Building Strength Gradually: A Lesson from "Holes"
Part of my fitness philosophy was designed after a concept I read in my favorite childhood book, "Holes." SPOILER ALERT.
In the book "Holes" by Louis Sachar, there is a story within the story about a character named Elya Yelnats. Elya falls in love with a girl named Myra Menke, but her father, Mr. Menke, says she will marry the man who can offer the largest pig as a dowry. Elya seeks advice from Madame Zeroni, an old woman who gives him a tiny piglet and tells him to carry the piglet up a mountain every day to drink from a stream. As the pig drinks the water, it will grow stronger, and Elya, by carrying the pig, will grow stronger too. Madame Zeroni also warns Elya to carry her up the mountain to drink from the stream as well, or his family will be cursed for eternity.
Elya follows her advice, and the piglet gradually grows bigger and stronger. However, when the time comes to present the pig to Mr. Menke, Elya forgets to fulfill his promise to Madame Zeroni, setting off a chain of events that leads to the Yelnats family curse.
I got carried away there, but the takeaway is that Elya initially asked how he could carry a great big pig up a mountain. The answer was simple: “'You must carry the pig up the mountain every day,' said Madame Zeroni. 'By the time the pig is big and fat, you will be big and strong as well.'”
The idea was that the pig wasn’t too heavy initially because it was a baby, but every day, gradually, it would grow, and the workload would only increase proportionally to Elya’s growing strength.
From this, I developed my workout philosophy, which applies to my core workouts. My philosophy was to start out doing my ab exercises in a way that would not intimidate me. This would ensure that I would complete the exercise. So, the first day, I did just one crunch. That’s it. The next day, two. The next day, three. Every day, I increased by one. Within three months and change, I was doing more than 100 a night. I eventually capped this off at 1600, but the task is now easy because I started out with a very manageable amount and added to it very gradually.
