Yakitate! Japan- Kawachi's Solar Gauntlet Training

"Yakitate! Japan" is an anime about making bread. An anime. About making. Bread.

But, seriously, this thing is freakin' hilarious. It has literally had me rolling on the floor. The cool part about it is that there are actually some training sequences, so I thought, "What the hell? Why not?!"

One of the main characters, Kawachi Kyousuke, is attempting to obtain "Solar Gauntlets," (which is just a fancy way of saying you have warm hands) in order to compete with the main character's natural-born "Solar Hands." He goes through a hellish training regime in order to put on the requisite muscle mass for the Gauntlets. It's pretty rough, so I've broken it down into levels, so you can build up to Kawachi's volume of training.


Kawachi's Solar Gauntlet Training

LEVEL ONE

1. Swim 1000 Meters
2. Stretch 10 Minutes

LEVEL TWO

1. Swim 5k
2. Stretch 10 Minutes
3. Wear 5lb Ankle and Wrist Weights During Normal Daily Activities

LEVEL THREE

1. Swim 10k
2. Stretch 10 Minutes
3. Wear 10lb Ankle and Wrist Weights During Normal Daily Activities

LEVEL FOUR

1. Swim 10k in the morning w/10lb weighted swimming vest or belt 
2. Stretch 10 Minutes
3. Swim 10k in the evening w/10lb weighted swimming vest or belt 
4. Wear 10lb Ankle and Wrist Weights During Normal Daily Activities

Notes:

• You may not advance to the next level until you are capable of swimming the allotted distance without stopping, as well as wearing the weights for all of your daily activities. 
• If you are unable to swim the entire distance, you are more than welcome to break it into sets of swimming, but you cannot advance until you swim it all at once. 
• Always swim with someone else present, be it a lifeguard or another friend who knows how to swim. 
• Kawachi trained nearly every day for a month, leading up to the New Hire Tournament, but that's obviously going to be counter-productive, because you won't get any rest. If you are doing this on a regular basis, I would recommend starting at two days a week, then moving to three days a week, and, at most, no more than five days a week. However, it will take a long time to build to being able to do the training five days a week, because it such a great distance for the swimming.
• I originally forgot that Kawachi did this training in the morning and the evening... that makes the last level completely ridiculous, so please take your time and progress as slowly as you need to. The sheer distance in the last two workouts is phenomenal. 

That's all for today! Until next time, good luck and train hard!