3 Things to Consider About the One Punch Man Workout

First off, what is One Punch Man? If you have never heard of this Japanese manga, then you probably have not heard about the One Punch Man workout. For the sake of understanding the workout and the hilarity of this trend, you need to understand One Punch Man’s story.

One Punch Man is a comedic Japanese anime that follows the story of the world’s strongest man. In many ways, he is exceptionally normal and lives an exceptionally average life. Unlike the other heroes in this show, he doesn’t seek out fame or fortune. A governing body called the Hero Association ranks heroes by class starting from C-Class to A-Class. The highest-ranking class is called S-Class. Essentially, heroes in this class are labeled superheroes.

Satima, One Punch Man, is perhaps the most powerful superhero with the ability to take out any enemy with one punch. He is dissatisfied with this because he wants to be challenged to a real fight. However, nobody can match his strength.

One-Punch Man’s simplicity, nobility, and hilarity are what draw attention to this manga and what has drawn significant attention to his workout routine. Satima claims that he became the strongest man alive by doing this workout every day for three years.

One Punch Man’s Workout

His 7-day a week workout goes like this:

100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10K run (6.2 miles)

First note, do not work out this strenuously for 7 days a week. Your body needs a break to recover and to actually build those muscles you are exercising. Now, this kind of workout is not for the faint-hearted, especially if you are just getting started. However, it is completely achievable and a good basis for a workout that you can build on in many ways.

Now that you’re all caught up, let’s get into the logistics of this workout routine. These are the aspects of this workout that you need to be aware of in order to keep your body safe and actually see decent results. Given that we provide software for personal trainers to help them create workouts, plan fitness programs, and track progress, we decided to delve further into the One Punch Man workout from a trainer’s point of view.

Get Started With the One Punch Man Workout

It is completely inadvisable to go full force into this workout, and for most, it probably isn’t possible. Therefore, to get started you have to set incremental goals for yourself. It’s best to break down progress into weeks at a time. Fad workouts of this nature can lead to serious injury, so tread lightly when regarding trendy fitness routines.

This way, you do not over-exercise and injure yourself and you give your body some time to adjust to more intense sessions. If you complete this workout without proper rest and proper progression, then you can do some serious damage to your body. Below are suggestions for the breakdown of the fitness routine, but build on them over time as you feel comfortable!

Note: In the long term, I recommend consulting a personal trainer to get a fully customized fitness program for getting in shape and feeling good.

One Punch Man Fitness Program

Week 1 & 2

Try to accomplish a quarter of the amount, to begin with on four or five days out of the week. This puts you at:

25 pushups, 25 situps, 25 squats, and 1.5 miles

I guarantee that you are not built like an anime character, so give yourself at the very least two rest days out of the week.

Week 3 & 4

30 pushups, 30 situps, 30 squats, and 2 miles

Week 5 & 6

40 pushups, 40 situps, 40 squats, and 3 miles

Week 7 & 8

60 pushups, 60 situps, 60 squats, 4.5 miles

Week 9 & 10

80 pushups, 80 situps, 80 squats, 5.5 miles

Week 11 & 12+

100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats, 6.2 miles (10k)

The biggest issue that people face with the One Punch Man workout is the lack of progression after some time of using this series of exercises. However, people are attracted to the striking simplicity that parallels One Punch Man’s overall simple lifestyle.

Avoid the Plateau of Progression

Because the One Punch Man workout is so simple, you can manipulate the exercises to continue seeing progress. This is a total body workout, but some muscle groups are missing from this routine. The muscle groups that support the main groups like your core and your chest need some attention too.

To fill this gap and to make sure all of your muscles are on the same page, add a pull motion. This could be in the form of a pull-up or you can use equipment like resistance bands or suspension kits.

Speaking of equipment, modify this workout to continue progress by using different types of weights, bands, and machines. Let’s break down how to modify each of these exercises to support progression and muscle growth.

Push-ups

Modifying pushups to make sure that they are keeping up with your muscle growth is easy. You can use equipment like pushup bars, an exercise ball, or a bench. These types of equipment make you do pushups at an incline or decline.

Pushup bars in particular allow the user to work on their range of movement and make pushups a little easier on the wrists. If you’re going to be doing this workout for an extended period of time, then you should consider using these bars. Make sure that you are not damaging your wrists five days a week.

Decline pushups at different heights exercise the synergistic muscles associated with the pectoral and clavicle muscles. Using a bench or some other form of a footrest helps you change up your pushups to work more on increasing mobility around your shoulders and the aforementioned muscle groups.

Modify your pushups by also adding in extra movements that increase or decrease their difficulty. Modified pushups usually mean that you are resting on your knees instead of toes to complete the exercise. However, you can modify your pushups in many different ways by widening your hand position, doing more explosive actions, bringing your hands closer together, and so on.

Check out this article for 6 ways to change up your pushup.

Squats

As everyone knows, you can do squats with or without weight. The One Punch Man workout does not specify using any weight. However, if you want this workout to stay effective and build muscle, then you should incrementally add a small amount of weight.

Make sure that you are not trying to complete too many reps with a weight you cannot handle. The best practice is to only add weight in increments of five to ten pounds as you progress. This way you are challenging yourself within your means. For challenging squat weights, you should only complete a maximum of 12 reps.

Without weights, however, you can modify them in a few different ways. Here is an article with 8 different squat modifications that you can use to change up your day-to-day One Punch Man routine.

Situps

As with any other exercise, you can add weights to your situps, but you can also modify them to focus on different parts of your core. Most experts agree that situps are not necessarily the best way to strengthen your core and get that six-pack. They risk your spinal health and do not actually work out the stabilization muscles that are located deeper in your core. Here’s what you can do instead:

You can do planks in different forms. Start by working your core with regular forearm planks and then move on to more advanced versions with leg raises and side planks.

You can complete flutter kicks instead of pushups for an ab-burning exercise.

You can also do simple leg raises to work out your core without the spinal damage that you can cause from an improper form and repeated use of sit-ups.

Running

Running is a tricky workout that really depends on your body type. Some people can run every day without much issue while others can experience serious knee and shin injuries. This all depends on your running form as well as your body type.

If you want to increase your cardiovascular health beyond running the infamous 10-kilometer portion of this exercise, then you must add a weighted vest. Make sure that you are completing this workout in proper running shoes as well. Bad running shoes can promote bad form and impact damage on your joints. For example, basketball players with larger feet need wide basketball shoes to keep their toes from becoming injured while continuously running up and down the court. This can cause long-term damage to the feet and take the player out of the game for some period of time.

Don’t be sidelined from your fitness goals because of some preventable injuries!

You must listen to your body when increasing your distance and improving time. It’s natural to experience an endorphin high that makes you want to challenge yourself beyond your stopping point. Therefore, you need to really understand where to draw the line when you’re working up to the 6.2-mile goal and beyond.

Nutrition and the One Punch Man Workout

The final consideration of this workout routine is the foods you eat while completing it. As with anything, your diet is equally as important as your exercise. Thus, if you do this workout to build muscle, then you must supplement that with the proper consumption of protein.

This means you need to focus on eating eggs, salmon, nuts, chicken, soybeans, and much more. One Punch Man never specified the foods he ate to pair the workout routine, so get creative or get help from a nutritionist. It’s important to stay nutritionally aware as physically aware. It’s especially important to be aware of your diet if you are burning large amounts of calories per day.

Your muscles will have a very difficult time recovering if you don’t feed and water them as you do for your house plants. The only difference is your muscles are 1000% vital to your health as keeping a plant alive is probably important for your mental health. Same practice, different application.

Overall

The One Punch Man workout is great for getting started on your fitness and health goals. This workout provides you with a full-body workout that meets your cardio needs as well as your muscle growth needs.

Absolutely do not train every day without rest. Additionally, make sure to modify and adjust your methods for completing the exercises. This will keep you from becoming stagnant in your growth as well as make sure you are working out less focused on muscle groups that are important for mobility and strength.