Max Walmann had to admit that this "20 Fitness" place had been working wonders for Neil; the guy was really starting to look good! Even if the name of the gym was beyond bizarre, to Max. For the hundredth time, it seemed, he thought he should do something about his unhealthy body. As he showered, washing the sweat off of his chubby body, he wondered what it would be like to have a different body. It was ridiculous, in some ways; he'd always been a little chubby, which only continued in high school and increased in college; his "freshman fifteen" was more like twenty-five pounds!
Which is how, after a shower, breakfast in the dormitory cafeteria, and several difficult classes, Max found himself in baggy shorts and a similarly baggy tee shirt, standing outside 20 Fitness. It took several minutes for him to build up the courage to enter; when he finally did, he presented himself at the front desk and, after a deep breath, told the cheerful attendant that he was looking to join the gym and asked if they had a student discount.
Happily, a student discount was available, once Max showed his university identification card. Unfortunately, that also eliminated the last excuse he had for not joining. He reluctantly handed over his credit card as the attendant presented a clipboard with forms to sign. Ten minutes later Max was officially a member, with an official "20 Fitness" membership card to prove it.
"Let me see if one of our trainers is available," the attendant announced, "We like to do a consultation with new members. Be right back!"
Max fidgeted as he waited. A consultation? His insecurities bubbled up and he nearly left. But before he could, the perky attendant returned, with a towering Adonis of muscular perfection in tow. Max shrank into himself as the man approached.
"Hey there, Max! I'm Bradley Channing; pleased to meet you. Let's go talk about your goals, and then I can show you around the gym. First session is free. I know you college guys often can't pay for personal training, but the first session is on the house. We'll talk about your goals, I'll show you around the gym, we'll do a few exercises, and then we'll be done. How's that sound?" He held out a big hand to shake. Max took it gingerly, marveling at how large it was, and at the rough callouses on the man's palms.
"Uh, sure. Yeah. That would be great," Max babbled in response. Together they moved to a desk off to the side and sat down together.
"Now what are your goals here, Max?" Bradley asked, "Most common are 'lose weight' and 'build muscle,' but sometimes people have something more specific. Maybe training for a specific sport or dealing with a particular injury or other health issue. Don't worry, I've heard it all."
Max panicked slightly. What *were* his goals? "Umm. Yeah. I want to lose weight. And, uh, build muscle too." He was too embarrassed to be fully honest: that he wanted to look like one of his favorite video game characters, "Major Crusher," a towering mountain of muscle. In the games, Major Crusher was a superbly muscled badass who kicked bad guy ass and had damsels in distress falling for him. The Major had been lovingly modeled by someone who clearly appreciated the male form; not only were his pixelated muscles huge and inviting, even his crotch was decidedly pronounced. It was pure male fantasy, of course, but Max couldn't help but love the Major Crusher games (great mechanics, beautiful graphics!), and had often wished he could be like the titular hero. It certainly didn't hurt that the Major's background was Germanic and Hispanic, just like Max's.
Unaware of this internal conflict within Max, Bradley chuckled. "Well, I hear about losing weight and building muscle a lot, and those are both good goals, Max! For weight loss, a calorie deficit is crucial. Cardio can really help with that. Unfortunately, building muscle requires a calorie surplus and heavy weights. But that doesn't mean that you can't work on both at the same time. Since you're a beginner, we'll get you started on weights and cardio together. After you've cut fat for a bit, you can work on building muscle. And since you will have been working on that the whole time through weight training, it will be easier once you switch to a surplus. So let's show you around, and we'll go through some basic exercises with the weights. I want to make sure you have some good lifting form. Then I'll let you loose on the cardio stuff. That's a bit more self-explanatory, but I'll still go through the equipment with you."
For the next hour, Max learned a number of basic lifts. Bench press, squat, and deadlift were first. After that, various curls, extensions, and variants of the big three lifts were demonstrated. Max's nerd head whirled as he processed all the information being thrown at him; this was harder than pushing buttons on a game controller! Yet by the time they reached the cardio equipment, Max could feel that he was finally figuring some of this "exercising" thing out. A treadmill, stair-stepper, and elliptical machine were all demonstrated. Max nodded along, but he was impatient. He wanted to get back to the weights!
Max exercised for another hour, going through all the exercises he'd just learned. None of the weight amounts were terribly high. Despite that, he felt incredible as he exercised. For a brief moment, he fantasized that some day, if he kept it up, he might very well look like his beloved Captain Crusher. As he trudged back to his dormitory, he couldn't help but feel on top of the world. Was this the "high" that some of the athletes talked about after they worked out? Although he still planned to study and play video games, based on how amazing he felt, Max certainly planned on returning to the gym on a regular basis!