HOME | DD

Description

Rick sighed, crossing his arms. "What's the point," he grumbled, "Of hanging around a gym to hit up girls when there are no girls?"

Maybe he should go find a new gym- this one was practically deserted. Pulling out his phone he did a quick search.

"...Muscle Magic. Hmph." he said. Gyms couldn't just be called normal stuff anymore. It was either the big chain gyms, or something with some cutesy name.

It was a short drive, but he was instantly disappointed when he pulled into the lot. The place looked like a dump, even by Los Angeles standards. Dirty front windows, a neon 'Open' sign that flickered like a heartbeat, and seemed to spend more time off than on. Rick sighed. Well, as long as he was here, he might as well try and get an actual workout in. When trying to pick up girls at the gym, it was helpful to look like someone who just happened to be there working out.

He opened the front door and was hit by the smell of stale sweat and mildew combined with the smell of instant noodles wafting from a styrofoam cup resting on the old office desk. Not a pleasant first impression, and the man slouched behind the desk was not much better. The stained white tank top and paunch of fat, combined with his balding head, made the man- employee, or maybe even the owner of this place- look like the exact kind of person that Rick did not want to resemble.

"What." the man demanded, jabbing a fork into the instant noodles and sloppily conveying noodles into his mouth.

"Just want to use the equipment." Rick said. There had to be at least some free weights in here that he could use. He wasn't sure if he could trust any workout machinery in this place to be properly maintained.

The man sighed, making it obvious that Rick was inconveniencing him, but reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a sheet of paper. "Waiver. Sign in. Ten bucks."

That was a decent price. He would even be able to do a little bar crawling after this, since obviously the gyms were a bust for finding some action. Rick took the sheet and signed in without reading it. He knew what these waivers were. He'd signed plenty of them in the past. "Alright, there you go."

The man grunted, shoved the waiver back into the same drawer, and jerked a thumb at another door. "In there. We close in two hours."

Rick checked his watch. "At five? Seems kind of early."

"Not my rules."

Rick shrugged, and headed through the door.

The gym, like the front office, was a mess. The rubber mat flooring beneath his feet was cracked, the lights overhead flickered like he was on the set of a bad horror movie, and the weight machines looked like they were about to fall apart as well, the style so old that they looked directly out of 80s.

There was no way that he was going to risk using one of those.

Thankfully he spotted some freeweights set against a nearby wall, dumbells mostly. They looked like they were in good shape though. Walking over, Rick did a few stretches. Not an easy task- he didn't spend much time working on flexibility. Why bother? He was here to make sure he looked good, not to make sure that he could move boxes or load trucks or something.

Good enough.

Rick grabbed a twenty pound weight and started some side bends. Nice and easy. He moved on to some bicep curls, and some squats. This would be easier to do with a kettlebell style weight, but this would work well enough. He kept lifting, changing arms occasionally, until it felt like his muscles were warmed up enough for the actual workout to begin. He felt a distinct pop from his shoulders as he held the weight out with extended arms, leaning back slightly to compensate. He grimaced. "Alright- maybe I should take it easy today." he muttered. He continued raising and lowering the weight- but unnoticed by him, his arms and shoulders were not swelling as the muscles tensed, as they should have. His well toned arms were, in fact, seeming to slightly shrink with every repetition, the corded muscle fibers becoming less defined beneath his skin. Stranger still, his skeleton was also contracting ever so slightly with each of his movements, shoulders subtly creeping inwards.

Rick winced, laying down the weight and stretching out his arms again. He must be having an off day- first that weird popping sound, and now that twenty pound weight was feeling twice as heavy as it should have felt.

Well, body weight workouts might be enough for right now. He dropped down into a pushup positino, and felt a strange cascade of pops and ticks from his back. He paused, waiting for pain, for something that might indicate that there was actual damage.

Nothing- so Rick shrugged and started doing some pushups, after adjusting his stance. He could have sworn he'd had his hands up level with his eyes, as proper for pushup his stance, but he'd looked down just now and seen that his hands were suddenly above his head. His form, in fact, was perfect. He simply couldn't account for his torso suddenly shrinking by almost eight inches, taking him from over six feet tall to barely five foot six. As he kept the exercise going, he started to feel the burn of lactic acid in his biceps and in his core. That was good. In this case though, the burn was more than just lactic acid, the six pack abdominals that he had worked so hard for melting away, joined with the mass of what had been his bulky shoulders and biceps a moment before..

He felt a twinge of discomfort, and lowered himself into a kneeling position. As he did, some of the mass of his former muscles flowed downwards, and as Rick stood, his hips clicked and popped, his legs cramping in such a way that his knees turned slightly inwards and got closer together, in contrast with what was happening to his upper legs, which had eased outwards at the top.

Rick stood, flicking back his hair by reflex, hair that was now touching his ears and was rapidly changing color from light brown to blonde, growing longer along the top while becoming shorter on the sides. Not a huge difference from his haircut before- but the effect on his appearence was undeniable.

He noticed a set of yoga mats, still in the original packaging, lying unused against a nearby wall. He looked around, then, with a shrug, opened one up and unrolled it. No harm done- not like he was going to take it out of the gym or anything.

Standing on one foot, he raised one leg and bent it to press the sole against his opposite thigh, taking the tree pose. For the next few minutes he did several more poses, feeling the effort in his entire body. Yoga was a good workout- just not in the same way as weight lifting. As she moved her tank top and sweat pants changed, the material shifting to become more elastic, becoming a set of yoga pants and a sports bra, beneath a snug white shirt. Not even his shoes were unaffected, changing to a light pink shade and shrinking by several sizes. Fortunately his feet changed to match before they became uncomfortably tight.

The fact that he'd never done yoga before in his life did not cross his mind. Neither did the severe, if momentary, discomfort from the region of his groin. After that though, she was finally able to complete a full split, which made her smile. She'd been working on that for quite a while after all!

Her phone beeped from nearby, making her look up. "One more pose." she decided. Popping up to a standing position, she dropped right back down to her stomach and then raised her torso in the cobra pose, hair trailing forwards over her shoulders. She felt a twinge from her front, and she smiled. That was a good stretch!

The abrupt, and noticeable, change in her balance went unnoticed, just like everything else that had happened.

Getting to her feet again she went to her gym bag and put away the items that she'd brought with her. "Thanks for letting me borrow a mat, Vinnie," she said as she walked out through the front office. Vinnie grunted in response as she left, the hot Los Angeles air hitting her as the door opened. Fortunately she didn't have far to go. Across the street was a gymnastics studio, which she jogged toward. She might have to try and take some lessons from here as well- after all, it sure seemed like it was fun!

"Mom!" shouted her little gymnast. She bent down and hugged her.

"Did you have fun playing with Keira?"

"It's not playing Mom, it's training!"

"Oh right, of course. You ready to go?"

"Yep!"

She picked up her daughter, who hugged her neck as the two left into a bright afternoon.

=============

Would you look at that, a sequel ! I really wanted to return to the gym, so here it is ! Of course, the excellent story is done by the amazing !

Description

Rick sighed, crossing his arms. "What's the point," he grumbled, "Of hanging around a gym to hit up girls when there are no girls?"

Maybe he should go find a new gym- this one was practically deserted. Pulling out his phone he did a quick search.

"...Muscle Magic. Hmph." he said. Gyms couldn't just be called normal stuff anymore. It was either the big chain gyms, or something with some cutesy name.

It was a short drive, but he was instantly disappointed when he pulled into the lot. The place looked like a dump, even by Los Angeles standards. Dirty front windows, a neon 'Open' sign that flickered like a heartbeat, and seemed to spend more time off than on. Rick sighed. Well, as long as he was here, he might as well try and get an actual workout in. When trying to pick up girls at the gym, it was helpful to look like someone who just happened to be there working out.

He opened the front door and was hit by the smell of stale sweat and mildew combined with the smell of instant noodles wafting from a styrofoam cup resting on the old office desk. Not a pleasant first impression, and the man slouched behind the desk was not much better. The stained white tank top and paunch of fat, combined with his balding head, made the man- employee, or maybe even the owner of this place- look like the exact kind of person that Rick did not want to resemble.

"What." the man demanded, jabbing a fork into the instant noodles and sloppily conveying noodles into his mouth.

"Just want to use the equipment." Rick said. There had to be at least some free weights in here that he could use. He wasn't sure if he could trust any workout machinery in this place to be properly maintained.

The man sighed, making it obvious that Rick was inconveniencing him, but reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a sheet of paper. "Waiver. Sign in. Ten bucks."

That was a decent price. He would even be able to do a little bar crawling after this, since obviously the gyms were a bust for finding some action. Rick took the sheet and signed in without reading it. He knew what these waivers were. He'd signed plenty of them in the past. "Alright, there you go."

The man grunted, shoved the waiver back into the same drawer, and jerked a thumb at another door. "In there. We close in two hours."

Rick checked his watch. "At five? Seems kind of early."

"Not my rules."

Rick shrugged, and headed through the door.

The gym, like the front office, was a mess. The rubber mat flooring beneath his feet was cracked, the lights overhead flickered like he was on the set of a bad horror movie, and the weight machines looked like they were about to fall apart as well, the style so old that they looked directly out of 80s.

There was no way that he was going to risk using one of those.

Thankfully he spotted some freeweights set against a nearby wall, dumbells mostly. They looked like they were in good shape though. Walking over, Rick did a few stretches. Not an easy task- he didn't spend much time working on flexibility. Why bother? He was here to make sure he looked good, not to make sure that he could move boxes or load trucks or something.

Good enough.

Rick grabbed a twenty pound weight and started some side bends. Nice and easy. He moved on to some bicep curls, and some squats. This would be easier to do with a kettlebell style weight, but this would work well enough. He kept lifting, changing arms occasionally, until it felt like his muscles were warmed up enough for the actual workout to begin. He felt a distinct pop from his shoulders as he held the weight out with extended arms, leaning back slightly to compensate. He grimaced. "Alright- maybe I should take it easy today." he muttered. He continued raising and lowering the weight- but unnoticed by him, his arms and shoulders were not swelling as the muscles tensed, as they should have. His well toned arms were, in fact, seeming to slightly shrink with every repetition, the corded muscle fibers becoming less defined beneath his skin. Stranger still, his skeleton was also contracting ever so slightly with each of his movements, shoulders subtly creeping inwards.

Rick winced, laying down the weight and stretching out his arms again. He must be having an off day- first that weird popping sound, and now that twenty pound weight was feeling twice as heavy as it should have felt.

Well, body weight workouts might be enough for right now. He dropped down into a pushup positino, and felt a strange cascade of pops and ticks from his back. He paused, waiting for pain, for something that might indicate that there was actual damage.

Nothing- so Rick shrugged and started doing some pushups, after adjusting his stance. He could have sworn he'd had his hands up level with his eyes, as proper for pushup his stance, but he'd looked down just now and seen that his hands were suddenly above his head. His form, in fact, was perfect. He simply couldn't account for his torso suddenly shrinking by almost eight inches, taking him from over six feet tall to barely five foot six. As he kept the exercise going, he started to feel the burn of lactic acid in his biceps and in his core. That was good. In this case though, the burn was more than just lactic acid, the six pack abdominals that he had worked so hard for melting away, joined with the mass of what had been his bulky shoulders and biceps a moment before..

He felt a twinge of discomfort, and lowered himself into a kneeling position. As he did, some of the mass of his former muscles flowed downwards, and as Rick stood, his hips clicked and popped, his legs cramping in such a way that his knees turned slightly inwards and got closer together, in contrast with what was happening to his upper legs, which had eased outwards at the top.

Rick stood, flicking back his hair by reflex, hair that was now touching his ears and was rapidly changing color from light brown to blonde, growing longer along the top while becoming shorter on the sides. Not a huge difference from his haircut before- but the effect on his appearence was undeniable.

He noticed a set of yoga mats, still in the original packaging, lying unused against a nearby wall. He looked around, then, with a shrug, opened one up and unrolled it. No harm done- not like he was going to take it out of the gym or anything.

Standing on one foot, he raised one leg and bent it to press the sole against his opposite thigh, taking the tree pose. For the next few minutes he did several more poses, feeling the effort in his entire body. Yoga was a good workout- just not in the same way as weight lifting. As she moved her tank top and sweat pants changed, the material shifting to become more elastic, becoming a set of yoga pants and a sports bra, beneath a snug white shirt. Not even his shoes were unaffected, changing to a light pink shade and shrinking by several sizes. Fortunately his feet changed to match before they became uncomfortably tight.

The fact that he'd never done yoga before in his life did not cross his mind. Neither did the severe, if momentary, discomfort from the region of his groin. After that though, she was finally able to complete a full split, which made her smile. She'd been working on that for quite a while after all!

Her phone beeped from nearby, making her look up. "One more pose." she decided. Popping up to a standing position, she dropped right back down to her stomach and then raised her torso in the cobra pose, hair trailing forwards over her shoulders. She felt a twinge from her front, and she smiled. That was a good stretch!

The abrupt, and noticeable, change in her balance went unnoticed, just like everything else that had happened.

Getting to her feet again she went to her gym bag and put away the items that she'd brought with her. "Thanks for letting me borrow a mat, Vinnie," she said as she walked out through the front office. Vinnie grunted in response as she left, the hot Los Angeles air hitting her as the door opened. Fortunately she didn't have far to go. Across the street was a gymnastics studio, which she jogged toward. She might have to try and take some lessons from here as well- after all, it sure seemed like it was fun!

"Mom!" shouted her little gymnast. She bent down and hugged her.

"Did you have fun playing with Keira?"

"It's not playing Mom, it's training!"

"Oh right, of course. You ready to go?"

"Yep!"

She picked up her daughter, who hugged her neck as the two left into a bright afternoon.

=============

Would you look at that, a sequel ! I really wanted to return to the gym, so here it is ! Of course, the excellent story is done by the amazing !