My Asian Squat Journey

I still have vivid memories from over 46 years ago when I was a young soldier stationed in the Republic of South Korea.  A bunch of us soldiers would regularly spend time in the village outside our military base.  We’d roam here and there, down the main streets and into the meandering alleys where homes were located on both sides. 

I’d notice Koreans in front of the homes engaging in conversations with their neighbors while, for some, smoking their cigarettes.  They weren’t sitting or standing but in a very low squat position known by some as the Asian Squat.  They’d stay in this position for what seemed like forever.

Another Asian Squat memory I have is one day when I witnessed a group of Korean mechanics who were taking a break in front of the garage where they worked.  There must have been a half dozen of them in a circle.  They were smoking cigarettes and talking and laughing while playing a board game.  They stayed in this position their entire break time and then when their break was over, they sprung up like frogs and went back to work. 

This is all an introduction to something I’ve been doing the past month that I’ve named my Asian Squat Journey. I’m spending time perfecting me being in the Asian Squat bottom position, trying to improve the duration of time I can spend before crumbling to my knees and quitting.

The first time I did this, about one month ago, I timed myself and stayed in the squat bottom position for a whopping two minutes.  That was, unbeknownst to be at the time, the beginning of my Asian Squat Journey.  How long will it last and where will it lead me?  Time will tell but thus far, I’m having fun in my journey.

Since progress comes from training and not just by being good looking, I’ve been training and have settled into two workouts.  The first one is a timed hold that I do at least once a week.  Thus far, I’ve been video recording my tests and uploading them on YouTube for my archival benefit so that when I’m an old man sitting in a rocking chair and crapping my pants, I’ll be able to take great delight in thinking about the things I used to do.

Thus far, my best is an 8-minute hold.  Unfortunately, I had video recording technical difficulties of that accomplishment so there’s no video evidence thus far.  But I did upload on YouTube an executive briefing video of my accomplishment.

Here’s a video of my 7-minute Asian Squat hold:

The other training workout I do is called my Asian Squat Interval Training Workout.

It consists of 15 rounds every minute on the minute where I sit in the Asian Squat bottom position for a fixed time interval and then stand and shake it out for recovery.  I believe I started out with 20-second squat holds with 40-seconds recovery and have advanced to 45-second squat holds with 15-seconds recovery. I did try a 50-second squat hold with 10-seconds recovery, but I had a bad day and threw in the towel after completing seven rounds.  I’ll try that workout again, probably this week.

I’ve done another interval training workout during which I superset shorter-duration Asian Squat holds in tandem with rounds of alternating pull-ups and chin-ups done every minute on the minute for 30 minutes.  The goal is to complete 100 repetitions of pull-ups and chin-ups and get some decent squat time in.  For these interval workouts, my squat times have been shorter thus far, ranging from 20-seconds to 25-seconds.  I’ll try 30-seconds my next workout and see how it goes.

In the process of achieving what I have thus far, I announced to myself a short-term goal of a 10-minute Asian Squat which I’d like to achieve by my upcoming birthday in about six weeks.  We’ll see if I do it.  If not, I’ll keep marching forward because I’m liking the benefits this training is giving me.  I’ll have more to say about these benefits in the future.

So, until further notice, I’m having a good time with my Asian Squat Journey.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum