Learning Curves Part 3

The following morning I was standing in the gym lobby at 6:55 and my nervousness was increasing as we got closer and close to 7am. There had to be about 50 young women there and about 10 guys. Kara was running a bit late so had said she would meet me there but I didn’t see her in the crowd. I had put the light pink one piece on and found that it really did look like something out of an 80s workout video. It felt more androgynous than girlish, but it definitely wasn’t masculine. The outfit held my genitals and pushed them back giving me something of a smooth appearance in the front. It felt both weird and a little bit exciting to wear it.

When I first tried it on I felt strangely humiliated and considered dropping the course completely but I knew Kara wouldn’t let me get out of it now. I also was scared to have to return to Professor Stanton to be taken out of the course. So I put it on and slid my regular boy clothes over the one piece before walking to the gym.

I was sheepishly assessing the crowd, noticing the nervous looks of the other guys in the room, when a whistle was blown near the door to the gym. The crowd went quiet and everyone looked over at Professor Stanton standing at the door to the gym in tight workout clothes. Her tight yoga pants had the shimmering look of PVC and clung to her muscular legs. She wore a white tanktop overtop a red sports bra that held two large breasts. From the other side of the room I could see the definition in her arms: they were powerful and thick and I was mesmerized by her combination of sexuality and strength. She stood well over 6’ and towered over the room of women and men, although a number of the women were close to her size.

“Attention, please, class. Thank you all for getting here on time this morning.”

“The class will be broken up into 2 groups along gender lines. Men, please proceed to the change room on the left, women, you can use the change room on the right. Men, you will be training with Kate,” she gestured to a woman to her right.

Kate was a smaller woman in a pink jumpsuit, the same colour as the one I had. She looked younger than the Professor, and shorter by a good 2 or 3 inches, but fit and lively all the same. She smiled and waved to the group of boys who had assembled at the side of the room.

When the boys filed into their workout room, it turned out Kate was a fair bit younger than the Professor and quite a bit friendlier. She had a bubbly attitude and was welcoming as we all filed into the section of the gym where the boys would be working. She was tall, standing about 5’10, and while she wasn’t muscular like the Professor, I saw sinewy muscle in her arms and legs – she was still quite strong and toned.

“Gather around, boys” she said with a smile. She instructed us to form a circle on the mats around the room. We begrudgingly followed her instructions and found ourselves all looking to her. We looked like a strange group of guys, all wearing the outfits as instructed. I could see that there wasn’t one of us with much by way of muscles: we all had thin arms and legs. Kate was definitely the strongest person in the room … by a lot.

“Now, part of the goal of this course, as the Professor has indicated, is to help everyone build themselves towards a more equitable professional and personal life. In the classroom you’ve done the readings that help you understand why that’s important, in here we’ll do the work that helps make that possible. This class is really about social change, not just thinking about things but putting them into place, making them part of our daily lives.”

“I’ll be helping you with dietary decisions, exercise, and personal life choices that work towards a more equitable lifestyle.”

She went on explaining that the workout sessions would focus on diet, exercise, and personal behavior.

I was a bit worried about the workout because I had never really tried to lift weights before but then Kate brought out the weights that we would be using. They were pink dumbbells with weights of 3 and 5lb. Even I could lift that.

We spent the first half of the session stretching, limbering our legs, backs, and torsos. It felt strange to be in this group of androgynous-looking guys, in a circle around the mat, contorting our bodies in new ways. I expected the stretching would be a quick warmup but it went on for quite a while. After about 30 minutes of stretching I could really feel my legs opening up and felt a new ability to move. We then spent about 20 minutes doing bridges, raising our butts with the weights on our stomachs. This wasn’t tiring at first but we did it at least 100 times and eventually my glutes were burning. I was wavering with the intensity of the workout but when I looked over at Kate I could see the muscles in her bare legs flexing as she thrust upwards. I was relieved when Kate said we were done.

The final section of the class was about nutrition and Kate explained that we needed to record our daily food intake and that we would receive bonus marks for staying under 1200 calories and eating no meat. She walked us through the environmental benefits for this, the health benefits and other parts.

By the time the session was over I had sweat a little bit but mostly had a burning feeling in my abs and around my butt – those were the muscles we had worked out. I was proud of myself that I had got through the entire first workout.

At the end of the class, Kate spoke to each of us individually. I was a bit nervous and approached her with trepidation but she gave me a warm smile that lit me up inside.

“Mike! You did great, today.”

“Thank you.”

She placed a hand on my cheek and rubbed it assuringly. It was strangely familiar, but this whole class experience was strange.

“Did we scare you off? Will you be back?”

I smiled back, basking in her natural warmth, “Yes, I’ll be back. This was actually really fun.”

“Now, do you think you can do a good job and stick to the assignment?”

I was eager to please this woman: “Yes, I think so.”

Her smile broadened, “Great. You can email me if you have any questions at all, OK sweetie?”

“Yes, Kate. Well, I do have one question.”

“What’s that?”

“These outfits… are they necessary?”

She smiled again, “Oh, yes. They’re part of the Professor’s program. She has found that they’re a key part of the instruction.”

“OK.” I said.

“You have a great day. See you again soon.”

In the changeroom, all of the boys were quiet and quickly got changed back into their street clothes. I filed out first and found Kara in the lobby waiting for me: she was quite sweaty and looked exhilarated. She was talking to a group of other girls she’d met in the class and she waved me over.

All of the girls were taller, although Kara was the tallest in the group. One girl next to me was heavier and stood about 5’8 and a few others were between 5’8 and 5’10. They all looked like they’d had an intense workout and were all wearing the same matching black shimmery yoga pants. I could see the sweat on their various workout tops and it was clear to me that they’d had a serious workout.

I was surprised that they weren’t wearing the same outfits the guys had been wearing. I assumed that all of the students were but was it just the boys? Kara interrupted my thoughts.

“Hey, everyone, this is my friend, Mike. He’s in the class too.”

I looked at the girls with a weak smile and felt them assessing me – I suddenly felt the kind of erotic sensation of smallness and weakness that I’d been experiencing with Kara this past week. I felt small and slight next to these women and then somewhat irrelevant as they continued their conversation without me.

When Kara and I left the class, and we walked back to our apartment together, I asked her about the outfits.

“Well, those are the boys’ outfits, Mike. They’re designed to help you explore your feminine side.”

She put her arm around me and pulled me into her. I could feel the heat emanating from her body as well as the strength in her arm.

I looked down at her torso and could see her thick thigh muscles exuding from her yoga pants. Her legs were ripped with muscle.

“The Professor explained that women have been coaxed into feminine behavior their whole life so they need to be pushed in the opposite direction.”

“So the boys need to be more feminine and the girls more masculine? And we meet in the middle?”

She looked down at me and smiled, pulling me in closer to her large frame, “Something like that.”