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.

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.

Of man and pants

I don’t always buy jeans, but when I do, it’s got to be Levi’s. (Sponsor me!)

Now that I’ve returned to a more rigorous workout schedule (three times a week), my current pairs of jeans - Levi’s 502 in 31x30 size - have become a bit loose. What was once possible to wear without a belt, now requires one to hold the pants up properly. Out of curiosity, I went back to look when I last purchased these jeans, and it was May of 2021.

That is right smack in the middle of the pandemic. The reason I bought new Levi’s jeans then was the reverse of now: the current pairs were too tight. Indeed, the COVID weight gain comes for us all, and during the middle of 2021 I was at my heaviest in a long time. I can remember that September, when I absolutely struggled to fit into a suit that was tailored back in 2014. Suffice it to say, I got back on a weight cut after attending my friend’s wedding with said suit.

Back to the present day. With high inflation touching seemingly everything, I was surprised to find that Levi’s jeans (the 502 style, at least) have not increased in price. The $70 for a standard pair is the same today as it was back in 2021. Of course, no one should be paying full price for a pair of Levi’s. Their website has an automatic 20% off, plus free shipping, when you give them an email address for their newsletter. (Goes to show how absurdly high the margins are.)

Third-party retailers often have sales, too. I bought four new pairs of 502 jeans from Amazon at around $50 each. Hopefully, I won’t have to buy replacements in larger sizing for a very long time.

Healy Chen

Blog

A quicker way

Compounding small gains

Of man and pants