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" This week, three Esquire staffers of differing degrees of athleticism embarked on a six-day-a-week-for-six-weeks fitness challenge devised by As One Fitness co-founder and extremely fit man Mark Merchant. Based on a World War II-era military training regimen, the program is challenging. Very challenging. If you too want to be combat ready in six weeks, follow the program detailed here and monitor our editors&amp;#039; progress as they transform themselves from &amp;quot;alive&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;Mark Merchant fit.&amp;quot; Tweet your own fitness progress @Esquiremag with #EsqAs1Chlg.  Anna Peele, 26, Assistant Editor BMI: 18.3Percentage of body fat: 14.5General fitness level: Somewhere between Gumby and Ronda RouseyPrevious athletic endeavors: Walking 5-6 miles a day, yoga, sporadic boot camps, one CrossFit class Fitness test results: 6 paced pushups 33 rower sit-ups in two minutes 30 paced squat jumps 21 squat thrusts in one minute 6 full-extension pull-ups (with assistance from a stretchy band that pulled me toward the bar) 2.1 mile run in 19:25 To motivate myself, I find the weakest person at each activity and try to do slightly better than them. To motivate myself once I become more focused on my own exhaustion than imaginary competitions that I&amp;#039;m losing, I remind myself that each exercise brings me closer to eating almonds at my desk (I currently have the fuel efficiency of a Bugatti) and complaining about how sore I am.  &amp;quot;Ronnie,&amp;quot; 39, a senior member of the editorial staff BMI: No idea. Will get it measured on Monday. I suspect it amounts to &amp;quot;soft.&amp;quot;Percentage of body fat: See above.General fitness level: &amp;quot;Alive&amp;quot;Previous athletic endeavors: Playing outdoors 1974-1992. One season of flag football, 1999. The occasional softball game, 1997-2005. Pretty much n/a, 2006-present Fitness test results: 11 paced pushups (about one every two seconds) 32 &amp;quot;rower sit-ups&amp;quot; in two minutes 21 paced jump squats 16 squat thrusts in one minute 1 full-extension pull-up 2.1 mile run in 20:30  The class is hard. But not will-killing. There is probably a German word for how I feel about squat thrusts.  Peter Martin, 35, Articles Editor BMI: 20.4 Body fat percentage: 10.4 General fitness level: active Previous athletic endeavors: Running, the normal gym, CrossFit Fitness test results: 28 paced pushups 60 rower sit-ups in two minutes 30 paced squat jumps 40 squat thrusts in one minute 15 full-extension pull-ups 2.1 mile run in 15:55 I actually like exercising, especially when it&amp;#039;s with somebody like Mark, who takes away the burden of needing to think about what I&amp;#039;m doing. I thought I&amp;#039;d be pretty good at this program, at least during the first week, when it&amp;#039;s only 1-2 rounds of exercises on strength days. That&amp;#039;s 3-6 minutes of work. I was not so good at the program. It&amp;#039;s exhausting. From the moment the warm-ups start, you&amp;#039;re gasping for breath. Which is normal, Mark told me after the first day. Everyone gets out of breath. It&amp;#039;s how long you can operate like that. So I did feel slightly encouraged. Still, every afternoon my legs have started feeling like they&amp;#039;re made of cement. Slightly tingly cement\u2014as if I took a Vicodin, but no one told my upper body. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/health/a28145/fitness-program-week-1-workouts-0414/>