The trainer let Harsh inside, I wasn't scared or intimidated of him as usual, as the trainer looked like he could disable Harsh with a single blow, and I was probably right.
Harsh looked furious, though he probably wouldn't lash out in front of the trainer and the other tough guys, I could tell he had a needle in his ass.
"What happened?" asked the trainer, sensing Harsh's anger.
"There was this guy called Dheeraj Vajra, he is complete Bahubhalli, you wont believe", Harsh spoke loud as he almost started to sob, but he wouldn't dare do that.
"You mean Dheeraj Chopra?" asked the trainer.
"Yes", answered Harsh. "He went to this gym only, no", he asked.
"Dheeraj Chopra left this gym last month", answered the trainer. "He was one of the strongest guys in the gym at only 18 years old", "but he told me the weights weren't enough for him anymore".
Harsh gazed in amazement. "Whaaaat!", answered Harsh. as he walked straight over to the 30kg dumbbells, "you mean these things were too small for him?", he answered, as he bent over to pick up a 30kg dumbbell, as the trainer held him back.
"Oh, look who's here!", a new voice exclaimed as he walked through the door, I recognized him as one of the college students that motivated me to train harder my first few days, courtesy of his proud boasting of how buff and strong he was getting. "Are you that scaredy cat that Dheeraj bro clean pressed earlier".
Harsh turned his head in his direction. He seemed astounded that the guy knew him. "Who are you?", said Harsh.
The two boys were not as muscled as Dheeraj, but they looked quite athletic, and several years older, though I now knew they were still high school seniors. The one that had spoke was several shades darker then the other. Though both were nearly the same size.
"We are Neeraj and Meeraj, Dheeraj bro's best friends", explained the darker guy.
" Yeah, Dheeraj bro is way stronger then us two", explained the lighter guy, "so he left this gym as 30kg dumbells and this small gym was not enough for him, he wanted a bigger gym, bigger everything", he stated.
"Yeah, it was just one month before Dheeraj defeated you", said the darker guy, rudely pointing at Harsh.
Harsh didn't continue the conversation, and instead the trainer led him to the desk.
"This gym is small, but as you can see it's a very serious place for those that want to get stronger", explained the trainer. "Our fee is only 500 rupees a month".
Harsh handed the trainer a 500 rupee bill without hesitation on hearing. "I know", he said.
"Show me how to get stronger", said Harsh, "I want to get as strong as possible".
The trainer didn't hesitate. He led him right to dumbbell rack and barbells.
"Getting strong takes a lot of discipline and mind-power, and it will take time to get good results", explained the trainer. "But don't worry, until you become super strong like Dheeraj, this gym has everything you will need".
"How long will it take to get as strong as Dheeraj?", asked Harsh.
"You should instead ask how long it will take to get stronger then you are now, then when you get there, even stronger, then even stronger", said the trainer, "its best to only compare you to yourself", "Dheeraj is an 18 year old boy, how old are you?", he asked.
"14", answered Harsh.
"Its easier to get stronger at your age then any other age", said the trainer. "If you follow me properly, you will get as strong as you want".
The trainer continued on, with Harsh he started by testing him out with the 10 kg dumbbells, the simple bicep curl, I saw Harsh's left arm give up at the 12th rep, yet he kept it up to 35 curls with the other hand. As I heard him explain to Harsh that his muscles were badly asymmetrical, I went over to the lat pull-down machine.
My workout plan was simple, each day I would do Lat pull-downs, push-ups, squats, leg press, then go over to the dumbbells to do dumbbell overhead presses, 1 arm dumbbell rows, and bicep curls, in that order. 3 sets of each exercise, and in each exercise I would keep my log and try to always do more reps total then in the previous workout. When I hit 3 sets of 20 in the dumbbell exercises and 3 sets of 12 in the others, i was to increase the weight and keep pushing till I could increase the weight again. I had started to go directly right after school, when the lack of crowd meant I could finish the entire workout in 45 minutes, an hour at most. And I was already hooked to the results.
Make no mistake, the workout was in no way easy. It was a bit easy in the beginning, when the trainer wanted me to ease in to the exercises and learn the proper form, but by now, it was all about increasing the reps each and every workout to prove I was strong enough to step up the weight. It felt different from the beginning. The heavier weights were harder to lift, yes, but they were also exponentially harder to lift with proper form, its like they were trying to sabotage my balance and range on purpose. They had a strange way of highlighting every single weakness and imbalance I didn't know I had, I would not have guessed that I had a weak middle back and that my right quad was stronger then my left a bit.
The trainer kept telling me that this was needed to grow the right muscles for increased strength. He would point to a few others in the gym lifting heavier, but with poor balance and only moving the weights half the way, and told me I would not want to become one of them. That they were not as strong as they could have been and were only feeding their egos. That I must learn to work not just harder, but better then them.
Today though, when I was loading up the leg press. I decided to look over at Harsh. The trainer was showing him around all the basic exercises. He had calmed down, and as he lifted the demo weights in the lat pull-down and then smoothly moved 40 kg with no difficulty. I saw just how strong he was, though the trainer did not look quite as impressed.
"You told me you were strong Harsh", said the trainer. "Is your whole class a bunch of weaklings or what", he said in softer tone.
"Maybe", answered Harsh.
"You did not need to answer that", said the trainer, "just show me how many push-ups you can do".
I saw Harsh get into push-up position as instructed. His heavy weight bulging his hands. He got down for one, his back sagged as his fat belly reached all the way to the ground, then his arms perked a bit as he pushed himself back up, all the way, though it looked very hard for him. Then the second rep, which seemed even harder. On the third rep, his head rattled as he pushed with greater exertion then I ever thought he could show, as he plopped on the ground after. Yet he wasn't done, I saw his face contort into a ridiculous snarl as he pushed one more. His chest rose up as it tried to drag the rest of his 75 kilo body with it, and his much stronger right hand side rose up faster then his left as his body tilted. His face was almost red by now, and before I knew it, his left arm gave up, like a beam snapping under pressure, and he thudded on the ground.
I listened as the trainer told him not to worry. That he could loose his excess flab and he already had a good amount of strength especially for his age. That he could do very well in strength based sports with training. That training will make him much stronger if he is patient.