Harry Potter and the Heir of Slytherin

The Science of Harry

Harry's exercise routine was very intense, Daphne soon found out. She had thought she would be prepared for his work out, thought that the exercises she habitually did to keep in shape for her dancing would have let her keep up.

Never in her life had she been proven more wrong. Harry Potter was an absolute maniac when it came to exercising. The way he pushed himself when doing physically strenuous activities bordered on the insane. Daphne had not even done the 'true' Harry Potter work out routine, the one he had made for himself, but she had followed along as best she could and quickly found herself being left in the dust by the extremely fit boy.

The work out had started out with them doing stretches. Apparently, there were a lot of different muscle groups that needed to be stretched out; the chest (Harry called them pectoral muscles), lower back, upper back, biceps, triceps, hamstrings, calves, quadriceps, torso, Daphne had never heard of these muscles or of the stretches that were involved in keeping them loose and limber.

She wasn't sure whether to be impressed or daunted by how much seemed to actually be involved in the act of stretching. There were enough stretches of various muscle groups that it made her head spin just thinking about it.

Her dance instructors only had her go through basic stretches before making her do her routine. It seemed they had not done a very thorough job of learning how to stretch properly, or maybe they just didn't need to. It wasn't like dancing used all of the muscle groups Harry planned on having them work on.

After the stretches were complete, Harry had them run around the Great Lake. Because of how most witches and wizards generally lacked stamina, he had told them to do only as many laps as they could.

Hermione had been the first to drop out, only managing to get two laps before exhausting herself. This was not surprising as the girl had probably never exercised a day in her life. She probably spent more time in the library than out running or exercising. Neville had been next. While the round faced boy had grown in confidence, he was really only starting to work on his physical fitness. According to Harry, last year they had focused mainly on stretching in preparation for this year. She and Susan had followed soon after. Susan had managed one more lap than her, but considering they had both done over ten laps, she wasn't going to complain.

On the other hand, Harry had managed twenty laps around the lake and still didn't look very winded. It just went to show Daphne how much better shape he was in than most people. He could probably give Quidditch stars a run for their money.

After the warm up (Daphne did not consider ten laps around the Black Lake a warm up. Harry did), they began working on what Harry called the core of his routine. He had told them that he always split up his exercises each day by muscle groups. Today they would be working on their core muscles (Abdominal muscles Harry had called them), tomorrow would be legs (Quads, thighs and calves). Since it was Thursday, they would only be doing those two exercises this week. Harry said that weekends were always recovery days (meaning they relaxed), but Mondays would be chest and triceps (another term for triceps was horseshoe muscle. It was the one on the bottom of your arm that looked like a U when flexed), and Tuesday would be back and biceps.

Wednesdays Harry told them was when he worked on his martial arts, so they could either use it as another day to relax, he could give them some cardio work outs, or they could do their own exercises. Daphne planned on using that time to practice her dancing.

Once again, Hermione was the first to drop out. She was followed by Neville and Daphne. Susan, surprisingly enough, had managed to do the most after Harry, who was still exercising long after the others had finished.

Which was probably why Daphne found herself sitting under a tree, sweaty and exhausted, watching as Harry continued exercising. Even if she would have denied it, she could not help but be fascinated by the young boy working up a sweat. It was actually very impressive to watch someone so dedicated to doing a specific task, especially one as hard as doing several hundred push ups while using their magic to float their feet at a forty-five degree angle above their heads.