Workout Updates
As a note, updates to numbers and workouts are tracked via git history.
2026-10-14 update
Super happy with progress. I think I’m still at level 2 in that arm picture with 5 levels in the motivation page, but my shoulders are at level 3. I feel like level 3 for me just requires fat loss; I’m at 151lb in the morning now, so it’s about time. I saw an influencer named minolee who is super lean and my height but weighing ~140lb. Dude looks great. I don’t think I’d drop to that level, at most 145lb, but we’ll see. I also asked ChatGPT about the balance in my workouts, and I believe my biceps aren’t as developed as my shoulders (which is always the case, fwiw) because I only do 6 sets of Bicep curls per week.
My girlfriend is now complaining that she never wanted a buff guy (I’m also not buff, but my arms are certainly bigger). To be fair, when we started dating, her parents said I’d blow away in the wind. Granted, I’ve not only heard that line about me before, but I used to call myself a twig ever since high school since I loved running and soccer. She always wanted a skinny guy, and my guess is it’s because of 1) c-dramas and 2) the perception of aggression of buff guys. Now, she knows it’s always been for public perception given I only started working out my arms about 1.5 years ago, which was 1.5 years into dating at that point, so she deals with it. I can also carry her now, so I achieved my goal of carrying my girlfriend down the aisle for our wedding — although I haven’t accounted for the wedding dress itself, and she told me she did not want me to do that. Oof.
Alas, I’m of average American male height wearing glasses, so amongst the Asian American community, I’ll be perceived as a software engineer for eternity and looked down upon in the social hierarchy. From a meta perspective, I’m super proud to see so many Asian American men get fashionable and work out in the millennial and Gen Z range. Software engineers are actually fashionable now. Amongst the rest of the country, I’m not sure anything will change for racist folk, or those who want to show aggression. I’m starting to re-evaluate how much getting bulkier assists in perception in the wider American community.
Something weird I’ve noticed: my left arm is stronger than my right arm, even though my right arm has always been my dominant arm. I’m not sure how this happened, but it definitely only happened due to working out. I’ve always noticed during my bicep curls that my left arm had it easier than my right, doing more volume and having better form. It’s not just curls either; my left arm in general is stronger than my right, including on dumbbell bench presses. It’s quite possible my form was just better on my left early on, and that compounded over time.
Finally, I should list my reasons for actually doing pullups:
- I always tried doing pronated pullups when I first moved apartments and no longer went to a commercial gym, and I always failed. That was a big motivation for me trying because I was horrified how weak I became. In retrospect, I was strong enough for my high school body weight, but not my adult weight.
- I saw a YouTuber bring a pullup bar to a beach and witnessed people going to 30 pullups. That’s basically my goal: 30, then 35, then 40, then 50 pullups.
2026-09-19 update
Apparently, my 4:1 ratio thing is wrong. Though my machine is 4:1, it actually makes it easier, but according to Google the label on LifeFitness reflects the actual resistance. So just don’t look at the online label for anything cable related:/ Also, I can do 6 full extension, scapular pull ups on off days now since the last update, and do 3x20 scapular pull ups. Finally, my parents visited, and I compared my arm with my dad: his is bigger, dad strength. But there were no gyms in his 20s in China that he attended at least. My sibling mentioned he did pull ups on the monkeybars, but he swears his numerous daily hours of Zhan Zhuang (standing meditation) plus some home construction helped. Several claims made by different people lol.
2026-09-07 update
This week, I started doing 3x10 scapular pull ups to train my shoulder, and I can now do 3x5 proper pronated pull ups from fully stretched bottom position; if I cheat a little bit by not completely releasing my shoulders at the bottom/having my arms bent ever so slightly, I can do 10 pronated pull ups. A core problem is I do completely relax my shoulders, but I shouldn’t in the future while still having my shoulders rise at the bottom of the pull up. On a weekend, I can do 50 push ups in a row so long as I take a breath every time I dip down which. It’s been an unlock; on normal push days, though, I’m still usually getting to 30 at most per set, and I cheat a bit by not waiting at least 1 second at bottom and top, usually rushing through (I do go completely down and up). I’ve reached 153 lb bodyweight which was my weight from my first year of lifting. It’s about 2lb of stable weight loss per week. For weights, I’m still progressing as of updating this chart. However, a lot of push workout progress have been stymied as I feel weaker from losing muscle mass potentially and eating less carbs than usual. It also doesn’t help that the dumb bells are now incrementing by 10lb starting from 50lb to 60lb next, so it’s been tough increasing weight. For anything cable related, I realized the Strength Level tiers for 1RM are a bit different because users have different cable ratio pulley machines. My gym has the “Dual Adjustable Pulley with Stabilization” from LifeFitness which uses a 4:1 cable ratio, so I feel less bad about myself and am closer to novice level for many workouts instead of beginner. Or maybe I’m wrong about this, but the numbers according to ChatGPT are all over the place. I’m rationalizing there’s no way I’m still at beginner because the max weight on that machine is 97.5lb I think which is still below the “intermediate” range for a tricep pushdown.
2026-08-18 update
The last two weeks, I’ve been double checking my form diligently. Turns out, I’ve been doing partial bicep curls. I’m now starting from the very bottom, going down to 30lb. 5 more lb and I’m about intermediate which is still impressive compared to all the push workouts I have and how bad my form has been the entire time. I noticed my pull up machine is actually a Hammer Strength Chin/Dip/Leg Raise. For the neutral grip where the palms face each other, I can do a solid 10 without having done other workouts. But I’m still stuck at 2 for the pronated grip. It’s a bit wide for me, but that is probably for the best. Cable crunches really burns though. I also want to mention a partial inspiration for actually starting to workout as well has been my cousin, who is slightly taller than me but leaner and worked out a lot. He like me also likes cooking. I think it’s a stellar example of positive influence and demonstrates how parents influence children… and how similar my cousin and I somewhat are given we share similar DNA in that familial respect.
2026-08-18 update on arms
This is embarrassing, but the average male arm size is 13 inches, and it isn’t until a year of working out now that I have a non-flexed arm of almost (off by a tick) 13 inches circumference. I’ve recently been cutting from 162.5lb to now 155lb over the last two weeks. Suffice it to say, I self deprecatingly called myself a stick throughout my childhood. I seem to have a very good metabolism, particularly from carbs (Wuhan genes? Though my mom is actually mostly Sichuanese even though so many dishes I ate growing up were Wuhan stuff. I digress) Now I know, based on this latest measurement, that I was truly a twig. I thought all my free manual labor for my dad putting up drywalls, wooden planks, and painting and scrubbing would build muscle. Did jack. I bet carrying a baby for a year gets parents more muscle than lifting weights. Another thing that is slightly embarrassing is that I could do 30 underhand pull ups in middle school, but I was, again, a stick with lots of soccer and free labor behind my belt. Now I have visceral fat apparently. I’ve been trying to do overhand and neutral grip pull ups the last week, and I’ve barely gotten past 2 on the overhand (on a push day) and 10 on the neutral (if I skipped all other exercises). I don’t think I have that much (hidden since I’m east asian) fat, but there’s definitely something there. We looked back in my high school photos, and I had abs (still a stick!). What happened to those. Upon reflecting on my apparent achievement of being average now, do all men go to the gym? Or is that 13 inches also including folks with lots of fat in their arms, but to what degree would that skew the average? What manual labor did people do that I’m not aware of. Even from a sports perspective, there wasn’t weight training. For me playing soccer growing up, it was intense cardio and skin cancer. But for 13.4 inches being the ages 20-29 average, are people going to the gym? The majority of people don’t go to the gym. It’s also possibly my arm measuring is imprecise. I could also just be losing fat. Man I wish I did like a dexa scan to see before and now. Would’ve been cool to scientifically see it or add my stat to someone’s scientific studies. I also haven’t done PRs before, and it’s possible I may need to just do less reps and higher weights. Also, I’ve taken greater interest in the different forms and alternatives online. Reddit and the fitness community’s history online is amazing. Tons of resources. Also, this website is pretty useful to gauge progress https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/lb. I filled in my workouts, and the raw export is here: workout-2026-08-18.csv. Novice is 20 percentile, and intermediate is 50th percentile. I’ve cleared novice for most of them, and if I had started some workouts earlier or just pushed harder than I currently am, I would probably be able to do most at novice. (Or like push ups, if I started with it instead of putting it near the middle, it’d be 50 at least since that’s what I trained for at Planet Fitness, which would technically put me at 65th percentile, but it’s cheating in a way?). I think I’ve been doing most of these at decent form, though dumbbell curls possibly not since I don’t start all the way from the bottom. Anyways, I’m mostly a novice, and on average halfway to intermediate.