L.A.W. - League of Anime Wrestling

The LAW Gym was usually the domain of wrestlers training for upcoming bouts, or just keeping up their conditioning to ensure they were at peak performance. Occasionally, one would see a member of the promotion's staff using the gym for their own purposes. Like most days, these made up the majority of the clientele on this day. But the LAW Gym was open to the public as well, and anyone who wanted to make use of it could drop by. Today, one visitor in particular was using that to her advantage - LAW Magazine intern, editor, and columnist Haruka Seizawa, better known by her pseudonym S-chan, who was here to meet one Avalie Reza for a look into the training routine of LAW's finest.

The young reporter was sure that she had the perfect setup to a great article. She knew more than anyone that the public was always eager to learn more about the personal lives of their favorite stars, and she was sure plenty of readers could benefit from knowing secrets of the LAW roster that they could work into their own routine. Haruka herself was looking into tightening her exercise plan, and she figured she might as well learn from the best.

After reaching out online to Avalie, she had now arrived at the gym, dressed in a t-shirt and gym shorts but still wearing the trademark surgical mask she wore at all appearances in public - she had personal connections among LAW's roster, and she didn't want anyone recognizing her when they didn't need to. There, she stood in the entranceway of the gym, notepad in hand, as she waited for Avalie to arrive.

"Can I help you, miss?" the clerk at the desk asked her, but Haruka shook her head.

"No, no. I'm just waiting for someone."

Gyms had always felt like home to Avalie, but today she was feeling a bit nervous. It was a mix of excitement with a bit of apprehension. The fitness trainer was absolutely enthusiastic at the idea of contributing to an important article for the LAW Magazine, one that would cover her favorite topic no less, but she was also concerned about presenting her work and all LAW athletes' under the best light. Like the perfectionist she was she really wanted to do the subject justice. She had even spent the night at home to be sure to get a full night of sleep for this special day.

Unsurprisingly Avalie was there since early in the morning, and had already began her daily routine. She had a tendency to lose track of time when she was in her zone but not today, she had been checking the clock time and again to be sure she'd be there to welcome her visitor when she would show up. So when Haruka entered the reception area Avalie followed less than a minute later. Clad in her green workout leotard the muscle-bound Iranian approached the woman she had just seen speaking with the receptionist.

Spoiler

"S-Chan I presume? I am Avalie Reza, nice to meet you." Avalie smiled and extended a hand, her impressive physique contrasting with the genuineness and warmth of her greeting.

By the time Haruka had explained herself to the receptionist, Avalie was already on her way to the lobby, and when she turned around from the desk, she faced the famed trainer herself. The reporter's eyes went wide, and a smile spread beneath her mask - not that anyone would see it. She had read her articles for the magazine, but until today, Haruka never believed she would ever find herself meeting face to face with Avalie Reza. Even when she did, she could hardly believe it was really happening!

"Yes! Yes, I am," Haruka said with a nod. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Reza. You're even bigger in person than you look in the pictures!" She chuckled, half-nervously and half out of amusement at her own joke. She didn't want to be rude, but it was hard to think of anything else. "I'm sorry, you must get that a lot. Anyway..."

She straightened herself, facing Avalie with as much professional conduct and composure as she could manage when she could barely meet her eye to eye. "I want to give an insider look into the workout routines of LAW wrestlers, and how you train them. Do you mind walking me through what a typical session looks like?"

The situation would have been a bit comical if both could read each other's mind at this moment. Avalie nervous about living up to expectations and Haruka impressed to meet the gym addict in person. But the irony only eluded them. "Oh no, no that's fine. I always take it as a compliment. Getting bigger is kind of the point after all, among other things." Avalie said while waving her hands to further signify that Haruka's comment didn't offend her at all. "Oh and you can call me Avalie. And what should I call you by the way?"

The initial awkwardness subsided as the young reporter began to explain the purpose of this meeting.
"Oh yes, of course. Although the typical session has variations depending on the wrestler's build, their fighting style, if they're advanced athletes or still at the early stages of their physical development... So we can either focus on one specific type of training or I can try to keep it somewhat all-encompassing but without going too much into details."
Avalie stopped glancing at Haruka from head to toe.

"Or, since you came dressed like you intend to get a first hand experience rather than just observe, I could whip up a session like I would for a new wrestler of your size and build." She added as her eyes were already studying, analyzing, dissecting the reporter's physique.

Haruka chuckled as she heard Avalie explain herself. There was always some nervous energy in place when it came to meeting someone with a name for themselves in LAW, even if it was mainly for their work behind the scenes, but now the ice had been broken, and she laughed it off. Now, she could get down to business, unafraid of how she'd be perceived, or how intimidating a woman of Avalie's presence may have been.

"Thanks, Avalie! As for me...just call me S-chan, for the sake of the record. I keep my identity hidden when I'm out researching topics, just in case anyone who takes offense to what I write can't ambush me in public. That's why I wear the mask." That wasn't the whole purpose of Haruka's assumed identity - in reality, she was too embarrassed by her own fangirlish tendencies to want her real name tied to her articles. But she was willing to embellish the mystique of her career; portraying it as so dangerous and unpredictable would only make her stories that much more alluring to fans.

She listened intently as Avalie explained the purpose of their meeting, and it was there that her brow furrowed in thought. She was sure that a promotion like LAW would have quite an involved regimen for their trainees, and that someone of Avalie's credentials would want to make the most of it in helping them reach their true potential. But she hadn't gone into this realizing it'd be quite this involved. She was really just looking to get workout tips that might be helpful for readers. But Haruka craved the full experence nonetheless, and she believed that the only way to really know something was to experience it herself. That attitude had gotten her hospitalized before, but she didn't care. She knew that it would put more knowledge into the hands of LAW's fans!

"If you'd be willing to lead me through a training session," the masked reporter began, "I think that would be the best. I'd like to report on what goes into your training, and I might as well experience it firsthand. I mean, I know I'm not exactly built like a wrestler, but..." S-chan glanced down on herself - though she had a curvy figure, she hardly had the sort of muscles or conditioning that characterized a professional athlete. Hopefully, Avalie would be able to work with that.

Avalie kept analyzing S-Chan's physique as the masked reporter spoke. Slightly taller than average, curvy, not really out of shape but not really looking like someone who's been hitting the gym regularly either. One might suspect that smother matches could be her forte but Avalie wouldn't make that assumption out loud. "Very well, S-Chan, I think I know what we're gonna do then. Follow me."

The muscle-bound trainer turned around and led Haruka through the gym's hallways. "First, if you have stuff and personal belongings that you want to drop, there's a locker room on your left. And I'd recommend you take your mask off, it will impede your performance, breathing correctly is an important part of a successful workout." Avalie would give her new trainee a minutes to stow her belongings in one of the lockers if needed and move on to their final destination.

Avalie pushed the door of the main training room. It was a large room filled with fitness equipment: weight and exercise machines, dumbbell racks, barbells, treadmills, exercise bikes, etc. you name it. Everything looked top of the line. There were already several users busy with their own routines, maybe Haruka might recognize a few LAW wrestlers among them, but it was far from crowded. The trainer spoke again "All right, I think that given your size and body type we'll go for the all-arounder kind of approach." She turned to face her trainee and smiled. "Like I would for a rookie middleweight. But first I need to get a rough idea of your physical condition and how far I can safely push you for this first session. That's why we're going to start with a bit of cardio."

Avalie walked toward the treadmills area and continued. "Stretch your legs, ankles, elbows, shoulders and when you're ready, hop on." She said pointing at one of the treadmills.

Haruka was well aware that she likely wasn't quite as fit as many of the wrestlers Avalie was used to working with, but then again, she wouldn't be looking into getting gym advice if she didn't feel like she could benefit from it. Hanging off every word the trainer said, she followed after Avalie, opening the locker she'd indicated to stash the gym bag she had over her shoulder, though she kept her pad of paper at her side in case she'd need it to take notes.

S-chan did hang a little bit on the mention of her mask. She deferred to Avalie's judgment when it came to these matters, and as someone who had taken a Frankensteiner in the mask, she understood that it didn't exactly compare to going bare-faced when it came to breathing easily. But at the same time, she had hoped that she'd be able to get some photos of her to illustrate her talking points, and that wouldn't do if anyone could recognize her in the images. Then again, she wasn't sure how recognizable she'd be without it either. As long as her childhood friend Yuki wasn't here, she'd probably be fine. She'd more easily blend into the crowd without something as conspicuous as her mask anyway. Taking it off, she set it in the locker before turning back to face Avalie. "Alright," she said. "But is it okay if I go back with my camera afterward and get some pictures of the equipment in use? It doesn't have to be me."

Then she followed Avalie out onto the training room, facing her on the mats. She nodded eagerly as she heard Avalie describe how she'd train her as she would a rookie middleweight - that, Haruka thought, would give her a good baseline that she could use to extrapolate her routine to what was experienced by the average LAW wrester, or what could help an average LAW Magazine reader. "Okay! Sounds good."

She'd start out with some stretches, which made sense; it was the typical way to warm up, after all. S-chan went through a few basic stretches, working out her joints and putting her body through a simple range of motions, the sort one would be taught in high school gym class but not anything Avalie would recognize as part of the routine of a high-performance athlete. After a moment, she looked back up at Avalie. Her gaze lingered on the treadmill, but before she got on, she had something else on her mind.

"Uh..." she began. "This is probably a stupid question, but...was that enough stretching?"

"Of course, I'll keep it as close to the real thing as possible but I remember that you're here for an article and we'll make all the arrangements you need." Avalie responded to S-Chan's inquiry about her camera. "If something is going against the whole 'authenticity' of this session, I'll let you know so you can make a call. Like with the mask."

She then watched her trainee do her stretching. It looked basic, something for a casual jog on the weekend but Avalie was going to push Haruka harder than that. "Ok, this is the 'old' fashioned static stretching. I'm sorry if I misled you into that sort of moves. The issue isn't the 'enough', it's the how, I prefer a more dynamic approach. Actually, too much static stretching can impede overall performance. Follow my lead."

Avalie assumed a standard pushup position, her body seeming to come to life as her muscles twitched. "It's called the Spiderman stretch. It's an excellent dynamic warm-up exercise for legs and lower body." She then brought her right knee next the her shoulder and rested her foot next to her right hand. "And now you push down with your hips until your left knee touches the ground and maintain the position for 5 seconds, and then we switch legs, and so on.". Avalie would go through ten reps on each side, letting Haruka the time to adjust and get the position right if needed.

Once Haruka was done with her reps Avalie went back up on her feet "And now you can follow with a few good old jumping jacks and you'll be good to go for the treadmill. I'll set it slow at first and progressively increase the speed."

"Ah, alright!" Haruka smiled to Avalie, nodding her head in agreement as she gave her the approval to take pictures for the article later. She wasn't sure how well this was going to work out at first, so it came as a relief to her that Avalie was being so accommodating. She would be sure to give her copious thanks for all she had done for her work. But right now, the most important part was seeing a day in the life of one of Avalie's trainees for herself!

She proceeded to the mats and went ahead with some stretches, as Avalie had suggested. This was nothing new for S-chan; she knew enough about warming up for exercise to know what one was supposed to do. But the regimen she was used to was nothing compared to that of a professional wrestler, as she was about to find out - even the stretches she was doing weren't those Avalie was used to! "Oh-!" she said, her eyes going wider as she looked back up at the trainer. "I'm sorry, I...didn't realize there was a difference." It was no doubt showing that this was an environment she was less than familiar with. But she was here to learn, and she was willing to listen.

She watched Avalie closely as she got down into a Spiderman stretch, falling into place next to her to mirror her motions. Occasionally, she glanced back at Avalie to make sure she was doing everything right, but it came naturally enough. The first time she pushed her hips down, the pressure on her outstretched right leg caused her to tense up, and she yelped from the sensation of her tendons stretching further than she was used to. But she was quick to throw herself back into it. "I'm okay!" she called back, going through the rest of the set without much trouble.

When Avalie told her she would next be doing jumping jacks, the reporter got to her feet with a nod. "Okay! That's no problem, I can handle that!" This was an exercise she already knew how to do, and as she went through the motions a few times, it helped boost her confidence. Maybe she could get used to this after all!

At last, she came to the treadmill, taking the bars and getting on. "Alright, alright," she said, getting herself into place. As the treadmill started up under her feet, she fell into the rhythm of a steady jog, holding her back straight and swinging her arms at her sides with her chin lifted and her gaze focused in front of her.

After showing Haruka the spiderman stretch Avalie watched her doing her jumping jacks. It was nothing really complicated and the young reporter executed them with an acceptable form. "Good, good. You can get on the treadmill now and we'll continue with the warm-up." Avalie was a bit relieved to see that S-Chan had at least a few notions on physical exercise.

"The purpose of this exercise is twofold. First, like I said I want to get a rough idea of your physical condition, I need to know that you're not going to pass out or worse if I push you a little." She laughed nervously when she realized that her joke was maybe a bit awkward. "And second, it is still part of the warm-up, so we're going to start slow and then I'll progressively increase the speed and see how far you can go."

Avalie watched Haruka's form as she began running. "That's good, use your arms, keep a regular pace and breath. The goal here is to warm up your muscles and joints, to prepare them for the up coming workout and prevent injuries. As I'll increase the speed and make the exercise physically more demanding your body will start secreting endorphins and dopamine. It'll raise your tolerance to pain and allow you to push your limits further." Explained the trainer, knowing firsthand the addictive properties of these metabolic reactions.

Avalie would let Haruka get her pace, stabilize her breath and have her run for a couple of minutes before increasing the speed to 15 km/h.