Orangeous Dailies

I saw the fat boy running on the treadmill every time I went to the gym at night. He was walking himself silly for a good 45 minutes to an hour every single time. This went on for months and he wasn’t going anywhere. He looked like he was pregnant and his belly wasn’t getting any smaller. You could tell that he was desperately trying to lose weight.

He was only ten. Why is this kid wasting his precious childhood in the gym when he could be out there exploring the world? This wasn’t a community gym, so there was nobody at all to guide him… and he was there all alone, every single night, walking his ass off.

I’m not a gym instructor. I’m not qualified to teach. But I feel that doing something partially correct is much better than doing something totally wrong… and I do know a tiny bit about fat loss.

So tonight, I pulled him off the treadmill. I told him I had a workout in mind which would take him only 12 minutes to complete. He smiled and seemed very interested. It was a High Intensity Interval Training workout.

I made him get on the stationary bike and cycle normally for 1 minute 30 seconds. At the end of it, I made him cycle as fast as he could for 30 seconds. That was 1 set. His goal tonight was to do 6 sets, which would take 12 minutes.

Every time he was about to move on to the “sprint” phase, I would yell stuff like “someone’s chasing you, cycle faster!” or “close your eyes and you can go faster!” He cycled as fast as he could, as if his life depended on the workout.

At the end of the workout, he was dripping buckets. His heart rate shot up to 170+. He gave a thumbs up and told me that was the most intense workout he had ever experienced. It was easy enough for a young boy like him to execute and he told he will definitely come back to do this at least three times a week.

He gave me his widest smile and a thunderous high five, before packing up to head home.

I feel a lot happier. I want to see him lose weight.

Diet? Let’s leave it till he’s seen some results first.