Dude, What's Up With The Jugs?

March 28, 2023

Ralph was glad that he found a guy to spot him as he went for his last set of incline bench presses. The weight was not actually that heavy, as he was trying high repetitions to increase hypertrophy, and his spotter never actually had to touch the bar. Having the spotter there, however, left Ralph free to concentrate on his form, making sure the weight was on his pectorals and not his shoulders. Also, truth be told, Ralph enjoyed having the spotter as a captive audience watching him pump up his chest. Someone ought to be impressed by his effort. Ralph felt the release accompanying the sound of the bar safely returning to its home on the rack.

The gym was a no-frills converted former warehouse space whose members were primarily middle-aged powerlifters wishing they were still in college, and a few would be bodybuilders. Management required that everyone wear a shirt when they worked out. Ralph pushed that rule to the limit, wearing a loose and deep stringer workout shirt that exposed virtually all of his upper body above the nipples, so his straining muscles were visible to anyone within eyesight.

Ralph working his upper body was not a new sight to anyone in the weight room. He seemed to always be there doing it. Indeed, it was a source of some laughter when Ralph was not around - not because Ralph didn’t know what he was doing, but because of the intensity of Ralph’s obsession with developing his pecs. Ralph seemed to find every conceivable exercise that would work his pecs from every imaginable angle. He was constantly asking the other members to hand him his weights as he positioned himself in imaginative positions. This amused the rest of the regulars whose usual routines rarely included anything other than a bench press to work their chests.

The members had to admit, though, that Ralph’s fixation had paid off. Ralph’s entire body was very well-developed but his upper torso was exceptional. The shoulders were broad with big deltoid cliffs. His neck and traps were thick without being distracting. His lats flared on both sides, enhancing the taper to his waist and emphasizing the ridges of his visible abdominals. Ralph’s generously sculpted pectorals - thick, large, round, and striated - were the main event that caused even those used to seeing him to look twice.

Although the gym required members to wear shirts in the weight room, it had a separate mirror-lined room that was used for aerobic classes. Bodybuilding members used that room for posing practice and were allowed to wear nothing but posing shorts. After his workout, Ralph would go into that room, take off his sweaty workout shirt, and do bodybuilding poses for about twenty minutes. When he first started this practice, Ralph felt pretty awkward about it. He was not used to inviting people to stare at hs body. He found that the posing, however, helped him identify where he needed to concentrate his workouts, and he found the concentrated flexing itself to be a good finishing exercise.

The idea of attempting bodybuilding poses came to Ralph from an older member, Don, who used to compete himself. One day in the locker room as Ralph was gathering his things to leave, Don told Ralph that Ralph looked better than he ever had when he was competing, and that given how hard Ralph worked out and took care of himself, Ralph should consider competing. Don handed him a flyer advertising an upcoming natural bodybuilding show coming in a few months to a nearby city. The competition would have weight classes so Ralph not have to worry about competing against “mass monsters” outweighing him by fifty pounds.

Ralph kept the flyer but doubted it was for him. Ralph was the type of person who would only engage in an activity if he was going to give it a one hundred percent effort. Currently, Ralph was enjoying a “break” from employment, which was the reason he could spend several hours at the gym five days a week. Ralph was starting to plan his return to employment in a month or so, and he would not want anything competing with a new job for his attention. In addition, in spite of regularly being complimented for how he looked, Ralph still felt uncomfortable with the idea of putting his body on a stage for other people to judge.

In spite of his hesitancy to enter a competition, Ralph was pleased Don thought Ralph’s physique looked good enough to make the suggestion. For most of his life after adolescence, Ralph might have been described as a jock, but not someone who got many second looks. In high school, he was on the swimming and soccer teams, but excelled in neither. At college, he played some intramural football and volleyball but they were just diversions he participated in to make friends. Ralph’s fitness in those years match the level of his athletic activity: nothing embarrassing but nothing special either.

Ralph’s love life was also not that exceptional. He was a naturally handsome guy with full brown hair and a pleasant face that matched his friendly personality, so it had never been hard for him to find girls interested in dating. Nothing significant ever came of those relationships. Ralph expected that once his life was more settled he would find someone he could get serious about.

What had been exceptional about Ralph’s was his self-discipline toward his goals. He had taken to heart his parents’ exhortations to apply himself to his studies and had been at the top of his classes in both high school and college. He could have gone from college to almost any graduate school for an MBA, but he decided to take advantage of an offer from a tech start-up in tSouthern California, anxious to take advantage of Ralph’s significant coding skills. The job paid an amount Ralph never dreamed he could make with just a Bachelor’s degree.

Given the amount that he was being paid, Ralph was not surprised that the job required long hours and left room for little else in his life. He did get a membership at a “big box” chain health club near his office, as he knew that he needed an outlet from the claustrophobia of the office. Initially, he made sure he went at least three times a week and worked out for at least an hour. As work’s demands increased, that resolve faded, and several months he never made it to the club at all. Not surprisingly, after a year and a half at the job, Ralph realized he was beginning to develop a bit of a paunch.

All of that changed when the pandemic happened. Ralph’s company almost immediately emptied the office and told its employees to plan on working from home indefinitely. Ralph considered briefly returning to his parents’ home in the Midwest so he would not be trapped indoors alone. He decided against it because he did not want to be responsible for adding any risk into his parents’ lives, and because he wanted to be able to quickly get back to the office when it reopened, which he assumed would be in just a few weeks. As a result, during the lockdown Ralph found himself staying in his spacious apartment completely alone. He could go out for a walk or to the store, but not to his health club as it also had to close.

Not only had Ralph found himself largely trapped inside his apartment, he found himself with a lot less to do there. His employer had a lot less business with the slow down in the economy. Fortunately for Ralph, they kept paying him his large generous salary even though they were requiring much less of his time. This left Ralph with hours each day in which he had little to do but go for a jog or watch television.

While jogging through his neighborhood the second week of the lockdown, Ralph found an outdoor calisthenics facility in a nearby community park with basic exercise stations - including push up bars, pull up bars, parallel bars, and ab benches. Ralph spent half an hour pushing himself on the various stations. Ralph woke up sore the next day, and it made him realize he was not in the condition he wanted to be at 26. He returned multiple times in the following week to the exercise stations until he could do a complete circuit without any pain afterward.

Pleased with the progress he had made, and glad to have a break from the isolated monotony of lockdown life, Ralph ordered some exercise equipment for use in his apartment. His apartment was large, and he removed the bed from the second bedroom, allowing space for some simple benches and a stack of dumbbells. During the second month of the lockdown, Ralph spent several hours a day running, exercising on the equipment in the park, or lifting weights in his apartment. By the end of the month, changes when Ralph looked at himself in the mirror were evident. Although he now weighed four pounds more than he had a month ago, the fat around his waist was gone, and he could see defined muscles across his frame.

Gratified by his changes, Ralph applied the same self discipline that had allowed him to graduate at the top of his class to transforming his appearance. He researched and ordered the best supplements and revised his diet so that everything he ate and drank contributed to his efforts. Within four months, he had progressed from a slightly flabby 170 pounds to a lean and muscular 190.

As the pandemic lockdown restrictions began to ease, Ralph looked for a gym where he could push his progress even further. The health club he has used had gone out of business a few months into the lock down, but Ralph knew he wanted to find somewhere he could make real changes. Finally, he found his current gym which was spacious enough to allow members to distance themselves to be in compliance with the lockdown requirements. Over the following months lifting at the gym, Ralph continued to make gains, eventually reaching his current weight of 215 pounds, which on Ralph’s 5’11” frame looked quite impressive.

Ralph was proud of the changes to all of the changes to his body. What he was most proud of, however, was his chest. As a child reading comic books, what always stood out to him were the heroes’ huge chests, which were of course much easier for an artist to draw than to actually achieve in real life. Ralph considered a large chest to be the most attractive physical feature a man could have, so it was not surprising he had concentrated so much of his effort on building his own.

It was still mid-afternoon when Ralph left the gym, and he decided that he would finish off his workout with a run on the path alongside the beach. Ralph was under no time constraints because that had hired him out of college and continued to pay his salary during the pandemic lockdown, went into bankruptcy a month ago. Ralph was disappointed that he would have to find a new employer and start over again, but he had managed to set aside enough funds that he could take his time in deciding what came next.

Ralph was able to park his car in a lot alongside the running track by the beach. Because it was a cloudless and warm day, Ralph decided he would run shirtless in shorts, wearing sunglasses. He stretched his legs out alongside his car, and then took off down the path, the ocean to his left.

About two minutes into his run, Ralph saw about 300 yards in the distance a guy running on the path toward him who he could tell was also was running shirtless in sunglasses. Even at that distance, Ralph could tell the guy had broad shoulders and a muscular build and was sprinting full out. As he got closer, Ralph could not take his eyes off him. He had thick dark hair, cannonball deltoids, and a ripped torso, including a broad massive chest then bulged as he moved. As he approached, Ralph was glad he was wearing sunglasses so it was not completely obvious that he was staring.

As they approached each other, Ralph turned his head slightly to get a good look as the hunky runner passed. As they moved by each other, Ralph could tell the strapping sprinter was also looking to his side to get a glimpse of Ralph. For a moment, they locked eyes through their sunglasses. Without really thinking, Ralph turned around as they passed each other so he could get a good look at the back of the dark-haired athlete’s wide lats, and, of course, his ass.

To Ralph’s embarrassed surprise, the muscular runner also turned and came to a stop. They were now standing still facing each other about fifty yards apart, both breathing hard to catch their breath. They stared at each other without speaking or moving for about a minute, and then the well-built sprinter started walking toward Ralph.

As he approached, it became apparent to Ralph that the guy was a real adonis. He wasn’t huge. He was not noticeably taller than Ralph, and if he outweighed Ralph, it would not be by much. But every part of this slab of beef - the dense thighs, the sculpted abs, the wide lats, the thick arms, the full shoulders - was near perfectly developed and complimented each other. The stand out aspect of his physique for Ralph was, of course, his sculpted chest. His pectorals were two large, thick, rounded plates of brawn with a deep indentation in the middle. Ralph could barely move his eyes up to notice the guy’s face, which, at least behind sunglasses, had a passing resemblance to Henry Cavill, but younger. Ralph guessed he was close to Ralph’s age - maybe a year or two older.

The dark-haired Apollo approached until he was about five feet in front of Ralph. For about a minute they continued just staring at each other from behind their sunglasses. Because of the sunglasses, it was hard for Ralph to be certain, but it looked to Ralph like the guy’s eyes were focused on Ralph’s chest.

A small grin flashed across the dark-haired hunk’s face as he finally broke the silence.

“Well, what have we here?”

Ralph did his best to put together an intelligent response.

“Hi.”

The guy pointed at Ralph’s chest.

“Dude, what’s up with those jugs?”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re huge!”

“Well, thanks I suppose . . . but so are yours.”

The guy looked down for a second at his own impressive pecs and grinned.

“That’s kind of the point. It’s a bit of a challenge, isn’t it?”

The good looking stranger was beginning to make Ralph uneasy.

“I’m not sure what you mean. I’ve never seen you before.”

The ripped inquisitor moved in closer to Ralph until he was no more than two feet in front of Ralph.

“You can see me now. What do you think? You think your pecs are better than mine?”

The bluntness of this guy’s questions increased Ralph’s discomfort. The last thing he wanted to talk about was what he thought about the expansive chest in front of him, even though he was struggling to look anywhere else.

“I don’t know what you mean. Better how?”

“You know what I mean. . . Bigger, harder, rounder, meatier, . . . sexier.”

“Your pecs are pretty damn good.”

“Doesn’t answer the question. You think your pecs are better mine?”

“I don’t know. . . . Hard to say.”

“Then we need to settle this - get to the bottom of who has the alpha man-tits.”

Ralph considered whether he should find an excuse to turn and continue his run. He didn’t. As aggressive as he was, Ralph was kind of excited by the attention. Although Ralph had never acted on it, Ralph knew he could be attracted to men. It had just had never led to anything. He wasn’t sure where this was going but he was game for playing it out a little more.

“And who judges the winner.”

“We do.”

“And how do we decide?”

“We measure . . . and stuff.”

“And stuff?”

“Yeah, my place isn’t far. You want to come over and we can settle this now?”

Ralph wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He was ot of his comfort zone, but he was also turned on by this big-chested muscle boy.

“I don’t even know your name?”

“Nick.”

“Ralph.”

“Ralph? Really? Not a name you hear much these days.”

“I know. My parents didn’t get the memo.”

It’s ok. I like it. So, you in stud?”

Ralph took a gulp of air.

“I got some time. I’m awfully sweaty though.”

“Doesn’t bother me at all. Follow me. If you can’t keep up, shout.”

Nick turned and began to run, finally giving Ralph a view of his hard, round sculpted ass. Nervous, but feeling he was now committed to where this led, Ralph started running following. He was not going to give Nick the satisfaction of hearing him call out to slow down.

March 28, 2023

Nice stuff. I love measuring! And stuff! Especially stuff! Like flexing. And more measuring! And other stuff!

March 28, 2023

1 hour ago, arpeejay said:

Nice stuff. I love measuring! And stuff! Especially stuff! Like flexing. And more measuring! And other stuff!

Yup, that stuff can be fun. As we shall see.

March 29, 2023

[Thanks for posting! For some reason, your story text has almost NO contrast - grey on black background - so it's almost unreadable. I reposted it here in high contrast]

Dude, What's Up With The Jugs?

by Lexfan

Rising Star
Member
213

Posted Monday at 08:18 PM
Ralph was glad that he found a guy to spot him as he went for his last set of incline bench presses. The weight was not actually that heavy, as he was trying high repetitions to increase hypertrophy, and his spotter never actually had to touch the bar. Having the spotter there, however, left Ralph free to concentrate on his form, making sure the weight was on his pectorals and not his shoulders. Also, truth be told, Ralph enjoyed having the spotter as a captive audience watching him pump up his chest. Someone ought to be impressed by his effort. Ralph felt the release accompanying the sound of the bar safely returning to its home on the rack.