What Happened to this Bully

Your New Workout

Shailesh walked out of the woods that day. Realizing just then that the cream he was given was mosquito repellent. He opened up the folded paper Mohit had given him to see inside. Which was:

1. Do stretching

2. Run for 5 minutes

3. Skip rope for another 5 minutes

4. Do 10 push-ups for 3 sets

5. 30 squats for 3 sets

6. 30 crunches for 3 sets

7. Punch air 100 times as fast as possible (turn whole body)

8. Repeat steps 3 to 7, 3 times.

The brief workout had labelled pictures of how to do each exercise. It looked simple enough, and Shailesh simply tossed it in his pocket. The next day he got a chance to actually perform the workout. He stretched out his hamstrings and quads the way the pictures showed him, almost falling over on the quad stretch. Then was the abductor stretches, back and arm and torso stretch's each of which had a simplified drawing of how to do them. It was an unfamiliar feel, but he knew he would get used to it.

The 5-minute run was next. Shailesh turned on his cheap phone and pressed over to the stopwatch app as he went to the nearby playground a block away as Mohit suggested, and picked a slow pace. The pace felt right for him at first. 2 minutes in it started to feel fast, he had to slow down by minute 3 or 4 and by the end he almost had to walk, but he remembered, quitting and shying away were not for him.

Next was the jump rope. He had spent a good bundle of allowance on the thing he got from his local sports goods store. It was surprisingly expensive. He took it out of the box, the black cord and handles, heftier than a string or wire the same length. He tried to do it the way he had seen others in the park. Unwinding it, and holding it in his hands as he swung it around his body. He mistimed it the second time and tripped over as he landed while hitting himself on the face with the handle. He thought he spotted some kids laughing at him, but he wasn't sure. Several more tries faced the same results. Gradually the number of hops he could manage crept up to 13, but after that he failed on the 3rd hop of his next try. Before he knew it, the timer of his cheap cell phone indicated that 5 minutes were up.

Mohit clenched his hands together as he prepped for the push-ups. As he searched for a clear flat piece of ground, he recalled what Mohit had told him of proper form and full reps and all. Mohit made it look easy, and said that his record was a few days before the big fight when he managed 140 in a row. He told that he was set to beat that in a few days, that the fight had left him with bruised arms and a swollen elbow, which till than meant he had to ease up a bit on push-ups. When he found a flat grassy area, he knelt down and put himself in the push-up rest position he had seen. Mohit had said that he was already impressively good with push-ups as he had managed 18, and was very honest with his form, most would try to cheat by half repping and back slouching. Shailesh was not so sure. He had seen Mohit blaze through 20 push-ups like they were nothing, and he himself still felt sore for 12 hours after he pumped out 18.

The first set of 10 was easier than he had expected, he didn't need to slow down. By the second set, his chest and upper arm felt slowed by a mysterious force, and the last 2 reps were awkwardly difficult. He waited a minute before the 3rd set. The burn was full force by the third rep, and by the 6th rep he tried to pump made his muscle's give out as he landed flat on his face. Why did he keep landing on his face?

Shailesh got up as he wiped his hurt nose. There was no blood. His forehead had odd bits of dirt and grass which he swept away. He thought of giving up and moving on to the squats, but Mohit had warned against this. Mohit got up and stretched out his arms as he paced for a few seconds. Than he tried once more to do those 4 extra push-ups. It took him 2 more sets.