Geek Fitness: Hero's Journey
This is the tale of my Hero's Journey - not the Cambellian kind but the fitness kind. It's a free 60-day role-playing bodyweight exercise program from Darebee.com. There are levels and side quests for modifying difficulty, along with a light storyline and choices that make working out feel meaningful and epic. There's even a suggested diet plan, though I just supplemented my usual terrible eating habits with (aptly named) Quest protein bars and scoops of protein powder thrown in my brownie batches.
Hero's Journey 2.0 was recently released with more weapons, a points system, and clearer workouts, so this may no longer accurately reflect the program, but I wanted to share some highlights of my own journey after the jump.
Day 3 - "The Armory", aka Choose Your Weapon. I selected Bow and Arrow since jogging/sprinting was already part of my routine thanks to "Zombies, Run!" Now each run was a double whammy of geeky role playing goodness. I also chose Magic Ring, which I came to dread since it usually meant planking to failure three times back-to-back right after a ton of pushups. I avoided Sword because I can't do pull ups, and Ribbon because what kind of weapon is a ribbon?
Day 9 - "Collapsing Bridge". Created a slightly embarrassing instrumental playlist for motivation, which inspired me to both shuffle across the bridge AND clear it in one leap.
Day 26 - "Warrior Spirit". The caption says one word: "Endure". Level II added up to 315 burpees (!*@?). I endured, but not without a lot of sweating and swearing. My arms gave out at around 100 so I had to drop the push-up, and my jumps and overhead claps became increasingly feeble, but dammit I endured.
Day 31 - "The Town Burns". Normally I stuck with Level II, but there were virtual villagers' lives at stake here, so I did Level III. It still bothered me that even with all that effort there were still 20% losses, but even a hero can't save them all.
Days 33-36 - "Journey to the Mountain" to "Peace on Top of the Mountain". I found it fitting that this coincided with my literal trip up the mountains to Whistler. However, doing the guru's trials after a day of skiing while my friends played drinking games in our condo rental was a pitifully half-hearted workout.
Day 43 - "The Betrayal". The tagline for this one says "Nothing ever goes according to plan" and that applied here. My business trip to China broke my 42 day streak. It turns out twelve hour workdays, illness, and hotel rooms do not go well with floor-pounding workouts. Getting back into a routine on my return two weeks later was difficult, and I never regained the shape I was in before my self-betrayal. For shame.
Day 60 - "Boss Fight". My laptop played a medley of Legend of Zelda boss battles while I sweated my way through all 10 sets to victory. It wasn't a very difficult finale, though my legs complained from those 400 calf raises for the next two days. I was grinning with triumph at the end, until the dreaded question loomed - "Now what?"
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