Black Myth: Wukong Workout Plan - Train like The Destined One!
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Regarding action heroes, few characters are as formidable or awe-inspiring as the protagonist from Black Myth: Wukong, known as The Destined One.
Drawing from the mythological Monkey King (Sun Wukong), The Destined One possesses immense strength, agility, and mastery over various combat techniques rooted in martial arts and supernatural abilities. This hero is built not just on raw power but on the ability to outmaneuver and outthink enemies, making his training the perfect inspiration for anyone seeking a dynamic, multifaceted workout.
In this segment of the Character Training series, we'll break down the critical training principles you need to train, like The Destined One, and outline how these principles can be applied to your fitness regimen.
Let's begin with the physical stats and ranking!
The Destined One Physical Stats
Name: The Destined One (Sun Wukong-inspired character)
Height: Approximately 5'6"-5'9"
Weight: Lean and muscular build, estimated around 160-180 lbs
Abilities:
• Superhuman Strength: Capable of wielding the Ruyi Jingu Bang, an enormous staff that changes size.
• Agility and Speed: Mastery of aerial combat, flipping, and quick strikes.
• Shape-shifting Abilities: Can transform into various animals and mythical creatures for combat advantage.
• Martial Arts Mastery: Master of the staff and hand-to-hand combat, using fluid and powerful movements.
The Destined One Physique Ranking
Over at Action Hero Athletics, we devised a system for physique analysis. We call it the attainability scale.
This system helps us discover the realistic aspects of a character's physique and if it is genuinely realistic/attainable.
Tier 1: Realistically achievable (Natty)
Tier 2: Giga Genetics (Natty, but maybe not as easily attainable)
Tier 3: Not natty (requires PED's for maintenance)
The Destined One's physique is ranked as a Tier 1- Realistically achievable.
Physique of the Destined One
The Destined One epitomizes a warrior whose body is crafted for combat and mobility. His lean, muscular build allows him to move with lightning-fast reflexes while delivering devastating blows. His training focuses on balancing strength and speed, making him a highly versatile fighter. In the universe of Black Myth: Wukong, this combination of power and agility allows him to battle gods, demons, and other mythical creatures with ease.
The Destined One Training Principles
Suppose you want to train like The Destined One. In that case, you'll need a program focusing on strength, agility, endurance, and mental toughness. Here's a breakdown of the critical training principles behind his abilities and how you can incorporate them into your fitness regimen.
Functional Strength and Power: The Destined One wields the massive Ruyi Jingu Bang. This weapon requires exceptional upper-body strength and core stability. He must have developed sheer strength and the ability to generate power through dynamic, functional movements that translate directly into combat scenarios to handle this type of force.
How to Apply
Compound Lifts: Incorporate exercises like deadlifts, overhead presses, and squats into your routine. These movements recruit multiple muscle groups, building the raw power necessary to handle heavy weapons or lift massive objects, similar to wielding the magical staff.
Core Stability Work: A strong core is essential for controlling powerful weapons. Add movements like plank variations, Russian twists, and hanging leg raises to improve core stability and rotational strength.
Explosive Training: To build speed and power, incorporate plyometric exercises like box jumps, broad jumps, and explosive push-ups. These exercises help you generate force quickly, much like The Destined One's rapid strikes and heavy blows.
Agility and Flexibility: The Destined One's ability to flip, leap, and move with incredible speed means that agility is critical to his training. His movements are fluid yet precise, requiring mobility and flexibility to evade attacks and position himself strategically in combat.
How to Apply
Plyometric Agility Drills: Drills like lateral bounds, skater hops, and cone drills will develop your ability to change direction quickly and move explosively in multiple planes of motion. This will simulate how The Destined One moves in combat, flipping over enemies and dodging attacks.
Dynamic Stretching and Mobility Work: Before every workout, incorporate dynamic stretches like leg swings, hip circles, and arm rotations. Follow up with yoga or martial arts-style stretching to improve overall flexibility and ensure you can move fluidly through a wide range of motion, just like The Destined One during combat.
Balance and Coordination: Work on your balance with exercises like single-leg squats, single-leg deadlifts, or balance board drills. Good balance is critical for executing agile movements while maintaining control, similar to how The Destined One stays poised while dodging or evading attacks.
Endurance and Combat Conditioning: The battles The Destined One faces are long and grueling, requiring exceptional endurance to fight off waves of enemies. His stamina must be nearly boundless, with the ability to keep moving and striking without losing power or speed.
How to Apply
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): HIIT workouts, including burpees, sprints, and kettlebell swings, build cardiovascular endurance while mimicking the demands of a fast-paced battle. Alternating between high-intensity effort and short rest periods replicates the bursts of energy needed in combat.
Martial Arts Drills: Integrate shadowboxing, kickboxing, or weapon training (like staff or sword work) into your routine. These drills will improve your combat-specific endurance and skill while training your body to sustain repeated explosive movements under fatigue.
Circuit Training: Incorporate full-body circuits involving multiple back-to-back exercises with minimal rest. This could include a mix of strength, agility, and combat movements (like push-ups, box jumps, and punching drills), conditioning your body to handle long bouts of effort without fatiguing quickly.
Mental Toughness and Focus: The Destined One isn't just physically powerful; he's mentally sharp and resilient. His ability to stay calm, calculated, and focused in the heat of battle makes him an unstoppable force. His training must have honed his mental discipline, allowing him to perform with laser-sharp focus even under immense pressure.
How to Apply
Meditation and Breathing Techniques: Meditation, particularly mindfulness meditation, can help build focus and calmness. Incorporate daily meditation or deep breathing exercises to train your mind to stay composed under stress, much like The Destined One, which remains focused during chaotic battles.
Progressive Overload and Tough Challenges: Continually push your physical limits by adding progressive overload to your workouts. Increase the weight, difficulty, or intensity of exercises, training yourself to handle more significant challenges. This builds physical and mental toughness, helping you stay calm and focused even when fatigued.
Visualization Training: Use visualization techniques to imagine yourself performing complex tasks or overcoming obstacles in combat. This helps enhance mental clarity and prepares your mind for high-pressure scenarios, like The Destined One's battle preparations before facing mythical foes.
How to Workout Like the Destined One in Real Life
From a gym bro's perspective, this is what you need to work out like The Destined One.
The Destined One's Functional Power
The Destined One's Agility and Performance
The Destined One's Bodyweight Mastery
The Destined One's Full Workout Breakdown
Workout frequency: 5 days
Training description: This 5-day workout plan inspired by the "destined one" from Black Myth: Wukong offers a comprehensive approach to training that integrates power, agility, bodyweight control, and martial arts. Each day is designed to develop specific attributes reflecting Wukong's legendary skills, pushing physical and mental boundaries.
Day 1: Explosive Strength and Power
Day 1 emphasizes explosive strength, setting the foundation for athletic dominance. The workouts focus on generating force quickly and building the power necessary for rapid, devastating attacks and movements—traits essential to a mythical figure like Wukong. You'll train your body to harness raw power and convert it into controlled, explosive bursts through kettlebell swings, plyometrics, and dynamic strength exercises. These movements build muscle and improve your ability to react and move quickly and intensely.
Explosive strength is crucial for high-performance activities, enabling you to leap, strike, and move unpredictably. This training also transfers well to athletic endeavors requiring fast-twitch muscle fibers, enhancing agility and reactivity.
Day 2: Agility and Flexibility
Agility and flexibility are vital for anyone striving to mirror Wukong's quick, fluid movements. Day 2 focuses on improving the body's ability to move gracefully, change direction rapidly, and maintain balance under pressure. Agility ladder drills, cone work, and animal flow movements train the legs and the core and stabilize muscles, making your body more responsive to dynamic environments.
Flexibility is also a significant emphasis on this day, ensuring that while you're fast, you're also limber. This prevents injury and allows for greater freedom of movement, much like Wukong's agile acrobatics and ability to easily change forms. The balance of speed and flexibility here leads to improved overall athleticism, enabling you to dodge, evade, and flow smoothly between movements.
Day 3: Bodyweight Mastery
True mastery over one's body weight is a hallmark of legendary figures, and Day 3 is dedicated to developing that control. Wukong's combat prowess relies heavily on his ability to move his body with precision and strength, whether leaping through the air or grappling with opponents. This day focuses on calisthenics, honing your ability to generate strength without relying on external resistance. Exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, handstands, and pistol squats train raw strength, balance, coordination, and endurance.
Bodyweight mastery creates functional strength—making your muscles capable of handling your body efficiently in various positions. The emphasis here is on controlling your movements under tension, much like Wukong's strategic combat approach, where every strike and motion is intentional and well-calculated.
Day 4: Combat Preparedness
Day 4 taps into the essence of Wukong's martial spirit, focusing on combat readiness. This day revolves around weapon-based training, specifically with the staff, reflecting Wukong's signature weapon and martial arts drills to develop striking power, fluidity, and tactical precision. Combat training develops hand-eye coordination, agility, and spatial awareness, allowing you to engage effectively in close-quarters scenarios or maintain distance with precision strikes.
Weapon training, such as staff work, enhances grip strength, core stability, and upper-body coordination while adding a mental aspect of discipline and focus. Martial arts drills and footwork practice develop cardiovascular endurance for long combat bouts. This day is about building the mindset and skill of a warrior, honing your reactions, and preparing you for fast, unpredictable movements that are characteristic of Wukong's fighting style.
Day 5: Endurance and Speed
Wukong's mythical strength is not just about power—it's also about sustained stamina and speed over long periods. Day 5 is dedicated to building endurance and quickness, vital for long battles or high-energy activities. You're conditioning your body to maintain high-performance levels without fatigue through sprint intervals, jump rope, and hill sprints. These exercises push your cardiovascular system to its limits while simultaneously training your fast-twitch muscle fibers for speed.
Endurance training builds mental toughness, preparing you to push through exhaustion and maintain explosive power when needed. Speed-focused training ensures that your reactions are quick, your movements sharp, and your ability to cover ground is unmatched. This day also enhances your ability to recover quickly between high-intensity bouts of movement, mirroring Wukong's capability to remain powerful throughout extended confrontations.
Fandom
Day 1: Explosive Strength and Power
Warm-up (10-15 minutes)
Dynamic stretches: leg swings, arm circles, hip rotations
Jump rope (3 rounds x 1 minute)
Workout
Kettlebell Swings – 4 sets x 12 reps
Plyometric Push-ups – 4 sets x 8-10 reps
Box Jumps – 4 sets x 8 reps
Dumbbell Snatches – 4 sets x 6 reps per side
Barbell Squat with Jump (lightweight) – 4 sets x 6 reps
Finisher
Medicine Ball Slams – 3 sets x 15 reps
Battle Ropes – 5 sets x 20 seconds on / 20 seconds rest
Cooldown (10 minutes)
Stretching and foam rolling
Day 2: Agility and Flexibility
Warm-up (10-15 minutes)
Animal flow movements (beast, crab, scorpion, etc.)
5-minute jump rope for agility
Workout
Agility Ladder Drills – 5 rounds (2 different drills per round)
Cone Drills – 5 rounds (5-10 cone weave drills, varying speed)
Yoga Poses (Hold 30 seconds each)
Downward Dog, Warrior II, Lizard Pose
Animal Flow Movements – 4 rounds (3 movements per round)
Core Focus
V-ups – 3 sets x 15 reps
Russian Twists (with weight) – 3 sets x 20 reps (10 per side)
Cooldown (10 minutes)
Static stretching and deep breathing
Day 3: Bodyweight Mastery
Warm-up (10-15 minutes)
Jump rope (3 rounds x 2 minutes, 30 seconds rest)
Dynamic stretches (focus on joints)
Workout
Push-ups – 5 sets x 20 reps
Pull-ups – 5 sets x 8-12 reps
Handstands (against wall) – 3 sets x 30-60 seconds
Pistol Squats – 4 sets x 6-8 reps per leg
Dips – 4 sets x 12-15 reps
Inverted Rows – 4 sets x 10-12 reps
Finisher
Plank Hold – 3 rounds x 1 minute
L-sit Hold – 3 rounds x 20-30 seconds
Cooldown (10 minutes)
Stretching and foam rolling
Day 4: Combat Preparedness (Weapon and Combat Skills)
Warm-up (10-15 minutes)
Shadowboxing (3 rounds x 2 minutes)
Dynamic stretches and mobility work
Workout
Staff Training (Wooden Staff)
Strikes and footwork (5 sets x 1 minute)
Spinning drills (5 sets x 1 minute)
Staff form practice (5 sets x 2 minutes)
Martial Arts Drills
Kickboxing: 4 sets x 2 minutes of kicks and punches
Sparring: 3 rounds x 2 minutes
Shadowboxing: 5 rounds x 2 minutes (focus on agility, speed)
Finisher
Sprints (30-second intervals) – 5 rounds
Burpees – 3 sets x 15 reps
Cooldown (10 minutes)
Static stretching and deep breathing
Day 5: Endurance and Speed
Warm-up (10-15 minutes)
Agility ladder work (3 rounds)
Jump rope (5 rounds x 1 minute)
Workout
Sprint Intervals – 8 rounds x 20-second sprint / 40-second rest
Battle Ropes – 5 sets x 30 seconds
Hill Sprints or Treadmill Incline Sprints – 5 rounds x 20-second sprint / 40-second rest
Kettlebell Farmer’s Walks – 4 sets x 1-minute walk
Jump Rope (Speed Focus) – 3 rounds x 2 minutes (30 seconds rest)
Cooldown (10 minutes)
Slow jog or walk, followed by static stretching
