My Neighbor's Daughter -  part three
by scherezade the amazon



Vanessa?s Point of View

I woke up feeling strong. Every muscle in my body had hurt for a few days
after we started doing the weight workouts. It was like the first days of
gymnastics offseason workouts all over again, but soon that soreness turned
into a feeling of power. I wondered if Britney felt the same way.

?Britney, how are you feeling since we started with this weight lifting
project??

?I?m good. I was freaking sore for a few days, but now I just feel stronger,
like I?m ready to increase the weights or something. I mean I?m good if we
just maintain, but I think we should go for growth.?

?I know, I answered. ?It makes me feel empowered. Sometimes, I?ll be just
sitting somewhere, watching TV, or in a waiting room, and I?ll tense up the
muscles of my shoulders and chest or my arms or even my legs, and, pretending
to scratch or massage them, I will grab the muscles.?

?Me too,? answered Brit. ?They may not be getting any bigger, but they seem
firmer and stronger, and I am ready for more.?

?OMG, me too. I just love this feeling and I want more of it. I want to get
even bigger and stronger. Do you think it?s time to ask your Dad for more
advice??

?Yep. I?m ready for the next step, Van, even if it means working out more,
like twice some days. The weights we started with were a bit of a challenge at
first, and made me sore as hell, but now I am finishing my sets feeling like I
have more gas in the tank. I?ll see if Dad wants to help us tomorrow. It?s
Saturday, so he shouldn?t have work.?

Mr. Richardson?s point of view

It was already the end of June in 2004. G.W. Bush was running for a second
presidency; the Red Sox and the Yankees had become even more bitter rivals
than before, and we were enjoying a beautiful summer. My business as a
software and IT consultant had taken off, and I would be facing a stretch of
months from September through December in which I would be attending
professional development seminars or travelling to long-term projects.
However, for now, I was making good money, and for the remainder of the summer
I would have at least some time for my family and myself.

The girls had been assiduous about their workouts. A part of me had questioned
whether they would stick with it, but Britney is quite focused when she sets
her mind to something, and Vanessa has that same characteristic to an even
higher degree, so I was not surprised that they had stuck with it. I had left
them to their own devices, checking with them a couple of times to see how
they were doing and to answer any questions. Yesterday, Brit asked me to join
them for their Saturday workout. I said I would be happy to help them.

Deep inside, I had conflicting emotions involving three impulses. On the one
hand, I wanted to help them achieve their goals so they would have a sense of
accomplishment and achievement. That?s a carry-over from my teaching days,
before I realized I could use my technical skills to make more money than God.

I was also curious as to how much strength a woman could build. How much of
their status as ?the weaker sex? was biological and how much was it a social
construct? These two were young and brave enough not to worry about the social
aspects, so I knew they would be willing to go as far as they could.

I was worried about how much of my sexual proclivities drove my curiosity and
how well I could keep those feelings under control and to myself.

What scared me was that Vanessa had figured me out, but it did not seem to
bother her. In fact, she seemed to like the fact that she could have that
effect on me, and yet, I knew she would never act on that impulse. In short,
as long as I kept my comments appropriate, eyes up and my hands to myself, I
was morally and legally safe.

We met in the basement gym midmorning, and they were ready and eager to go. My
daughter wasted no time in telling me what they wanted.

?Dad, we were sore after the first few days, but now we feel really strong,
and we are wondering what the next step should be. We were wondering if we
should increase our weights and maybe even do extra workouts, like two a days
on some days of the week.?

?Honey,? I said to my daughter, ?your instincts are right, and it all depends
on what you want out of this??

?We want to get as big and as strong as possible, Mr, Richardson,? Vanessa
blurted out. ?And we are willing to work hard and make sacrifices in order to
do so.?

I looked at Brit, and she gave me an assenting nod.

?OK then, from what I hear you want to be stronger even than you are and you
want to develop muscle that shows it, especially the ?show me? muscles like
biceps and delts, am I right.?

?What are delts again??

I explained about delts, traps, etc, the shoulder muscle and back muscle
groups.

?Yes, exactly.? Said Vanessa. ?I want my shoulders to look like they are
exploding out of my sports bra, and I want my biceps to look big even when I
am simply reaching for the salt at the table or dropping my book bag by my
desk in school.?

My jaw almost dropped, but I kept my poker face. ?Why weren?t there girls like
this when I was in school in the early seventies??

What I said was, ?Well, now that I know this, I can adjust your workout. Let?s
get started by seeing what gains you have made.?

In every exercise, they were stronger and more assured. I told them to add
five or ten pounds to each of their lifts, more for the bigger muscle groups,
even more than that on dead lifts and squats. We tried a few.

Their lat pull downs were impressive, and it seemed their shoulders were a
smidge wider than before. Moreover, they were able to complete eight wide grip
pull ups, chin all the way to the bar, which I found impressive.

When we got to the bench press, I pointed out that this was the ?godfather? of
lifts.

?It doesn?t actually signify anything, and it doesn?t mean you are necessarily
stronger in every muscle group if you can lift a lot on the bench. However, it
is the macho lift, the one that guys use to determine who is king of the walk.
I don?t know why. Squats and dead lifts are probably more important. But this
is the one to be really good at if you want to impress people,? I said. ?Last
time you surprised me by lifting 205 pounds for reps, and that is why it is
the top of your pyramid sets.?

First I put two 45s on each end of the bar; that plus the bar equals 225
pounds or slightly more than 100 KG. Brittany lay on the bench and I spotted
her. ?Go slowly with each repetition, and make sure your form is good. It
won?t do you any good to use momentum. Better to do good reps with less weight
than lousy reps with a lot.?

She lifted the bar off its cradle and started pushing.?

?This seems easier than 205 we did two weeks ago,? she said and managed eight
good reps.

?Nice job, honey!?

?Now it?s my turn,? said Vanessa, obviously itching to get on the bench. When
she did, I could see why she was so eager. She blasted through ten steady
repetitions with excellent form and no struggling.

?Whoa,? Save some energy for the next attempt.

She rose from the bench and blushed a bit while she stretched her arms and
chest. I added ten more pounds to each end of the bar. This time she struggled
a bit but still managed six reps with excellent form, slowing down on the
fifth and sixth before failing on the seventh.

?I am impressed with each of you. I think it will be safe to Increase each
level of your pyramid by twenty pounds, that?s ten more pounds on each end of
the bar ?? They rolled their eyes at my explanation.

?Dad, we can do simple math!? Brit said, with some false exasperation.

??which means, you will be topping out at 225. That is a shitload of weight
for you two, so be careful and always spot each other.?

?But I topped out at 245,? Vanessa complained.

?Don?t worry; I am not deliberately trying to make you weak. I am taking into
account that you will also be doing dumbbell presses, dumbbell flyes, overhead
presses, overhead dumbbell presses, incline presses, as well as a plethora of
other exercises.?

?Plethora?? they said together.

?It?s a big word; it means a large or excessive amount of something. You
should learn it and keep that word under your hat. It will come in handy at
school. Let?s move on to some other muscle groups.?

When we started doing biceps, I introduced them to drop sets. I had them grab
a 30-pound dumbbell a 22.5 and a 15.Then I demonstrated by performing
concentration curls until failure with the 30-pounder and immediately grabbing
the 22.5-pounder and dong the same and finally doing curls with the 15-pounder
until failure for each arm. They looked skeptical but initially, but after my
demonstration, they were convinced.

?Oh my God Britney. Look how swollen your dad?s bicep is. That drop set thing
really works.?

She grabbed the spot on the bench.

?Now rest your elbow on the inside of the thigh so you concentrate the weight
on the muscle and don?t use momentum to lift,? I said. She evidently got the
message What I saw astounded me. It took her thirteen reps with the big
dumbbell to reach failure and then gradually less to reach failure with each
of the smaller ones.

?I never thought lifting fifteen pounds would be so hard,? she exclaimed. When
she had finished both arms, it was Britney?s turn. And when they were both
finished, they flexed in the mirror. I kept my mouth shut, and listened.

?Oh My God, Brit, I thought it would take longer to get muscles this big. Look
at us. By the end of the summer, it will be fun buying clothes to show off our
bodies in.?

Indeed, their progress was surprising even to me. They grabbed the tape
measure and measured their biceps.

?Almost 14 inches!? Said Britney. Wow. I noticed that both of them had grown.
While there was no big vein over their biceps yet, that would come in time,
and, they had learned the lesson of hard work.

(To Be Continued.)