Otaku Moves: My Anime Workout Plan

I keep starting and stopping, and that is okay because I do restart. This time I am going in with a different plan and a whole new goal. As I am now in my 30s and fast approaching my mid-30s, I know I will blink and be in my 40s. I have to do something. Looking back, my previous fitness goals were lofty and somewhat self-sabotaging. I would set grand goals, push myself to achieve them, manage for a while and then life would happen. Before I knew it, months had passed and I was back at point zero. So this time I am changing my approach.

My new goal is consistency.

I want to show up for myself.

A young boy in a white and red sports uniform struggling to do push-ups on a gym floor, looking exhausted, surrounded by peers in similar attire.

I want a reliable body. A body that will sustain movement, flexibility and functional strength as I get older. A body that can do the things I ask of it and need of it without needing weeks afterwards to recover.

To borrow from Soul Eater, I am working towards a sound body. But that does not mean I am abandoning a dream of mine, and one I am sure many other otaku share.

The Dream: The Anime Workout

You know the one. It used to belong to Saitama alone from One Punch Man and has since been adapted by Sung Jin-Woo of Solo Leveling. I have also now seen variants of it in other series.

The infamous daily workout of:

A digital display showing quest information for a daily strength training challenge, including goals such as push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and running distance. Anime Workout Plan

100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats
10 km Run

Sung Jin-Woo at some point eventually doubles the daily to unlock rewards from his system. For an average person, this is insane. For a seriously unfit human like me, that is not just insane, it is entirely out of reach right now.

But it is reachable. Eventually.

And that is the dream. To one day actually do it. At the end of the day, my goal is not the 100 reps, it is having a body that can do the reps and not need a month of recovery after.

I have put a plan together that could take me around two years to achieve this dream, if I am lucky and consistent. Realistically though, it will probably take longer and I am okay with that.

So I am structuring things in a way that I can achieve it. Remember, my goal is a ‘sound body’ to borrow from Soul Eater. Due to this, I am working in ways to help my body rather than force my body. Forcing has not worked. It works for a while, and then life happens, and I find I have not done what I wanted for myself for months, and then I need to start at point zero once again. Because this time, I am not racing towards a finish line.

The Anime Workout Plan: Small increments and achievable goals

The biggest change I am making is how I am approaching progress. Instead of setting an enormous target and forcing myself to reach it, I have broken everything down into manageable increments. I am working in phases with achievable targets and understanding and working with the limits of my body.

While I have attached weeks and plans to these phases, they are guidelines rather than deadlines. They give me something to work towards without demanding that I progress before my body is ready. If I need to stay at a stage longer, I will. If life disrupts things, I can adjust.

The important thing is that I keep going.

Building towards 100 reps

Two animated characters stretching on a rocky landscape, with one character in a black top and grey trousers, and the other in a green outfit, alongside a horse.

For the anime workout itself, my approach is incredibly simple.

Add 1 repetition each week.

That’s it. I am currently on week 2, which means my daily targets are:

2 Push-ups
2 Sit-ups
2 Squats

On week 30, I will hopefully be doing 30 of each. Following this approach it will take 100 weeks to reach 100 reps, assuming there are no disruptions, setbacks or weeks where I need to repeat a target. And there probably will be. But the numbers are there to guide me, not punish me.

I am also starting with exercise variations that suit my current abilities and will gradually work towards more challenging versions as I become able and my body stronger.

The point is not to simply reach 100. It is to become strong enough to do 100 properly.

Walking before running

A young woman standing on a treadmill in a living room, wearing a tank top and shorts, facing a window with curtains. The room is furnished with a sofa, a coffee table, and a TV unit.

Now, the 10 km run is another challenge entirely.

For running, I am nowhere near having the stamina to run that distance. So instead, I did some maths. Based on my estimated step length of 69 cm, I would need approximately 14 500 steps to reach 10 km while walking.

For someone who barely manages 500 steps a day, that is a ridiculous number. I live a very still life. My home is small; I work from home. Everything in my home is a few steps away.

I miss walking. I miss my feet hitting the tar. I used to walk a minimum of 3 km every day and at one point that went up to 7 km daily. I want to walk so badly, but everyone advises me not to go on my own. I understand, especially with the rise in murders and kidnapping recently ~ a reality I blissfully ignore for my own sanity. Plus, I do acknowledge I am lazy.

So once again, I broke this down into attainable goals. For the first week, I wanted to be hitting 500 steps or more daily. It is little, but that is the point. It was to get me to think about my steps and check that I have my phone in my pocket to count those steps. I wanted to make myself aware of how little I actually move.

Week 2, my goal is 1 000 steps a day, and I am reaching it! In fact, on 3 days, I hit over 3 000 steps. I am not skipping ahead to week 4. I am staying with the week I am on. The reason being, I want to know I am consistently reaching the week’s goal and not rushing headfirst to failure. In the past, I would have skipped ahead.

Once I hit those 14 500 steps consistently for a month, I will then start decreasing how long it takes me to hit that goal. If it takes me 3 hours, I will try to reduce it by 5 minutes each week, provided I can manage it comfortably. I am still working on the math for this one, but you get the idea. Eventually, I want to work towards a running pace on my elliptical.

For now though, I am walking. And that is enough.

The bigger exercise plan

A group of girls doing workout exercises on colourful mats outdoors, with two girls performing crunches and one instructor standing nearby.

The anime workout and my daily step targets are not the only exercises I have planned. I actually have a much more detailed exercise routine that I am slowly building towards, including strength, mobility, flexibility, warm-ups and cool-downs. But here is the thing.

Right now, my warm-ups and cool-downs are practically full workouts on their own. I am not exaggerating. It is taking me over an hour just to get through them, without adding the actual workout in between. And I have to force myself to do them. Not because I want to punish myself, but because I am still building the habit and the physical ability to complete them comfortably.

My current goal regarding these is to work towards doing these longer sessions twice a week. Eventually, I hope to reach a point where I can approach them as stretching, warming up and cooling down rather than treating them as the entire workout. But that is a future version of me.

For now, they are enough of a workout on their own, and I am treating them that way. This is also why I am keeping the Anime Workout targets and daily steps consistent, need-to-do non-negotiables.

The longer sessions are something I am working towards. They are a bonus, not something I want to use to overwhelm myself with before I have even established the basics.

Bit by bit I will get there.

Building habits beyond exercise

Of course, having a sound body is not just about exercise. There are other habits that I want to build and I am approaching them with the exact same philosophy.

Drinking more water

A character from an anime, wearing a white cap and uniform, holding a jug with Japanese text. The character has a serious expression and is set against a light background.

Actually drinking more fluids in general. Some days I don’t even finish a 300 ml bottle of a sugary drink for an entire day. So it is time I worked on that. One of my daily goals now is to drink at least one glass of water. How big is the glass? Doesn’t matter. At least not for the purpose of this particular goal.

The point is to establish a routine of deliberately drinking water every day on top of what I am currently drinking. Once this becomes automatic, I can start working on increasing the amount of water I drink.

Right now, I am focusing on the habit, not the quantity. And you know what? With my current exercise routine, I am actually drinking at least 750 ml of liquid per day. That might not sound like much and I know I still need to drink more, but compared to where I started, it is progress. And that is exactly what I am trying to achieve.

Making better snack choices

A character in an apron stands confidently next to a cooling rack filled with gingerbread cookies shaped like rabbits and hearts.

Snackies are a massive weakness of mine. I have a serious sweet tooth. I love chocolates, gummies, crunchies, crisps, biscuits, and all those other delicious sweet treats. I will not give them up. Instead, I will actually focus on what I am eating and enjoy them. I am making a compromise.

One week per month, I will eliminate all those snack groups. I can manage that for one week. I also know I won’t overconsume afterwards and make up for that week. I know my track record.

For the remaining weeks of the month, I can have 1 snack type per week. This will be a reduction, as I normally have all of them every day, every week. Plus, I won’t be changing how much of each I buy, so I cannot consume more than I currently do.

It might not sound like much, but it is already making a difference in my habits. And more importantly, it is something I am happy to continue doing, which means I am more likely to keep to it. I am not making a lifestyle where I am setting myself up for failure by restricting what I genuinely enjoy.

I am just trying to find a balance that works for me.

What happens when life gets in the way?

A young anime character with blonde hair wearing a red hoodie sits at a table, eating a meal consisting of rice, meat, and vegetables while using a red laptop.

Because it will. I know it will. It always does. I have started and stopped enough times to know that life does not care about my beautifully planned routines. There will be busy weeks, exhausting days, illness, periods, unexpected disruptions and times when I simply cannot manage everything I intended to do.

I never really had a decent contingency in place. This time it is different.

If I have a week of disruptions, I will simply return to the targets from one or two weeks earlier and build back up from there.

If a particular phase becomes too difficult, I can stay there longer. If my body needs recovery, I will give it recovery. I do not have to start all over again. I will not punish myself for needing to slow down. That is why the phases are guidelines rather than strict deadlines.

The goal is not a finish line. It is consistency. Consistency does not mean never missing a day. It means finding my way back to the routine when a disruption happens.

A sound body, one step at a time

A young man stretching on manicured grass in a garden, while a young woman in a pink dress stands nearby, both in a scenic setting with a large building and mountains in the background.

So here I am, at point zero. Well, not really. I am already on week 2 of my plan, but you get what I mean. I have a long way to go, and I am very aware of just how much work lies ahead. But for the first time, I am not trying to force myself to achieve a goal as quickly as possible. I am trying to build something sustainable.

I want to reach my 40s with a healthier and stronger body than I have now. And yes, I want to complete that ridiculous anime workout one day. But if it takes me two, three years or longer, that is okay.

I want to show up for myself, even if all I can manage on a particular day is something small. And I want to build a lifestyle that I am happy to maintain, rather than another temporary fitness phase that I eventually abandon.

Anyway, that is my plan and my dream.

I shall post follow-ups sometimes, but I won’t pressure myself into maintaining a strict posting schedule either. This is something I am doing for myself, at my own pace.

One rep at a time. One step at a time.

Have you ever wanted to try an anime-inspired workout, or has an anime motivated you to make a change in your own life? I’d love to hear about it. And if you have ever tried the infamous Saitama workout, tell me how it went!