walls: This is a vertical, 10 foot wall. There’s usually a handle to step on a few feet up that you can use to then propel yourself over the top.

Skid Marked: The Spartan Race have this type of challenge where you have to get over a wall that is slanted against you, but on Tough Mudder, when you get over it, you will have to step on tires that are against the wall to then jump over them to land on the ground.

Funky Monkey: You’re going to need super human grip strength here. You first have to cross monkey bars but this is not on a horizontal level, oh no, it’s actually slanted upward, but even if you do get over that, then next part is the descent but it’s not on monkey bars, it’s on a pipe that is usually very wet. This is one of the most challenging upper body obstacles you will ever cross.

Hold your wood: This is another team effort challenge where you carry a heavy wooden log across a few walls. Some of them will have holes where you’ll have to put the log in and take it out the other side.

Warrior Carry: You have to carry a teammate up or down a hill while they are on your back.

Quagmire: You go through a very dirty trench that is filled with water. There’s little space so you’re really stuck in a line (thus the name Quagmire). 

Balls to the Wall: You have to get over a wall using a rope but can use your feet to grab onto the wall itself. Then on the other side, you also do the same thing. 

Kiss of Mud: A crawling challenge on dirt. Oh and it’s under wires too :).

Shawshanked: Usually there is an obstacle that leads to it, but eventually the challenge itself is a crawl through a dark pipe.

Electroshock Therapy: Yep, you’re going to get shocked and it’s going to suck…I have been lucky to only go through this kind of hurdle in one of the 4 races I’ve done (it was on MudmanX). I hated it, but it was somewhat optional to get through because I could kind of avoid the wires. In Tough Mudder, you won’t be able to. You just have to dash through it. Typically Electroshock Therapy pops up right before the end of the race.

There are also obstacles for what are known as “Legionnaires”: You get to test new obstacles out before they become part of the main race. In 2016, there are several new challenges. You can check out Legionnaire challenge here.

If you think you’re ready for this race, see if you have the gear and physique to take this race on!

Do not do it unless you are very physically fit. This race is very difficult to cross and remains as one of the hardest tiers of mud run events.

I’m going to show you how to prepare for Tough Mudder because as I write this, I’ve done it twice. And the tips I’ll give you here will help a lot!

Now parts of this article were written before I did my first Tough Mudder, and I will update certain sections to explain if the original preparations I made really helped and if they didn’t, I’ll explain what did and what you should do.

So before I did this event, I had a checklist of mud runs I still had to finish. I have crossed of the Spartan Race (3) and a few others, but the big one I have yet to do is Tough Mudder. And on October 8th, it is going to be done:

So for anyone who is also preparing to do their first Tough Mudder, I have a great preparation guide. Now I’ve already written one specifically for the Spartan Race and I’ve also written a general one for most mud runs people will do and frankly, about 90% of the preparation is the same for Tough Mudder.

However, being that the obstacles in this one are a bit different, I have made this separate one. First let’s get the obvious workouts out of the way that you absolutely need:

Read this list of preparations I’ve written up for the advanced Spartan Race. By distance and difficulty, they are very close and just about the same workouts in terms of strength and endurance are necessary for Tough Mudder as well.

And being that with each new mud run I’ve done, I’ve learned more and more, it is helped me tremendously prepare for the next one and with Tough Mudder, it’s definitely going to be the most difficult one yet and I’m hoping it will be, because after doing Super, which was very tough, I still had a craving to take on something more difficult.

So here is how I prepared for this race (and if it worked):

I had less than 2 months to get ready when I purchased my ticket to Tough Mudder and the good news is that I already actively did the 2 most necessary workout styles needed for the hardest mud runs: Strength exercises and cardio for mud runs.

With cardio, I was prepared, but because this race is over 10 miles long so long lasting endurance is a must. While my cardio workouts are more short term, I had decided to buy a bicycle and do long distance rides 1-2 times a week with the other cardio workouts filled with already, very, very difficult martial arts classes. I don’t jog anymore because I have knee problems.

In the past, I have had trouble with the lifting aspects of difficult mud runs, such as in the Spartan Super where my team and I (separately) had to carry weights and to fix that, I have started lifting, but in a way that will not get in the way of my cardio endurance.

I now do kettlebell workouts every morning where I do normal swinging 100 times. Kettlebells are great at replicating a scenario where you carry a weight and because you’re swinging it, you’re also replicating yourself moving while carrying a weight so it’s building endurance. That’s about it with regards to weight lifting.

There are mandatory strength workouts I will continue to do 5 days a week and maybe everyday: Pullups, rope climbing, monkey bars with the aim to basically improve the time I can last while hanging as well as grip.

Now one thing that makes Tough Mudder different is that you have to dive into very, very cold water. And to get myself ready for that, I have begun taking cold showers every single day.

If you’ve never done this and you’ve got a mud run with this type of obstacle coming up, start from relatively warm water and slowly decrease the temperature until you are able to withstand the maximum cold temperature your shower has. I am already able to withstand those temperatures so the next thing I will do is an occasional ice bath.

Do not do these unless you are prepared or else you can have a heart attack! 

And being that the race was in October, chances are the weather is going to be somewhere between 50-70 degrees. Since our event is early, it’ll probably be closer to 50 which makes the cold showers even more necessary. 

For your physical body, I feel that the strength workouts, kettlebells and cardio I’ve listed is going to help a lot. If you don’t do martial arts and your knees don’t hurt, do long distance jogs to compensate, but make sure you can do the heavy lifting too without it interfering with your stamina. Again, kettlebells are highly recommended.

One other thing is stretching and keeping the body warm. Make sure your body is loose enough to avoid injury. The weather is going to be pretty cold and that means the muscles will be more contracted. 

Do basic stretches that involve the feet, back, shoulders and hands. If you go to a gym, ask a personal trainer for stretching tips and repeat them. 

Now that basically completes the necessities for your body to be prepared, but now we get into the gear part. For this, wear the things I’ve listed here. Things such:

Compression clothing which is part of that list is going to be huge especially in the cold weather. If you’ve ever seen people jogging through during the winter, you may notice a lot of them wear tight pants and clothing that compresses their muscles. Focus on compression clothing that covers up your legs and body since it’ll keep it warm and help the body stay loose. 

Summary of preparations before the race:

• Do strength workouts that can be classified as calisthenics. I also recommend the kettlebell unless you already do some kind of weight lifting. Remember, in mud runs, any weight lifting requires you also move so don’t just focus on lifting and sitting in place. Carry weights than don’t put too much pressure on your body around an area and again, kettlebells will definitely work.

• Make sure your cardio is fine. Expect at least 10 miles of jogging/power walking with very few periods of stopping.

• Remember the cold showers will help.

• Make sure your body is flexible and loose before the race. Also if you ever feel like you may have a cramp or injury while doing it, stop and stretch. 

• Wear the things that keep you warm and mobile. Also keep a backpack handy because on long races you can get very hungry and tired and there’s products that can re-energize you that can be kept inside the backpack.

Now for the post race updates:

Did I prepare enough for Tough Mudder when the race finally happened? Here is my post race experience. There were many things on this race I did not expect but overall, my preparations greatly helped me. What surprised me was how much harder it was when my teammates weren’t adequately prepared.

But since I did say I completed 2 of these, here is info on the second one, where I actually had a major injury, and it was not due to lack of preparation, but because of an accident.

Being that the Spartan Race and Tough Mudder are considered among the most difficult races in the obstacle racing topic, there is often debate between which of them is harder and more fun.

Fortunately, now that I have completed both, I can help you figure this out if you’re considering these events.

Here’s my resume of the OCR’s I’ve done:

• 2 Tough Mudders, each 10-12 miles long.
• 3 Spartan Races (Spring, Super & Beast).
• Numerous other OCR’s like MudmanX and Survival Challenge.

And by the way, if you’ve done these too or are planning to, please share your questions/experiences with them below! I’d love to know 🙂

Let’s compare which event is harder!

To begin, I’d like to note that there’s different levels of each event so what I’ve done is balance out which each levels from one course are similar in terms of difficulty and length in the other and I will explain which are more difficult:

There are 4 main levels to the Spartan Race and also 4 in Tough Mudder (there’s a 5th one, but it’s for kids and I won’t count it).

• First is the 5k. It is comparable to the Half event which is 5 miles long. I’ve done the 5k but not the 5 mile one (I did the full event) and I personally believe that the 5k is more difficult despite being a bit shorter.

• Second is the Super, which is 8 miles long. I’m going to compare this to the FULL Tough Mudder event which is 10-12 miles. Again, I feel that the first event is more difficult as I’ve completed these and felt a lot more tired and sore from the Spartan Race.

• Third is the BEAST (which I also did), which is 12 miles. I’m going to compare that to the same full event in the other course because both can be 12 miles long. Well if the 8 mile level was more difficult than it’s also likely the 12 mile event is too.

• Then we have the Ultra beast which is 26 miles long. We will compare that to a 24 hour Tough Mudder event. In this case, I will say that Tough Mudder is more difficult simply because the length of the event drags on longer, although if you cross the same 26 miles in both courses, you’ll probably feel more tired from the Spartan Race. The only reason the other course gets the win here is because of the time length and the fact that overall in 24 hours, you can probably cross a lot more than 26 miles.

What are the biggest similarities and differences between both events?

First we’ll see how both courses are similar:

• Both events obviously have a lot of dirt…

• Obstacle wise, there are a few of them I noticed which were similar. Both have a log carrying challenge.

• Both also have similar wall climbing areas, meaning walls you have to go over.

• Both have similar dirt mounds with deep/shallow water in between them.

• Both have water stations each mile you cross.

And surprisingly that’s about it. I though there would be more until I actually did the events and saw there were many differences:

• The Spartan Race is more focused on individual completion of each obstacle, you can have people cheer you on, but they can’t really help you. Tough Mudder has at least half of it’s obstacles focus on teamwork where doing it yourself is almost impossible.

• In my experience doing both events, I found there is much more focus on strength, endurance and stamina in the Spartan Race vs Tough Mudder. For example, with that log carrying challenge which is in both events, in the Spartan Race, it involved us carrying it individually for a longer amount of time and up and down a cliff. In the other one, you could opt to do it with a team and for the length it took to finish that challenge, we didn’t carry it for as long but had a few walls we had to get the log over. So based on that, I feel you need to have way more strength and endurance to handle the obstacles on the first event.

• In terms of uniqueness of the obstacles, I found Tough Mudder to be way more fun and creative. When I did the other event, I didn’t really enjoy going through the obstacles and found myself going into the next one with a feeling of desperation and wanting to get it over with. On Tough Mudder on the other hand, some obstacles gave me an adrenaline rush and involved myself and the team I was with to use our heads to get through the challenges. In that event, I actually found myself enjoying the obstacles more and looking forward to the next ones.

• With prices to try them out, for me Tough Mudder was more expensive.

• Prize wise, you get more from the Spartan Race. I received a free shirt, a medal and some energy drinks/bars. In the other event, I only really got a free shirt, a head band and deodorant (hah).

Another big difference in comparing the events:

The location of each event you do plays a big role in how difficult it’ll be. Both events can be held in locations where the terrain is either more or less flat and places where it’s on mountains or hills where basically you have to climb.

If you do any event on a flat area like a stadium or where my last event was held which was in a dirt bike park, it’ll likely be flat so you’ll get less tired from running.

However, if you do one or both events in places where there’s mountains (many events are held on ski resorts and that means uphill hiking), the level and difficulty increases by a lot so when I did the comparisons of both events, I actually looked at it from if both were held in flat areas and if they would held in steep mountainous areas.

I still believe should both events would be held on the same terrain, the Spartan would still be more difficult.

Whichever you decide to do, make sure you have these 3 things:

1) Physical endurance, in the cardio and strength department, especially for the Spartan Race.

2) Don’t go alone, especially if you’re doing Tough Mudder since it is more team oriented. You can get help and WILL get encouragement from other fellow contenders there, but it pales in comparison to having close friends next to you rooting you on and everyone help one another during the obstacles. There’s going to be comedy, there’s going to be bonding, difficulties and overall, there will be great memories if you go with friends. 

3) Wear good clothing, and most importantly, GREAT, reliable sneaker/shoes:

Which event suits you more? 

It depends entirely on your personality and physical level. 

If you are the type of person who really enjoys individual challenges and doesn’t like getting help like I do, then the Spartan Race is going to test you.

However, there are also very difficult challenges in the other course that even I had trouble doing because as I said before, there is more technical ability needed to complete the challenges vs brute strength and will power.

If you enjoy something with a team element involved, like to try out fun obstacles that don’t just challenge strength, but your brain and can give you a little bit of an adrenaline rush, then you should definitely try this one instead.

Ideally, you should do both events if you enjoy the whole element of outdoor challenges and obstacles so you can decide which event you like better.

Which event do I prefer?

Neither, both are fun! Like I said before, the Spartan Race challenged me way more, but Tough Mudder was the one where I had a lot more fun, even though it challenged me less. So it depends on how I feel.

I’ll be updating this comparison in the future when I do more of each race, so I can literally compare the obstacles side by side and even do video comparisons as well. But no matter what new updates come, I’m still going to have the same opinion of both of them 🙂

Update: My specific reviews of Tough Mudder and the Spartan Race…

So I did 3 Spartans, but finished 2 of them due to the third getting cancelled:

Here is my review of the Spartan Super I completed.

Here is my review of the Spartan Beast I also finished.

And as for Tough Mudder…

Here is the first 10-12 mile one I completed.

And in 2017, I also successfully another one in the same location, but the first one was more fun.

 

Battlefrog is a mud run, but it is not a typical one. For one, it has a unique list of obstacles that are very challenging.

And also that it is the one type of race where it’s shortest course is 8 kilometers, vs the usual 5k’s you find and that it’s more advanced version is basically a loop of the same race over and over.

If you plan on running this course, you’ll want to memorize the following list of obstacles on it and make sure your body and muscles are all ready for it! 

News: Battlefrog has shut down all of it’s events for the remainder of 2016 and possibly 2017. 

If you are looking for events that are like this, try checking out this list of different mud runs that can challenge you.

3 walls: On the first wall, you have to hop over it, on the second, you crawl or roll under it and finally on the third, there is a hole in the wall and you jump through it.

Usually on other mud runs such as the Spartan Race and the Survival Race, you will see these same kinds of walls, but in Battlefrog, these 3 are part of 1 obstacle.

Mounds of grounds: In this area of the race, you are going through dirty water and semi circular dirt mounds that are very slippery. In many mud runs, this is also a common thing to see, but here, sometimes because they are shaped a little bit more circular, the slope is more vertical when climbing, making it very difficult. If you wear shoes with good traction, it’ll be easier. Also practice hiking up steep slopes to improve leg resilience. 

Tip of the spear: This is one of the unique obstacles on Battlefrog!

There are 3 walls here that are diagonally slanted and you have to maneuver on the side of them using ropes on one wall, hanging onto wood on the other and the same kinds of ropes on the third. To complete the course, when you end on the third wall, you ring a bell.

The rope parts are easy and you don’t actually have to climb since the wall is slanted but it’s the second wall where you have to hang onto the wood that makes things very challenging.

Being in an angled position where your legs are bent helps keep the pressure of them. Grip however is going to be a problem, especially on the wooden part, so practice it or use gloves for increased control when you’re on this challenge.

Also because your legs can also get very tired or slip on this obstacle, try to get shoes that have decent traction that help save your energy and avoid slipping. 

Inverted Wall: You climb up the bent side of a wall and cross over the other side. It’s very common on the Spartan Race 

Rope Climb: Only the most difficult mud runs have rope climbing, but on Battlefrog (and on the Spartan Race), you usually climb the rope over water. 

A large wall you climb using a rope: You vertically go up a wall with the help of a rope. There are 2 pieces of wood on it that help your feet, or hands hold onto it so you can complete it, but when you get to the top, you will use another rope and pieces of wood to climb down, just on the other side. 

Carrying a very heavy bag. They call this the “Wreck Bag Carry”.  It maybe a sand bag, but it’s still going to be very heavy and usually they’ll have you carry these over muddy areas.

Slant Wall: Another large wall that is also slanted, but there are not ropes or pieces of wood to help you get above it, you have to depend on getting a good run and jump to reach the top. There are ways to get above this obstacle and it’s actually easier on this race because the wall is slanted, not straight up like in many other mud runs.

The Platinum Rig: This may be the most difficult upper body obstacle in Battlefrog. You have to use your hands to cross monkey bars, rings, wooden and metal poles while being above ground.

This obstacle will activate different parts of your upper body and keep you uncomfortable because once you cross one part, say the monkey bars, it goes into the rings which you have to swing through, then the metal poles which are also extremely difficult. I have seen one of these in Battlefrog have rings on your foot level that you can use to prolong your grip stamina. 

Delta Ladder: I have seen this on the Spartan Race but I think this one is either more slanted. Basically it’s a very tall wooden “ladder” where each part of it is far apart which means you can’t climb it quickly unless you first get a good grip with your hands on the next part of the ladder, stand up, then use your legs to climb up to the next part before reaching up with your hands to get the next one, then after you get to the top, guess what, the only way down is to do the same thing, but rely on your feet to reach to the lower parts of the wood, before using your hands to bring your body down.

A regular tire flip. Well the tire is gigantic so flipping it can get difficult. It is important to get into a squat position before tossing it.

Normandy Jacks: This may have been taken from the popular pictures and movie scenes of the invasion of Normandy where you had large metal “jacks” along the shore as soldiers flooded in, but on Battlefrog, you cross these jacks while being under barb wire and mud.

Large Ladder: This is a completely vertical, wooden ladder that is pretty easy to climb vs the delta one. It is much shorter and easier to maintain a grip. But there may also be a few of these in this obstacle.

60 degree obstacle: It is basically the slanted wall, but it’s made of horizontal wooden poles you use to climb over. This one may be harder than the slanted wall because there are less areas to hold onto with your legs and it’s easier to fall.

Jerry Can Carry: I think the “can” is a pun because like the sandbag carry challenge, here you carry what look like plastic gasoline tanks, but they are filled up and very heavy. You may have to drag them over mud.

Crossing over wooden blocks in the ground: They maybe of different height making it hard for you to maintain a good balance.

2 large pieces of wood, you climb over one then jump onto the other which is higher of the ground and the goal is to swing over. This is actually a scary one because it’s very easy to miss your jump, slip backwards or if you jump over too much, you can flip over and fall too quickly.

It’s better if you first reach out and touch the other wood you’re aiming to jump to and time the jump so that when you hit it, your waist is what goes around it and acts as a balance and your upper body is over one part while your legs are over the other. 

If this challenge is too difficult or too scary, you may be able to get away with using the parts on the side that keep this obstacle together and walk over them and onto the other piece of wood. 

A very skinny caving ladder that you hover under and cross while being over water. If they don’t have this, it may be replace with a rope instead. You may also find a different version of this obstacle where you have to climb up it to ring a bell. Keep in mind these things are not your typical ladder. You may spin around and feel very little control while trying to control it.

There are a few other obstacles on Battlefrog but these are very common on the course. You should prepare for them by doing these exercises and maybe beginning with an 8k or a lower level mud run if you’re not ready.

Any good alternative mud runs to Battlefrog since it’s been shut down?

I would say 3:

1) Bone frog. This is probably the CLOSEST mud run you’ll find to Battlefrog which is still up.

2) Spartan Races. Probably anything Super and higher (Beast and Ultra Beast).

3) Full Tough Mudder race. 10 miles+ and it also has team oriented obstacle courses, which is REALLY fun.