I Did the One Punch Man Challenge at Work

Imagine if you could conquer any physical feats that were placed in front of you. Cool!

Imagine if you could defeat enemies with just a single punch. Amazing!

Imagine if you trained so hard that you lost all of the hair on your body. Wait, what?

This is exactly the premise of the widely popular anime/manga ‘One Punch Man’. For those who are unaware of the story, allow me to enlighten you.

One Punch Man is about a 22-year-old unemployed Japanese man named Saitama who dreams of becoming a superhero. One day as he is walking home from a failed job interview, he encounters a villain named Crablante, who became a monster after eating too many crabs (literally). To save a young boy with a massive cleft chin, Saitama defeats Crablante.

This is the catalyst for Saitama to fully pursue his superhero dreams; however, he lacks the strength to become a competent superhero. Thus, Saitama undergoes an intense workout regime to become stronger, doing the same intense workout every single day for three years. In fact, it becomes so intense that he completely loses his hair and becomes bald.

The workout is simple:

• 100 push-ups
• 100 sit-ups
• 100 squats
• 10 kilometre run

Despite the hair loss, Saitama becomes incredibly strong after three years, to the point where he can defeat monsters with literally a single punch (hence the name One Punch Man). As comical as the story is, it made me wonder — does this ridiculous workout actually work? So, what did I decide to do? I decided to take the challenge myself.

Now those who know me can attest; I love a good physical challenge. Before I dive into my experiences with the challenge, there are some disclaimers. I did this challenge for 30 days. It’s not three years, I know, but I do not have three years of my time to spare, nor was I exactly ready to lose any of my hair. I also did a 5 kilometre run instead, as a 10 kilometre run every day would have taken too long.

I did this challenge with a few of my peers in the office, and we agreed that we would have a one-hour time block at 12pm every day to do it (we even had a recurring calendar invite). This meant that we were using our lunch break to complete the workout and would compromise by eating lunch at our desks. We also printed a chart and placed it on one of the walls at work to keep track of the days, how many push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and kilometres we were doing, and most importantly, to keep ourselves accountable.

Having just recently finished the challenge, there were several obstacles that I encountered along the way. The first discernable issue was the run. Being used to intensive workouts from my current martial arts and strength training made the exercises not an issue, but my body was certainly not ready to run 5 kilometres. Another obstacle was the time taken to complete the daily workouts. I would find myself struggling to fit in everything (the workout, changing, and showering) within the one-hour lunch break, sometimes taking a little over an hour before I would be able to return to my desk or attend my next meeting. I also found myself having to compromise frequently to account for the days where I had a busy schedule, such as coming in an hour earlier to work or having to do the workout late at night after my usual training. There was one instance where I had come in early in the morning to do the challenge, only to find myself running late for a presentation I was meant to deliver and having to sprint back to the office. Luckily, the presentation went well, but it meant that I was sweating buckets and still trying to catch my breath at the meeting. The last issue I experienced was having to balance it with my current martial arts and strength training, which meant a lot of extremely sore days and constant fatigue, making it challenging to focus at work.

Of course, with every challenge comes an equal learning opportunity, particularly for the workplace. Having a team to do the challenge with helped immensely, not only to push and drive each other but to keep ourselves accountable. In the corporate world, being in a team provides a strong layer of support and drive, even when things seem bleak or uncertain. It is important to rely on each other when morale is down, or when you’re lacking motivation. This was especially true for the run. The first couple of weeks were incredibly difficult and I was often groaning and dreading the run. However, having friends to run with every day made it that much easier and instilled a sense of teamwork and camaraderie between us. This often translated to our work in the office, supporting and helping each other whenever we could.

For those days where I was struggling with squeezing the workout in my schedule, I learned drive and compromise. One of my favourite quotes is ‘follow your heart, not your brain’. It is as cringy as ever, but it was reinforced during this challenge. I won’t lie, there were days where I was struggling and everything in my brain told me to use a busy schedule as an excuse to skip for the day. However, I constantly reminded myself how badly I wanted to complete the challenge and I was not prepared to let a busy schedule stop me. So I made a resolve to compromise, whether by doing the challenge early in the morning before work, late in the afternoon, or late at night after training.

Those extremely sore days and the constant fatigue was certainly difficult to manage. However, it taught me that when times seem tough, stick with it, because eventually it becomes easier. Again, I am chock full of cringy lines, but the challenge taught me to improve my endurance and mental resilience which is useful for whenever things get troublesome in the workplace.

Unfortunately, I cannot defeat enemies with a single punch; however, I did find myself stronger, healthier and happier. The challenge was undoubtedly difficult, but definitely a learning experience that I applied to the workplace. I’m just grateful I didn’t lose any of my hair.