Dragon Ball 10 Times Goku Pushed Himself Too Far (& Paid For It)

Dragon Ball's protagonist Goku will not hesitate to put himself at risk for the sake of others. Here are 10 times when he paid the price for it.

Sure, Goku had the advantage of being a Saiyan, but he didn't get as strong as he did by playing it safe. Over the years, he's challenged himself by deliberately stepping up to powerful foes, undergoing horrendous training regimens, and mastering powerful techniques that could've destroyed his body if they were performed incorrectly.

While his habit of pushing himself to his limits is what ends up saving the day in the long run, it's never without consequence. More often than not, Goku's learned the hard way that overdoing it can sometimes be just as deleterious as it can be helpful.

10 Training At 100 Times Earth's Gravity On The Way To Namek

After his battle against Vegeta, Goku realized that he needed to get even stronger to protect everything he loved. During his voyage to Namek, the gravity machine on his spaceship malfunctioned, and he was nearly crushed in 100 times Earth's gravity. He managed to survive the ordeal, leaving his body battered, and yet after this experience, he decided to continue training at 100 times Earth's gravity simply because he figured it would help him get stronger faster.

While this ultimately did ensure that he was suited for his upcoming duel with Frieza, training continually like this caused him to consume a lot of the Senzu Beans that could've made the fight against the Ginyu Force and Frieza much easier. This would've saved him the time he spent recovering in the outdated Medical Machine that forced him to join the fight against Frieza so late.

9 Continued To Fight While Experiencing Heart Pain

Not only did Goku stop taking the medication for the heart virus that Trunks warned him about, but he made no adjustments to his intense training regimen after quitting the medicine. When the time came for him to fight Android 19, his Super Saiyan transformation only exacerbated the heart virus, and Goku, like any prideful Saiyan, continued to fight through the pain, almost getting himself killed as a result.

Of course, it wasn't like he could've just run from this fight, but trying to maintain Super Saiyan when he could barely stand only made his situation worse.

8 Wasted Too Much Energy During His Temporary Stay On Earth

Despite being dead, Goku was given special permission to return to Earth for a day so that he could participate in the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament. Of course, no one could've predicted that that same day would be the day that Majin Buu would be resurrected. Nevertheless, it happened, but Goku didn't handle things as responsibly as he should've with his limited time on Earth.

By debuting his Super Saiyan 3 transformation and prolonging his fight against Majin Buu instead of using the transformation's power to exterminate the Majin right then and there, he shortened his stay on Earth, since the transformation took a lot to sustain even in death. This guaranteed that the Z-Fighters wouldn't have him around when they really needed him as Buu began to undergo stronger, more sinister transformations.

7 Tried To Sustain His Super Saiyan 3 Transformation In His Living Body

Despite granting him immense power, Super Saiyan 3 burned through Goku's stamina like no other transformation in his arsenal. Sure, when he was dead, he had an easier time sustaining it, but he learned the hard way that Super Saiyan 3 wasn't really a form meant for the living during the fight against Kid Buu.

While Vegeta and the others covered for him, he foolishly thought he could sustain his Super Saiyan 3 transformation while also restoring his own energy. This backfired, and he soon reverted back to his base form after failing to multitask.

6 Challenged Beerus Despite Being Told Not To

Despite King Kai's constant warnings, Goku still had the audacity to challenge Beerus to a fight when the two first met, mostly because he wanted to put his own limits to the test against a powerful foe. At first, Beerus did nothing but dodge his attacks, until Goku, who wanted more of a challenge, goaded Beerus into attacking for a change.

When Beerus chose to retaliate, he beat Goku from a Super Saiyan 3, back into his base form, leaving him lying on the ground in probably the most pain he'd felt in a long time.

5 Recklessly Used The Kaio-Ken During His Fight Against Hit

Even after Goku began to grasp the rhythm behind Hit's Time Skip, the Saiyan was shocked to learn that Hit had the ability to further improve his Time Skip abilities by the second. This forced Goku to bolster his Super Saiyan Blue transformation by pairing it with the Kaio-ken. Goku revealed that dropping his concentration for a second would destroy him, and yet, he somehow managed to sustain this form for several minutes during his fight with Hit.

The Kaio-ken is supposed to be used in short bursts; he'd never trained himself to sustain it as he did in this moment. He paid the price for using the Kaio-ken so recklessly when he suffered from a bout of Delayed Onset Ki Disorder that made it difficult for him to fly or use Instant Transmission properly, making his daily life a lot more complicated.

4 Using The Hakai Despite Being A Mortal

Even before tapping into the powers of Ultra Instinct, Goku learned firsthand, in Dragon Ball Super's manga at least, that certain powers are reserved for deities, and that while there wasn't really anything stopping him from using these powers, they came at a huge consequence if he didn't receive the proper training first. In the manga, Goku went up against Fused Zamasu and utilized the Hakai as a last resort.

Given the fact that he wasn't a God of Destruction, this technique drained him of his remaining energy and wasn't instant like Beerus' Hakai was. Not only was it extremely wreckless for him to attempt, but led to him being out of commission for the rest of the fight. If Future Trunks wasn't able to finish things, this maneuver would've ensured Zamasu's victory, since Goku was no longer useful.

3 Fending Off Fused Zamasu's Holy Wrath On His Own

Fused Zamasu's Holy Wrath was so powerful that it took the combined efforts of Vegeta and Future Trunks to repel it, but after they had their turn, Goku stepped up to repel Zamasu's next Holy Wrath on his own.

He generated a Kamehameha so powerful that it was able to penetrate Zamasu's attack and destroy one half of his face. Unfortunately, the Saiyan exerted so much energy that his arms broke after pulling off this Kamehameha, making him easy pickings for Fused Zamasu.

2 Orchestrating His Own Assassination For A Challenge

After the fight against Fused Zamasu, Goku found himself wanting a challenge, so much so that he hired Hit to kill him so that the Universe 6 assassin would give him the rematch he'd been craving for so long. Hit took the job just as seriously as his others, showing up and overwhelming Goku with abilities that he couldn't use during their original match because he wasn't aiming to kill.

Had it not been for the burst of ki that Goku fired into the sky that later revived him, he would've died after Hit struck his heart. His desire to fight someone that he knew would give him a challenge literally cost him his life, and yet the Saiyan refused to learn his lesson after such a lethal encounter that he went to Zeno a few episodes later to set the Tournament of Power in motion.

1 Using Ultra Instinct Too Many Times During The Tournament Of Power

The Tournament of Power forced Goku into the toughest fight of his life after he found himself struggling to defeat Universe 11's mightiest warrior, Jiren, as well as Universe 6's secret ace-in-the-hole, Kefla.

To defeat them, he tapped into the powers of Ultra Instinct for a grand total of three times, pushing his body far past its mortal limits. He paid the price for overusing such sacred powers, with his body breaking down on him just when he was about to knock Jiren out of the arena.