When covid first hit and everything was getting shut down, I was so bummed that I wasn't able to go to the gym anymore. I had been making some good gains over the winter and was really afraid of losing all my progress.
Luckily for me, my buddy Max had done a lot of work getting a home gym set up in his garage. He had done a pretty good job, getting a full set of free weights and even a rack and a bench. Max had said he didn't like working out at the gyms and having to wait to use stuff. Him putting this all together turned out to be great timing. So when everything got locked down he told me I was welcome to join him for some evening work outs.
Max had just turned 25 years old, a few years older than me. We had both worked together at the same restaurant right after college. While we both had moved on to having real careers, we still kept in touch and hung out on occasion. Now that things were locked down, neither of us hardly saw anyone else - at least in person.
I came over one evening for my third workout with Max. I was surprised to see the garage door closed - he normally kept it open so we wouldn't get so hot. So I walked in through the side door to the garage.
Max was already in the garage gym, doing some stretches. Max had played football for a bit in college and he had done a good job keeping a nicely toned body, with his large arms being his most notable feature. I had been more of a swimmer in college and hated that I couldn't hit up the gym's pool right now. That kept my tall frame a bit more lean compared to Max.
"What's up Tyler?" Max said as I walked in. "Sorry about the garage door, it's dead and I can't get it to come up."
"All good," I said, although it was noticeably warmer already. Would hopefully make for a more intense workout.
I joined Max on the mats he had managed to find and started stretching myself. We caught up a bit as we got warmed up. But even this bit of stitching had already gotten us both a bit hot.
"Sorry about the heat in here, too bad I don't have an air conditioner," Max apologized again. "Hey, maybe we just ditch our shirts? Can't do that at the gym."
"Yeah, that's fine," I said, glad to lose the tank I was wearing. Max didn't hesitate to peel off his shirt, exposing his broad, bare chest. I could tell his recent chest workouts had been working, his pecs were looking real firm, his nipples glistening a bit from the sweat.
I pulled my own shirt off, exposing my toned body and tight abs. A good diet and lots of crunches had gone into getting that.
We settled into our workout routine, focusing tonight on arms and back. Max had even managed to find these old, large mirrors that he propped up against one of the walls. So we could still watch ourselves workout and look over our form.
"Man, we should work out without shirts all the time, there's so much more you can catch on your form without them," Max said as he made his way through a set of bicep curls, watching his every move in the mirror.
"Yeah this is nice," I said. It was definitely a bit hot watching myself and Max in the mirror, our half naked bodies pumping away at the weights.
We had made it through a couple sets and I could tell Max was still really warm. He was a bigger guy so of course it made sense.
"Dude, I'm still super hot. Mind if I lose these shorts?" Max asked me. His shorts were pretty long, making their way down to right above his knees.
Not wanting to stop him from being comfortable in his own home I told him to go for it. Again, with no hesitation, Max dug his thumbs into the waistband of his shorts and quickly yanked them down. That left him in just his tight black boxer briefs, which clung tightly to his sweaty body. It was a little strange seeing him standing there in just his underwear but still wearing his tennis shoes.
