The chips are down. If Saitama canโt stop the unstoppable Carnage Kabuto then the world is in danger. One Punch Manโs student has pulled out all of the stops, and heโs been beaten badly. The super villainous Dr. Genus and the House of Evolution are going to take over the world with their super-powered blood-crazed experiments, and analyzing One Punch Manโs never before seen godlike strength is the final piece they need to propel themselves into the future.
Carnage Kabuto falters for the first time. Thereโs something overwhelming about One Punch Man. He asks him how he became so powerful. Thereโs got to be some kind of secret.ย
Saitama humors him. Itโs the first real glance into this mysterious manโs back story.
One hundred push-ups!ย One hundred sit-ups! One hundred squats!ย Then a 10 km run! Every. Single. Day!ย
He urges us to eat three meals a day. Never skip breakfast, even a banana will do.ย
He sharpened his mind by never using air conditioning during the summer or heat during the winter (or maybe heโs coving up how broke he is). He trained like this every day for three years. Never stopping no matter what. When his legs felt like stone, he squatted. When his arms wanted to give up, he kept pushing up.ย
He trained so hard that his hair fell out, giving him his distinctive look.
Nobody in the room believes him, but he swears up and down that this alone is where One Punch Man found his strength. And itโs hard to argue with his results because a minute later he crushes Carnage Kabuto in a single punch. Will this work out for you? How effective is it? Can you keep it up?ย
Letโs find out.
If youโve watched this anime there are a couple of things that might stick out to you. He moves faster than the speed of sound, and at one point heโs punched onto the moon, calculates his return trajectory, and jumps back with so much force that he alters its topography forever.
Weโre going to start by setting some realistic goals. Youโre never going to be that strong, but this is a great place to start if you really donโt quite know what your goals are.
You might also note that his plan is a little light on details.
You can probably do a hundred push-ups in sets of ten sprinkled throughout your day. How fast is he running his 10k? Does he jog the entire thing, or does he take time to walk when heโs winded? How fit was he when he started out? That might change everything.
Our next step is utilizing some assumptions. Weโre going to approach this with the beginner in mind. It seems like Saitamaโs life before he donned his iconic cape and yellow suit was pretty unimpressive, and he talks about his workout like it almost killed him at first, and frankly, itโs a lot to take on if youโre not used to working out. We also see him overtaking himself in a multilayered flashback, so maybe he adjusted his sets and 10k runtime as he got stronger and stronger.
Letโs make this a little more modular. Youโre not going to get anywhere if you canโt get out of bed the next day, and part of his routine was making sure he got it done. โEvery single day.โ
If youโre committed to taking on this workout routine as written, then it might be helpful to break it down into sets. One hundred push-ups is one hundred push-ups regardless of whether you did them all in a single set, two sets of fifty, or ten sets of ten. Same with your sit-ups and squats. If one hundred is too much for you just starting out, then consider reducing the number of reps, and setting your sights on one hundred as a goal, rather than an opening benchmark.
His ten-kilometer run is also going to be the largest stumbling block for a lot of beginners. Running is all about building and pushing your muscular endurance. That means when youโre just starting out youโre probably not going to be sprinting six miles with the best of them. We suggest either breaking it down into manageable run/walk distances or building yourself up to that distance little by little.ย
Exercise is about reaching goals as much as itโs about pushing yourself, and youโre going to have more motivation to tackle this every day if you can cut out the feeling of failure. Thereโs no shame in not running a 10k the very first time you step outside to start a new routine, and thereโs no shame in realizing the limits of your body. Youโre working out to improve yourself anyway.
This plan doesnโt ask much from you financially. There are no equipment costs and no gym membership fees. You could stand up and start right now. True to his character, itโs easy on your wallet, and if youโre serious about it you could stick with it. You donโt have to track your progress or adjust your weights. This isnโt a precise weight lifting regimen focused on finding your absolute maximum and adjusting what youโre lifting day to day and updating it week after week.ย
Just get up and do a hundred of them. Pretty easy to remember, right?
The plan, as written is better than a lot of routines by sheer volume. Most people arenโt doing this much cardio twice a week, let alone every day of their lives. A lot of folks also tend to do a lot of isolation exercises like bicep curls or pec flies because theyโre attracted to weights and machines if they donโt quite know where to start.
All of these exercises areย calisthenicย or compound exercises. A compound exercise is something that targets multiple muscle groups at the same time, and calisthenics is just a fancy word for exercises that use your body weight and nothing else.ย
The push-ups are targeting your chest, shoulders, abs, and triceps. Squats are great for your lower back and your glutes, quads, and calves. Sit-ups are going to target your upper abs, hip flexors, and your iliopsoas (those connect your lower spine to your hips). Basically, this means there are several efficiencies packed in.
The emphasis on a high number of reps means that this routine is a shrine of endurance. It sounds hard because it is. You donโt do a hundred push-ups without a little bit of conditioning. Thatโs why we suggest either breaking them up or training yourself toward that number. Endurance comes from training, and as much as weโd love to tell you that you can just will yourself into it like Saitama did thatโs not just realistic.
One Punch Man is pretty slender for all of his superhuman feats. This is pretty accurate. These bodyweight exercises are great for burning fat and increasing muscle, especially when youโre just starting out. Your body aims to distribute your resources efficiently. That might mean storing energy in fat cells if youโre not burning it, but it also means using energy and protein to build muscle when youโre using it routinely.
Well, really itโs several pitfalls, but theyโre all easy to overcome. When youโre considering a training regime change itโs important to carefully examine every single aspect of it, and that includes its shortcomings. Itโs an excellent foundation, this workout program covers more that it doesnโt. If we can change a couple of aspects of it then we can make this workout work for you. We want to build up to a hundred reps where we can, add some sort of pull exercise, and maybe invest in a kettlebell.ย
There are a few basic movement patterns you want to cover when building a workout plan: push (horizontal and vertical), pull (horizontal and vertical), squat, and hinge (think hip movements). Covering these will, more likely than not, give you pretty full coverage. This kind of thing is important because youโll start affecting your posture negatively or create sore spots and weak areas by overtraining one motion, and not the opposing side.
Saitamaโs strength training covers most of your upper body and takes care of your lower body pretty well, but heโs lacking a pull exercise. Who knows why that could be, maybe heโs pulling his punches so often that he makes up for that. Youโre not going to be saving the world with your fists, so we need to make up for that.
Pull exercises are self-explanatory, and if you want to keep in the calisthenic wheelhouse there are several options, but youโre going to have to break one of Saitamaโs workout rules:
Rest is just as important to your growth as working out. Your body changes over time, and you need to give it the opportunity to do so. If youโre constantly breaking down your muscles without giving them the chance to build themselves back up, then youโre going to stall out pretty quickly. Itโs good to stay motivated, and if you feel like you can keep this up every single day for three years, then weโre not going to say you have too much motivation or anything, but your efforts would be better spent if you work in some rest.
What do rest days look like? Rest isnโt just sleeping, though youโre going to want to do that too. Sleep is where most of our repairs happen. Saitamaโs insistence on not using central heating might pose a problem here. Donโt torture yourself at night, and youโll see much better progress.ย
Donโt forget about blood flow and flexibility. When youโre building muscle youโre adding tension if you donโt limber up and balance your workouts on your flexors and your extensors. Consider investing in a foam roller, itโs like a micro-massage. Theyโre a great way to work out knots and retaining mobility.
That brings us to diet. This anime man never describes any manga meals, and thatโs most likely a pacing thing. However, weโre not storybook people. Youโve got a real body that needs real energy, and real building blocks if you want to make any real progress.
So what does your body need if youโre going to be making the most out of this?
You donโt have to get fancy, especially with routine as straightforward as this one. Just think about the three main things your body craves. Youโre made out of water protein and fatย and fueled by carbs.ย
Keep yourself hydrated. Youโre going to be sweating, especially with all of this endurance work. If you feel thirsty, take a drink. Hydrate before you work out. Employ the use of a water bottle, youโll never forget to drink water if youโve got it on your hip at all times. Itโs hard to drink too much water, itโs what your body craves more than anything.
Food is also a simple enough thing to tackle. Prepping your meals will help cut down on mental bandwidth. Stock up on healthy proteins and avoid saturated fats. When it comes to fitness, you get out what you put in. One of the easiest ways to lose weight is to tweak your diet. Cutting out empty calories and excess fats is going to work wonders for you. Starting with a healthy diet will lower your exertion overhead exponentially.
Something to keep in mind if you take this on is your eventual goal. If youโre looking for huge increases in muscle size, this may not be the program for you.
Muscle mass primarily comes from hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is the process your body undergoes to build more muscle. This process is triggered by wearing your muscles down and repairing microtrauma. Microtrauma is tiny tiny damage to your muscle fibers, this happens when youโre overloading your muscles by doing things like lifting heavy weights or engaging in anaerobic exercise.
Imagine doing one hundred sit-ups a day every day for three years. By the end of your first year, youโll have done the exact same motion with your delicate spine thirty thousand times. Youโre going to be compressing the cartilage and putting an immense amount of pressure on the part of your body that houses some of your most important nerves.ย
Consider switching up your routine every few months. You can work your abs in several different ways, and youโll be better off if you aim to target the full range of your abdomen.ย
This could be as simple as sliding in 100 crunches. Crunches have a smaller range of motion, youโre trading your compound exercise for isolation, but thatโs a small price to pay for keeping your back in tip-top shape.ย
You could also do some planks. Planks are relatively simple. Youโre resting on your elbows and toes while keeping your back straight. This is great for engaging your core and its keeping you off of your back. This routine is all about endurance, and you wonโt be losing anything by trading your sit-ups for a couple minutes of planking, and youโll thank us for it in the long run.
Donโt dive in head first, though. Youโll get way more out of a plan like this if you pick and choose aspects of it that work for your body. Pounding your feet into dust isnโt going to be doing you any favors. If your muscles are screaming in agony every second of every day, take a break and reduce the load. Hurting yourself is the single best way to tank your progress.
The first week of this program is intense. Itโs something that the worldโs strongest man took on to become one of the greatest heroes in a fictional Japan. It takes dedication more than anything else.
These bodyweight workouts are the meat and potatoes of a pretty simple endurance training program. If youโre looking toย burn fat or get yourself into fitness, this is an excellent starting point. Youโre not going to be accomplishing anything superhuman, but sticking to this is going to give you a better body than you started with. Youโll improve your cardiovascular health and youโll be undeniably fit if you can pull this off, and isnโt that the whole point?
