“How Heavy are the Dumbbells you Lift?” Anime Review

Ok- so you know how sometimes you find inspiration and motivation in places you weren’t even looking?? Yea this happened to me with this anime.

How it Happened:
My husband and I indulged in a Funimation subscription this year- mostly to check it out, we liked anime when we were younger- so why not now? Like any modern streaming service it recommends other shows to you based on your likes as well as what is popular. That is how “How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?” First showed up in my feed- and I ignored it, ’cause let’s face it- that isn’t the most interesting title in the world. I finally clicked on it- and man am I grateful I did.

The show is about the blond girl there, Hibiki Sakura, who is teased (meanly) by her best friend about her weight- and the amount that she eats. Hibiki is in denial at first but then accepts that maybe she *could* be healthier. She tries to exercise on her own, but then accepts she doesn’t have the willpower (like oh so many of us) to get herself fit- and joins a gym. The gym she joins is 100% a body building gym, and her trainer is a fanatic about body building and flexing. On her first day Hibiki runs into a classmate who is obsessed- and I mean OBSESSED with muscle building. As the show goes on more friends join and the work out together and it has a nice vibe to it. The plot of the show is honestly barely there- but there enough that you care about the characters and are engaged with it. The thing that absolutely makes the show is the Narrator. The guy they have voice acting that part does a phenomenal job keeping the light humorous tone of the show going.

What truly makes the show unique is that it teaches actual exercises and work out tips and techniques. It also goes over basic information about healthy eating and paying attention to what you are putting into your body- as well as the WHY behind what works and what doesn’t.

Probably the biggest negative for the show is the amount of fan service thrown in here and there- I didn’t find it to be really sexual- as they were explaining muscles and whatnot- and no naughty bits were shown… BUT if this is something that you are sensitive to- you might want to avoid the show or at the very least close your eyes for the 3-10 seconds any of it is on screen. Your call.

The other thing that people (not me) are going to complain about with this show is ‘body shaming’ now honestly- I do not feel like it body shamed at all. The characters were honest with each other and themselves about their physical short comings- but that wasn’t what the show dwelt on. The meanest interaction in the entire show was between Hibiki and her best friend- her best friend pointing out that she was eating entirely to much and that it would have consequences for her body. Personally I didn’t find this offensive at all. Firstly because of Hibiki’s reaction to it- she listened and made a lifestyle change (spoiler: she keeps eating an impressive amount throughout the show). Secondly- the show never talked about all people overweight being anything negative. All it talked about was that exercise and eating better would improve how you felt, how it would make you stronger, and how it could reduce pain. The show was EXTREMELY POSITIVE.

So for me- with 110 lbs to lose- it made me feel energized. In fact I made my husband help me lug the treadmill into the house so we could set it up and start working out (and I finally got my workout bench over here). Then I discovered that I’m missing all the hardware to assemble the treadmill… SO guess I’m going to have to do some cleaning up before I can actually use it.

I wish that there was a video that just had all of Machio’s Muscle Lessons (the trainer in the show) all strung together- there might be and I just didn’t google/youtube hard enough…

BUT I did find some websites that help out with targeting and training specific muscles. One of the things I LOVED about the show was the fact it would point to a specific muscle and say ‘this is what you do with this one’. I think a lot of the time exercising is totally mystifying and mysterious- most of us know we need to but have no idea why we do most of the exercises we’re told to do. We just know we hurt after a work out. (just me?)

So here are 3 websites I’ve found. I’ve set up the links so they’ll automatically open in a new tab.

#1 https://musclewiki.org/ This one is great- you get to see the front and back diagram of a body (you can pick male or female) with all the muscles drawn in. When you mouse-over the muscles they’ll light up red and you can click to go to some videos that show how to work them. Many of them do require gym equipment, which can be tough- but each muscle exercise list usually has at least one exercise listed that can be done with equipment you can have at home. (benches, dumbells/freeweights) What makes this wiki even better- if you look in the upper right corner directly under the options for male/female you can pick out exercises, stretching or body-weight. (body weight are the I don’t have any equipment type exercises, so SCORE)

#2 https://www.freetrainers.com/exercise/muscles/ In general this site is just good because it is free and it has a lot and a I mean a LOT of resources for fitness. The link I’m sharing specifically again gives you a muscle diagram and you can click to pick specific areas. Unlike the other- this one talks about muscle groups. Also when you pick an area it tells you what muscles are in the group and how working them out can be beneficial. Then it shows you some of their FREE workouts that have exercises to target that area. The show emphasizes balanced work outs- and this site has them all ready to go.

#3 https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/muscular-endurance-exercises This article gives you 5 basic exercises to improve the endurance of your muscles. I just like this one because it has a set of things you can do with a very specific goal in mind. I’ve not explored the parent website HealthLine extensively- but from what I’ve seen it has a lot about overall health on it.

The other part of fitness that is hard for me is finding recommend foods that aren’t super exotic or so specialized I cannot get them at the regular grocery store. Frankly- if it isn’t something I can get at the local grocers… I’m not going to get it. Plus I have more than me to feed- food needs to be inexpensive. Now I’m not going to put a lot of links here- but I can tell you I searched ‘real cheap food diet’ and the search results came up with lists of food that I could see myself eating, as well as some tips to eat properly. WebMD and Healthline both came up in the search with great lists and fantastic tips.

This blog post is super long- so I’ll leave it here.

Remember, TRUE STRENGTH COMES FROM WITHIN!!

‘caio
Nikkie