Is anyone teetotal?

[RetroPug]

I am quite tempted to go down the body building route, I'm just worried about piling on excess bulk and weight. It would be good though, I see photos of myself in rugby gear at 16 or 17, with big arms and a flat stomach and I miss it, I'm a right fat fucker now.

The drinking all started when I did my knee, I was gutted because I genuinely was close to playing professionally, I'd had trials at Salford, Batley, Hunslet, Wakefield and Bradford and was waiting to hear on them. I actually got a call from Bradfords coach asking me to meet him to discuss a contract 2 days after I got out of hospital, and I had to explain it was unlikely I'd be able to play again. I'm not a cryer, but I put the phone down and burst into tears, that'd been my dream for 10 years.

Yeah I've read about it a bit in your other posts. It must have been extremely hard to deal with and I can't imagine how bad it was but I bet it's still painful.

Regarding the gym and lifting weights etc. There are ways to train that focus on lean muscle rather than bulking out and size gaining, for example, a lot of bodyweight type exercises are good as you exercise whole muscle groups and your body grows proportionately, for example pull-ups. Obviously do your own research if you decide to go down this route but weightlifting routines for general fitness and conditioning rather than mass gaining definitely do exist. Swimming is definitely good too, even if you're not the most confident swimmer if you go to most pools there are people of all abilities there so it really doesn't matter. It works lots of muscles at the same time and is a good aerobic workout as well.

It's good motivation to cut down on the drink, if you start putting in hard work at the gym you'll start feeling like you've wasted that hour in the gym in 10 minutes of a couple of drinks! If there's no motivation like a reward for money saved, or getting in shape, or both, then it's difficult to just force yourself with no goals or progression towards something.