Whenever I embark upon a new challenge, my heart is always half-excited, half-remorseful.
Myojin Katou here.
I recently made a choice that brought with it such new and exciting challenges.
I speak, of course, of body-weight exercise.
In terms of building muscle, this form of exercise is inferior to weight lifting. However, as soon as I felt what it was like to push my own limits, I had a complete change of heart on the matter.
With weight lifting, of course, there is the excitement that comes with slowly racking up heavier and heavier weights, but with body-weight exercise, there is a completely different, and in my opinion, far superior elation of accomplishing feats that one was previously incapable of.
I started from being unable to do a single push-up, then with nothing more than perseverance I was soon able to do ten, then twenty. Each accomplishment brought with it new challenges in the form of more difficult exercises, and I quickly found myself understanding the appeal. Recently, I succeeded at pulling off one of the most difficult forms, the full planche push-up. It is sometimes known as the zero-g push-up, and I could see why, as I truly felt as though I were floating in the air while performing it.
But, not one to rest on my laurels, I immediately set my sights on the straight-arm handstand push-up. It is pretty much as the name suggests: a push-up performed from a handstand position. This posed a far greater challenge, and it took many falls before I could even hold the handstand for more than a few seconds. I often injured my elbows and knees, swearing never to try again as I collapsed to the ground. But once the pain subsided, I found myself drawn to giving it another try, even though I fared no better on subsequent attempts.
I think the protagonist of this story was much the same way.
Failing, collapsing, but never able to give up completely. Perhaps we could all learn something from him.
Finally, I would like to express my thanks.
To Kasu Komeshiro, who provided the wonderful illustrations found in this volume.
To my editor, who has infinite patience.
To everyone involved with bringing this work to fruition.
And, of course, my unending gratitude for those dear readers who elected to pick up this book.
As this is a new work, I am not sure whether I can say with any confidence, “See you next time…”
But at the very least, I shall pick up my pen once more and pray that it be so.
—Myojin Katou