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Friends, it is a new year and, if you’re like many people, that means you’re hitting the gym for the first time in a few months to work on your resolution to get into shape. As I looked out into the crowded gym floor this week, my mind turned, as it often does, to anime and the impact it has had on me. Specifically, how anime has inspired my fitness journey.

As someone who has spent a fair amount of time in the gym (yet never as much as I’d like) over the past 25 years, I am pretty used to gyms becoming more difficult to navigate in January and February. And I’m glad! I want to see people hitting their goals, whatever they might be. It sparks genuine joy within me even as I curse that the squat rack is currently occupied.

My love of fitness, like my love of anime, began with Dragon Ball. Goku is an exercise icon around the world, with professional athletes citing him as an inspiration, but I always found his time with Master Roshi to be more inspiring. One of the first good arcs of Dragon Ball is when Krillin and Goku train with Roshi, doing physical training to surpass their human limits (They didn’t know Goku was a space alien yet). During this arc, between delivering milk and swimming away from sharks, Roshi gives his students a simple phrase.

“Work hard, study well, and eat and sleep plenty. That’s the Turtle Hermit way to learn,” is his entire philosophy toward training and I’ve seldom heard a better approach to working out. It is holistic, taking the mind and body into account as one while emphasizing the need for rest and recovery. You can’t push yourself in the gym without getting a good night’s sleep and eating right.

There are countless sports anime out there that can help motivate you to reach new heights, but few are instructive as How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? The series about a group of young women at different levels of fitness and experience with strength training has some solid advice for performing some of the most important moves at the gym. There are informative segments about bench press, squats, and deadlift mixed in with the comedy and fan service, along with the approachable and informative personal trainer Machio.

One of the things that puts many people off going to the gym regularly is the fear of being judged, which is why everyone, no matter their experience level, should take notes from Machio. He is how every experienced gym-goer should be when helping newbies this time of year. Friendly and supportive, he celebrates the success of others while giving them advice when they ask for it. Machio is the anime fitness hero we all need in our lives.

But it isn’t just about being kind to others. We have to be kind to ourselves, too. One of my favorite groups in anime is the Body Improvement Club from Mob Psycho 100. Here are a bunch of muscle-bound teenage boys, spending their afternoons lifting weights and grunting at each other. So, when spindly Mob comes to join their club, you expect them to laugh at him and belittle him. Instead, they lift him up for all of his accomplishments, no matter how small they might seem.

Fitness is hard, folks. Improvement takes time and there aren’t any montages or training arcs to make things go faster.  That’s why I love the Body Improvement Club so much. When Mob does a single push-up, they cheer him because last week he couldn’t do any. When he runs half a mile before he collapses, they are ecstatic that he’s gotten farther than ever before. Celebrate those small victories and successes when you get them – otherwise, you won’t celebrate anything at all. Instead of having those voices in your head telling you to give up, conjure up a gaggle of supportive friends cheering you on at every step.

There is a point in everyone’s training where they want to give up. This is generally why gyms, which are crowded in January and February, become nearly deserted from March onward. Motivation isn’t something that comes once a year – it is something you have to cultivate and work at. As Saitama explains in One Punch Man, “You just have to keep doing it. No matter how hard it gets.” That is the only way to get stronger. It wasn’t the 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, or the 10-kilometer run that made him the strongest hero – it was the dedication and the discipline to do it every day.

The great thing about all these things is that they don’t have to just relate to fitness. Whether you’re writing a novel, trying to keep your house clean, or making any change in your life, you can take the lessons from these anime to help you move forward. Fitness, like everything else, is a journey of a thousand steps. Whatever your goals are for 2025 and beyond, you have to find the motivation to just do it, push yourself when you can, and celebrate the small victories as they come.

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