Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Do you even lift, bro?

The only thing I bought from last week’s Amazon Big Deal days is a scale. Not for food, but to check my body weight. I’ve been lifting weights consistently for about a year now, and I was curious to see if I’d gotten any heavier. Muscle weights more than fat, I’ve been told.

And drum roll please, since last October I’ve gained a grand total of two pounds. I’ve certainly gotten stronger compared to last year, but I guess I am not eating at an enough surplus to gain lots of weight. The laws of thermodynamics cannot be violated: burn more calories than you take in, you lose weight. Intake more calories than you burn, you gain weight. It seems I’m barely above maintenance.

Sugary foods doesn’t necessarily make one fat. If I give you only one sugar cube to eat everyday - and nothing else - you’re going to be skin on bones in a few weeks’ time. The problem with sugar is that it tends to be part of calorically dense foods. Think ice cream, or a can of non-diet soda. Therefore it’s super easy to overeat. Halloween is coming up soon. Parents ought to look up just how much calorie those tiny pieces of candy contain.

If I want to built muscle mass quickly, I have simply must eat more. But, I am okay with this two pound per year pace, honestly. Besides, the point of strength training for me isn’t hypertrophy: it’s for longevity. I want to be mobile and able as late into my twilight years as possible. There’s also correlation between small body mass and lifespan. Think of the people in Okinawa.

Getting too big is also cumbersome for flying. I’m always envious of tiny Asian women, where economy seating might as well be business class for them.

My exercise goal is to be as strong as possible for my current leanness.

Week four

A quick update on week four of going on isotretinoin, colloquially known as Accutane. Good news is, of the somewhat notorious list of symptoms, mine remains only the constant dryness, and a mild blanket tiredness. No suicidal thoughts; the only muscle pain stems from me actually lifting weights, rather than caused by the medication.

The dryness is unavoidable: that’s how you know the medicine is working. As someone who is not fond of the feeling of chapstick on the lips, having to apply every two hours has been rather bothersome. Bad news is I have at least four more months of this before I can go back to having lips au naturel.

It’s not all bad though, the dryness. My oily face and scalp has decreased in sheen dramatically. It’s kind of emotional to now be able touch my face without needing to immediately wash my hands of the grease. My hair is no longer matted down with oil after only a few hours into the day. In fact, the follicles are so dry that I can wash my hair twice a week, instead of every other day.

The constant application of lip balm is so worth it for that.

As far as acne goes - the whole reason for going on Accutane, it hasn’t really subsided just yet. I think my face is still doing its purging of the bad stuff before the new healthy stuff can replace it. The pores on my nose still resembles a strawberry (they are suppose to shrink). At least my original acne isn’t so severe that I can afford to be patient with this.

Protect the gains

it is an utter disease for those of us who weight-train consistently. The disease of thinking you will get fat in an instant the one time we have to skip a work out. Go on a two weeks vacation? Better book a hotel with a passable gym facility, or hope the local gym offers a one day pass.

It’s the same disease that makes me think eating one singular donut will make my visible abs disappear. Poof.

Obviously, that’s not how it works. Getting into shape involves hard training over a long period of time; what makes you think getting out of shape would happen just like that? (Snap of the finger.) Even if the goal is to get fat (coming from skinny): it’ll take at least few months of stuffing your mouth like food is going to run out to see significant change.

Word on the street is that it is actually beneficial to take some time away from the weights. Especially when a particular exercise has not improved in the past few weeks. If you’re stuck at 10 pull-ups, taking a week break may get you past that plateau. Because what’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and expecting different results.

The last time I took a break from working out was back in June. It wasn’t by choice, as in, I didn’t choose specifically to take a break. I couldn’t exercise because I was in Thailand for my friend’s wedding. I am probably due for another week off, but it’s tough mentality to force myself to pause. I feel like I would be leaving gains (got to protect the gains) if I were to slob it up for a week or two. It doesn’t make logical sense, but tell that to the guy who is addicted to heroin.

The parable is: if you don’t take a break, your body will force you into one eventually (read: injury). Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that for me!

Light weight, baby!

Pro tip for those into the habit of weightlifting: rent from your friend whose garage has a squat rack. Not for actually squatting, but for the ability to do pull-ups. The pull-up is such an essential exercise (for back and lat muscles) that I would have bought one of those power towers on Amazon for my (small) studio if there weren’t a squat rack already. The movement is that crucial, well worth the sacrifice in room space. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do that.

Recently, I have graduated to actually using the squat rack for (barbell back) squats. For the past year I’ve done goblet squats, clasping onto a single dumbbell with both hands to my chest. I seem to have reached critical mass with that, because my arms are tiring of holding onto 60 pounds well before my legs are giving up. Make sense: our leg muscles measurably bigger and stronger than the arms. The need to graduate to proper squats with a barbell is obvious.

What I did not realize is that having a huge metal rod putting pressure on my trap muscles kind of hurts! And my first attempt wasn’t even heavy: it was just the 45 pounds of the barbell itself! I guess (and hope) it is merely something to get used to. Surely it will feel more comfortable as I do more sets.

I am extremely lucky to have access to this setup right at home. While a set of adjustable dumbbells can take the upper body pretty far, leg day is a bit compromised as you advance in poundage. There comes an inflection point where It’s difficult to hold in your hands enough weight to stimulate the legs muscles properly (without doing a crazy amount of reps). The hands will get tired before the legs do. A barbell with weight plates solve that problem so easily.

A quicker way

Whoever invents muscle protein synthesis in a pill form is going to make many billions. Who the heck would want to workout many times a week just to be in decent shape? Even the most insufferable lovers of the gym will have lazy days, when they much rather lie on the couch with a laptop. But, until the day the muscle-making pill becomes reality, I shall continue pushing these weights on a consistent basis.

Fitness is tough work, multiplied over many months and years. I can see why people are quick to hop off that train. Shortcuts - what’s what we want, right? Shortcuts for everything. Social media has shown us the fantastic end results that we all want right now. How can I get as rich as Warren Buffett without putting in the decades of work and patience? (Crypto, obviously.) How can I lose fat without the immense willpower needed to eat less over a long period?

Ozempic. Kind of crazy to realize that we essentially have an effective diet pill. (Yes, I know these semaglutide GLP-1 agonist drugs are needle shots - you get the idea.) If I weren’t already skinny and lean, I’d be shooting myself weekly with that drug. Why put in the work when there’s a shortcut? Sure, there’s no free lunch, especially when it comes to drugs. But there’s downsides to exercising, too: time loss, working out becoming your entire personality.

I think semaglutide drug for weight loss is great news for folks in the higher BMI ranges, the people who have struggled to lose weight. Even the absolute lazy ones deserve a chance to lower their all-cause mortality by getting leaner. These drugs will only get better - in terms of mitigating side-effects - and cheaper. Thereby more accessible by more of the population. Health insurance companies should be very happy to cover Ozempic, because that open heart surgery down the line costing cost way more will be obviated.

Pharmaceutical companies: please do muscle-protein synthesis next. Because some days, working out is a total chore and a half.

Death of a coworker

It’s a tremendously sad day indeed to find out that one of our coworkers has passed away. We’ve not heard from her all last week, so on the behest of HR, SFPD paid a wellness visit to the coworker’s address on file. Our worst inklings were unfortunately confirmed. The deceased has been battling chronic health issues for as long as I’ve known her. To die so incredibly earlier than you’re naturally suppose to is an absolute tragedy.

I think the news hit the older coworkers more intensely. Seeing someone close to your age die so suddenly is a rather rude wake-up call. You start examining your own mortality, questioning whether you’ve forsaken long-term health for more immediate pleasures. Us Knowledge workers who sit in front of a computer all day have a steep hill to climb in terms of combating the deterioration that comes with age. A majority of my coworkers in their 40s and 50s are not the paragons of health, I’m sorry to point out.

For me, the fear of death is about the sensation of not being here (rather than fearing the agony of death). It’s the ultimate form of fear of missing out. That's why I’ve long been on the exercise, eat right, sleep plenty plan ever since I’ve graduated from university. While aesthetic improvements are nice, the actual goal is longevity. I don’t want to be gone prematurely! I want to be around for all the fun and not so fun that a full lifetime has to offer.

I hope the deceased did not suffer. To have worked with you is a privilege. Rest in peace.

Red in the morning, blue in the evening sun.

Compounding small gains

What they don’t tell you about keeping a consistent weight training schedule is that you never feel 100%. Most of the time, at least one body part is slightly sore. And just when that soreness subsidies, it’s time to train that body part again! The only time you feel completely fine is when the training pauses for things like vacation. But then you don’t mentally feel good about pausing, afraid those hard-earned gains will all melt away in a few days of inactivity.

That’s obviously not how it works, but I did say it was psychological.

The gains are indeed hard-earned because contrary to expectations, it takes a bloody long time to put on muscle mass cleanly. (One can always stuff themself with as much calories as possible, but then they’d be putting on fat as well as muscle.) Those dramatic one year transformations you see on social media? (Or Kumail Nanjiani.) It’s totally steroids. Adding 30 pounds of muscle in 12 months - whilst keeping body leanness - is impossible without artificial medical assistance.

I’ve been lifting weights consistently for about six months (progressive overloading, and eating a crap ton of protein along the way) and only now do I see some tiny hypertrophy of the muscles. I’d be happy if I gain three pounds of muscle total by the end of 2024.

Of course, the aesthetic improvements are mere positive side effects to the main goal of strength training: longevity. I want to be agile, limber, capable for as long as possible, right into the golden years. The aesthetics will fade sooner or later anyways. The strength and muscles cultivated now will (hopefully) prevent me from taking a fall at 70, breaking a hip, and dying shortly after. (The mortality rate on the elderly after taking a fall is enormous.)

There are no shortcuts (unless it’s Ozempic). Anything worth doing takes a long time.