Kilniara quickly began crying out, “It’s already hurting a bit.”
Joe nodded, “I’m not surprised. You have not done this much, have you?”
Kilniara quickly shook her head, “Never.”
Joe nodded, “OK. So, now that it is hurting slightly, her arms will begin to stretch. Her arm muscles and mostly the tendons connecting the muscles to the bones. But, as the pain is only slight, it is not very useful. You need to push slightly more than a small pain to something that makes you grimace and groan. You do not want to have tears! You do not want to cry. That is way too far. It is a pain that is tolerable, but still painful.
“Alright, Kilniara, let me know when it starts to really hurt, but it should not be pain that makes you fall to the ground in tears or pain. It is something that would likely simply make you groan or hiss, OK?”
Kilniara nodded, but when she looked back, there was a bit of fear in her eyes. Joe smiled, “Don’t worry. It’s not enough to be bad. It’s nothing much beyond maybe what you might feel if someone punched you lightly in the arm or leg.”
Kilniara’s worry receded a lot at that and Joe smiled, “OK, ready?”
Kilniara nodded again and Joe began. He pushed up slowly, but was still surprised to find that while she had flexibility equal to what he had, she was still incredibly stiff and he was only able to raise her arms up another couple of centimeters, maybe even only an inch or so before she quickly raised on her tiptoes and began to pop out gasping ouches and moans. Joe quickly stopped and pulled back on his stretch.
“That’s a lot?”
Kilniara quickly nodded her head, “Yes.”
Joe adjusted then asked, “Is it better now?”
“Yes.”
“Is it painful or just slightly like before.”
“A bit on the slight side.”
Joe nodded, “Alright. Sorry. I really didn’t know you were this stiff. You are very, very stiff. We’ll need to work on your flexibility as well. You and the other two as well. Let me push just bit more, but I’ll do it much more slowly and you let me know when it’s just perfect. Uh… perfect being it’s hurting but not too much.”
Kilniara nodded and Joe began again, but much more slowly in smaller increments and Kilniara began to tense. Joe slowed and cautioned her, “Don’t tense. That’ll make it worse. Relax. I’ll go very slowly. You will have plenty of time to let me know.”
Kilinara nodded and relaxed again as Joe once again pushed her. Her arms rose up slightly before she began breathing heavily then began to nod, “OK. OK! OK! OK!”
Joe nodded, “Good. Then we just hold this for about thirty seco… hmm… count to thirty slowly then rest. Do this three times for each stretch, then you are done.”
Joe held her stretch, counting to thirty slowly before ending the slowly lowering her arm. He added, “That reminds me. You really want to do stretches slowly. Stretching can cause great harm if you are not cautious as it can rip tendons and tendons do not heal; not easily. Muscles do so, but not tendons. But that is a stretch.”
Kilniara shook her arms out as she shifted back to her rest form, returning her tail, scales, and feathery hair. Joe smiled to see the transformation and Kilniara looked up at him.
“Can you go further?”
Joe smiled and nodded, “I have performed these exercises and stretches for almost all my life. I am quite flexible.”
“Can I see?” Kilniara asked.
Joe laughed and turned, clasping his hands behind him before raising his arms about as high as Kilniara before nodding, “Go ahead and push them up now.”
Joe remained standing and Kilniara began to raise his arms, but found herself struggling after only raising them an inch or so. Joe glanced back to see her struggling and seemed a bit confused.
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“Can you push them up further?”
Kilniara shook her head, “No. They won’t go.”
Joe hid his concern, keeping his face blank, so offered a different suggestion, “How about using your legs? Stand under my arms and push up with your legs with my hands on your shoulders.”
Kilniara quickly nodded at that and placed herself under his hands and began to stand slowly, his arms went up a bit but then she was once again stuck, unable to fully extend his arms to give them a proper stretch. Kilniara struggled for a few moments before gasping from the exertion and stepping away. Why? How can she not push my arms up? I’m not fighting her? Is the stiffness of my arms enough to…
Kilniara interrupted his thoughts with an apology, “Sorry, Joe.”
Joe chuckled, shaking his head, “I’m not mad, Kilniara. Relax.”
Kilniara looked up at him and smiled, no real relief evident on her face but simply a smile of gratefulness. Joe hid his frown and turned away, returning to the conversation.
“Alright. I’ll show you how I would do this solo, as it seems others cannot help me, but this is dangerous, as I said. However, the method I will show you will not be as dangerous as some other forms of stretching.”
Joe turned to a chair and sat on the floor in front of if before putting his arms behind him, clasped together once again. He then leaned forward and dropped his nose into his knees so that his arms were propped up into the air before he sat back up and felt for the chair behind him. His arms fell into the chair and then he simply continued to sit up until his arms were parallel to the floor, pushed up and giving him a decent burn as they stretched behind him.
“As you can see, I am able to push my arms quite a bit further than Kilniara, but I cannot do so with the muscles that move my arms. If my arms are ever pushed too far in this direction, they will be safer from injury as my arms are capable of moving this far and I have this much more time and leeway to exert my strength to fight against going too far.”
Joe then clenched his upper arms and lifted off the floor and pushing himself up so that his arms weren’t pushed back as far, now closer to his sides.
“I do not have the strength or capability, as my body is incapable of doing so, to push my arms back this far on my own,” Joe said as he sat back down and showed his impressive flexibility again, “but I am able to stretch them this far.
“This is stretching.”
Joe stood back and looked at the three woman, all three staring with a bit of surprise before Gwenvair spoke again, a bit of caution and surprise in her voice, “Are you… base human?”
Joe smiled, “This form is my only and natural form.”
Gwenvair’s eyes brightened at that, “And you can stretch this far?”
Joe shrugged, “Many of my people can do so, especially those who dedicate themselves to physical strength and development. Those who do not are closer, actually… a bit worse than what Kilniara just showed.”
Gwenvair quickly nodded and Joe returned to his discussion on flexibility, going through all the forms of stretches that he knew and how they stretched the body in various ways. He did, however, make sure to point out one difficulty.
“One thing I can’t help with is your tails. You will have to practice and strengthen or stretch your tails on your own with caution. I’m not sure if strength is meaningful, but stretching is most definitely. I would work on a little strength, though, as your tails would easily be used against you in grapples or throws. Strengthening them will help defend against them easily being grasped and stretching them will make sure they are not harmed if they are grabbed.”
All three woman nodded at that, considering, as Joe continued, “Kilniara, you and your brother can probably use your tails as a weapon as well, if you adequately train and protect them. Matriarch, Gwenvair, your tails would likely not be useful in such a way, although they could be very good for distractions and for attacking the vitals, such as the face and eyes of a person, but that would put you very close to a person with your back to them. Not something you would really want to do.”
Joe fell silent at that, all three thoughtful before Gwenvair quickly pushed the topic onwards.
“Then what of stamina and strength?”
Joe nodded and continued, “For stamina and strength, the exercises are basically identical. You would only make sure to simply change the weight. Heavy few times for strength, light many times for stamina. For general activity, running a long time can really help with basic all around stamina. But, as I said before, you will want to make sure to rest between exercises, especially strength exercise as those exercises will damage the muscles more … greatly. But, on the whole, my people have found the best exercise pattern is to do exercise on one day then rest the next day then repeat the same exercise the third day, rest the fourth, exercise the fifth, and so on. We usually exercise in this pattern for five days and rest for two days before returning for another five. Some do six days or variations.
“A good variation is to exercise your legs on one day, then exercise your arms and chest the second day while allowing your legs to rest on the second day. The third day is back to legs while allowing arms and chest to rest. The fourth day is now back to arms and chest while allowing your legs to rest.
“Arms and chest are one major area of exercise. Legs and buttocks are the second, and core is the third. The core is a bit harder to understand, but the core are all the muscles that are used to bend and move the torso, so mostly your stomach and lower chest, although your buttocks do tend to come into play with core exercise as well. But, that’s about it.”
All three listened raptly until the end when Kilniara brightly interjected, “That’s why we change between arms and legs!”
Joe laughed and nodded, “Yup. That’s why. It’s to let them rest and heal.”
Kilniara smiled, realization making her happy and Joe also realized he needed to start teaching the why as well. Gwenvair seemed to think hard for a bit before she looked up at Joe.
“Could you show us the cultivation exercises that we should do?”
* * *