Sunday, September 20, 2020

Saitama's Hero Workout

There is a comic called One-Punch Man that tells the story of Saitama who can defeat any opponent with, you guessed it, one punch. Saitama's journey to hero status included the following workout.
  • 100 push-ups
  • 100 sit-ups
  • 100 squats
  • 10 km run (100 hectometers if you want to keep it consistent)
EVERY SINGLE DAY

 I have not read the comic myself, but was still intrigued by the workout and decided to give it a try.

Well, mostly.  

Unless you are already a hard-core dedicated gym rat, it is not likely you could do all of this on day 1. I could not. Like any target oriented goal, the key is to start where you are and then push yourself more and more as you go along. I think the (almost) every day part is more important than the rep count. Getting into a consistent routine is the hard part. After that, then slowly incrementing reps is easy.

I found it helpful to create a chart (ok - a spreadsheet - no surprise to my children) to keep up with my progress. Each row is a different day. I plan on doing this for 100 days, so my rows are numbered 1-100 with a column for pushups, situps, squats, and the run. I also added a column for pull-ups since that is something I want to track as well.
  • 100 Push-Ups - I started with 4 sets of 25 spread through out the day and worked my way up to 2 sets of 50 by day number 25. The sets are often many hours apart. Once you get to 50/50, then you have to decide if you will stick with 100 by doing 60/40, 70/30 and so forth until you get to 100 in a single set ... OR ... do you start going 60/60, 70/70 and so forth until you are at 2 sets of 100. I am at day 34 and doing two sets of 55, so I am going to see how long I can keep that going. Time will tell if I abandon my goal of 100/100, but either way is a fantastic heroic achievement.
  • 100 Sit-Ups - A started out doing Marine Corps crunches which typically require a partner or something to hold your feet down and must be done in 2 minutes. The first set was max in 2 minutes and then second set was the remainder to get to 100. We did the run in between each set. Once my partner lost his enthusiasm, I switched to bicycle crunches where every left elbow to right knee counts as one rep. I decided to sync these up with the push-ups and squats, so I am now doing two sets of 55 of these as well.
  • 100 Squats - Again, I started at 5 sets of 20 and worked my up to 2 sets of 55. I try to go as deep as I can and keep my back as straight as I can. A recent ankle sprain required me to switch to 2 sets of 30 single leg squats ("taking a knee" and then standing each time as one rep). Hopefully this reduces strain on my ankle which will let it heal faster which will get me back to the normal two legged squat.
  • 10 K Run - (aka 6.2 miles aka 100 hectometers) - This was not a big stretch for me since I was already a runner. I had become lacks in my running recently, so this was a good motivator to pick it back up. Again, the key is start where you are and work your way up. Whereas the other exercises are done in multiple sets, I recommend doing this in a single set. Run as far as you can and then slowly increase it over time. I also recommend doing at least one 60 second sprint within each mile (I do two). This will greatly improve your pace over time.
  • 100 Pull-Ups - Ok. No freakin way. At least not for me. At least not anytime soon. Instead I do 3 sets of max pull ups. The Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test stops counting after 23, so that is my goal. I am not in the Marines, but was in a previously life. I started at 10 and, on day 34, am up to 14. This was not part of the Saitama's Hero Workout, but I added it since my bucket list includes the ability to do one or more muscle-ups.
  • Every Single Day - Kinda sorta. Its common knowledge that muscles need time to rebuild after a workout. This is why it is usually advised to do legs one day, arms the next, and so forth. Other research, however, suggest that compound workouts are effective if done more often. The happy medium that I have found here is do the run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, do the rest Monday - Friday, and then rest on Saturday and Sunday. I use Friday as "level-up" day where I increase my sets (push-up, sit-ups, and squats by 5 and pull-ups by 1). For the runs I try to make 1 of the 3 as fast day and the other day just a jog (but mid run sprints in every run).
  • Saitama also suggest that you "Never ever use the air conditioner in the summer, or heat in the winter – so you can strengthen the mind". That is just crazy talk. I do, however, recommend spending at least an hour outside (like for the run for example) everyday year round to keep yourself acclimatized to the changing seasons.

Android App to track your progress

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