Posted by Commander Heathcliff Rinker (Counselor) in Gym

Posted by Lieutenant Gravel Mardusk (Chief of Security) in Gym

Posted by Commander Heathcliff Rinker (Counselor) in Gym Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻 : : : : : : : : : : : : Rinker has started getting soft in the middle again. A little over a year ago he had started a fitness regimen that had him in shape… not fitness model, in shape, but regular guy in shape.. and now over the months he became regular guy out of shape. He needed to nip that in the bud, before he became fat regular guy. The thing was he hated working out. Exercise was boring and without his normal work out partner his schedule had fallen apart with the predictable results. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : He patted his slight belly speaking softly to himself. “I am in shape.” He chanted. “Round is a shape.” : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : “I am in shape.” He chanted. “Round is a shape.” He picked up some gravity dumb bells. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Rinker : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : The doors to the gym slid open and the hulking figure of the Orion Security Chief ducked through the doorway. He was dressed in gray sweatpants and a black tank top that left his overly-muscled frame exposed and free to move, and he carried a faded brown duffel bag. He saw the Counselor across the room, and nodded and lifted the bag in greeting. “Heya, Commander. Good morning. Mind if I join you?” he said good naturedly. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Mardusk, CoS : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Rinker looked him up and down for a moment as he loosened up his shoulders with a few shrugs. The security officer was massive. “Suit yourself. But don’t try to keep up with me… you might hurt yourself.” He lifted what certainly an unimpressive weight above his head in front of the Lieutenant. When the weight reached its apex, his bi-ceps were close enough for him to give one a little kiss, which he did before looking back at the Orion and raised an eyebrow. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Rinker : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Mardusk watched the display and grinned. “Oh, I’ll be careful. Thanks for not bruising my ego too much, Counselor. I really appreciate it.” he said as the Counselor staked his claim as the dominate force in the gym. Mardusk cocked his head to the side slightly as he watched, and then said seriously “Um, you might want to be careful there, though. Your pulling your elbow in a bit. That can cause you to overcompensate with your actuator muscles, makes for a pretty bad strain if you hurt yourself. If you’d like, I’d be happy to spot for you and help get your form locked in.” and he grinned again. “I mean, I don’t know how much help I can be with that amount of sheer power you got wrapped up in those guns, but I might be able to help a little.” : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Mardusk, CoS : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Rinker laughed. “If I strain myself with this pathetic weight I’m lifting I deserve it.” Although he sounded dismissive, he made the adjustment suggested by the security chief. “I’m not certain what an Actuator Muscle is…” five years of medical school didn’t teach him that. Perhaps it was a lighting term. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : “I dunno what the actual term for them is. It’s the little muscles that assist with the fine motor function of the bigger muscle groups. You can throw up a barbell with all the weight your body can handle on it, but if you don’t control it it’s gonna hurt you.” and he watched as Rinker made the adjustment. “Yeah, you got it. Nice form. Just keep your arms like that. Good job.” he said encouragingly. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : “What are you going to do?” He glanced over to the weights wondering what he might select as his exercise. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Rinker : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : “I’m working legs and back today. And cardio later, but I do that in the holodeck. I hate running on treadmills.” Mardusk replied. After answering, he made his way to a device called a ‘Roman Chair’ by some cultures on Earth. It consisted of a short padded table with a fixture at one end to hold the user’s legs. Mardusk laid down on his stomach, slid his ankles into the brace, and hung off the table, bending at a ninety-degree angle down at his waist. He reached down and picked up a gravity dumbbell and programmed it to a forty-five kilograms. He then lifted the dumbbell to his chest, grasped it with both hands securely, and began raising his upper body from ninety degrees to straight and parallel with the table, then slowly bending down again. He then kept repeating the motion. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Mardusk, CoS : : : : : : : : : : : : “I completely understand I don’t like cardio on the treadmill either… or cardio on the holodeck…” He paused as he continued to do his reps. “Or cardio in nature… or cardio during emergencies… like the zombie apocalypse. Or weights.” : : : : : : : : : : : : He finished that set and started to do some push-ups.. “I warm up with 30 or so before I do my bench presses.” : : : : : : : : : : : : Rinker : : : : : : : : : : Gravel smiled as Rinker spoke. Once he finished his first set of twenty reps, he stood up and stretched. “I feel ya. My favorite weight is the twelve-ounce curl.” he said and made drinking motion and chuckled. “You are welcome to join me for the cardio, if you want. To me, it’s always easier and more enjoyable to exercise with a partner. Keeps you motivated.” : : : : : : : : : : Mardusk, CoS : : : : : : : : Rinker didn’t look too convinced. “Since neither of us care too much about cardio, perhaps a game.?” He sized up Mardusk, who was at least six inches taller than him and had a good 50 pounds. That eliminated basketball and American football, baseball wasn’t too aerobic in the first place. “Maybe a game of tennis?” Rinker had played before but he was by no means an expert. He could hit the ball back and could put a little topspin on a few balls but if Mardusk was a real player he would be in a lot of trouble. : : : : : : : : Rinker : : : : : : Mardusk cocked his head to the side and said “Tennis? Never heard of it. But I’m up for whatever, after we finish here.” and he climbed back on the bench. As he bent over to grab the weights again, he said “So tell me what the idea of ‘tennis’ is. How do you play?” : : : : : : Mardusk, CoS : : : : Rinker smiled… “Well its both a game of strength and finesse. Using a racket you must hit a ball over a net into a rectangle… your opponent must return it back over the net into your rectangle before it bounces twice. first person to 4 wins game as long as he’s ahead by 2. First to 6 wins, wins the set as long as he’s again up by two, then you decide how many sets to win a match… considering you’ve never played, best of three is probably best. : : : : Rinker : : bump “Finesse ain’t my strong suit, and that is a hell of a lot of math for something that’s supposed to be a game. Vulcans must’ve designed it. But I’ll give it a go, sure.” and he finished up his training. “You want to go now?” Mardusk asked as he stood up and wiped some sweat from his face, and then sprayed a mist from a small bottle onto the towel in his hand before tossing it in his bag. Mardusk, CoS

“Sure,” Rinker said with a slight smirk. Mardusk’s disdain for the sport would likely serve him well during the game. Not to mention unless the security officer was deceiving him, Mardusk was completely unfamiliar with the game which would make Rinker’s mediocre game dominate. “We are going to need the holo-deck for this.”

Rinker would find himself on the holodeck and on a tennis court a few minutes later.

Rinker

Mardusk walked in a few minutes after Rinker and looked around. “Ok. What in the civilized planets is this?” he said with a confused look on his face.

Mardusk, CoS

“Racket.” Rinker handed the huge security officer an appropriate sized and tensioned racket. He turned to face the court. “Net,” He pointed. “Three boxes a side, two small in the front - one large in the back . On a serve the ball must land, on the first bounce in the opposite small box. After that it just has to land in any of the three… you can hit the ball before it bounces on anything aside from the first shot.. which is called a serve. If you don’t return it, the other person gets the point. If you hit it and it doesn’t land in the designated area… that’s a point too.”

He went across the net from him. “Lets hit it a few times, you’ll figure it out.” Rinker bounced a few balls easily to him.

Rinker

Mardusk was not good at this. At least, not yet. The few balls that Rinker bounced to him he completely missed at first. But after about ten to fifteen minutes, Mardusk was hitting most (not all) back towards the man.

“Not so hard,” Rinker commented. “Let the racket can do all the work, especially at your size… just make contact.” As many people who started with tennis they swing so hard that the racket missed the ball because they were going too fast.

“Okay, Doc. Let’s try this out. But I swear if you make a vid of this, I’ll fill your office with tribbles.”

Mardusk, CoS

“A vid,” Rinker raised an eyebrow. “Of you playing tennis… that is a little narcissistic. I have much better things I’m not allowed to make videos of than you.”

Rinker

Mardusk heard the comment and laughed hard enough he missed the next two balls that came his way. “I do not even want to know, Doc.” and then he set himself on the base line and said “Okay. Let’s get this over with. You serve. It’s ‘serve’, right?”

Mardusk, CoS

Rinker shook his head. He held two balls in one hand and smoothly threw up one in the sky, before striking it with an over the top spin. It allowed him to hit it with a slightly higher arc over the net, but not with nearly the speed of a typical serve. It would be easier to return if Mardusk could recognize the action of the ball. If not immediately, it wouldn’t take him long to figure out that as the racket cut across the ball the ball would spin in the opposite direction.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Rinker called as the ball left his racket.

Rinker

Mardusk’s eyes focused on the ball and as it came down and bounced up in front of him, he swung at it with a decent forehand… and the ball bounced off the racket and flew in a straight line across the net, past the court markings, and slammed into the wall behind Rinker.

Mardusk scowled at the offending ball, offending racket, and then the Counselor. “Why do I get the feeling I have been set up here, Doc?” he said with a slight grin before motioning for another serve.

Mardusk, CoS