Common Pain for Cohesion

by Lim Ching Ying

MIND OVER MATTER: Residences from Hall 15 sticking by each other throughout the challenge.
PHOTO: Alicia Goh

Perhaps even an athlete would quake at the prospect of completing 1,000 sit-ups in one sitting.

Yet, some students from NTU’s Hall of Residence 15 accomplished just that in the hall’s 1,000 Sit-Ups Challenge, a unique initiative to encourage bonding among students.

The challenge took roughly three hours from start to finish, and was organised by the Sports and Recreational Games Secretaries from the hall’s Junior Common Room Committee. Held on 24 Mar, the event made a modest debut with an estimated 60 participants.

“We wanted to bond residents through a seemingly daunting activity,” said Sports Secretary Goh Jun Xian, a second-year student from Nanyang Business School.

“Hence the tagline: common pain is the best cohesion!” the 22-year-old added.

Registration started at 7pm and was only open to Hall 15 residents, including those without any sports background.

Participants began the challenge with sets consisting of 50 consecutive sit-ups. The event organisers, who were leading the participants in the challenge, paced them adequately, lowering the number of non-stop sit-ups to 30, and eventually 20 at the later stages.

A huge screen at the front of the multi-purpose hall recorded every completed sit-up via an electronic counter. Breaks were given at different legs for participants to rest, stretch their muscles and hydrate themselves.

The tone of voice from the crowd that was counting the number of sit-ups grew increasingly loud and supportive, as about a third of the participants completed the challenge after a gruelling three hours. Highlighting the camaraderie as one of the driving forces, participants pushed through the extreme physicality of the event.

Skyler Tan, 21, who was participating in such an event for the first time, attributed her feat to hit the 1,000th sit-up to support from other participants.

“I’m not really a fit person,” the first-year Sociology student from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences explained, adding that her orientation group mate had stayed the whole time to hold down her feet and lend words of encouragement.

Many participants who came down also exceeded their initial targets.

“I was tired but I came as I felt that it is part of my responsibility as the hall’s female hockey team captain. So I was thinking maybe my limit was around 100 sit-ups,” said Sian Chan, 21, a first-year student from the School of Biological Sciences.

She added: “Surprisingly though, after getting down to the event and having my friends push me along, I made it to 500, which was way beyond what I’d expected.”

The completion of each milestone — at the 250th, 500th, 700th and finally the 1,000th sit-up — gave participants a chance in each of the four respective lucky draws, although they were allowed to drop out at any time of the challenge. The prizes consisted of Starbucks cards and supermarket vouchers of assorted values, with the grand prize being $100 worth of Capitaland vouchers.

Even those who didn’t walk away with prizes left the event with a sense of accomplishment rarely found elsewhere.

“I never thought I’d get to 1,000,” said Tan. “I used the strength of my thighs for a while (making the sit-ups easier) but my friend made me do it the right way. My abs are really killing me now, but I’m glad I did it!”