Normally in this self-improvement community I talk about my past successes and what I've learned from them, trying to share that with you guys. Today I want to do something a little different. This will be an ongoing self improvement project for the next month. I won't share the rest in here, just this first one. I hope to improve myself and help society as well.

A few days ago @livinguktaiwan posted about a wonderful fundraiser that Cancer Research UK is doing in combination with the UK channel 4: The 100 Squats a day challenge.

I think this is a really great fundraiser. I won't join formally and order the fundraiser pack and t-shirt (you need to have a UK address for the t-shirt anyway, which I don't) but I will still join, albeit informally, to help raise awareness. If you want to donate to this fundraiser, please use @livinguktaiwan's donation page or send her HBD/Hive directly (as she said on her post) and she will convert it in order to donate.

This fundraiser is really the perfect timing for me. I usually join in MOvember which is a fundraiser and awareness campaign for men's cancer (prostate and testicular) and men's health in general (read about it here), but this year I will join this Squat for Cancer fundraiser instead.

I am a few days late in starting, but since I am only informally joining I think we can overlook a few days. I will be doing it daily from here to the end of the month though. 100 Squats per day. Can it be done? We'll see! I'll write about my experience for day one below and I'll blog around the rest of the days over on my alt account @mrmiyagi. I started that account for a gag a few years ago, but I ended not using it. Now is the perfect chance! You all can imagine Mr Miyagi doing the squats if you wish. Someone, make me a banner of Mr Miyagi doing a squat for this fundraiser!

In my university days I did weightlifting squats. Something like 250 lbs, I think; don't be impressed by that because it was only for two sets of seven, and it's not that much. I haven't done any squats at all in the 20+ years since that time, but because of that I had this image that 100 squats using only my body weight would be a piece of cake.

Boy was I wrong!

So... let's go over day one.

Day One

The first 20 were easy. But by number 25 my thighs were starting to burn already. By the time I got to 40 they were really burning a lot and I had to pause for about thirty seconds. The next ten were brutal but I made it to 50. Whew! I paused for longer, about a minute, walking back and forth to psych myself up for the next 50. I could barely finish 50, how could I do any more?! But even as I thought that, I knew I would do another 50. Willpower is not a problem. However, convincing my body of that might be the tricky part...

The next ten were even harder. Another pause. By this point my heart was beating pretty quickly. The challenge says nothing about doing the squats quickly and even suggests spreading them throughout one's day, but I might as well get a good exercise from this, so I wanted to do it all at once.

Ten more, taking me to 70. Oh man. That last one, from 69 to 70 was tough and I collapsed down into an Asian squat after that and hovered there for about a minute, breathing hard.

This was familiar territory. Takes me back to my weightlifting days when a lift would be so hard that we'd really have to psych ourselves up, then power through the next set. I did the same and made it through the next ten to 80 by sheer force of will. My legs felt like jelly after that. Ok ok, I can do this. Only twenty more I told myself as I paced back and forth.

Up to 85, trying to do 86... can't do it. Had to pause. My heartbeat was thundering now. Up to 90 BPM according to my Apple watch. Breathe breathe breathe. The next 10 were much slower and deliberate but I made it. Up until this point I had been doing Asian squats, where I squatted down all the way until my legs were well past a 90 degree angle and my butt was almost touching the ground. This is probably not what the challenge had in mind, but for the past 20 years in Japan when I squat down to do something I squat this way so it's more natural for me at this point. But for the numbers 85 to 95 I could no longer go down all that way and I stuck with the regular squat with my thighs parallel to the floor.

5 more. I'm not proud that I had to pause in between each one, but I did them. 100! I made it! And then I collapsed in a chair and started massaging my burning thighs. Oh man....I'm going to be feeling this tomorrow, I thought.

And it is tomorrow as I write this and I do feel it! Good Lord I feel it. But that's good. Feeling the burn is a great way to know you worked. As Arnold Schwarzenegger says, pain is only temporary, but the success it enables lasts much longer. I wonder, however, if this burning soreness will allow me to do 100 again later today... I feel like I can barely walk right now. Yicks! We shall see. I would ask you all to take bets on whether I can or not, but that money would be better donated to fight cancer.

So there we go! I made it—barely!! @livinguktaiwan is pushing herself to do more than 100. I wanted to do the same, but there was no way I could do more. Maybe in the future (but probably not later today when I do day 4).

Here is my calendar, by the way, to track my progress.

Anyway, if you want to follow along on the rest of this challenge, then be sure to follow @mrmiyagi. Maybe I'll mention a summery in other posts on this account, but I'll mostly keep it there.

If you want to also join in on the challenge, start doing it and make your own posts! And if you want to donate, once again, send Hive/HBD to @livinguktaiwan (let's see how many times we can tag her! Wheeeeee) or visit her donation page.

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.