The two ulvan listened with fascination while Kilniara grinned with prideful glee. The other two were cautious but curious and the Matriarch asked the next question, “Then you know how to train with this method in a proper way?”
Joe smiled and nodded, “Yes. But it assumes that your body works in a similar way to mine. And I am a base human, Kilniara is Acokzau, and you are… I’m sorry. I do not know your people.”
“We are Ulvan,” Gwenvair replied quickly.
“Hmm… Ulvan. Then, yeah, similar to the Acokzau, I am uncertain how your body will respond. I may be able to guess if you will teach me how you typically feel after pressing yourself too far past the system endurance. I will be able to tell you in pretty good detail what happens to my body and we can hope your bodies are similar to a base humans as well. As I do not know the Ulvan well and both of you haven’t done this training long enough, we may have to wait to learn more. But Kilniara has trained in this method for several weeks now so we may learn of some things from her?”
The two Ulvan glanced towards the Acokzau at that and Kilniara seemed to shrink a bit before nodding and replying carefully, “Um… I … uh… I feel… very tired and like was mentioned before, I often fall to the ground after and rest. I am tired and slightly sore and weak for a time but then my strength returns some time later.”
Joe nodded, “You feel sore after?”
“Yes.”
“How long do you feel sore?”
Kilniara took a moment to think carefully before replying, “A very short time, much less than even ten minutes. Much shorter, but... I do not know for certain. Now, with the healer, it is gone as soon as I am healed.”
“Does the soreness leave after or is there still some soreness?”
“Um… it leaves immediately with healing but slowly without healing, but still not long. As I said, much less than ten minutes but I do not know quite how short.”
“Did it leave at the beginning … uh… when we first started exercising?”
Kilniara smiled at that and began to nod, “It hurt much worse and for much longer at the beginning.”
Joe frowned with some confusion and questioned carefully, “After the exercise?”
Kilniara paused at that, thinking deeply, "Not... immediately after the exercise. I was quite weak after."
"But not sore."
Kilniara nodded with more certainty, "Yes. That is true."
"And the next day?"
Kilniara stopped at that and considered, “Hmm… after the morning at the beginning, I was very sore, but now it is...” realization came to her and she looked up at Joe with some wonder "It is gone... I am uncertain when it left."
Joe smiled at that, “Hmm… I guess I need to make it more difficult again.”
Kilniara’s eyes widened at that, “What? No! That’s not…”
Gwenvair erupted into laughter and her mother joined in a few moments later, Joe allowed his smile to break on his face and Kilniara quickly realized that Joe had been joking and she grimaced then growled as she slapped him across his arm. Joe chuckled at that then glanced up as a young ulvan woman came in, bowing to the Matriarch. Joe paused his conversation, stepping to Kilniara’s side to comfort her after his joke.
“Matriarch. We am here as requested.”
“It is good to see you, young healer, masseuse. Please wait as we converse with the eccentric.”
The young ulvan women bowed and stepped to the side falling silent before all turned to look at Joe. Joe grew a bit embarrassed and quickly thought back on what they were speaking about.
“Ahh… we were…”
Gwenvair grinned, “Teasing Kilniara with making her exercise harder!”
Joe smiled at that, laughing a bit as he nodded, “Oh… right, but you don’t need to worry about that Kinliara, I already knew it was getting easier for you and I’ve already made it harder... just a little bit.”
Kilniara’s looked surprised at that and cocked her head, “Really?”
Joe nodded with a chuckle, “Yes.”
Kilniara smiled back, “Then its working?”
Joe thought for a bit, “I think so, but we’ll still need time. We won’t know for sure until about a month. But you can see that the pain before is already leaving as your body grows stronger and used to the effort. If we change anything by a lot, adding a different exercise, more strength, more effort... that pain can return, but it should be less than at first.”
“This pain... is common and regular?” Gwenvair’s mother asked with some tenseness.
Joe chuckled at that, "If you do not radically change things, then it will fade, but if you want to continue growing well, you should change."
The Matriarch dropped her head back on her pillow with a groan, "And this pain now?"
"Four or five days."
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The Matriarch stiffened at that, turning to stare at Joe. Joe grinned and continued.
"It hurts the worst on the second and third day."
The Matriarch's face twitched and she grunted and she turned away, "You promised relief."
Joe nodded, “The greatest is preventative.
Longer… much longer if you keep doing this. You need to slowly increase until you have done this several weeks. Then you can do what you did today several times a week as your body will heal quicker and faster. But, the first time… will be bad for several days instead of several hours. For ulvan… I don’t know, but it will become pretty obvious soon, and while I am not willing to declare it yet, I am feeling confident that it is likely so. But I could offer one other thing that might help the pain.”
The Matriarch actually perked up at that, smiling, then wincing, “Please. If there is anything else.”
Joe nodded, “Well then, aside from healing…”
“Which might make all this pain useless,” the Matriarch groused, interrupting him.
Joe laughed, “Yes. It might… but I really don’t know. I am trying to see if it does with my apprentices and I, so I will let you know if I learn anything, but… for now. You can heal and that will resolve the pain immediately. If you wish to do this the way my people did, then you must protect your body. You exercise as you have done, but much lighter… easier than you did today for several weeks until your body can do so without pain beyond an immediate tiredness after you exerc… uh… cultivate. Then, you begin slowly ex… cultivating harder and harder until you can do so as hard as you can without much pain to you. Your pain should be such that after you exercise, a short rest, only ten minutes, should return you to almost full health and you will easily move about your day. Also, you should cool down after exercise, which means to lightly exercise to return to normal. Do not simply sleep or collapse. Move and continue moving for a time. Then you can rest. You could also ice the sore muscles. That works for my people. Only allow the ice to remain on your skin until you feel numb, then stop. Keep a towel or cloth between the ice and your muscles, but you should not have to do so if you are cautious with your exercise in the first place.
“So… uh… First, cooldown after by continuing to move and regularly after your exercise. Even just walking is useful. So, do not collapse and reset. Walk. Move, swing your arms, if needed. Do so about ten or twenty minutes. Next, I showed you already, but a very hot bath for a time, but do not allow it to go cold. Third is to receive a massage to press quite hard into the muscles you exercised. And lastly, make sure to drink a lot of water.
“To be honest, though, while water and a massage will help some now, it is too late to truly change now. It will continue until complete. Yesterday, you pressed yourself too hard and did not appropriately cool down after and should probably take a healing but maybe delay it as long as possible until you must go about your day, if the pain is not too much to bear at this time.”
The Matriarch nodded at that, thoughtful, “That seems wise. I could rest for a while until I am needed, then accept the healing.”
Joe grinned, “And maybe tomorrow, do not exercise quite so hard… and remember your cool down. And drink!”
The Matriarch smiled at that but said nothing. Gwenvair continued the conversation.
“Is there anything else you could offer, ecc… Joe?”
Joe paused at that, thoughtful before pulling some ideas out of nowhere, “OK. I could maybe… yeah. Let me explain some things. So, muscles. The things that are moving our bodies are muscles. They move our body by pulling.” Ooh… maybe there are some magic pushing muscles… that would hmm… His thoughts slipped into fantasy for a bit before he quickly pulled himself back to the conversation. He took the time to pull up his sleeve and showed his arm and pointed at his biceps and triceps in turn. Just… teach what I know for now… I guess…
“My arm is raised when I pull this muscle and lowered when I pull this. It appears that your muscles work the same so much of what my people have learned could also work, although there are likely some differences, for example your ears or Kilniara’s tail. But the key for growing and enhancing muscles is to use them. How muscles grow is by using them overly much until they are torn apart, much like a rope fraying. Just as a rope frays, the fibers of the muscle tear and fray. After they are torn, they repair themselves, healing, but they heal back stronger than before, thus your muscles become stronger and you are able to lift, push, run, jump… anything, slightly better than before. With dedication, you are able to increase your capabilities by even double. At least, my people are able to do so, with some who are exceptional and exceptionally dedicated able to develop their strength even three and possibly four times greater than the average skills of base humans.
“It takes time, dedication, and effort, but the results can be powerful and meaningful. It needs to be done well and right.”
Gwenvair and her mother looked at each other, both excited and Gwenvair asked the obvious question, “Then how do you train well?”
Joe nodded at that, “I will give you a general explanation of how to do excellent forms of exercise and basic information about different purposes.” Joe paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts to appropriately organize before he continued.
“OK. The basics. I already told you, but you are pushing your muscles to work beyond what they are capable of. You want to only go slightly beyond, so not what the Matriarch did today!” Joe paused as all chuckled a bit before he continued, “Then, you want to rest for about a day or two before you do so again. That is essentially the basics of exercise. There are two forms, one increases your strength and the other increases your stamina. Uh… well, I guess there is a third form which increases your flexibility. They all make sense in conjunction with their actions you must take to increase them. For strength, force your muscles to move very heavy things. For endurance, force your muscles to move something many times. For flexibility, force your body to stretch past what you are comfortable doing.
“So, if you wish to greatly increase strength, then lift very heavy weights. If you wish to increase your stamina, lift light weights many, many times. And finally, flexibility is attained mostly for your limbs by forcing them in directions further than they typically can go. Uh… let me see…”
Joe turned to Kilniara and asked her to come forward, “Let me use Kilniara as an example. Is that OK?” Joe asked at the end, looking to Kilniara.
She quickly nodded and came to stand before him and Joe turned her sideways so both Gwenvair and her mother could see him and Kilnaira from the side.
“OK. Put your hands behind your back and clasp them together, Kilniara.”
Kilniara did so, looking back over her shoulder while also asking, “Like this?”
“Exactly,” Joe stated before continuing, “Now try to lift your arms up from behind you as high as you can …” Joe trailed off when Kilniara’s arms, hands still clasp together, rose easily to her head height, almost parallel to the ground. Joe blinked in surprise before continuing, “Are Acokzau much more flexible than base? Mostly?”
All three woman nodded their heads and Joe considered for a bit, “Huh… I did not know that. Are you as flexible in your base form, Kilniara?”
Kilniara stopped at that, cocking her head to consider, “I’m… not sure. I can check?”
“Is that OK?”
Kilniara quickly nodded then transformed to fully human before trying once more and raising her arms to just about what Joe was able to do. Joe nodded but decided he could continue regardless. His example was ruined a bit, but he could continue.
“I guess I should have had Garnedell here, but OK. You have very good flexibility, even in base form. But go ahead and stay like this. And try not to bend over.”
Joe stepped forward and began teaching once again, “For flexibility, you probably need someone to help, although I guess it’s possible that you could use furniture, walls, or a bed, but it could be very dangerous. What you would do is basically have your arms or legs pushed further past what you can normal make them bend or move.”
Joe then stepped up and placed on hand on Kilniara’s shoulder before pushing her arms up, “Don’t unclasp them, but warn me when it starts hurting slightly.”