XP, But Make It Real: My Strength Grind Begins

Runescape is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game with 29 levelable skills. Of those, obviously, you have your resource gathering skills such as Fishing and Mining. You also have your artisan skills such as Smithing, Fletching, and Crafting. You have weird miscellaneous skills like Dungeoneering, where you delve into the hidden passageways of Daemonheim, solve puzzles, and kill monsters, or Archeology, which I canceled my Runescape membership before this skill launched, so I don’t actually know what it entails. I assume writing a doctoral dissertation that no one will ever read about historic trade along the River Lum or whatever. In any case, leveling up these skills is simple. You complete a task, like catching a shrimp, smithing a dagger, or not crying during a meeting with your dissertation advisor—again, never played Archeology—and you receive a fixed amount of experience. You gain enough experience, you level up. With 84 experience, you go from Level 1 to Level 2, with a hundred and some odd experience, from Level 2 to Level 3, and so on. The higher your level, the more rewarding tasks you unlock, the more valuable resources you can gather, the more advanced gear you can create and wield.

It’s all easily quantifiable, and as someone who loves quantities, I always fantasized about a world where my own life experiences could be easily translated into xp points and levels. Lift a five-pound weight, get five points of xp in Strength. Walk a hundred steps, congratulations, you just went from level one to two in the commonly-used Walking skill tree. So as I’ve looked through the Runescape skill list, I’ve realized that some of these skills—especially the combat skills—can very easily be translated into real life. Obviously Magic and Necromancy are out; no matter how hard I try, I cannot conjure the powers of fire or the undead to do my bidding. And obviously, I can’t level up via traditional Runescape means. A duck provides 24.9 combat skill experience, but I can’t just go down to the river and snap the necks of 523,472 ducks to get from Level 1 to 99 in Attack. For starters, the ducks might fight back, and my Defense level is not very high. Also that is a terrible waste of ducks.

However, of the Runescape skills, Strength can very easily be translated into real life. In the game, Strength dictates how hard you hit with melee weapons. The higher your Strength level, the more damage you have the capability of doing with any number of swords, axes, claws, daggers, maces, mauls, whatever. I figure, by building my physical strength in real life, I can level up my Strength skill. So, as you join me on my journey to gain Strength Skill Mastery, or Level 99, in real life, allow me to set some parameters.

If this were just like Runescape, again, I could go down to the river and kill a bunch of ducks. I don’t want to do that. Instead, I would like to build strength the way normal people do in real life: through regular and rigorous exercise. But it’s boring if I just assign a number value to each action I take and repeat the ones that give me the best xp per hour with minimal effort. There needs to be an actual marked physical improvement. The player who reached Level 99 splashing on rats in Lumbridge Swamp is patient, yes, but they have never tested their blade against a dragon. Super lame. So, I come equipped already with a few things. The first is a pair of 8lb dumbbells. Of course, if one pound equals one experience point, I could just do 800,000 bicep curls and call it a day, but, as I said before, that’s lame. I also have two 6kg dumbbells. Same logic there. I don’t want to just do a bunch of bicep curls and call it a day. I have a wall for wall pushups, and a floor for floor pushups. There is also an adult jungle gym not too far from my apartment for pull-ups and chin-ups, but if we’re being completely honest, I can only do one or two of those before losing stamina, dying, and being sent back to my last checkpoint.

Strength is very general as well. For the sake of this exercise, I am going to limit it to muscle groups in my upper body: arms, chest, and shoulders. I figure I can get six-pack abs for a different project.

So, every installment, you guys are going to give me a value from my current strength level to level 99. I will then take the average from all those answers, and that will be my Strength level for the next installment. I also want you guys to give me ideas for feats of strength which may prove that I have earned the level that I currently am. Finally, if you have any ideas for skills I may level up in real life, and how I might do that, please let me know! I am always excited to hear more ideas!

Current Stats:

~500 8lb bicep curls consecutively without taking a break

~100 6kg bicep curls consecutively without taking a break

~30 wall pushups consecutively without taking a break

Less than 5 floor pushups

Results inconclusive about pull-ups and chin-ups

Level me in the comments! Give me a number from 1-99!