Workout History

In high school, I did some manual labor like roofing, house flipping, etc. that helped build endurance, so I thought I had decent enough muscles. I was also 115–120 lb, so I was pretty light and could do plenty of pull-ups and push-ups. I played soccer, and in my latter high school life I started to like endurance running since I was pretty bad at it before.

Then college hit and I never did much exercise. I gained weight to 130 lb, and I noticed, 'wow, I had little muscle for my increasing weight.' It was a girl I had liked who told me, “Isn’t it kind of strange how little you care about growing muscles? I thought that’s what men were supposed to do to attract women.” Whoops lol.

These were my workout regiments inside my bedroom:

2022-01-10

Test day to see where I’m at

Plank: 1 set of 2.5 minutes
Archer: 2 sets of 2 minutes
Push-ups:
- 1 set of 20 regular
- 10 elevated or burpees
- 10 side by sides
- 10 shoulder touches or explosive
Mountain hike: 2 sets of 30
Bicep curls: 2 sets of 20 each arm, 10 lbs
Crawling: 100 reps
Oxygen apnea: 1 minute

Incorporate:

Side bicycle: 1 set of 20 each leg
100 push-ups goal

In 2022, after about 1.5 months of consistently training every day, I think I increased my planks to 10 minutes, I have no idea what archer is anymore, I could do 100 push-ups consecutively, I was doing 100 mountain hikes, I stopped doing bicep curls because I was using a makeshift remedy using a drawstring bag and books, crawling 100 reps consistently, and I could do this free dive oxygen apnea for 3 minutes.

Then I stopped and gained more weight. After working on startups and just life in general, I was still pretty skinny. I started dating someone, and her parents were like, this guy is gonna blow away in the wind. Flashback to the original quote, am I right?

2025-05-18

I’ve been working out at the gym for the last 2 months like this: 3 sets / 10 reps per set =

30 seated military bench press
30 bicep curls
30x benching dumbbells
30 weird bench lateral chest where your arms extend outwards and you bring it in above you
20 dumbbell pullovers
30 dumbbell front raises
30 reverse fly
30 push-ups
1 minute hard wave, though apparently your back is supposed to be on the ground but mine hasn’t

The weird bench lateral chest, pullovers, front raises, and reverse fly have been using 25 lb; the rest are 30 lbs. Without protein powder, I was struggling a lot at home.

I started March 2025 at a Planet Fitness, going 4-5 days a week, MTWFS. I was so weak I was lifting weights that my swimmer girlfriend could do initially. I started out at 15–17.5 lb dumbbells on each arm for almost all of them except the front raises, which were lower at around 10 lb. Around September, I stopped working out as consistently, going maybe twice every two weeks because I burnt out on work, and the demotivation was clear. I had peaked at 40 lb for each workout per arm; I think someone pointed out to me that it was strange I was doing hammer presses and dumbbell front raises at heavy weights with good form, and I think it had to do with the fact that Planet Fitness was so busy, I basically had to just use 1 set of dumbbells for the hour.

By September, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I don’t think I was necessarily a stick, but I’m still skinny. There’s some kind of psychology where they mention how one looks at themselves and rates their beauty more subjectively compared to what spectators would rate them. Maybe this is just my personality, but the mix of humbleness, possibly being blind, and the conflicting self-reflecting rating of myself (i.e., it’s possible I never thought of myself as a stick, so now I still think I look the same just with a slightly bigger arm) — I’ve been taking pictures and I barely notice any difference, but friends who hadn’t seen me in 2 years were saying, whoa, you’ve definitely been working out arm, shoulder width, and chest wise. So I guess something happened.

I will mention between September 2025 to March 2026, I basically somehow managed to stay relatively at the same weight class if I sometimes decided to stumble into the gym. It was kinda like maintenance. I recorded on 1/17/2026 a 35 lb dumbbell front raise and a 40 lb shoulder seated bench press. I’m no longer increasing the weight of doing push exercises 5 lb at a time per month because I’ve started doing pull exercises. When I first started, I just asked ChatGPT what exercises were good for chest and shoulder growth; I had decent shoulder traps already, so I just selected exercises that would help with target areas that I cared about. In retrospect, it shouldn’t have mattered that much; as a beginner, according to a bunch of blogs online, doing any exercise consistently to simply gain strength is what matters, and there’ll be a notable difference within a short time period.

When I first moved to NYC, I would inconsistently go out for runs. In sprints of around a month at a time, then just losing the habit, I would be consistent running 5 days a week, slowly growing from running about 2 miles without needing to stop to around 6.2 miles (almost a 10k) at a 7:30/mi pace to a 7 min/mi pace. It’s been a year since I last tried running, and two years since I consistently have been.

Now that I've been working out for quite a bit, I realized my carrying capacity on my shoulders might actually be weaker potentially. Back then, I carried a 25-40lb backpack everywhere for around an hour a day. Just for extra-preparedness and because it felt unnatural without it. It was like wearing a watch; I couldn't not carry a backpack because I could require something in there. Funnily enough, I hate wearing watches; it feels weird.

Back then, my dad used to scold me for not sitting up straight. My computer neck continued worsening throughout high school into college. My current workout regiment (the pull days) have helped me sit up straight. I had ChatGPT design my workout regiment based on my apartment complex's gym equipment, and I can honestly say it's improved my back a lot.