{"id":2825,"date":"2017-09-23T12:27:38","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T03:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2017-09-23\/2825"},"modified":"2017-09-23T12:27:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T03:27:38","slug":"fun-exercise-to-try-at-home-suicide-by-squats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2017-09-23\/2825","title":{"rendered":"Fun Exercise to Try at Home: Suicide by Squats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

Let me tell you about a short, 16-minute exercise that I did<\/span> a few<\/span> weeks ago, an exercise that had an incredibly-unproportional\nimpact, leaving me with the worst muscle soreness I'd ever experienced, by a very<\/span> wide margin. It wasn't until the 13th day<\/i>\nafter this simple exercise that I got<\/span> through the whole day without feeling its painful effects.<\/p>\n\n

This exercise, which involves nothing more than simple bodyweight squats<\/a>,\nwas introduced to me with the name “<\/span>Death by Squats”<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n

It's simple: Start a timer, then do two squats during the first minute, at whatever pace you like. During the second\nminute, do four squats, then six, then eight, and so on, increasing by two squats every minute until you can't perform all a\nminutes<\/span>' requisite squats.<\/p>\n\n

Generally speaking, I've got strong legs. I do a<\/span> lot of long-distance cycling (100+ miles at a time<\/span>), and many lessons\nat the gym include squats and lunges. It's common<\/span> to do 50+ squats as a small<\/span> part of an hour's routine. No big deal<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n

However, a lot has conspired to drive my fitness level down this year. In imagining<\/span> what this exercise might be like, I thought<\/span> that 40 squats in a minute<\/span> wouldn't have been much of a challenge<\/span> last year when I was<\/span> in my best shape, but knew that I'd\nprobably not get to that point (the 20-minute mark) in my current condition. Anyway, I gave it<\/span> a try.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The “<\/span>whatever pace you like”<\/span> naturally meant for me that I'd do them quickly, then rest for the remainder of the minute. At first<\/span> it felt silly, as the first minute's squats are done in three seconds, so I just<\/span> stood around waiting for the next 57.\nActually, during the early stages, I filled<\/span> the waiting time with some simple tidying, such as putting laundry away. Such was how\nunchallenging the start was.<\/p>\n\n

I was still fine by minute 10, finishing its 20 squats in about 25 seconds. At this rate<\/span>, the 20-minute mark didn't feel so far away.\nBut oh, how my hubris would soon be revealed. The insidious<\/span> nature of this exercise is that while the amount of work increases, the amount of rest decreases.<\/p>\n\n

Soon I was struggling. I was also struggling to keep my balance in the pool of sweat that had\nformed on the hardwood floor under me.<\/p>\n\n

As fatigue slowed down my pace, the ever-increasing number of squats left less and less time to recover, and I finished<\/span> the\n15th minute's 30 squats with less than 10 seconds to catch my breath. I knew I<\/span>'d never finish 32 squats in the next 60 seconds,\nbut thought I should<\/span> at least try to see how far I got.<\/span> I finished<\/span> 26 of them. Having failed to do the allotted number, I was done<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n

All in all, I'd done 266 squats in 16 minutes.<\/p>\n\n

My legs were absolute jelly. I'd experience this while cycling, such as after an explosive effort on a\nshort<\/span> climb, but in those cases control would return in a few<\/span> minutes. This time, I was still<\/span> shaky in the evening, 12 hours later.<\/p>\n\n

The muscle ache the next morning was monumental. Every movement hurt, giving me a certain<\/span> “<\/span>that must have been great exercise”<\/span>\nsatisfaction. In the past<\/span>, muscle aches the next day are helped by light<\/i> exercise, just to get the juices flowing,\nso I went<\/span> out on very light bike ride<\/a>. Oddly, I could<\/span> cycle just\nfine, but when I got<\/span> off my bike I could<\/span> barely move without crippling pain.<\/p>\n\n

I'd hoped that the light movement would have helped relieve the muscle ache, but the pain on the 2nd day after\nwas unlike any I'd ever experienced. And on the<\/span> 3rd, it was almost unbearable. I literally<\/span> couldn't stand from a chair<\/span> (or from the\ntoilet) without plotting tactics on how to support myself on the way up. Attempting to walk down a set<\/span> of steps was frightening, even while holding the rail, as I simply<\/span> lacked the physical control to guarantee the legs wouldn't buckle.<\/p>\n\n

Somewhere around this time I started to feel that the name “<\/span>Death by Squats<\/i>”<\/span> wasn't as appropriate as “<\/span>Suicide by Squats<\/i>”<\/span>,\nsince it's something I did<\/span> to myself. But then I<\/span> realized that even more appropriate would be “<\/span>Botched Suicide by Squats<\/i>”<\/span>,\nsince I wasn't<\/span> actually dead and so I was<\/span> feeling pain and paying the price from what I'd attempted.<\/p>\n\n

Sadly, “<\/span>Botched Suicide by Squats”<\/span> doesn't roll off the tongue so well, so “<\/span>Suicide by Squats”<\/span> it is.<\/p>\n\n

The 3rd and 4th day after were the worst, but then it started getting better. The 13th day<\/span> was the first that I felt<\/span> no effects.<\/p>\n\n

I have no explanation for why such a short<\/span> little exercise had such a dramatic<\/span> impact. It'll be interesting to see whether I see<\/span> the same results next time.<\/p>\n\n

Update<\/b>... workout log:<\/p>\n\n
#1<\/td>266 squats over 16 minutes<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\n
#2<\/td>373 squats over 19 minutes<\/a> ← new record<\/td><\/tr>\n
#3<\/td>457 squats over 21 minutes<\/a> ← new record<\/td><\/tr>\n
#4<\/td>388 squats over 20 minutes<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\n
#5<\/td>457 squats over 21 minutes<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\n
#6<\/td>494 squats over 22 minutes<\/a> ← new record<\/td><\/tr>\n
#7<\/td>452 squats over 21 minutes<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\n
#8<\/td>460 squats over 21 minutes<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\n
#9<\/td>503 squats over 22 minutes<\/a> ← new record<\/td><\/tr>\n
#10<\/td>516 squats over 23 minutes<\/a> ← new record<\/td><\/tr>\n
#11<\/td>505 squats over 22 minutes<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\n
#12<\/td>484 squats over 22 minutes<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\n
#13<\/td>540 squats over 23 minutes<\/a> ← new record<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/table>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let me tell you about a short, 16-minute exercise that I did a few weeks ago, an exercise that had an incredibly-unproportional impact, leaving me with the worst muscle soreness I'd ever experienced, by a very wide margin. It wasn't until the 13th day after this simple exercise that I got through the whole day without feeling its painful effects.<\/p>

This exercise, which involves nothing more than simple bodyweight squats, was introduced to me with the name \"Death by Squats\".<\/p>

It's simple: Start a timer, then do two squats during the first minute, at whatever pace you like. During the [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}