Getting Gym Ready (Patreon)

This 4.4k word story was another commision by my good buddy Nate / Soul Controller. I hope you all enjoy!

Owen had always admired muscular guys who spent countless hours in the gym to sculpt their bodies, but he’d never seen that as a potential avenue for himself. Back in his early teens he had dominated the soccer field but after an unfortunate injury his fitness levels naturally decreased. Now nearly a decade removed from his soccer days, the grown man actually felt a little too self-conscious to sign up to the gym closest to his apartment. Even though he was neither worryingly skinny for a grown man, nor embarrassingly large, Owen still lacked confidence in his body. He was a little thicker around the waistline than he would have liked and when he flexed his arms, there was only the smallest rising of muscle beneath the doughy flesh. Owen didn’t exactly cringe away from his reflection but he didn’t regularly stop to admire himself either.

In the past several months though, Henry had entered Owen’s life and prompted a subtle shifting of the status quo. The pair had met through an online community about their shared love for pop music, and as they got to know each other better, Henry had opened up about his fitness journey and even shared several progress pictures with his new friend. It was through his regular conversations with Henry that Owen began to toy with the idea about finally signing up to a gym membership, and his new friend was incredibly supportive of the idea. “I’m not a pro or anything, but I can help plan some starter workouts for you!” the British-born Henry had offered during a late-night video call, his enthusiasm palpable even from thousands of miles away.

It seemed to be fate, as no sooner had the concept forced its way into Owen’s mind but he discovered that a new gym would soon be opening up just a short distance from the college where he was currently taking classes! Considering its newness, there was a good chance that it wouldn’t be as crowded as the gym that was actually closer to Owen’s home, even if it was actually a more expensive membership. Much to Owen’s surprise though, on the day when he decided to finally bite the bullet and sign up, there was a large sign on the window declaring that there was a single-day exclusive offer for a majorly discounted lifetime membership. The sheer quality of the deal was mind-boggling, but Owen wasn’t about to turn his nose up.

Sure enough, as he stepped through the doors, he discovered that there wasn’t a single patron in the gym; the only occupant was the silver-haired behemoth standing behind the desk as if he had been expecting Owen. To simply call him a man would be doing him a disservice, as he was twice as broad as Owen and almost a whole foot taller. Despite the man’s nearly seven-foot height and well-conditioned muscles, there was something kindly radiating from his eyes and smile, and the normally nervous Owen found himself put strangely at ease. He approached the desk with some hesitancy and was surprised to encounter a pleasant smell as he stepped closer. It caught him off guard - he had been anticipating a heavy musk considering how the giant appeared to have sweat right through the stringer that was clinging desperately to his massive chest.

“H-hey, I was wondering about the offer you’ve got in the window?” Owen started, doing his best to keep his voice steady despite the fact his heart had begun to beat rather rapidly in his chest. The man before him looked like he’d walked straight out of one of Owen’s muscle-bound fantasies! You have a boyfriend, the younger man reminded himself. Besides, he’s probably straight and even if he was gay, he’d probably be looking for another bodybuilder to lift and pose with… It was a struggle for Owen to pull himself out of his own mind once he had gotten going. His thoughts always seemed to run away from him, and he was nervous that he had been left gaping at the man’s huge pecs for several long seconds. Mercifully, if that was the case, then the silver-haired giant didn’t seem to mind all that much, as he still wore that same kind smile when Owen finally dragged his gaze back up to meet the other’s eyes.

“I was wondering how quickly someone might respond to that,” the man boomed out, his deep bassy voice echoing off the walls of the uncrowded establishment. “Happy to have you here, son! I’m Greg, but you can call me Boss. This place is my baby.” He looked around the gym and then focused back on the chubby young man before him, the same friendly smile still being worn on his lips. “Let me just go get that contract for you to sign. Don’t go anywhere!” With that, the man turned and disappeared into his office behind the desk, giving Owen a brief look at the broad back muscles and the perky ass cheeks that were barely contained within his tight grey shorts. The sight made Owen’s head spin and caused butterflies to appear in his stomach. He’d had no idea that his local area was also home to such a mature hunk! He was glad that his boyfriend wasn’t present with him at that moment because it was impossible for Owen to hide the lustful expression from his face, no matter how hard he tried.

The muscular gym owner returned a few seconds later with a hefty paper document in his hands - it had to be at least fifty pages - and dropped it on the desk in front of Owen. “There we go. Make sure you read through it carefully and then sign on the dotted line on the last page,” the man advised, “If you’re happy with everything in the contract then we talk about the payment plan after.”

Owen mumbled in agreement and began flicking through the numerous pages of the contract. Although he paused on each page for several long seconds, he didn’t read much of anything at all. He couldn’t tear his focus away from the older man and his intoxicating aroma, and the thought of seeing the man working up a sweat out on the gym floor was enough to seal the deal for Owen. He simply had to become a member for that beautiful sight alone! He was already excited to tell Henry about Greg - he was certain that his friend would be jealous that he got to train in such close proximity to a mature bodybuilding hunk. Who wouldn’t be?!

Finally making it to the last page of the contract, Owen eagerly accepted the pen that was offered to him and hastily scrawled his signature on the dotted line. At that precise moment in time the young man wasn’t thinking about anything more than how good it would be to enjoy Greg’s company (or at least the sight of him) on a regular basis. As such, there was no possible way that Owen could grasp the gravity of the moment and how that one decision would come to shape the remainder of his years.

“You just made the best choice of your life, son,” the mature bodybuilder declared, scooping the contract up from the desk and beginning to return to his office. “I’ll just get you something to change into… those clothes simply won’t do.” The statement was unexpected enough to snap Owen out of his momentary reverie, and a frown played upon the edges of his lips. As far as he knew, it wasn’t common for gyms to provide free workout gear to new members, but perhaps that had been one of the many points on the contract that he had just signed. Heh, wonder what else I agreed to!

When Greg returned, he was carrying a grey compression shirt and pair of athletic shorts, both of which were branded with the gym’s name: The Aesthetics Workshop. Owen accepted them with a polite smile, although he already had his doubts about the items. He’d never worn a compression shirt in his life and he was cautious about how it would make his soft stomach look. It seemed highly likely that the tight fabric would cause bulges in all the wrong places and that would only make Owen feel worse about himself, but what choice did he have? There wasn’t a chance in hell that he was about to refuse such a kind gesture from the gym owner. He desperately wanted to stay on Greg’s good side, so if he had to wear some unflattering clothes to do it then so be it!

With some reluctance, Owen finally tore himself away from the welcome desk and followed the gym owner’s directions towards the locker room. As he approached, the door opened and a pack of three men almost ran him down, with their hairy muscular bodies quickly making the newcomer feel inferior. They didn’t so much as look in his direction, let alone apologise for forcing him to jump out of their way. Instead, they were engrossed in their conversation which, from the small snippet Owen heard, appeared to be about a sorority girl that one of them was hooking up with. Once he was sure that the men couldn’t see him, Owen rolled his eyes. Why were so many straight men so gross in how they spoke about women? Didn’t they hear themselves?!

Unfortunately the changing room wasn’t as empty as Owen had been hoping, as there were two more men present who glanced his way as he entered. Both were slightly older - likely in their forties and fifties - and wore surly expressions on their faces, as if warning him off even attempting to make friends with them. Owen quickly averted his eyes and hurried towards the back of the room where he might be given at least a little bit of privacy. The absolute last thing he wanted or needed was for either of those intimidating muscular specimens to start judging his unimpressive body as he hastily stripped out of his clothes. The unfairness of such judgment bothered the young man; he was sure that they must have had equally uninspiring starting points before embarking upon their own fitness journeys. Why were fitness meatheads so unwelcoming to newbies? Even if he miraculously managed to craft his body into a physique that would make Hercules proud, Owen swore that he would never look down at anybody just starting out. He was going to do better than that!

Getting ahead of yourself there, he reminded himself. As if you’ll ever get even a quarter as big of any of those guys. You’ll be lucky if you even see the smallest hint of abs. It wasn’t uncommon for Owen’s inner monologue to be defeatist in nature, but it was hard to find issue with it when he looked down at his chubby stomach. The compression shirt that he held in his hand seemed destined to be much too small and as Owen pulled it down over his shoulders, he immediately knew that his fears had been realised. The garment was stretched tight across his torso, doing nothing beyond highlighting the areas that Owen felt more insecure about. Did he really have to wear it?

Well, Greg wants you to… That was really all that needed to be said. Owen was actually a little embarrassed by just how quickly he had let himself be consumed by his lust towards the older man and forcibly reminded himself that he had a boyfriend waiting for him at home. Sure, his boyfriend wasn’t exactly the same kind of physical specimen that Greg was, but he still made Owen happy. Focus on that! It was dangerous to spend too much time thinking about Greg’s physical dominance, lest he start to have a physical reaction of his own. Even if it seemed highly unlikely that the other men in the locker room would find any reason to look over in his direction, he really didn’t want to risk anybody catching him sporting a hard-on in the changing rooms.

While it didn’t spike the same anxieties as the compression shirt, the shorts that had been provided to Owen didn’t fit much better either, as they were strained around his thick waist and bunched up around the crotch. There was very little to be left to the imagination and while Owen wasn’t exactly small in the manhood department, he still felt uncomfortable with having it all on show. Maybe if he was just a few inches larger, sure, but even then he wasn’t much of an exhibitionist. Having anyone stare at him was enough to make him feel nervous at the best of times, having them staring at his junk would probably send him into a meltdown!

Once he was fully changed into his new workout gear, Owen took a few moments to psyche himself up. He was finally alone in the changing room and could faintly hear the sounds of activity in the gym beyond the doors, calling to him like an alluring siren while also remaining vaguely threatening. The young man was stuck in the middle of a push-and-pull scenario but his bravery eventually won out and before he could change his mind, Owen made a beeline for the door and finally returned to the gym floor.

Much to his surprise, Greg was waiting on the other side of the door for him. “You were in there so long I thought you might have gotten lost,” the older man joked, slapping a heavy hand down on the smaller man’s shoulder. A shiver ran right through Owen’s entire body. Holy shit, does this guy have a magic touch or what?! Every fibre of his being had sung in perfect harmony in response to the touch and he immediately missed it once Greg pulled his hand away. “Why don’t you start off on one of our chest press machines? Remember, start light and work up from there!” After sharing his nugget of wisdom, the gym owner departed to greet a pair of pretty blonde girls who had just entered. Although he was nervous to be left to his own devices, Owen figured that it would be best to follow the advice and quickly scouted the gym until he identified the machine in question.

“Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” Owen mumbled to himself, setting the machine at its lightest weight and then getting settled into position. Readying himself to be humiliated by his lack of strength, Owen instead was caught off guard by just how easy the weight moved. In fact he almost lost his balance because he’d been applying too much force for such a measly weight! Guess I underestimated myself, he thought as he adjusted the weight to something that might present more of a challenge. Sure enough, it was definitely more effort to push the weight up and away from his chest, but after ten repetitions of the movement, Owen knew that he hadn’t hit his limit just yet. He could definitely afford to put the weight up a few more levels!

With his confidence rapidly escalating after every successful rep, it wasn’t long before Owen was genuinely enjoying himself. He’d stopped thinking about what the other residents of the gym might be thinking about his lackluster physique and instead focused the entirety of his attention on making sure he was getting a full range of motion and feeling that mind-muscle connection. It only vaguely confused Owen that he actually knew anything about proper form when working on a machine that he’d never used before, but those thoughts were nothing more than a distraction from his workout, so he quickly discarded them and instead just focused on how energetic he felt. Suddenly he was starting to understand why all those fitness influencers he thirsted over on the regular loved sculpting their bodies in the gym so much.

Over the next thirty minutes Owen moved between a variety of machines, each one focusing on a different muscle group, and tried to get his head around how they worked. Much to his delight, he was actually capable of working with relatively heavy weights on almost everything, and the longer his workout went on, the more natural he felt in the environment. At first he had been too anxious to let out even the quietest noise of exertion as he attempted to complete his reps, but that anxiety had faded away as he grew more comfortable, and an aggressive growl escaped Owen’s lips as he completed his final rep on the hack squat machine. He had been squatting two hundred and twenty pounds in total and even he knew that those were mindblowingly impressive numbers for a gym rookie!

After stepping away from the machine, Owen spared a moment to look down at himself and whistled in appreciation. He couldn’t understand why he had ever been so hard on himself: he had a pretty great physique in the making! His stomach was perfectly flat, his arms filled the sleeves of the compression shirt, and his quads looked pretty defined underneath the shorts. Sure, he wasn’t huge but he had a great starting point! No, that can’t be right, a rogue thought in Owen’s mind suggested. Wasn’t he supposed to be carrying a little more weight around his waist? Hadn’t the workout clothes been rather unflattering around his soft body?

Pushing the uncertainty aside for the time being, Owen returned to his quest to familiarise himself with every piece of equipment in the gym. He wasn’t sure why but he felt a growing desire to ensure that he could use it all while still maintaining perfect form and - most importantly, of course - lifting heavy to prove that he was every bit of a man as the others in the gym. He had a great opportunity to prove that when he stepped up to the weightlifting platforms and began to load up a barbell in preparation for his first attempt at deadlifts. Even as he moved the weights from the rack to either end of his barbell, the muscles of his arms were beginning to swell and the sleeves stretched around the expanding bulges of his biceps and triceps.

Wrapping his hands around the metal bar, Owen inhaled once and then pushed up through his feet to raise the bar up to the top of his quads, all while maintaining a perfectly straight back. The movement was perfectly fluid, like a knife through butter, and after completing his first set, Owen knew that it would only be logical for him to rapidly increase the weight if he wanted to provide himself with a real challenge. It was only once he had loaded up the bar to around the two hundred and seventy-five pounds mark that he actively began to struggle with the weight. Pushing through the movement with every little piece of determination he could muster, Owen emit an almighty roar and every muscle in his body expanded at once: his pecs and ass ballooned, his traps rose, shoulders broadened, calves bulged… No part of him was safe from the dramatic increase in muscle mass, but the gym rookie was so focused on completing the exercise that he failed to notice the changes to his physique!

After dropping the barbell back to the ground, where it landed with a loud crash, Owen brought both hands to his face to wipe away the sweat. As he did so, his facial features shifted underneath to take on a more classically handsome appearance: a sharper jawline, more pronounced cheekbones and a stronger brow. Not only that but the lonely whiskers on his chin blossomed into a full goatee that circled around plumper lips and his thick eyebrows took on a more manicured shape. The shaggy mane of hair upon his head was next to change as Owen ran his fingers through it, with the sides pulling right back in until he was left with a stylish fade style. Within a matter of moments, the last recognisable parts of Owen had been completely eradicated, leaving him looking and feeling like a brand new man. No, not just a man. An animal in his natural habitat. A king lording over his domain!

Owen inhabited this new arrogant mindset for only a brief few seconds before he caught sight of his reflection and that same rogue voice in his head from before returned: Who the hell is that?! The shock of seeing such a different reflection had caused Owen’s true self to return to the surface, although he struggled to maintain control given the speed and ferocity with which thoughts were barrelling through his mind. The man in the mirror was an absolute hunk with gorgeous tan skin and huge muscles - especially those ginormous pecs that threatened to bust right out of the compression shirt - but it most definitely wasn’t Owen. He was a chubby white nerd… or at least, he was supposed to be. What could have caused such a dramatic change, not just in his physique but also his face? There had to be some sort of reason for the transformation and it took mere moments for him to identify the likely reason -- “The contract!”

Stomping back across the gym, Owen hastily approached the reception desk where Greg stood, beaming at him like a father proudly watching his son at a school event. He didn’t seem at all concerned about Owen’s changes, nor the angry expression on the recently transformed stud’s new face. “What did you do to me?!” Owen hissed as soon as he was close enough to be sure that nobody other than the gym owner could hear him. “I don’t even look like me anymore!” Sure, Owen hadn’t exactly been the best at self-love but that didn’t mean he was comfortable with the idea of shedding his own identity to become a complete stranger!

“Nothing you didn’t agree to,” the older man countered. The kind smile Owen had been so enamored with previously suddenly seemed to harbour a sinister streak. “Why don’t we talk about this more privately?” Greg then turned and led the way into his office, where he quickly shut and locked the door behind the overwhelmed younger man. The click of the lock may as well have been the slamming of a jail cell door for how it made Owen feel in that moment. “Go on, take a look at your contract. It’s right there on my desk,” the gym owner encouraged, waving towards the hefty document.

As Owen approached the desk, he quickly scanned the walls and took note of various photographs decorating them. Each of them featured Greg posed next to a bodybuilder or fitness model, including some of Owen’s personal favourite thirst follows on social media, such as Ryan Terry, Alex Crockford and Jordan Morello. How the hell does he know all those guys?! There were much more pressing issues at hand though, so he quickly refocused on the document and the text that greeted him on the very front page prompted a sharp intake of breath: Employee Contract. How had he missed that crucial detail?!

“I can’t be working twenty-four-seven, you know. I needed some staff, and that sign you saw in the window was an enchantment that would only appear to suitable candidates,” the mature bodybuilder explained, rounding the desk and sitting down in the chair. Owen remained frozen in place, the contract held in his hands but his focus now completely on Greg. “Of course, you wouldn’t do as you were, but I was anticipating as much, which was why I had all the changes written into the contract. You’re just the lucky guy who saw it first, so you get the prestigious position of being the chief personal trainer at The Aesthetics Workshop. Whatever you did for a living before, trust me that you’ll enjoy this so much more. All you’ve gotta do is help folks work out, keep yourself in great shape and bring in new clients. Trust me, son, this is going to be the most rewarding thing you’ll ever do in your life!”

As his new boss outlined his future, the resistance that Owen had towards his unexpected changes began to crumble away. His own thoughts and feelings were betraying him, as he found himself wondering how blissful it would feel to forget about the pressures of school and his demeaning part-time job for something that would make him feel - and look - so much better. But what about my boyfriend? the wilting voice in his mind desperately asked. A response was offered quickly and bluntly: Wait, boyfriend? Ha, fuck no! I’m not a goddamn queer!

It was the shock of realising that he was about to permanently become a straight man that caused Owen’s final fight to fail. His identity, thoughts and memories were all washed away and replaced by Greg’s creation: Brock Kerrigan, the perfect promotional tool for The Aesthetics Workshop on social media. Sure, he was an arrogant son of a bitch with a reputation for seducing his female clients, but his charm was simply irresistible. Brock’s memory was full of moments where he had used that charm to his advantage, including convincing a friend’s fiancée to cheat on the night before her wedding. Greg had created a man who was a mercenary in most walks of life, but his loyalty to the older man, who he saw as a mentor and father figure, was unwavering. He would do absolutely anything to ensure that his mentor’s new business venture was a success - well, anything that didn’t require him to do anything too gay. He’d given his boss a blowjob or two in the past, but that was different. It was just part of their arrangement and Greg had assured him that there was no need to overthink it. Other than that, Brock was a total lady killer who was notorious for being able to get women wet from a single smirk!

Leaving the boss’ office, Brock looked out across the gym and nodded in approval at what he saw. While it wasn’t busy enough for his liking, it was already more populated than it had been just a few days prior and he was confident that he had played a major part in that. Now he just needed to make sure that everybody in town knew that The Aesthetics Workshop was the one and only place to get their pump on, and maybe he’d even scout out some new personal trainers to work under him. They just had to share his appreciation for the female body and not threaten his position as the gym’s alpha - aside from Greg, of course.

Rolling his broad shoulders and cracking his neck, Brock settled into his usual confident smirk and swaggered out into his personal playground...