My oldest son (former division 2 football athlete) is attempting to complete the One Punch Training Regimen: 10k run, 100 push-ups, & 100 sit-ups everyday with no days off. He’s 6’5, 235lbs, ripped, and says it’s still kicking his butt.
Saitama, a fictional character, claimed he did a 10k run, 100 push-ups, and 100 sit-ups for 3 years with no days off. After 3 years he lost all of his hair and gained superhero like strength. Fiction obviously, but raised a couple questions in my mind:
Has anyone ever documented the effects a long term period of rigorous training (at least 3 years) with no days off has on the human body?
Have athletes ever experienced hair loss due to extreme workouts?
To be honest that doesn’t sound all that extreme. I am a fat old man, so no internet upmanship at all, but extreme is something like Herschel Walker who did 1000 Push-ups and 2000 sit-ups a day.
I’m a big fam of the show. It’s great anime and one of my favourites.
Sorry, I can’t answer your specific question about whether one will lose all one’s hair after working out for 3 years, but I can’t see any reason why exercise alone would do that, unless you had some underlying medical condition or developed one during your regime. As Wolfman says, lots of pro athletes have much harder and more dedicated workout regimes.
You may already know this, but my understanding is the key premise (gag) of the show is that it’s not really that tough a workout in and of itself. That’s why, when he tell people, they’re always so surprised. He’s done so little physically to develop his “superpowers”, yet he’s more powerful than all these others that have trained their whole lives. For example - his protege Genos is always looking for hints and clues about how Saitama got his power. After two seasons he still doesn’t believe Saitama is telling him the whole truth.
However, the three years with no days off shows his dedication to help others. Plus, his innocent and humble nature are also critical to his character.
As far as the hair loss goes, (and apologies again if you know this): one of the ongoing tropes in anime is the different hair styles and odd colours the characters have. My anime savvy son tells me this is because the characters all basically look the same facially and it would be very difficult to tell them apart without doing such dramatically different and exaggerated hair styles and colours.
In this case, the original manga artist wanted Saitama to stand out as very different, so he decided he’d go against the trope and remove all his hair.
As another former division 2 athlete I’ll jump in with the crazy part being the no days off. When I was in my late 20s I was training for a half marathon - running 20 miles per week, doing 100 pushups, 100 sit ups, cross fit and playing rugby. I worked out 6 days a week but aside from the pushups and situps I didn’t do the same type of work out on back to back days.
I think the most likely scenario is some sort of over training injury probably running related since the pushup and situps are pretty benign. In the end he’ll have lots of lean muscle mass but will probably look more like a rock climber than a gymnast.
Aside from the difficulty of working the same muscles everyday I’d guess boredom will set in too I know I kept adding in different things until I blew out my knee snowboarding.
This isn’t possible for everyone.
There can be some underlying issues that will not ever come to light with a sedentary or even moderately active lifestyle. But they can present under more extreme regimens. Joint problems may happen. Heart issues may present. We have different basic construction. Genetic predilections. Diet and many other things.
You need to keep an eye on yourself. No pain, no gain, is not so prudent. Make sure that pain is not indicating something serious. Not overcome by more work, but worsened.
Some people can rise to extreme demands on their body. Others are damaged by them.
The biggest problem with no days off is that there’s great pressure to “keep the streak alive”. As a result, you tend to push through pain, exacerbating injuries that you could avoid if you took some rest days. If you get a small amount of plantar fasciitis pain but you push through and run your 10K you may end up with a significant problem that you could have nipped in the bud.
Stretching, massage, proper nutrition, flexibility training/yoga, will all go a long way to keeping someone going.
I don’t believe there’s any connection between training and hair loss. Unless he’s taking steroids to keep going, which can cause hair loss.
I’d think the push ups and sit ups are significantly less strenuous than what a college athlete would normally do. Football is more of an explosive sport than an endurance one so maybe the cardio is a bit more than normal but should be by much.
I agree with the rest of the posters, not difficult exercises, but without days off you’re likely to run into repetitive use injuries.
Yes, in the story it’s an ongoing joke that Saitama believes he powers (extreme strength & near-invulnerability) are all due to his unrelenting, “intense” training.
And I agree it isn’t that strenuous of a workout. For my son at least, it’s the 10k with no days off which seems to be giving him the most trouble.
In the last few years I’ve taken up distance running as a hobby (1/2 marathon and under) and was surprised to discover some of my own body’s reactions to physical stress during training: vomiting, lightheadedness, emotional outbursts, loss of appetite, and my least favorite -diarrhea with fecal incontinence. It didn’t seem completely out there that extreme athletes would experience something even worse.
I also have to ask, what after the three years? I’m hoping that your son doesn’t expect to get superpowers out of it. If he completes the last day of his three years, does he say “Mission accomplished” and then spend the next five years sprawled on the couch? Does he switch to some more reasonable (i.e., allowing occasional days off) fitness regimen? Does he go for some new challenge, possibly even harder?
My son’s initial goal is 100 days without stopping. He’s been taking anatomy courses in college for sports-related physical therapy so I’m pretty sure he’s not expecting to get superpowers from the experience.
As far as stretching goes, personally I’ve found it seems to help my body recover faster after training. I’m definitely less sore the next day when I take time to stretch afterward.
Sorry I’m no familiar with the show or workout. Show aside, other than completing to 100 days what is your son hoping to accomplish? If it’s to become physically stronger why not use a tried and true workout?
I’d like to see the sports nutritionist that says in 2020 the straight sugar / carb hit you get from a single banana is in any way a “good” meal". Especially for an active athlete who needs a steady supply of protein to repair and build muscles.
Although perhaps Kelloggs would argue that’s it’s “part of this nutritional breakfast” along with the Frosted Flakes.
It does sound really hard. The individual components are not hard for someone fit, but keeping that up would soon become extremely taxing IMO.
It is a terrible idea for athletic performance, the definition of grey training. But it depends what his goals are, sounds like he just wants a cool story to tell the bros. Nothing wrong with that at all, but if he wants to excel at something, get stronger or faster, then no one trains like this.
My son is very physically fit so I don’t believe it has much to do with becoming stronger. I think it’s more of a personal challenge of willpower. Sort of a “Am I mentally strong enough to keep it up for 100 days straight” challenge to himself. He’s also a big fan of the show.
While you do need a lot of protein to build muscles, that doesn’t mean you need a lot of protein at every meal. As long as it’s enough averaged out over the course of a few days, you’ll be fine.
And a banana for breakfast is certainly a lot better than nothing, or a cup of coffee.
