6 Tips For Turning Into A Super Saiyan

I have recently been going gym again and it has been progressing at a fair pace. These last couple of months, I have felt good but wanted to go to the next level. So I started looking for sources of inspiration or something to motivate me to train harder for better results. I’m not sure whether it was the recent mention of the Dragon Ball Super series or something else but my mind drifted to Dragonball Z. The training regimes the Saiyans (Goku & co) put themselves through were a big part of the anime.

Every time they were faced with new, powerful foes, they would always look for ways to get stronger. And it was never purely down to hard work but the approaches they took to training and the creative methods they used to push their bodies to new heights. So after a little trip down memory lane, I came up with some tips on how to be a real life Super Saiyan. Hopefully I take on board my own advice while also inspiring you too.

Get Stronger, not bigger.

Saiyans don’t “bulk” or “get hench”. They get stronger. They were constantly conditioning themselves for battle. They didn’t pop into their local gym to spend an hour on the bench press, do a few bicep curls then go home. They focused on endurance – ie Goku doing 10,000 pull ups in the Gravity Chamber on his way to Planet Namek – as much as strength.
And thus this resulted in a body like this:

If you want a body like this, you need to incorporate other things besides lifting really heavy weights. Consider higher number of reps until your muscles fatigue and more full body exercises that uses multiple muscles – like push-ups. Goku loved push-ups. If you can get this right, your strength will eventually materialise physically.

Find your Piccolo (or King Kai)

Some would have said that Goku must have picked the worst person to look after his kid. But we eventually learned that Piccolo was the best person to train Gohan. The thing about personal trainers are, they are expensive especially when you can just Google fitness advice online. But nothing makes up for the motivation they provide. Firstly, the financial costs mean you want to get your money’s worth. And their constant presence will push you to train harder, every single time.

Find yourself a personal trainer to kick your ass until you are able to kick theirs. They will push you over and beyond even when you are not “feeling up to it”. Also they are there to stop you from developing bad habits such as bad form. If you really want to make a difference maybe it is time you put your money where your mouth is and invest in a trainer even if it’s a short period of time.

Find your Goku to your Vegeta

Who knew when Goku and Vegeta first encountered each other that their rivalry would be key to them finding their inner greatness? Goku pushed himself to learn King Kai’s Kaio-ken technique and the Genki Dama because of Vegeta. Vegeta became obsessed with beating Goku when he learned he had turned into a Super Saiyan. This rivalry was one of the most captivating in anime history.

Gym buddies are not only good for spotting you on the bench press. They are also good competition. Whoever is the weaker one actually benefits the most if they can embrace the rivalry before them. So don’t just look for someone to have a friendly chat between your sets. Find someone who you want to beat.

And say in the case you don’t have a gym buddy. Next time you go, look around for a familiar face. That guy that comes in, the same days as you and is physically at a point where you want to be. Now imagine he is Broly and think to yourself “I’m coming for you, motherf&%*ker*”… then search for someone to do the Saiyan Fusion Dance with….

Find your Intensity

It seems pretty straight forward right? No pain no gain but you would be surprised how easily people hit a brick wall and stop progressing. But now “High Intensity Interval Training” has become mainstream, thanks to the popularity of the Insanity Workout.
“High-intensity interval training (HIIT) describes any workout that alternates between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest. For example, running as fast as you can for 1 minute and then walking for 2 minutes. Repeat that 3-minute interval five times for a 15-minute”

There are two benefits to this kind of exercise routine:
• Normal cardio seems to encourage muscle loss, but studies show that both weight training and HIIT workouts allow preservation of their hard-earned muscles while ensuring fat loss
• It’s time efficient, so you can do this kind of thing within your busy schedule
With a mixture of resistance training and HIIT, you are bound to finish your workout in agony. More pain, more gain.

Find some time to Sleep

These guys don’t play around when it comes to sleep. You shouldn’t either. There’s enough science to support this notion, especially if you’re working out. The main benefits are:

• You produce most of your growth hormone when you sleep aka muscle growth
• Hinders bad eating habits – a tired body tends to indulge in sugary treats to keep up energy levels
• It supports your immune system and it keeps your organs operating smoothly

The last point tends to go over people’s head because it sounds generic and vague. So I’ll explain why your immune system needs to be in top condition for you to get the results you want. Firstly, your metabolism needs to do its job of burning fat. Then there’s muscle allocation and repairing. If your body is too exhausted, it’ll do a piss poor job of building mass in the right places and regulating muscle fibres. Worst case scenario, you’ll have big arms, skinny legs with a pop belly. Don’t be that guy.

Find your appetite

When I say eat, I don’t mean drink protein shakes. Eat real food! Protein supplements are convenient but don’t hold any advantages over whole food protein. You have to be wary of the marketing behind these protein supplement brands who add sugars and other unnatural substances to their products. You can’t go wrong with actually food. Time is money but if you can, learn to prepare food in advance. Where I am from, it is common practice to prepare your weekly supply of protein foods at the start of the week and store them in plastic containers. Doing something similar will make your life easier.

Hopefully you picked up some useful tips and while reminiscing the good old times of this iconic anime. So get the shirt and start your journey towards becoming a Super Saiyan.

Thanks for reading.
@seyiagboola

Akame Ga Kill – An Anime of Two Halves

Killing characters willy-nilly

The anime involves a lot of killing, thats’s obvious from the synopsis and the overall plot but what is significant about the killing it involves a lot of the main characters. You know. Them ones who you develop a liking for, but unfortunately I don’t feel a lot of them met their end properly. Games of Thrones – a live TV series which I am sure you’re aware of – have a good way (but very painful) way of killing your favourite character leaving you an emotional mess for days or even weeks. This on the other hand will kill characters left, right, centre and you will feel nothing. A lot of deaths had little build-up nor did they display enough aftermath to emotionally connect with the audience over the first 15 episodes. Maybe there wasn’t enough backstory or the character wasn’t likeable or the way Tatsumi killed someone within the first episode that numbed me the whole killing experience. Overall, the way characters were killed off didn’t hold enough significance when they should have.

Then I started to care.

On the other hand, I continued to watch it. I mean I’m a busy guy but what’s a quick 24-episode marathon? I would say from the 16^th episode I started to become interested, the story started to come through. I started to give a fuck about the characters. I remember one interesting scene where one of the Jaegers has a flashback before they finally succumbed to their fate. At that point I mentally noted to myself like “yes that’s the emotional connection I was looking for!” This continued with more flashbacks and story leaks including Akame’s past with her sister that increased my curiosity. To be totally honest I was way more interested in Akame than Tatsumi, making me wonder why they bothered with the little shit in the first place. I mean they called it Akame Ga Kill, they could have centred the story around the rebel assassin who wanted to save the city and be reunited with his long lost sister. Sounds cool right?

Tatsumi – The unconvincing protagonist

This guy must be one of the most unimpressive protagonists I have ever come across. Firstly, he comes from a small, poor village so what? Then he pops and all of a sudden he is a natural born killer with handy swordmanship with that cliche naïvety found in the anime world. To be honest I shouldn’t be bugged by naivety, I mean what anime protagonist isn’t? It is what drives them to create the reality they want of the world around them. But it started eat away at me like that scab you really want to pick (you eventually do anyways). This was probably because I couldn’t put my finger on why his comrades rated him so highly. Why he was “The one”. Yes, he was talented, determined but he seemed to lack that unique aura that made you feel as if only he can change the world.

I particularly felt all the characters that died were scripted to refer to Tatsumi just before their deaths in a bid to convince the audience that he was somewhat special. I don’t want to spoil it but someone’s last words being “Tatsumi did I do well?” in their final moments felt far-fetched when you don’t really understand the significance of the relationship between the dying character and Tatsumi.

Lazy animation

Maybe having recently finished watching Part 1 of Fate/Stay Night raised my expectations so I’m currently making an unfair observation but sometimes this show was lacking some spice. One thing that pissed me off was when a character suddenly became enraged, the scene would just cut to a static shot (see below) without not even a few seconds of build-up of wrath just – bang – here’s a heavy lined drawing of the character consumed in rage. What even is that? The animators had 24 episodes to give us their best work but it seemed they were still felt it appropriate to cut corners.

Don’t worry it gets better particularly the fighting.

Upon hearing more about the battle system, I thought it as a bit basic. Then I saw Lubba’s battle with those two Demons that shocked me. Out of all people he actually showed how adaptable his Imperial Arms was. Fight scenes are not all destruction and flying objects – or bodies – they need to be varied and have key turning points that swing the advantage back and forth, that’s where the real excitement is. This is probably why a lot of the fight scenes came off a bit weak as the fight moves were not dynamic enough.

Summary

It was an anime of two halves. In this case the show had a better second half than first. I felt it didn’t develop the characters well enough before killing them off thus numbing the emotional attachment the audience should feel when a main character dies. The fight scenes didn’t get interesting until the back end which isn’t good enough in such a short anime series. The protagonist didn’t convince me of rooting for him particularly as he didn’t show enough development to warrant a series built around him. On the other hand, the second half was really good, almost worth the poor execution of the first. Some of the characters that made it nearer the end earned their spot as finalists (I say finalists because that many people died). I’ll say if you’re looking for something short and sweet, you can give this a shot. There’s enough comedy and action to keep you going along with a plot that makes you want to see it through until the end

Overall I would rate the show as so:

Character development:  2.5/5 – Some needed more developing than others, 

Art/ Animation:  2.5/5 – Moments of laziness ruined what was overall pretty good,

Storyline/ Plot:  4/5 – Had the potential to be something great but underwhelming executive, 

Pacing:  2/5 – Killings were taken for granted with not enough build-up in many cases,

 Epicness:  2/5 – Waiting till the last few episodes to pull out your best stuff leaves left me feeling bittersweet