Chapter 162: Squeezing Hands
Obviously some thought had been given to what would happen if someone dropped a heavy weight on a flat concrete floor. The wood and cork kept everyone from having to wear eye-protection against the chance of flying concrete chips. A side benefit was that it absorbed much of the sound in the room that otherwise would have echoed down the hall.
I walked in like I belonged and dropped my bag on the floor inside the door with the rest. Steve was talking to his teammates over by the free weights, so I strolled over.
"Hey, Steve. How're they hangin'," I said, somewhat loudly, and slapped poor Steve on the ass hard enough to make him jump.
I expected my greeting to provoke laughter and defuse the tension that I was sure would be caused by my presence in this formerly male bastion. I was disappointed when no one laughed, giggled, tittered, or even chuckled. Instead, I was treated to exactly the kind of stares and stony silence I had expected as a worst-case scenario. This was going to be just as much an uphill fight as I had feared.
"Hi, Sam!" Steve managed to get the huge lump in his throat swallowed before the silence became too overpowering. "I see you decided to join us after all." A master of the obvious was my boy Steve.
"I don't want to be a bother, so if you'll let me know your routine, I'll be happy to work around you."
"Sure!" Steve said. And then belatedly decided that it would be a good idea to introduce me around. "Uh, this is Doug, Roger, Lamont, and Bruno. Guys, this is Sam. She's going to be working out with us."
I thought he might have mentioned something to his teammates before I appeared, but he must have been hoping that I would chicken-out and not show up, so his announcement was news to everyone. They took it well. By 'well' I mean no one barfed or ran for the door. The looks of astonishment on their faces would have made a great candid photo for the school yearbook.
None of them was prepared to make the first move, so I had to. I walked over to Bruno and stuck out my hand. Contrary to what you would expect from the name, Bruno was the smallest person in the room other than me. He still had 40 pounds on me, so it was a relative thing. After looking at it like it might have cooties on it, Bruno decided to be brave and shake my hand.
"Pleased to meet you, Bruno." I said cheerfully.
"Sure thing." Bruno replied and moved on smartly.
Having the procedure laid out for them, the rest also shook hands with me in a perfunctory manner. The sole standout was the only black guy on the wrestling squad, Lamont. I really wanted to ask where he got the name Lamont, but I was afraid the answer would be what I expected and I didn't want to embarrass him on our first meeting. Not that it did me any good. Instead of a quick shake, Lamont chose to try to intimidate me by squeezing my hand. He couldn't have known that pain and I were practically best buddies, or that I could have mashed his hand to a pulpy mess if I had chosen to. He stood there, squeezing tighter and tighter, trying to get a reaction out of me so that he could laugh and make some comment about girls not being able to 'take it' like boys. The temptation to break some bones was strong, but I kept smiling and returned his grip with only a mild pressure in return.
Pretty soon, the tendons on Lamont's forearm started popping out and I realized that he was bearing down at almost the limit of his strength. Still, I kept smiling and squeezed back only a fraction of what he was giving me. After a few awkward seconds, he quit trying to hurt me and tried to let go and take his hand back. Of course, things got even more awkward - for Lamont, anyway — when he found that I was holding on too tightly for him to get free easily. I kept smiling just the same as before and cocked my head to one side quizzically as he pulled and yanked without trying to let it be seen that I had him trapped. After a few more seconds or that, he stopped trying and I let go.
As Lamont stepped away, I saw a look in his eyes that told me I had achieved a partial victory already with at least one team member. The look in Lamont's eyes as he massaged his hand couldn't be anything but respect. Grudgingly given, but respect nonetheless.
As I expected, the team members had a rotation worked out so that everyone worked a different set of exercises to benefit a different muscle group. The quick research I had done had told me that you didn't stress the same muscles over and over, you spread it around as much as you could to get the broadest benefit. This meant that I would be working with whatever equipment was left over. As it happened, that turned out to be the dumbbells, the one piece of equipment I felt comfortable with and also needed to no setup or cooperation from the members of the wrestling team to use.
I saw them watching me at the weight rack. I was sure they either expected me to go for either the lightest weights or the heaviest I could lift. I surprised them by doing neither. I picked up the pair of 20 pound weights and turned to face the center of the room. I put my feet shoulder-width apart and squared my shoulders, then I started a warm-up and range-of-motion set that Jim had shown me. As I worked through the reps, I saw the eyes of the guys on me, gauging me. One by one, they went back to their own workouts.
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