If you’re not familiar with the popular series One Punch Man, it has taken the anime community by a storm with its silliness, ridiculous fights and pretty cool story. If you would like to read more about Saitama, the main character, I suggest going here but for now I want to talk about how he got so strong!
Saitama is the strongest anime character in history, and that’s a fact. Go ahead, leave your comment below because that’s where I stand even though I’m a huge Dragonball fan. Yes, he’s stronger than Goku and Superman because I have yet to see either of them defeat foes as Saitama has. Who knows? Maybe they can beat him up or challenge him, but I doubt they could win, especially if Saitama kept on training. How did he get so strong, though? He’s just an average guy with nothing interesting going for him except his strength. No super powers. Nothing supernatural or extraordinary happened. Nada! His training regimen was as follows (thanks go to Real-Anime-Training for the list):
3 meals a day
No A/C or heater during the summer
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats
Run 10k (6.2 Miles)
Never skip a day
It’s absolutely insane that you could become as strong as Saitama with just this simple training, but the consistency is the key. Never skipping a day is what made him surpass all the other heroes in the show, not just doing it a few times here and there. As someone who has been going to the gym for years, I know that when you start skipping a couple weeks and then you go back, it’s difficult. Maybe you could benchpress 150lbs before, but now you can only do 120lbs or 100lbs, and you’re huffing and puffing. The secret to being strong is being consistent. You have to make yourself go to the gym, eat healthy, study or whatever it is that needs to be done daily.
The secret to being strong is being consistent.
This is not something my generation likes to hear, since we want everything fast, microwaved, and ready in 1, 2, 3! To be honest, I like that because it thins out the competition and makes it easy to tell who’s really dedicated and who isn’t. For Saitama, he didn’t care about any of that, he just wanted to be a great hero and decided to push his body to the limit… and as he saw results, he kept going. While everyone was making fun of him, he defeated every enemy the toughest heroes couldn’t touch.
While I was watching One Punch Man, I realized that life is the same way. Anything that I have accomplished in life I had to train hard for, be disciplined and not pay attention to what others were doing. From graduating with my Bachelor’s degree, getting married, starting a business, becoming a writer, eating healthy or most importantly, knowing God as my Heavenly Father, it took work. None of those achievements I mentioned were done easily or quickly. They took time, effort and risk. I’ve had to spend many late nights reading textbooks to graduate, learning from podcasts and other materials to become an entrepreneur, or hours in prayer and study to get to know God for myself and not just listen to someone else tell me about Him.
Saitama, to me, is my favorite hero because he’s not a big deal. He just worked his tail off and is the strongest guy in the world even though few believe he is. Success in life is not quick or simple, it’s difficult. Even living as a Christian isn’t easy, since we are called to walk through a narrow gate while the rest of the world goes through the wide gate (Matthew 7:13-14). This makes working out my life harder, because the easy things I would rather do (take revenge, lie, cheat, lust, etc.) I shouldn’t do because God has a better plan for my life than that.
Even people that live in disregard to God’s standards have to work hard at it. A prostitute or a drug dealer needs to understand his or her craft and do it well to see results, so how much more do those that want to do the right thing have to? It took me years to get married, because we were saving up money, talking to our families, figuring out our goals and many other details. When I went to college, it took me five years to graduate because, instead of going full-time every semester, I had to work full-time as well. After that, it took me a couple more years to land a job in my desired position!
I use my own life as an example because sometimes I work hard at something, and I see social media photos of people traveling the world and having a good time while I’m being “disciplined.” I would much rather say, “Forget this, I’m grabbing whatever money I have and going to do something fun or travel to another country!!” Discipline can be hard, but I once heard a pastor say “Pay now, play later or play now, pay later,” so I decided years ago to do my best to live my life that way in every area. It has paid off, and God has blessed me so much that I don’t have time to write it all.
What disciplines do you have in your life, and what rewards have you seen from it? Maybe you graduated, opened a business, got out of debt, or grew in your spiritual life. Whatever it is, share below as I’m sure everyone reading will benefit from it.
God bless.
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This post reminds me of the past.. I’m very much NOT like Saitama in my commitment to scripture and studies. I spent long hours on a single subject or Bible passage daily so that I could grow as fast as possible when I was younger, and I did reap fruit. However, now that I’m older, the level of my responsibilities have become more difficult, causing me to skip days, thinking, “yesterday’s fill can get me through.” The shortening of study time and quiet time to prevent “skip days” has proven to help me stay consistent despite my odd displeasure at the abrdiged time length. It’s frustrating not to see immediate change, but growth comes in small steps–not in spurts.
Hey there AnnBetty, thanks for commenting. Yes, as we get older and we get more responsible it’s not as easy to find free time to study or enjoy our hobbies. I have met others who worry about skipping days in studying the word of God, but let me encourage you not to feel pressured to keep up with a time frame you came up with. Remember, there is no magic number that we need to study scripture unless we are a pastor or some ministerial commitment.
What I have been doing is finding time in certain places. For example, you can get an audio bible and listen while your driving, running, doing chores, etc. or listen to an audio book/podcast that is refreshing to your spirit. I do that, as well as read devotionals on the Bible App every morning for a few minutes and they are real short, but powerful. They even have audio devo’s that you can listen to in the shower, which is great too. Just throwing out some ideas for you, blessings! Thanks for reading.
Right now I am working to recover from pornography, and I feel like every time I pass by a lady in shorts I am being punished by God, especially since summer is rolling around soon. I have also taken it upon myself to please whoever God provides as my future wife by starting to work out at the local gym. School is another part of my life that I have to force myself to do since it is my senior year of high school. Overall, I am truly learning the definition of discipline and consistency now more than any other time in my life, and I rely on God to get me through it all.
Recently, God has truly been teaching me what real discipline is, and reading your post in my season of life is very encouraging. I have been working to overcome pornography, continue to work out at the gym, and finish out my senior year of high school. Sometimes it all feels overwhelming, and I just need to fully trust God to get through it all. If you could, keep me in your prayers.
Thanks Neighborhoodotaku, I appreciate your comment 🙂 Porn is a big one, and has been for me as well throughout the years. I have struggled with that sucker for years, on and off, it is very annoying. I just trust God to give the grace to overcome it all, and not lust.
Keep at it, and when you are out of breath (in fact, BEFORE your out of breath!) ask God for wisdom, strength and power to get through it. Will keep you in prayer, and please keep me in prayer as well to continue on with all God has tasked me to do in Jesus name.
Great piece. Consistency matters. Keeping at it matters. It’s hard sometimes to keep at things, I know I have difficulty with my Bible reading. But keeping it consistent, maintaining that effort matters.
Side Note: Superman could probably beat Saitama. Why? Superman ALWAYS holds back. Always. Due to his own innate fear of destroying the universe, he has held back constantly in the comics. One of the few times he did not was when up against his equal in a fellow Kryptonian (i.e. Doomsday). Then again, I think if a fight happened, Superman would get smacked around for a bit until Saitama got distracted and ran off to get something on-sale……
Hey Mat thanks for the comment. Yeah, I am trrrible with bible reading, I have been reading devotionals on the Bible app consistently though which has been amazing. They have verses so that kind of counts….
The Superman side note, that is true about him. I forgot that he always holds back. The only thing I don’t like about comics is that they change things often. So one day Superman may win to a strong enemy then later he is having trouble on another one. At least Saitama is 100% all day, everyday which is what I love.