It was my third time at my neighborhood gym and I was having a pretty good workout. I had just finished up 20 reps of skullcrushers with a 10 lb weight and was feeling pretty good about myself. I decided i would try out the bench press. I knew it was a difficult exercise so I started light - with no weight on the bar.
I laid down, but as soon as I lifted the bar I realized even that was going to be more difficult than I expected. I managed to just make it through four reps when I hear a somewhat familiar voice say "Can I take over?"
I looked up and saw Dick towering over me (I couldn't shake that nickname). He was back in his sweatshirt and sweatpants but this time had his hoodie down.
Caught off-guard, I stammered out an awkward "sure," even though I wasn't done. Embarrassed by the lack of weight on my bar, I said "just winding down with some light sets."
Dick grinned, showing off his perfect white teeth and large lips (I don't usually notice those things but they seemed to stand out with this guy), and said "sure, bud." My face turned a bit red and I looked down and walked away.
"'Mind if I take over,'" I thought. Who says that? What an ass. I glanced back and saw that he was loading three full plates a side. I did some quick math and realized he was about to bench 315 lbs. My head swam a bit at that number but I didn't really doubt that Dick could do it. Sure enough, he sat down and in rapid succession blew through 10 or 15 reps.
He sat up and looked straight at me. Only then did I realized I was just standing there watching his workout.
"I thought you said you were wound down - do you want to work in?" Dick asked. Before I could answer, he'd taken his bar off, leaving all the weight on. He grabbed an empty bar off the wall rack with one hand like it was nothing and set it down on the bench.
I quickly realized there wasn't any other explanation to my sudden halt to watch him bench so I shuffled over. I put a 25 lb plate on each side and lay down. Dick raised his eyebrows at me. "Do you want a spot?" he asked, standing over me.
"I'm fine" I answered, somewhat shortly. He didn't move though so I ignored him and started my reps. On my third rep, already struggling, I noticed Dick was undressing. Again he wore a muscle shirt and tight shorts. Unlike last time, though the Muscle shirt was dry and hung loose from his body, allowing me a glimpse through the sleeve of the shirt at his massive hairless pecs.
I lost my grip on the bar and it came slamming down on me, landing just below my ribcage and knocking the air out of my lungs. Dick picked it up almost instantly and I rolled over and started coughing.
I slowly got my breath back, realizing that yet again, this kid was witnessing me make a fool out of myself. "Thanks," I said, wheezing.
"No problem! You know, if you want my advice..."
I glared at him but it appeared to have no effect.
"...you should focus on your core and legs to start, with only some light upper body stuff sprinkled in. Low weight and lots of reps. Plus sprinkle in a good amount of cardio - like the elliptical an You're less likely to injure yourself that way while and it'll get you trimmed and tight. After that you can focus on building muscle."
This kid was unbelievably obnoxious. I tried to interject "Thanks, but..."
He plowed onwards "So, you should concentrate on abs, obliques, lower back, glutes, hamstring, quads, vastus, groin..." As he listed off muscles his hands traced his own. My eyes followed them down his body, his fingers pressing the shirt into his body revealing the outline of his chiseled abs and tight obliques. His hands continued behind back and came back around his legs, reaching in and resting on his groin muscles. This tightened the fabric around his strong tree-trunk legs and outlined a large bulge between his legs. At that point I quickly looked away. Glancing up back into his bright blue eyes, I saw he was grinning at me, his eyebrows raised. I thought about what Carlie had said - this kid probably knew what he was talking about and it couldn't hurt to give him a chance.
"Thanks, maybe I'll give that a shot. I'm Jerry, by the way." I held out my hand in introduction.
"I'm Ryan" he said, and kind of batted my hand away instead of shaking it. With that, he turned away and racked his heavy bar again.
I turned around, again feeling that Ryan was a Dick. Nonetheless, I continued my workout with sets of lunges, crunches, and squats. While I was squatting, squared up to the mirror, Ryan walked up behind me, standing a few feet behind me. He placed his hands on his hips and from his reflection in the mirror he appeared to be looking right at my ass. I was flustered and annoyed and didn't know what to do, so I just continued my workout as Ryan stood close behind. I saw him move in the mirror and, surprised, felt his strong hands on my hips.
"You should go lower and press your glutes out more. Here..." With seemingly no effort, he lifted me up by my hips an onto a low bench in front of me, just a foot and a half off the ground.
"What the fuck dude!" I said. But he just ignored me and started guiding my hips into squats. I didn't have much choice but to continue, given the strength of his hands. He was still just staring at my backside and I felt my face starting to flush in heat - probably due to the exertion. I was struck with how much bigger he appeared than me in the mirrorโtaller and wider by a good measure, his arms and shoulders bulging with muscleโespecially as I bent over.