Also it makes me look way less chubby that I am. I am not ashamed to admit that.

So these my 34s in comparison to my roughly 6ft frame. It's hard to judge how comically large they are just by themselves. Did sets with them today and could only manage sets of 7. A year ago before I stopped doing curls I was doing 4+ sets of 10 so I got a ways to work back to.

Deadlifts and bench presses went well today. Increased deadlift weight to 185. Managed 5 sets of 8. Might could have pushed some of those to 10 but no need to chance it. My goal is to build up to 205 then work on a little fat reduction before going back into muscle gain. Bench presses did good. Weights 155 and manged 2 sets of 10, 1x9, 2x8.

Quick note about stretching. It is completely possible to stretch too much. I recently realized I had been over stretching my right piriformis muscle. I started having sciatic pain in my right side. I've had similar pain I'm that side for a while but this was different and I also had it in my mid glute. Got to looking into it. It matched perfectly with what is described as "long piriformis syndrome." Basically it's stretched too much and become irritated when overworked because it's weakened from being stretched.

https://squatuniversity.com/2017/11/21/how-to-correctly-treat-piriformis-syndrome/

This is a good article I found on it.

This is not saying you shouldn't stretch. Just a caution as to not overdo stretching.