If you don't know who Buff (or Prison) Iroh is, you must have never seen :Avatar: The Last Airbender". In "Avatar: The Last Airbender", Uncle Iroh is sent to jail for being a threat to the Fire Nation. He initionally had been put in jail for life, but he broke out after only 2 months. In that short 2 month span, he worked out every chance he could, practically all day, until he was absolutely JACKED.
Here's how the story went (I got the information from his Wiki Fandom):
"While in prison, Warden Poon gave Iroh his food. Poon mocked a markedly disheveled Iroh as he scrambled for the gruel, even scooping what had fallen onto the ground into his mouth. As soon as Poon was gone, he became more collected, wiped the sweaty hair out of his face and calmly finished his meal in peace, only eating out of the bowl. Iroh was shown again, calmly lying on the ground deep in thought. Suddenly his eyes widen and he began aggressively doing bent-knee sit ups. Later, Iroh was still mocked and ridiculed by Poon, while still feigning insanity. At the prison, Iroh continued to train in Poon’s absence, having upgraded to the straight-legged inverted sit-ups. He kept up the facade of loneliness and desperation in front of Poon. Iroh was seen to be training whenever not under watch, being able to perform difficult exercises including but not limited to inverted crunches, inverted push-ups, and one handed pull ups. Still keeping his jailer unaware, Iroh had managed to recondition his body back to its original, intimidating form, and even managed to lose his pronounced belly, which he slyly hid by stuffing spare clothing under his robes.
Iroh somehow managed to get a message to Zuko, urging him to educate himself on his great-grandfather. Zuko later angrily went to the Fire Nation jail tower and, bursting into his cell, accused Iroh of having sent him the message. He angrily demanded the point, as the testament did not even reveal anything about Sozin’s death. Iroh admitted to having sent the message and explained that the message Zuko needed to discover about his great-grandfather’s death did not refer to his paternal great-grandfather, Sozin, but his maternal great-grandfather, Avatar Roku. He proceeded, producing the lost crown prince’s headpiece, once worn by both his great-grandfathers, and gave it to a stunned Zuko. Iroh explained to the prince that, as he had both Roku and Sozin’s blood in his veins, he alone had the ability to redeem their family by choosing which of their paths to follow. He had the royal headpiece stashed behind one of the cell’s bricks.
Iroh was treated well by Ming during his stay in prison; at the day of his escape, she had snuck him some jade tea for breakfast and an extra bowl of rice for lunch, upon which he thanked her and told her to take the rest of the day off. Initially confused as to what he meant, Iroh reiterated to her that it would be best for her not to be around in the next few hours. Later that day, Iroh broke himself out of prison during the eclipse and single-handedly defeated Poon and the other guards; the dazed warden would later tell Zuko that Iroh had been like a “one-man army”. Iroh managed to leave the Fire Nation and enter the Earth Kingdom after his escape.
In this long quote, it states that he did the following workouts:
1. Sit Ups
2. Straight-Legged Inverted Sit Ups (Hanging from his cell)
3. Clap Push Ups
4. One Handed Pull Ups
5. Inverted Push Ups (Handstand Push Ups)
In this article, I am going to tell you exactly how he did it.
Iroh's Workout
There are many different variables that I must cover in this article, including:
How long did he workout
The exercises he did
The food he ate
How acting insane helped
1. How Long Did He Workout
This is not a simple question to answer, because it appears he worked out the whole time he was alone (he may not have worked out the whole time, but we can assume how long he worked out), which could be multiple answers.
One theory I have is that he worked out 12 hours each day. My theory on that is the average person needs 8 hours, so I am assuming he slept 8 hours. I am also assuming that Poon taunted him and watched him eat an hour for every meal, which would be 3 hours. I then assume that he walked by the prison several times, which I am going to add an hour for that. That would be 12 hours. This is the most likely because Poon almost catches him doing clapping push-ups.
My second theory is that he worked out 4 hours each day. In around 20 A.D. (as far back as I could find), it said jailers worked 12 hours each day. Iroh is an important prisoner, so Poon could of had to watch him the whole time. As I said above, if Iroh slept 8 hours, that would be 20 hours that he couldn't workout.
Of course, he could have slept while Poon was there, which would bring it back to 12 hours.
Also, he may not have worked out the whole time, so we can't really assume how long he worked out, just how long he could have worked out.
2. The Exercises
According to the shows, he only did the following workout:
1. Sit Ups
2. Straight-Legged Inverted Sit Ups
3. Clap Push Ups
4. One Handed Pull Ups
5. Inverted Push Ups
This means that he must have done a lot of them to have those massive gains in such a short time period. In the Tv Shows, it shows that he aggresively does them as fast as he can.
The Equation
If it takes 5 seconds to do each Sit-up (l), 8 seconds to do Straight-Legged Inverted Sit Ups (y), 4 seconds to do Clap Push Ups (p), 4 seconds to do One Handed Pull Ups (q), and 8 seconds to do Inverted Push Ups (w), then the equation would be:
5L + 8Y + 4P + 4Q + 8W = Y
With this equation, I am going to assume he work outs for 5 hours and that he did each exercise the same amount of time.
5 (720) + 8(450) + 4(900) + 4(900) + 8(450) = 18000 seconds (or 5 hours)
This means he did:
1. Sit Ups = 720
2. Straight-Legged Inverted Sit Ups = 450
3. Clap Push Ups = 900
4. One Handed Pull Ups = 900
5. Inverted Push Ups =450
3. The Food
Throughout Iroh's time at the prison, he is mainly served rise that has been thrown on the ground. I also saw something green and roundish that could have been a weird cabbage, but I really couldn't tell. As far as I could see, he didn't get much protein from his jailer, so he probably ate bugs or rats. He also was given extra rice and tea from Ming whenever she visited.
4. Acting Insane
I know what your thinking. "How could acting insane have helped him get in shape?" When he acted insane, he gave his body a much needed rest from doing thousands of repetitions of exercises that he did every day. On top of that, he was able to be left alone to workout more than if he acted normal and gave the jailer a reason to watch him. That's why he started clapping when Poon walked by and heard him doing clapping push-ups.
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Thanks to the creators of Avatar for making such an amazing Series, I loved every minute of it. You can buy the official complete series below.
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