Carrie grunted slightly as she racked her barbell, took a step back and leaned forward to stretch out her shoulders. It was a shoulder-day, one of her favorites, and she just finished strict shoulder presses at 135. After a moment opening her chest and shoulders she stripped the plates from each end, wiped a bit of chalk off the bar, and headed for the kettlebells.
Carrie smiled as she saw Sam approaching, straining under the weight of two of the larger bells, walking down the turf, focused intently on finishing her farmer's carries. Playfully, Carrie called out "Ooo, look at Sam-an-tha gggooo!" catching not only Sam's attention, but that of several other athletes, glancing quickly and smiling at Carrie's sarcastic encouragement. Both were known for their boisterousness, justified by their commitment, dedication, and performance at the gym. Their physique more than showed it.
Quickly offloading the weight to the mat, Sam gave a fake exasperated look, snapping "Fuck off, Carrie," eliciting only an excited smile from Carrie. "How was your trip? When did you get back?"
"It was long and boring, but overall productive. The hotel gym as a fucking nightmare. Seriously. If they only had a shake-weight I wouldn't have been surprised."
"Dude, that sucks. You couldn't find a box anywhere nearby?"
"Nope, so I was stuck with a lot of bodyweight stuff in the room, but I did get some good mileage in," Carrie replied, reliving the pain of not having an adequate facility for over a week.
Sam made a show of checking Carrie out, scrutinizing her up and down, "Yeah, I noticed you lost some gains there... tough break. Looks like I'll have to show you how to train..." Sam couldn't keep the act going, breaking into a giggle by the end of her attempted insult.
"Yeah.... Fuccckkkk you," Carrie replied through smiling teeth. "Where's Meg today?"
"Something about work and needing a recovery day. She's been putting in a lot of work for some tactical competition or some shit like that, you know how she is. She'll crush it if she doesn't overtrain first."
Sam, Meg, and Carrie routinely trained together and turned almost all the heads. They were some of the fittest women in the gym, fun to be around, and seemed to be there all the time. While Carrie was an equal balance of strength and function, both Meg and Sam were somewhat slenderer than Carrie. They routinely beat Carrie on endurance events but generally it was assumed Carrie had them on overall strength. All three sported defined abs, strong legs, impressive glutes, and to weak men, intimidating shoulders and arms. Carrie's aggressive side-cut haircut completed her look, while a full sleeve tattoo seemed to complete Sam's.
Sam kept her natural blonde hair in a messy French braid, occasionally wearing it high, almost completing a shield-maiden look which only enhanced her tough appearance training. Sam was usually the first to drop her shirt, both to subtly show off her physique but also for functionality; simply, she didn't like getting too warm, so a sports bra and gym shorts were her usual go-to by the end of her lift. Plus, she didn't mind the occasional glances of the other patrons, either at her tattoo, or her chest, bouncing and wanting to spill out during lifts.
Carrie and Sam openly agreed that while Carrie had the muscles, Sam had the tits. Sam's biggest guilty pleasure was the look of realization-- and often lust-- when talking with some of the men, as she watched their eyes dart down at her tits, perpetually hard nipples, and barbell piercing she wore through them, always evident through her bras of choice. That's right...let them want you...distract them with this fucking body I've earned... always affirmed her power to herself. Carrie always laughed and supported this, knowing Sam loved the subtle attention.
"Is Mike happy you're back?" Sam asked as Carrie grabbed a 53-pound kettlebell.
Carrie smiled, gave Sam the side eye, and replied "What do you think? He missed me a lot, probably almost as much as I missed him."
"Ooo that's fun. Did you guys plan anything special when he picked you up from the airport? Date night or anything, or just straight home and get down to it?" Sam asked, jokingly prying into what she already knew was a great sex life her friend had.
"Of course we did, duh..." Carrie grunted as she threw up her first single-arm clean and jerk of the set, "He was quite the gentleman, even had flowers as he met me in the airport, it was really sweet!"
"Okay, that's just too cute," Sam snorted, rolling her eyes at Mike's habit for romantic gestures. Sam loved to make fun of them, but both admired Mike and celebrated his relationship with Carrie. To her, it was an obviously perfect match.
"Did you pay him back for them?"
Carrie giggled as she switched arms, breathing heavy, now looking forward only at the mirror as she resumed her lift, "Well yeah... the flowers earned him a little something."
"Good girl," Sam jokingly cooed.
Finished with her set, Carrie quickly set the kettlebell back down, smirking at Sam for her constant encouragement for her sex life. "It wasn't much, you know, the typical."
Sam gave her an inquisitive look, quietly wondering what Carrie's typical would actually be.