Some Current Views

Damn, I wasn't expecting to look quite so scrawny.

I took all these photos a few days ago, and damn it's difficult to shoot self-portraits without a good setup. Well, one of my goals was to develop shoulders and I have them now, so I'm pleased. But it's been a lot of hard work: before or after bench press (3 times weekly), I do front raises, lateral raises and inclined rear flyes with a pair of 15 lb dumbbells — usually 5-6 sets of 12-15 reps each. No one wants huge triceps and biceps hanging off of coat-hanger shoulders.

Shooting into a mirror means you catch the distortions from the mirror as well, but you get better control of lighting. It seems to be a toss-up. I look a lot bigger shooting into a mirror. It can be very amusing! I have one of those home model digital scales that purports to use electrical resistance to determine your body fat percentage. My scale is lying to me, saying I'm 106 lbs and 20% body fat.


I'm hoping that one of these days I'll be able to see the 6-pack abs I know exist under that thick layer of subcutaneous fat. I think a lot of Asians have thicker skin and more subcutaneous fat, giving us that very smooth look that's not so great for muscular definition. I need to drop down to 17-15% body fat minimum to see anything vaguely like abs. I do admit to being recently pleasantly surprised at the increased vascularity in my tiny forearms. That's never happened to me before, but I'm quite happy about it. I'm going to credit 3-5 sets of bicep curls (12 reps) with 20 lb dumbbells twice weekly. Sometimes I follow or precede with 3-5 sets of inclined curls with 15 lb dumbbells, dependent upon whether an incline bench is available. I hate bothering people, asking if they're done yet so I'll go do something else and come back later.

The triceps are okay. I used to lift weights when I was in college about 30 years ago, so I remember when I had striations on my "horseshoes". My main concern these days is being strong enough to knockout pushups during the cardio kickboxing class I take sporadically, and to be able to increase my bench press. At least once if not twice a week, I'll use the Smith machine and eek out 3 sets of 8-10 reps at 135 lbs. Which is pretty damn good for a middle-aged woman who weighs 107. But I'm not sure I quite believe the Bodybuilding.com calculator that projects I'd be able to do a one-time lift of 168 lbs based on those stats. After all, I still got these tiny hands and wrists with horribly flexible joints that sprain and dislocate at the most inopportune moments.