Post by Andy D on Dec 28, 2022 22:39:05 GMT
Longtime Bro
Upon arrival at Fort Ettin’s entrance, the grey skinned goliath propelled himself forward and up into the air with his powerful ‘flight-legs’ carrying him up and over the southern wall of Fort Ettin. With eagle-like control, the goliath known as Kavel, gently landed inside the grounds of the fort by the Training Yard. Specifically, Kavel landed in front of the south western corner of the Training Yard, once known as Kavel’s Corner for Strength and Conditioning. Nowadays, the corner of the training yard dedicated to strength and conditioning is called, Castiron and IronStrong Strength and Conditioning, or more simply; Strength Corner.
Kavel has come to see his iron-brother, Kruger Ironstrong, who is lead instructor of the gym. When Kavel arrived, he greeted his iron-bro. But, he also ran into a work-out partner he had seen recently on a couple of adventures, but not recently at the gym...
Ivan Erickson is a near 6ft tall, black human with dreadlocks, and whole body tattoos. He has a large build, and similarly to Kavel, wears a custom made ‘Thicc Bois’ vest in homage to his fellow ‘thicc’ adventurers. He has a dozen axes of different sizes with the biggest being his greataxe ‘Barbara’ and a crossbow. The weapons are all set aside, and the berserker sailor is warming up to lift some weights.
"Ivan! Bro! It has been too long since we’ve been together here!” Kavel said to his fellow Thicc-Boi. “How’s it been since the Desathrax fight?”
“Kavel my lad... I need a workout buddy. I’ve been bulking and focusing on gains!”
Ivan wanted to prove his gains were more than just aesthetics and was looking for Kavel to provide an activity through which he could prove it.
Kavel gave his thicc-boi bro a slap on the shoulder, "squats bro. Let’s go!"
Heavy Squats!
Kavel and Kruger put 200lbs on the adamantine bar for a warm-up, and then gradually pushed the weight up to 350lbs. Kavel was impressed to see his comrade had been keeping up with his strength practice. Ivan was managing the weight with commendable form, and is probably the strongest human man the half-giant had trained with.
"Nice bro! Your form is good, and you've been practising. Very nice!"
After Ivan reracked the bar, Kavel stood in front of him, and put his hands on Ivan's trap muscles, and with excitement in his voice, asked, "Ivan, how about we see what your one rep max is? Heh? You must have gotten better! What do you say?"
“Kavel... More! Another rep bro!”
"Yes bro!" Kavel and Kruger excitedly put more of the stone plates on the adamantine bar. The bar then held 450lbs.
"Okay Ivan. Just one rep sets from now on. We're going to warm you into what I suspect will be your one rep max, which I think will be roughly north of 525lbs. This is badass. Elite lift for Humans. I think you've got this bro!"
A few minutes, and many pounds of stone later, Ivan had performed a one rep squat of 540lbs. A truly impressive amount of weight for a Human of his height and age. The half-giants then added a couple more stone plates. The bar now weighed a total of 555lbs.
"Kavel, we're getting into Goliath numbers with these plates," Kruger joked whilst also giving Ivan respect.
"I know, bro. You would think he's not human, but one of our brown-skinned cousins," Kavel responded with similar jest and pride.
"Now come on. 555lbs!" Kavel slapped Ivan up and down his back and on his shoulders. "You've got this!"
Ivan set himself in position, the very heavy bar on his trapezius and shoulder muscles. Ivan stood up taking the weight, and walked it forward away from the rack. Kavel and Kruger followed either side of the bar, near the plates. Ivan lowered into a squat, hips just lower than the knees, and lifted...
The Big One
It started well. Ivan took the strain, and lowered down into a squat. The form was good. But on the lift, as much as he tried, Ivan couldn’t straighten his legs, and his back curved forward. The pair of half-giants stepped in, grabbed a hold of the bar, and re-racked the weight.
“Unlucky, bro,” Kavel said in support, thinking that maybe Ivan had done too many lighter lifts prior to attempting 555lbs. Or maybe today just wasn’t the day.
“Comrade, some people estimate the average human your size can squat 300lbs. No offence, but I’d say that weight is only right if we’re talking about a deadlift. 540lbs squat is awesome - almost twice that of an average human.”
Changing the subject, Kavel notices some new ink on his human friend. "New tattoos on your arms? They look good."
“Thanks mate, I'm trying to cover up some of my tatts from my privateering days. Trying to be established and proper. How about yours? I can see some ink. And I’ve seen you flying right? In the last two battles we’ve been in - in Phlegethos and Desathrax’s lair. So, you’re what? Part bird now?!”
“Ha,” Kavel smiled. “No. I trained myself to fly,” Kavel quickly coughed to clear his throat, but also to say in a quiet voice, “jump high.”
“Comrade, now that I come to think of it, you haven’t seen the magical silver ink on the back of my hands. They represent my new fighting style. No more poleaxe for me bro. Let me show you my new fighting style, the Dwarven MMA; Stonehand Fighting Techniques. Come!
One More Go
The two thicc-bois walked over from Strength Corner to the area where sword practitioners used practice swords to work on their technique on wooden training dummies.
“Here, comrade, watch. I was always good at breaking things with my maul, and my poleaxe. Now I break things with my fists.”
Kavel lined up a right cross to the dummy's chest. He placed his outstretched left hand on the dummies centre. With his spot marked, Kavel pivoted his feet and unleashed the cocked right fist from his cheek towards the centre mass of the dummy. As his naked fist smashed into the wooden figure, a few chunks of wood split off, as if a warhammer had just struck the target.
“You see? No doubt you could split the dummy with your greataxe. But who else do you know can punch solid wood without breaking their hand? And it’s not just my hands, look…” Kavel stood side-on to the dummy. He lent over to his right side, and then kicked his left leg out towards the dummy, directing his left foot into the same spot he punched, tearing chunks of wood off of the dummy again.
“You see? And my squeeze is really good, too…” The half-giant walked up to the worn out dummy, and wrapped his arms around the dummy's waist from behind, both of his hands covering the spot he struck with his hand and foot, and then he squeezed with a mighty grip strength. The dummy’s top half snapped off under the pressure.
“That's amazing. Personally, I’m not sure what enemy stays still long enough to squeeze them? I do find the axe easier for dealing with those in the way. But, your grip and unarmed strikes are really amazing.”
Kavel was pleased to hear his fellow thicc boi’s compliment. Kavel wondered if there was a way of motivating Ivan to attempt the 555lbs squat again and find success?
“Comrade, maybe this is what you can do if you train heavy squats like me…let me show you what powerful squatting legs can do.”
Kavel entered a battlerage, and walked over to the western wall. He squatted low to the ground, and then jumped into the air with such force that he propelled himself 60ft up in the air, and directed himself to land at the top of the western wall’s walkway. Kavel waved at Ivan from up on the wall. Satisfied, he then jumped back down safely, rejoining Ivan in the Training Yard.
“What?! When we were fighting the bad guys, I was too distracted to notice you do that. Seeing that up close is sick bro!” Ivan said, astonished. And with that, an idea had crept into Ivan’s head. “Spot me!”
Ivan ran back to the squat rack motivated. Kruger and Kavel reracked the stone plates they had put away until the adamantine bar held 555lbs of weight again.
A new Ivan, with a face of determination took the strain of the 555lbs bar, walked it away from the rack, gripped the bar until his knuckles turned white, and squatted low. Ivan then brought the heaviest weight Kavel had ever seen a human manage back up to a standing position, with back and legs straight. Ivan had just successfully squatted 555lbs!
“Amazing bro!” Both goliaths said, as Ivan re-racked the bar with little help from the half-giants.
“Good stuff!” Kavel said, slapping Ivan’s shoulders and giving them a massage, “I thought we were done for the day, and then you show you had it in you, like I knew you did.”
Ivan’s determined face had turned into a smile. He understandably felt a sense of accomplishment. But, in a blink of an eye, the determined face was back on. “Nah. Let's do chest!
“He’s definitely taxed himself after that lift,” Kavel thought to himself. Kavel faced the challenge of steering Ivan’s determined mind towards something else, to avoid ending the workout on a low note…
“Bro. No. After a big, powerful lift like that, we celebrate with good food and drink. We are done here for the day. You’ve proven you’ve stronger than when I last saw you, and you’re going to get stronger. Your body deserves sustenance, you are a ‘human-giant!’”
Comrade Kavel it's always a pleasure to work beside you, let's get some protein and carbs after this massive work session. I’m trying to eat better but to be honest with all the trekking and today's workout I deserve a treat day. How about we find somewhere with good meat, pies and tarts, any suggestions?
“Yes. We go to all the eating places!”