The Guest Experience

Sam walked off the small bus past the driver who told him to have a good workout. Sam paid no mind, though. He was focused on checking out this new gym. He had been told that there were a lot of women here and he was ready to show off.

The automatic doors moved over to the sides and allowed him to enter when he approached them. He breathed in the fresh gym air as he walked through them, ready to look around and check out the scene. He was a bit surprised to see the bare feet of the attendant resting on the desk she was sitting at. He looked past her feet up her muscular legs, to the tight t-shirt she was wearing. She was typing something into her phone and his first thought was that she didn’t notice him. But as he got closer and she still didn’t look up, he realized she was intentionally ignoring him. As he stood there for a minute or so waiting, he saw her crack a smile, looking like she was happy to be keeping him waiting. When she finally looked up at him the look on her face was cocky. However, there was something about her face that looked like it just had a natural arrogance to it. Her face was pretty but she didn’t look like a very nice person to him. 

“Can I help you?” she said.

“I’m here for The Guest Experience.” She gave him a smile that suggested she looked down at the people that took advantage of that. 

“Sign on the pad here,” she said. 

There was an electronic screen on the desk with the pen attached to it for him to sign on. She had her bare feet resting right next to the screen. He waited for her to move her feet and was annoyed that she didn’t. She looked at him like she was waiting for him to sign. He tried to wait her out for her to move her feet but he realized that if he wanted to get in and work out that he was going to have to be the one to give in. He had to avoid touching her feet to grab the pen and she looked proud that she had won this little mental battle and that he had to do this. He looked frustrated as he signed on the screen.

“Have a good workout,” she said condescendingly and she wiggled her bare toes. 

He walked away from the desk, glad that he didn’t have to deal with her anymore. He stuck his chest out as he looked around for the squat rack. He loved showing off his body. He stood at six feet tall and was a lean 170 pounds but he was a fitness freak and he had a muscular body. He could squat almost double his weight at 325 pounds. A brief scan of the gym showed that there were plenty of females there he could show off for.

He did notice one thing that stuck out to him as a little odd. He saw a woman with muscular legs lying down on a bench preparing to bench press 225 pounds. He had never seen a female come close to benching that much weight. There were two wimpy looking men standing on each side of the bar ready to spot her. He thought about how weak those guys had to be to require two of them to spot that amount.

Sam found a squat rack. There were two right next to each other, both not being used, both with bars resting on the rack with no weight on either of them. He walked up to one and put a 45 pound plate on each side to do his warm up. After doing 10 easy reps at that weight to get himself going he looked behind him and was happy with what he saw.

A woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties was walking up to the squat rack that was next to him. Her brown hair was up in a bun and her face was pretty, though, she had a serious and focused look on her face. She wore a black tight tank-top that showed off her thick looking shoulders and arms. She wore black workout pants that were tight. They showed off her thick, strong looking legs, and her big butt. Sam was excited to move along and show off his squatting ability for this attractive girl.

He threw another two 45 pound plates on each side of the bar, pushing the weight up to 225. He watched her put 70 pounds on each side of her bar. Her warm up was more weight than his. Was she just trying to show off? He thought that was stupid and actually felt annoyed. Normally he did ten reps at 225 but today he did fifteen to show off a little. He felt it on his legs when he was done.

He watched her increase the weight on her bar to 235 pounds and do fifteen reps. She didn’t look like she was paying attention to what he was doing but he was watching her discreetly as well and the fact that she kept doing just a bit more weight than him made him think that she was trying to one-up him.

He continued to increase the weight on his bar, do more reps than he was used to doing, and keep an eye on what she was doing, trying not to be noticed that he was. She continued to do a little more weight than him and she started doing a few more reps than he did each time. She didn’t seem to be getting the least bit fatigued. He definitely was, as he was working harder than usual trying to keep up with her. He hoped that it wasn’t showing. 

He got up to his max and, feeling motivated, he attempted his highest weight to squat ever – 335 pounds – he managed to do it but he only was able to do two reps and he was barely able to rack the bar afterwards, receiving a scare that he wasn’t going to be able to do it. After standing there for a minute and feeling the fear, he looked to his left – and he watched the woman squat 345 pounds five times and rack it easily when she was done. 

She then looked over and saw how much weight he had on the rack. It was a brief glance but she definitely saw the amount of weight and if he were to take it off now then she’d also probably see that he wasn’t able to do the same amount that she was. And he couldn’t have that. He added another five pounds on each side of his bar.

He felt his shoulders push into the bar as he prepared to attempt to twenty pounds heavier than his previous maximum. He knew how dangerous this was but he was going to have to try and do it. He used his shoulders to bring it off of the rack and he felt how heavy it felt as he took a step back. She had done five reps and he was going to feel lucky if he did just one. He was terrified of getting hurt trying to accomplish what this woman had done without much trouble.

He squatted down and on his way down he was already certain that he wasn’t going to be able to get up. He feared how badly he was going to hurt himself, trapped underneath all of this weight that the short woman was able to do and he wasn’t. He put all of his might into a desperation attempt to try and get up but he couldn’t even come close.

“Help!” he yelled, tears in his eyes, his face red, and sweat pouring down it.

He could feel the weight all being too much for his back and neck and the tears started to come down his face as he thought about how bad an injury this was going to result in as he was squatted down helplessly. He then felt some relief and he saw that there was a woman on each side of the bar there to help him. They lifted the bar up off of him and racked it. He stood up, still in a lot of pain, and he wiped the tears from his face. To his right was a tall woman that had a smile on her face like she was amused by his dangerous and humiliating situation. To his left was the woman that could squat more than him.

“Gotta be careful on the squat rack,” the one on the left said. “Could really hurt yourself trying to lift weight that you’re not strong enough to do.” She then went back to her business. He watched her squat 355 five times, and then rack it with no problem.

Humiliated, he took the weights off of the bar and walked away from the squat rack. He was done doing leg exercises in this gym and was going to go work out his arms. That should be a good way for him to impress all the ladies here. As he walked, he noticed something else that caught his eye – a woman had just finished using a bench and another guy immediately started wiping her sweat off of it for her like he was her assistant or servant or something.   

Sam reached for two dumbbells on the rack. He grabbed each one and as he began picking them up, he felt something stop his progress. He looked down to see a soft, female, well-manicured hand pushing down on the end of it. He followed his eyes up the feminine arm to see an attractive, cocky-looking woman with blond hair and a headband on, smiling at him like she didn’t have any respect for him.

“I’m using these,” the woman said not very politely to him. 

“Um, OK,” he said but he didn’t let go. “I mean, they were just sitting here on the rack.” The woman looked impatient.

“I was coming to use them,” she said.

“OK, well I was coming to use them too. Sorry, but I did get here first. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

She looked down with an annoyed smile and she shook her head with disgust. Based on the look on her face, Sam expected her to say something nasty to him and it wouldn’t have surprised him if she tried to hit him. He braced himself to prepare for either.

“Alright,” she said. “You want to play it that way. Come on over here and I’ll arm-wrestle you for them.”

He watched her walk away but then watched as she kneeled at a bench and started putting her elbow on it in the arm-wrestling position. He didn’t think he should need to do any kind of competition for the right to use these dumbbells that he had had his hands on first. But he also didn’t want to look like he was afraid to arm-wrestle a woman either. A couple of other good looking women had seen what had happened and they stood close to the bench to watch which solidified that Sam wouldn’t be able to walk away from this challenge.

He took his hands off of the dumbbells and walked over as the woman now had her arm fully in position and she wiggled her long, feminine fingers to entice him. He kneeled across from her and looked at her arm. It was thin but it looked very fit and did have some muscle definition to it. He locked hands with her hand which felt strong but had a firm grip.

“You count to three and say go,” she said. “I don’t want you to have any excuses.”

He counted to three and began pushing at her arm with the intention of bringing it right down. Her arm did not move at all. He felt her grip tighten on his hand, felt the pressure on his bicep, and looked at the proud look on her face that he was not able to move her. He pushed harder, still not able to move her arm even an inch, and there was now pain developing in his bicep from this strength test he was having with her lean muscles.

She chuckled as she pushed back and began bringing his arm down without a problem. He could feel his face getting red and felt himself breathing heavily as he tried with all he had to try and stop her but his effort was no match for her strength. He was able to hold her off for a second or two when she had his hand just a couple of inches from the bench but then she pushed it down hard to seal the victory.

“Keep your hands off my weights!” she said with a teasing tone and she pointed at him before she walked over to take the dumbbells that he should have been the one using, as the two women watching walked away looking amused.

Sam had had enough of The Guest Experience at this gym. He came here to build his confidence, not to have it shattered. He stood up and as he made his way to the exit he saw something else that caught his eye, and also disturbed him – a woman was sitting on a bench with her legs stretched out. Her feet were bare and a scared looking man was on his knees rubbing her feet. 

Not wanting to look at that any longer he picked up the pace. He walked by where the desk attendant was without even looking at her. Expecting the doors to open like they had when he had walked in, he bumped right into them when they didn’t. He looked back at the desk attendant and gave her a dirty look, expecting her to apologize and open the doors for him. Instead she looked amused and her bare feet were still resting on the desk, the soles of them looking right at him.

“You’re not getting out of here,” she said before he could complain.

“What?” 

She just smiled without a response. He looked over to see the woman that had squatted more than him and the woman that beat him in arm-wrestling walking over. They surrounded him and gave him nowhere to go other than the doors behind him that wouldn’t open. Each of the women grabbed him by an arm. He struggled to pull free but they were too strong for him. His increased struggle did no good and despite the fact that he was fighting hard, they didn’t look like they were putting any effort to holding him.

“What do you want us to do with him?” the woman from the squat rack said.

“We’re good with spotters, we’re good with people cleaning the benches, and we’re good with foot massagers,” the desk attendant said. “I actually could use him to rub my feet. But not now. The women’s locker room needs to be cleaned. Take him back there, he can start with that.”

Furious, he struggled to break free from the two women but they pulled him along to the locker room. He huffed and puffed as he struggled to get free. He looked at the desk attendant who got back to playing on her phone. He looked around at all of the different men in the gym, none of them working out, and all of them slaving for the women somehow. Then he looked back at the automatic doors and wondered when and if he’d walk through them to get out of this place.