My Special 2008 New Year Resolution: Build My Body

Last Monday, I read an article in The Jakarta Post (in a health exercise column by the famous Indonesian bodybuilder Ade Rai) that if you exercise for at most an hour thrice a week, which means 3 hours out of the allotted 168 hours that you have in a week, it would total less than 2% of your week.

Furthermore, if that 2% time can improve the quality of the remaining 98%, why the delay? Especially in the case of myself, who has nothing else better to do than to slack around and improve my couch-potatoing skills everyday. That one article really struck me, especially since this month is still afresh—you know—being January and all, which means I could still add more things to my existing resolution.

I then added to my general New Year Resolution (which I’m going to post in this blog tomorrow) this whole drafted plan below:

1. Do 20 PU (push-ups) and 20 SU (sit-ups) everyday in January

2. Do 30 PU and 30 SU everyday in February

3. Do 40 PU and 40 SU everyday in March

4. and so on...

I tried to implement it for one whole day until I realised that the plan wasn’t quite realistic after all. It had been a while since I last exercised for real (which was swimming once every 2 months and running twice a year in the entire 2007). I then looked on the internet for a more realistic “Training Regime” that suits my body better until I could catch up with the drafted plan above.

I looked up in google and found out about APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test), which is designed to test the muscular strength/endurance and cardiovascular respiratory fitness of soldiers in the United States Army. Soldiers are given a score based on performance consisting of three events, SU, PU, and 2-mile run.

Well 2-mile run is a bit too much for me, so I looked for a less strenuous exercise plan I could look up to. To score fully on the PU section, I also have to be able to do 77 PUs non-stop and 82 SUs, which is also kinda tough.

I hurt my own stomach muscles due to my 30 non-stop SUs last Monday.

Then I found out about “Wall PU”, which is to be performed by standing close to a wall and pushing away from the wall with the arms; and to increase the difficulty, one must move the feet further from the wall.

You people out there must be thinking that this is really a piece of cake. Well, so did I, until I tried it for myself. I wanted to do 100 Wall Push-Ups at once (non-stop) before I realised that the force I have to exert to do for the WPU is half the force of normal PU.

But hey, for the meantime, this can suit my wimpy body better! (I don’t mind calling myself a wimp, as I had never exercised my body for real last year anyway) So here it is, I come with a substitute for the drafted plan, which I’ve “ratified” myself:

1. Do 5 separate sets of 20 WPUs daily (which totals 100 WPUs everyday)

2. Do 4 separate sets of 25 jumps daily (which totals 100 jumps everyday)

3. Do 10 SU everyday

4. Swim twice a month

5. Cycle for at least 2 km everyday

6. Run 1 km once a week

Does the list above seem too easy for most people? Don’t worry, the list isn’t fixed yet. I’ll add more strains to my “training regime” as my body strength builds up.

I’ve also made up my mind to register in the nearest gym, latest by tomorrow.

Hopefully I could keep up to this whole Special Resolution for the entire year, eh…