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Character Spotlight: Ike

The Ike Workout

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Ike’s more svelte in some of his outings than others. Here we see him in his bulkier Smash Bros. 4 incarnation. This is mostly a cultural thing, where Japanese game heroes are more often than not depicted as more slim and/or androgynous, whereas American game heroes are usually bulkier. When the new Smash 4 debut for Ike came out, there was actually some backlash from Japanese fans!

At any rate, you can be either a slim Ike, or a bulky Ike, depending mostly upon how you eat (though the workouts are slightly different). As usual, I refer you to Macros and You! for your macro guidelines, and The Big Guy Diet and The Fighter Diet for more specific food suggestions. Let’s jump into it!

Required Equipment:

Pull Up Bar

Dumbbells

Sledgehammer

Sturdy Tire (or something to swing the sledgehammer at)

Strength:

Level 1 (beginner):

3×3-5 Chair-assisted pull ups

3×3-5 Kneeling pushups

3×3-5 Overhead dumbbell presses (start with something low, like 5lbs a hand, try to progress up in 5 lb increments every couple of workouts)

3×3-5 Bodyweight squats

3×5-10 second planks

3×3-5 Sledgehammer front levers (choke up when starting out)

3×3-5 Sledgehammer back levers (choke up when starting out)

Level 2 (intermediate):

5×3-5 Pull ups

5×3-5 Dumbbell bench presses (start with something low, like 5lbs a hand, try to progress up in 5 lb increments every couple of workouts)

5×3-5 Overhead dumbbell presses (continue to try to increase by 5 lbs every couple of workouts)

5×3-5 Bodyweight squats

5×5-10 second planks

5×3-5 Sledgehammer front levers (choke up as needed)

5×3-5 Sledgehammer back levers (choke up as needed)

Level 3 (advanced):

5×5-10 Pull ups

5×3-5 Dumbbell bench presses (continue to increase by 5 lbs every couple of workouts)

5×5-10 Dumbbell one-armed rows (start low, increase by 5 lbs every couple of workouts

5×3-5 Overhead dumbbell presses (continue to increase by 5 lbs every couple of workouts)

5×3-5 Dumbbell goblet squats

5×15-20 second planks

5×5-10 Sledgehammer front levers (choke up as needed)

5×5-10 Sledgehammer back levers (choke up as needed)

Level 4 (Lord):

5×10-15 Pull ups

5×3-5 Dumbbell bench presses (continue to increase by 5 lbs every couple of workouts)

5×3-5 Dumbbell rows(continue to increase by 5 lbs every couple of workouts)

5×3-5 Overhead dumbbell presses (continue to increase by 5 lbs every couple of workouts)

5×3-5 Dumbbell goblet squats

5×30-60 second planks

5×5-10 Sledgehammer front levers (No choking up! Ike doesn’t choke up on Ragnell!)

5×5-10 Sledgehammer back levers (No choking up! Ike doesn’t choke up on Ragnell!)

Strength Notes:

On the upper body, we’re building solid back muscles with our pull ups and rows, awesome triceps, pecs, and shoulder with our presses, and awesome wrist and hand strength with our sledgehammer levers. Then we’re building a solid base for ourselves with goblet squats and planks, to be further supplemented by our cardio sessions. To build a bigger Ike: Increase the recommended rep count for the strength exercises to 5-8 instead of 3-5. Everything else stays the same. Make sure you’re taking in a caloric surplus and lots of protein to build solid muscles!

Cardio:

Level 1 (beginner):

20 minutes brisk walking

5-10 sledgehammer swings (each side)

Level 2 (intermediate):

20 minutes brisk walking and jogging (try to jog more than you walk, gradually working your way up to jogging the whole time)

10-15 sledgehammer swings (each side)

Level 3 (advanced):

20 minutes jogging

5 minutes sledgehammer swings (alternate sides back and forth for the full five minutes)

Level 4 (Lord):

30 minutes jogging

10 minutes sledgehammer swings (alternate sides back and forth for the full five minutes, try to do these as fast as you can without hurting yourself)

Cardio Notes:

Jogging keeps our legs strong, and builds our overall cardiovascular system for long, drawn-out battles. Our sledgehammer swings are the perfect motion for training our sword swings. Make sure you swing from both sides of your body in a nice arc, and come down hard. Smooth motion is key, here. This will build awesome upper body endurance for sword practice, as well as wicked strength in your swings!

Schedule:

Day 1: Strength

Day 2: Cardio

Day 3: Rest

Day 4: Strength

Day 5: Cardio

Day 6: Strength

Day 7: Rest

Schedule notes:

Pretty straightforward, here. As usual, feel free to drop a workout when you’re first starting out if you feel like your body need extra time to recover. In particular, you might want to add an extra rest day in place of either the second or third strength workout, at least when you’re starting out. Two days of recovery time can be nice for a body unaccustomed to vigorous exercise. Listen to what your body tells you!

Alrighty, that’s it for today, folks! No video tomorrow, as I am out of town, but I’ll see you all again on Monday! Live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome!

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace