Strength Training

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Sophia Stark

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OOC First Name
Kaela
Having sent Kale a note about her brand new magically reinforced Beater's bat Sophia made her way to the Pitch. She set her messenger bag, which had her bat inside, and her Emerald Streak on the ground and made her way to the shed. Opening the door she began to dig around for a bludger.
 
Kale recieved a note from Sophia earlier that day about her hoping to get some more stregnth training with the beaters bat. Walking away from the castle and unto the pitch with his beaters bat in one hand and his Sienna Storm strapped to his back he entered the grassy quidditch pitch. Kale could see Sophia's broom on the floor and her digging around for a bludger inside the shed, he walked up from behind her and tapped her on the shoulder lightly, "Hey Sophia" he greeted, peering into the shed.
 
Sophia jumped slightly as she felt something on her back and turned around quickly to see Kale standing before her. "Oh, hello Kale. I was just looking for a bludger. Do you know where one is?"
 
Kale smirked slightly when Sophia jumped, "Sorry about that.." he said with a small laugh. He nodded at her and walked into the shed when she asked about the bludger, he reached for the highest shelf of the shed and grabbed a hold of the wooden box; he had hidden it so no other students would get a hold of it. Kale smiled mischeveously at Sophia and walked back outside of the shed with the bludger still strapped safely in the wooden box, "You brought your bat, am I correct?" Kale inquired, though he was positive that she had, it didn't hurt to ask.
 
"Bat? No, I thought we were kicking the bludger," Sophia said to Kale in a very serious tone. She wanted to see how he would respond to her harsh sarcasm.
 
Kale arched his brow for a moment noting her serious tone. He smirked, "I don't think kicking the bludger would build arm stregnth." Kale said, his voice riddling with sarcasm back at her.
 
Sophia smirked at Kale and laughed slightly. "Oh, I also invited Bruin, I hope that is all right. I am not actually sure if he is coming or not."
 
Kale nodded at Sophia, "It's cool." he missed being on a team with Bruin, he was the one that got him into being beater. "Bruin will be a lot of help. Would you like to wait for him, or just get started without?" Kale inquired.
 
"I suppose we can get started without him." Sophia knelt on the ground beside her messenger bag and took out her new magically reinforced Beater's bat. With that in her left hand she stood and looked to Kale. "What first?"
 
Bruin walked out to the Quidditch Pitch with Beater's Bat and broom safely in tow. He looked and saw Sophia and Kale getting things organized and gripped his bat a little tighter. He had neglected his beater training, trying to get everyone else on his team ready for their upcoming match and missed the satisfaction that he got from pounding the bludger.

As he got close to the others he gave a friendly wave and smiled. "Alright, so what's this all about. Target practice???"
 
Sophia found it hard to conceal her smile as she saw Bruin waving, but she was able to keep it a small one. "Hello Bruin. Well, I guess it could be target practice for you. I need to work up my arm strength. Any suggestions?"
 
Bruin considered Sophia's question. "Hmm, as far as I know the only way to build strength is to workout your muscles. I suppose you should be thinking about things like upper body weight training exercises....maybe some push ups, chin ups, curls, flys, that kind of thing....", he had no idea if Sophia would have any idea what he was talking about, but thought it was a start.
 
"Well, I guess we can just get started by releasing the bludger and hitting around so you can get a feeling for your bat." Kale suggested while looking in Sophia's direction and gripping his beaters bat. From the corner of his eye, Kale noticed Bruin entering the pitch and approaching them; he smiled and saluted his friend, "Hey Bruin, hows it going?" he inquired while setting the box the bludger on the floor.
 
A look of confusion spread over Sophia's pale face as she listened to Bruin. "I do not really know anything about exercise. I suppose we can try hitting the bludger. I was not very good last time I tried." She gave the bat a gentle swing, amazed at how heavy it felt but refusing to let it show as she set the barrel of the bat in her right hand, her left hand still grasping the handle.
 
"Hey Kale." Bruin replied with a hearty smile. "Fair enough, but I don't think you're going to build up much strength just by hitting a bludger. What I meant by exercise is this.."

Bruin pulled out his wand and placed a hovering charm on his Scarlet Streak so that it was hanging parallel to the ground approximately 7 feet above it. "Now if I've done this right, the broom should just hang there until I release the charm...and I can use it as a chin-up bar." And with that said, Bruin jumped up and grabbed the bar with both hands so that he was hanging from his broom, his feet just off the ground.

Bruin proceeded to pull himself up by bending at his elbows and raising himself up so that his chin was level with the broom handle and then lowered himself down again. He repeated this 5 times and then let go. "That exercise is called a chin-up and should help you build arm strength. Want to give it a try?"
 
Sophia turned to Bruin, curious about these exercises he kept talking about. She watched with interest as he placed a spectacular Hovering Charm on his broom, a small smile creeping onto her lips. The smile disappeared and was replaced with a look of wonder as she watched Bruin raise himself above the bar. Her moth had dropped open slightly and she quickly closed it.

"Me?" Sophia stated in shock. she knew for a fact she had never worked out and was not confident that she could pull off what Bruin had just done. Staying the summer with him had shown her just how strong he really was. "Oh, I do not know..." she was not thrilled at the idea, not wanting to embarrass herself in front of Kale or Bruin.
 
Kale watched Bruin as he demonstrated the chin ups with ease with his broom, he hadn't ever done excercises realatively close to what he was showing them but was enthusiastic to try it out either way.

Since Sophia's expression was skeptical, Kale walked toward Bruin's broom that was hovering up above him. Kale looked up and then back at both Bruin and Sophia before jumping up and gripping the broom stick; pulling his chin up over the broom handle with a struggle. He didn't have much arm stregnth, if any at all; he let out a grunt and landed on his feet. Kale looked at the two slightly embarassed, he's never been the kind of person who was good at accepting failure.

Kale stood for a moment without speaking a word, he took one final look up at the broom and back at Sophia, willing to give her a try before he was to attempt it again; hoping that he had sucess at the second time.
 
Sophia watched Kale with a worried expression. She felt slightly better seeing that he was unable to match Bruin's show of strength. With a look at Kale and then Bruin, she gave a small sigh and walked up to the hovering broom. Here goes nothing, she thought, not really expecting to accomplish anything.

She jumped up and put her hands out to grab the hovering broom, but missed and landed back on the ground. Sophia's cheeks flushed red as she looked angrily up at the broom, cursing herself silently. Reaching out her hands she jumped once more and grabbed a hold of the broom. With all of her might she pulled, trying to raise herself so that her chin was level with the broom. Very, very slowly she raised herself ever so slightly, and eventually ended up letting go of the broom, dropping to the ground without ever having done a chin-up.

Looking quite dejected and embarrassed Sophia walked back over to where she had been standing. She stared at the ground, not happy.
 
Bruin gave his two friends a little smile, noting that they didn't appear too happy about their chin-up attempts. "Hey you two, chins up. Nothing good in life comew without a little effort." he said, trying to sound motivational. "Alright, maybe chin-ups wasn't the best exercise to start with..." Bruin pulled out his wand, pointed it at his broom and lowered it until it was hovering approximately 3 feet above the ground, secretly quite pleased that his practice on the hovering charm had paid off.

"Okay, this is a modified push up." Bruin stated matter-of-factly, as he walked over and grasped the broom handle with his hands and his arms straight out in front of him about shoulder width apart. Bruin gradually shifted his feet backwards until his body was at about a 45 degree angle to the ground, still holding on to the brrom handle. This time he bent his elbows and allowed his body to be lowered towards the broom and then straightened his arms again, effectively pushing himself away from the broom again.

"As you get stronger, you can lower the bar or even lay face down on the ground and use your arms to push you up and down. Make sure to keep your back straight too. This is good for all of your core muscles, not just your arms." Bruin said, looking at the other two and wondering if they had any interest in continuing.
 
Sophia had always known in the back of her mind that Bruin was athletic, but she had never really considered all of the work that went into it before. She watched with much interest as Bruin did the modified push-ups, liking the idea of these much better than the chin-ups.

"I will try," she said, feeling more confident this time around. Sophia stepped forward and looked to Bruin, a bit confused on how to set herself up.
 
Bruin gave Sophia an encouraging smile, recognizing the determination that she had shown over the summer resurfacing. "Alright, so um, just kind of lean into the broom and then push yourself up and down." Not certain that she trusted his hover charm Bruin decided to add. "Of course, you can also do this just leaning against a wall or a desk even."
 
Sophia flashed Bruin a soft smile before bending down, resting her hands on the handle of the broom. She pushed her feet back as she saw Bruin doing, making it so her body in a straight line, making a sort of triangle with ground. Up and down, she thought to herself, and lowered her body closer to the broom. Sophia pushed herself back up with some difficulty, her arms shaking slightly.

"This is...not so bad," she said as she lowered herself and pushed herself back up. "Much better...than chin ups." Sophia lowered herself and pushed herself back up a couple more times before standing back up, grasping her arms in her hands. They were quite sore, but she did not want to let it show in front of Kale and Bruin. She put her hands back at her sides and smiled weakly at the two.
 
"That was reall good Sophia. I'm pretty sure that does your triceps, the muscle that straighten your elbows, and chest muscles mainly. So, you should also do some bicep curls to work the musles than bend your arms at the elbows." Bruin picked up a couple of bricks that were beside the shed, placed one in each hand and held them at his sides. He then proceeded to bend his arms at the elbows and brought the bricks up to his chest before lowering them down to his sides and counting out "one!".

Bruin repeated this movement 10 times and then held the bricks out for Sophia or Kale to take. "That's called a bicep curl. You should choose a weight that allows you to lift the weight 10 to 15 times in a row before you get tired. If it's too light it won't really do anything and if it's too heavy you won't be able to do enough repetitions and might hurt your muscles."
 
Sophia looked skeptically at the bricks. She had tried to listen to what Bruin had told her about the various muscles and such, but understood very little of it. Something about strengthening her elbows. In watching Bruin curl the bricks, and seeing the size of them, she was sure they would be too heavy for her.

"Are there any smaller bricks?" she asked nervously, looking a bit embarrassed. She tried to look herself but didn't see any right away.
 
Bruin looked around and didn't see anything right away, instead he lowered his broom with his wand as it had still been hovering patiently where he had left it. He repeated the curling motion with the broom and, although it was light, got the sense that it would provide a little bit of resistance. He handed the broom to Sophia and said. "Here, you can try this instead."
 
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