You have spoken very well young Duke, you are learning.
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10.21.18
Woke at 249.2 lbs.
I took measurements this morning but I haven’t done anything with them. I’ll organize them and share the results tomorrow morning.
Softball Tournament
We won! We lost the first Championship game but it was double elimination. We were undefeated to that point and redeemed ourselves quickly.
My performance was up and down. I only got out twice through three games. I hit line drives to left field for singles and doubles nearly every at-bat. I hit one homerun for the day which is disappointing. I couldn’t figure out my swing.
My shoulder hurt when I swung the bat and some swings were pretty bad but the pain wore off. Throwing wasn’t too bad but my arm is gone. Whatever is wrong with my shoulder let it move around and my throwing groove would change. I couldn’t control my arm angle. It kind of just did whatever it wanted.
I think we played five games but we were there all day. I’m spent. I also managed to not drink. I had one beer but I’m working on the few I have in the fridge now. I feel much better than the last two years where I drank all day.
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Is that another way of saying you haven’t beaten me yet
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No. I hurt all over from softball. My hamstrings are letting me know they don’t like repeated all out sprints. My wrist didn’t like diving. My sprained ankle aches. And my hip aches. Knees are hurting too.
I punished myself today.
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I’m not gunna lie, I genuinely lol’d at that update because before I even seen the post, I knew it was going to be your next update
You’re in pain, but I’m still gunna assume it is well worth it😂
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You bet! I had a blast!
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10.22.18
Woke at 247.4 and sore AF.
Here are the results of my measurements. Green is obviously good change and red is bad.
Shoulder width/girth/circumference/whatever you want to call it is tough to measure by yourself. I find it odd that my waist stayed the same but my belly grew. I guess that’s good (for my waist)? Overall I’m not surprised by anything. I didn’t really have any expectations; this was just a check-in. Actually, this is a benchmark. I’m done bulking. Why bulk when I’m shutting down most of my lifting? I’m not going to start cutting yet, but I’m going to back off on the food a bit. If I lose a couple pounds then so be it. I guess these measurements mark the biggest I’ve been and probably will be because I’m uncomfortable.
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Glad you had a great day with the Baseball 
You’ve grown all over the place man, except your arms, gotta do some curls now.
If you could swing the bat and throw the ball things must be just a little bit better or am I totally wrong?
I’m stubborn. Some of my swings hurt like hell and I found my arm kind of hanging like it was slipping out of the joint. Throwing wasn’t terrible but I felt like my arm was doing whatever it wanted. Every throw was different in terms off how it felt and what path my arm traveled. It made it interesting since I wasn’t 100% certain where the ball would go when I released it.
Like I said last week I’m kind of tired of being banged up so I just ignored the shoulder and played anyway. I took a hydrocodone 7.5 before the day started hoping it’d help with the pain. I didn’t really notice anything from it. My body tolerates stuff like that pretty well. Most people would’ve felt at least a little high from that dose.
I don’t have any pain while I sit here today but my shoulder hurts when I move my arm around. I plan to rest it for a while now. No lifting with my right arm until I’m pain free. That’s also why I’m done bulking. I might start to atrophy.
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Damn man, keep bulking. I don’t want to be the only one fat around here… Well I’m not fat, but being a skinny dude makes my belly look silly.
I was fitting 32" pants now It’s more like 33 maybe even more LOL.
I had to widen my belt a bit to at work
I sincerely hope you get your shoulder fixed big J. And the hip of course but that thing seems to live a life of it own.
I can’t continue to bulk if I can’t train with 100% of my body or 100% effort.
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Recovery Day
I didn’t want to go to the gym today but I promised my daughter we’d go. She misses going to the Kid Zone and she’s out of school for teacher in-service.
TREADMILL
30 min walk while watching Netflix.
1.76 miles
SAUNA
HOT TUB
I felt pretty good when I left the gym but my hip flexor stiffness came back quick. It hurt to get out of the car when I got home.
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I’m not going to intentionally cut but there’s a chance that I’ll lose weight before the end of the year. I’m rereading The Abs Diet to remind myself how I used to eat. I know it’s a healthier diet and it requires no calorie counting. I used this book the first time I found my six pack. I went from a soft 240 lbs to a much leaner 225 lbs in a month.
It’s quite possible that for the second year in a row I’ll cut before the T-ransformation Challenge. I’d love to participate but I’m not going to intentionally stay fat for that.
Again, I’m not cutting, but I need to adopt a healthier diet. I’ll eat when I’m hungry but I’ll probably change the foods. I might accidentally lose some weight.
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What are you currently watching?
Hang in there, J. Good changes often take time, but they’re worth the wait.
Hey J I know you can’t stay on the bulk.
It was just to make you feel bad leaving me alone as the fat dude around here.
Nah clean up the diet, eat healthy, get all those damn injuries out of the way.
10.23.18
Woke at 249.8 lbs.
Yesterday I watched Ozark. I was hoping to start season 3 of Daredevil but it wouldn’t load on the treadmill. The Y has a lot of Precor machines that let you log in to Netflix, Hulu, etc. It’s great.
I’m in the middle of a mental overhaul. Over the past 15 years I’ve constantly changed from a hypertrophy focus to a strength focus.
I’d chase size until I failed to grow so then I’d try to get stronger at the same weight until it started hurting my joints (which never takes long).
This year I decided to really push it and stop making excuses. I was mostly motivated by the folks here in the forum. I finally thought that I could do more; I could add quality mass; I could get stronger.
And here I am with two nagging injuries that have forced me to alter a program with traditional lifts.
I give up. It’s time to focus on what my body can handle. I’m going to get lean again at some point (no rush) and I’m going to push my deadlift and power clean. I enjoy those and they don’t hurt either of my current injuries. The rest of my training will be to maintain size and increase strength (if I can while maintaining weight). I might just have to settle for looking good and being strong enough to live a quality life.
I know, Mort. I’m a little frustrated that my body is forcing me to take a break. I tried to be stubborn and push through it but the body always wins (in terms of injury).
I wanted to hit 260 but I’m also tired of being fat. I have a slight belly roll while I’m standing without any clothes on…that’s bad. My lower back fat is also unacceptable.
I guess part of me is relieved that I don’t have to add any more fat.
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I think this is one of the first goals that all of us make and it’s good to get back to it. I saw someone say it on the forums last fall (and I think it was a troll), but how much good is your 315 bench/405 squat/ 500 deadlift doing for society?
We’re all competitive dudes and nobody competes harder against you than the guy in the mirror. It’s easy to get lost in the competitive mental war zone and lose sight of why the hell we started doing this in the first place. It took about a week for me to realize I was never going to set any world records in anything, and then I decided I just wanted to lift weights to be functionally fit and healthier than the average American–which I probably could’ve done by going on a 10 minute bike ride twice a week. I digress. The important thing is that you get healthy, or at LEAST feel better in a month or two than you do waking up today.
Injuries aren’t fun. But if you had to pick two lifts to keep, deadlifts and cleans are fantastic. I’m really glad that you can still do those with no pain.
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This doesn’t have to mean very heavy weights. Time to start training like a bodybuilder and win that hyper trophy 
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