The best time to work out was in the morning, before breakfast if possible. For Rianne this normally meant she was at the gym when the sun was coming up. Her shifts were currently starting at 0600 so her workouts had to be before that. She was off today so instead of arriving at the precinct at 0500 to make use of the gym there before work she started work.

Today she was off, and today she was working out with Cait. She’d let Cait know where and when to meet her. It hopefully wasn’t too early for her. She from first hand experience Cait handled late nights well. She wasn’t so sure how she did with early mornings.

While she could have gotten Cait into her usual gym at work, she didn’t want to have to go through the hoops. Instead she gave Cait the address for a gym that she had a membership to.

Rianne could walk to this gym, which was good since her only car was her squad car she used for work. It was far enough away she did have to wake up a little earlier than normal to make it there in time to meet Cait. Not much earlier, all she had to do was jump, wash her face, throw on a purple sports bra, black mid thigh leggings, and tennis shoes with purple shoestrings, and head out the door. She could stash her keys, phone, and ID at the gym while she worked out. While she didn’t like not having a pistol on her, the fact she could flip any of the machines over on top of an assailant made her feel comfortable enough.

Checking her phone as she arrived at the gym, Rianne confirmed she was right on time. Went to sit on a bench near the entrance to wait for Cait.

She was excited about the chance to introduce someone else into her own brand of crazy. Working everything to failure in less than half an hour, then sprinting. Hopefully Cait took the advice to wait to eat lunch, or it might get a little messy.

Cait was decidedly not a morning person, having dragged herself out of bed super early and near crawled into the shower in an effort to wake up. Only the fear of drowning stopped her falling asleep during it, but it did work, mostly. She was at least functional after cleaning herself and changed into a plain black sports bra and matching thigh length leggings. One thing she really did like about leggings, they showed off her best feature.

The only saving grace about today, she was working out with Rianne! So not only was the woman funny and smart and a great singer, she had build of a Greek goddess and Cait was getting to learn her ways. It was hard to not bounce up and down in excitement.

Throwing a few useful things into a gym bag, along with a change of clothes she was out the door and on her way. Only a couple of bus journeys, one creep punched and a quick walk and she was there, all the excitement finally killing the last of her sleepiness.

Spotting a familiar figure on one the benches, she walked up quietly and waved, forgoing subtly. "Morning Rianne! So excited for this, I don't have many gym buddies as experienced as you. It's going to be so cool." Yeah, she wasn't a morning person, but she was a person person, and just seeing a friend charged all her batteries to eleven.

"So how does this gym work. Will I need a day pass to use the place?"

While Rianne waited she looked at her phone. A couple work emails were waiting to be read, she looked at the titles. They could wait. She closed out of her email and opened a workout app. This app logged her weights over time, she didn't take long between exercises normally so having all the numbers where she could glance down then go was super helpful.

It was not a long wait before Cait was there waving and then excitedly greeting Rianne. Jumping up off the bench Rianne hugged and greeted Cait. "Howdy, Cait!" It was good that Cait was excited. With what Rianne had planned she needed to be Excited, angry, and or committed otherwise she wouldn't make it through. "Let's see if your excitement holds, I don't pull punches in the gym."

Cait asked about how the gym worked, Rianne moved to the door and waved for her to follow. Rianne scanned a little tag on her keyring and the door unlocked. "You'll enter in some information onto that computer. Your name, date of birth. Standard liability stuff. Put in my name as the member your with and your good... Oh, and my first and last name is Jennifer Hunter." The system did not look up people by middle names.

Rianne again looked at her phone, but this time she had created a profile on the app for Cait. "What kind of weight do you normally do for a horizontal push and press, a vertical push and press, and leg press or squat?" She would need to figure out numbers for Cait, and it was better the least amount of guesswork she could do. They were aiming for failure within a certain amount of time.

Hugs so early in the morning were awesome. Hugs at any point in the day were awesome but having one so soon to the day starting just made the rest of it a good one. Grinning she didn't think anything could dampen her down this morning, "Be my guest Rianne. You'll find I'm tougher than I look." Some people only saw one side of her, the flirty musician who's life was fun and parties. Not many saw what she could really do when she cut loose.

Stepping up and following her friend into the gym, it was good she wouldn't need to fork out money for it. True she did alright for herself, but with the way things were for the team, she liked to save her money just in case. "Sounds great, shouldn't take too long!" As she inputted various bits of info, Rianne got the the big question. The one she didn't quite know the answer too.

"For leg press I do 280 or 290 pounds, depending on how active I'd been recently or if I was up on stage all night." Running back and forth tended to give you a pretty good work out. "As for arms I really don't know. I don't tend to do much upper body weights. I'd guess as much as an athletic woman my height?" Truthfully most of her upper body strength came from sparring, so she had no clue what her actual weight stats were.

"Sorry if that makes things more difficult, like I said I've never really been into the weights side of things. Well, except for the legs. Got to keep my best feature nice and toned" So she was a little vain about them, a girl has to take the body confidence she could.

Be her guest, be her guest. Rianne would put her toughness to the test. Cait was there early and excited to work despite Rianne’s describing how hard it would be. Rianne was already impressed Cait was there and really didn’t doubt that she would give it her all which was all that was required to work at Rianne’s level. Maximum effort.

Inside Cait set to entering in all the information on the computer and then gave her numbers to Rianne. Well, number. Cait didn’t know what her numbers were beyond her leg press. Rianne sized up Cait for a moment, all the easier in what she was wearing. They might have to feel their way through it, but Rianne had a bit of an eye for this and took a guess at the numbers.

”That’s alright. We’ll figure it out. The way I do it is kind of a feel it out more than a hard and fast, lift this weight this many times.” Rianne looked up from her phone, ”We’ll get the rest of you matching and then people won’t know what to do with themselves.”

When Cait was finished Rianne led her over to the first set of weights. ”The goal is to move slowly. No quicker than a four second positive or negative in the rep. Slower is better, especially on the negative. Just don't go so slow you stop mid rep. You want to rep until failure, and you want to fail between sixty and ninety seconds. After you fail, keep pushing for five or so seconds. You have to give everything you’ve got.”

Rianne grabbed a pair of eighty pound dumbbells and sat on a bench, weights resting on her knees. ”I’ll start.”

A quick look at the clock and Rianne rocked forward and back. As she went back she brought up her arms so that when her back lay on the bench the wights were held above her. She started the exercise. Slowly she brought her arms down and then back up. After a few reps the strain started to show on her face. At a minute in her arms were shaking as she continued the slow repetitions. Two reps later and Rianne got halfway up before, no matter how hard she shoved and how much noise she made, the weight came back down. A few more seconds of trying to lift before she let the weights rest against her sides.

The exercise done, Rianne leaned forward bringing the weights back to her knees. ”Your turn.” Rianne said breathing heavily as she stood up, deposited her weights, and picked up a pair of lighter weights which she passed to Cait.

Cait payed very close attention as Rianne explained the whole process, it was so cool she was so experienced with this stuff, it was like she had her own personal trainer. Who was also her friend. And sang with her. So all in all awesome, even if this was going to hurt like hell tomorrow.

Making sure she remembered all of the advice, she watched as Rianne just killed it as she started. Those dumbbells were 80 pounds. Each! That was so insane, officer barbie was, not so casually, lifting more than Cait weighed. No wonder she looked so damn good she was stronger than most guys she knew! Probably stronger than most of the X's to be honest, even with their powers. Except maybe Geo. He, well he cheated.

Giving her friend encouragement as she got towards the end, she was kind of looking forward to her turn, weirdly. I looked hard, but god she could only imagine the rush you got once you finished a set. "Wow, that was amazing! Hope I can live up to that someday!" Taking the offered weights she moved onto the bench and copied the movements she'd watched before, bringing the weights up as she laid back. God they were already heavy, this was not going to be easy, but that wasn't stopping her. Moving slowly just as she was told, she started her reps. By thirty seconds she was sweating buckets, at forty-five her arms burned.

She just hit a minute when she just couldn't lift her arms up, they were like lead. Letting out an explosive breath and sitting back up, she looked up at Rianne. "That, was intense." Slowly standing and putting the weights back, the sudden lack of them made her arms feel like they were floating. "I can see why you do it though, now that I've done a set, I feel kind of amazing. How many more do we do?"

It was clear that Cait was impressed by Rianne’s set. She even commented how she hoped to live up to it one day, ”Keep comin’ to the gym with me and we’ll get you there.” Rianne said. With her workout routine most people hit near their peak in about two years of training.

Cait took the weights, sat on the bench, and repeated what Rianne had done to get set. As Cait worked her way through the set Rianne gave her encouragement. One woman cheer squad, Rianne was. It was amazing what people could accomplish in the gym with a little cheering on.

Checking the clock when Cait hit her limit, Rianne knew she’d made it a minute. The minimum amount of time she needed to manage. Rianne had picked a weight on the heavy side, but it worked. Cait rose and racked her weights.

Rianne smiled, Cait was pumped. It was always nice to see other people excited about working out. People who were stronger and more fit could better take care of themselves. The better someone could take care of themselves the less likely they were to need someone like Constable Barbie.

”Four more exercises. Each is only one set.” Rianne made her way over to a row machine. ”It’s all dosage. Like a drug, if you take the prescribed amount you feel better, if you take too much you make yourself sicker.” She set the weight on the machine to 140 pounds and sat down to adjust the seat height. ”Just like the last exercise, goal is failure in sixty to ninety seconds. Use a neutral grip so you don’t put stress on your rotator cuff.” Rianne took hold of the machine, her hands parallel to each other, grip perpendicular to the ground. ”Keep your core tight, lean slightly back, and pull to your abdomen.” Rianne checked the time and then started.

This set went much the same as the last one. She made it to a minute and ten seconds before the machine started to slide back on her. Her whole body seemed to shake with effort to keep it from moving backwards. There was a brief moment where it started to get easier. Her power was kicking in. She stopped fighting the machine, her power wouldn’t help her exercise.

Rianne slid off the machine. With shaking arms she changed the weight for Cait.

Interesting analogy but she could see where Rianne was coming from, it was all in moderation. Pushing yourself without pushing too far, that she could get behind. After all with all the musical practice she'd done she knew that going to hard only harmed you in the end.

Like last time she cheered her friend on, while making sure to follow and memorise each movement, so she could do it herself when it was her turn. God she was so damn strong and watching her was really cool. Cait could see woman's muscles tensing and relaxing under the skin as she worked out and for a moment it almost looked like she got a burst of power, but apparently her eyes had just been playing tricks on her. "Damn girl, if anyone could be called amazonian it's you!" Rianne was so awesome!

Stepping up while Rianne changed the machine for her and making a note of the weight, she sat and didn't even have to bother changing the seat, they were pretty much the same height. So convenient!

Starting the exercise and carefully making sure she was doing the same as Rianne did, she could already feel the burn. Constable Barbie was not joking about this being tough and she barely managed one minute before her arms were shaking like mad. Just pushing one last rep before her arms just wouldn't move anymore no matter how hard she tried. One minute and five seconds, not bad!

"God that's hard, bet this will hurt tomorrow morning! Thank god it's a light one for me, wouldn't want a full day the day after." All she had to deal with was some light details at the base before one performance in the early evening. Not bad for her normal schedule.

"Can't wait to see what's next, this is really fun!"

Cait cheered Rianne on as she lifted. While she hadn’t thought of it before, it was clear that having someone cheer you on did make a difference. Wanting to be worthy of the cheering helped you give that extra effort. Rianne vaguely remembered hearing that the SEALs believed that when you first hit the wall in exercise you were at only forty percent.

When Rianne finished Cait, in a roundabout way, called her Amazonian. ”As long as I don’t have sear off anything, that sounds good.” Rianne laughed and brought her hand up to the right side of her chest. You can’t be a woman warrior and not know about the myth of the greatest women warriors.

She would just stick to guns and fists. Amazons did it for javelins and bows.

The weight set Cait began her set. While Cait lifted, Rianne provided encouragement. Cait’s commitment to the intensity of the workout was impressive. She made it to just past a minute before she was unable to lift anymore.

”If you’ve never lifted like this before, it might hurt for a couple days. It’s that good burn that lets you know you gave it your all though.” Maybe Rianne was just too conditioned to the burn that she’d come to enjoy it.

”Next is shoulder press.” Rianne said as she led Cait back to the bench they’d used for bench press. ”Best to alternate back and front lifts. Otherwise you’ll be burnt out going into the second front of back lift.”

Rianne reconfigured the bench to a seat and then grabbed a pair of fifty pound dumbbells. ”Like the rows. Use a neutral grip.” Rianne tucked in her elbows and lifted. She hated shoulder workouts, they hurt in a way that to her didn’t feel like other lifts.

She lifted just under a minute. That was her attempt at moving up to fifty pounds. She held on and kept trying to push for several more seconds. Eventually she stopped as her power again tried to let her lift the weight. Her power had a bad habit of making exhausting her strength difficult. She lowered the weights and stood up.

”I hate shoulder lifts.” Rianne laughed.

The weights racked, Rianne grabbed a pair for Cait and passed them to her.

Her eyes widened at the joke, "Lord no, that'd be such a waste!" That had always confused her about the legend. She'd kill to have some assets worthy of getting in the way of a bowstring. Blushing a bit at how enthusiastic she'd kind of gotten about another woman's body a blush started to creep up her neck. "I mean, that sounds far too painful."

Nice save girl, very smooth recovery.

Encouragement from a friend was always the best part of the gym, never mind the health benefits and general awesomeness that a work out was, you could get plenty of positive energy going. Cait fed of that kind of social interaction. That and hugs.

"Good to know, I certainly want to keep this up and I can do a good burn, had more than a little of it when I started performing." While it wasn't exactly intense, moving like she did on stage for a 3 hour set was surprisingly effective exercise.

Again she analysed everything being done for future reference and cheered on her friend, amazed by the amount one person could lift. Doubly so since it was a really cool example of why women could kick butt with the best of them. Sure she'd gotten the girl power lectures and motivational speeches growing up, but Rianne had girl power. The real deal.

"I can see why, that looked rough." Giving her a bright smile while they changed over and taking her place , she began her own set. Lord it was hard, she was using muscles she didn't normal train and she could feel it!

Just barely making it to fourty-five seconds before her arms would not respond, no matter how hard she pushed. Ugh that was a little disappointing. "OK I can see why you hate that. Guess I need to have the weights a wee bit lighter in the future, work my up."

It was only a little disheartening but it was the way of it with working out. Knowing your limits is really important, so you could blow them out of the water.

Rianne’s joke had left Cait wide-eyed and with a blush creeping up her neck as she made two attempts at responding. Rianne laughed. ”I think they did it to infants so you wouldn’t remember the pain, but it would be weird to be short one of the girls.” Definitely better to be a woman warrior in America than a mythical one in ancient Greece.

Cait wanted to keep the workouts up. Rianne may have found herself a workout buddy! Of course it wouldn’t work out all the time, Rianne often hit the gym before work. Those time when it would work would be amazing. ”I’m game with making this a regular thing. I should be able to move around my workout schedule a little so I’m not at the station as much and can meet you here. And I can imagine it must be quite the burn after a night performing!”

There was a comment about seeing why Rianne hated shoulder lifts. Then Cait did the lift. Again she said could see why Rianne hated shoulder lifts, but the second time it was clear she did. She knew first hand how awful they felt.

The weight that Rianne had selected was too much for Cait. No amount of cheering from Rianne could get the weights back up after Cait hit a wall at forty-five seconds.Rianne made a note on her app on her phone. Next time the weight would be lighter.

”We’ll get you to that weight and higher in no time.” Rianne moved to to a a machine with a cable hanging down and cushions to sit on and hold your legs in place with. ”Last one before legs. Same as on the other exercises. I would normally still recommend a neutral grip, but to properly engage on this you need a wide grip. It being the only exercise where you use the rotator cuff against a larger muscle it should be okay.”

Rianne set the weight to 170 pounds, a full thirty-five pounds above her own body weight. As she took hold of the bar that hung from the cable above her she walked Cait through. ”Grab just past shoulder width, sit, then pull. The weight is more than I weigh so I have to do it a bit different.”

Pulling down, Rianne got the weight moving before she slid herself into the seat. It was like she was being torn between the seat holding her down and the bar pulling her up. She began the exercise. She leaned slightly back so the bar could pass in front of her face. A minute and twenty-five seconds later and she was stuck. The bar was pulling on her arms that she couldn’t bring down anymore, her butt was lifted off the seat slightly.

Rianne slid her legs out from under the cushioned bar holding them in place and was given a short ride back to her feet. Then she let go and dropped her arms to her side. ”Pulldowns reward the strong, with a fun little ride back to their feet.” She smiled. It was fun even if short.

The weight changed Rianne gestured for Cait to go.

If she had a nap during the day, she should be able to make it work. As long as it wasn't after a full day of playing she should be fine. "That would be awesome, it's always way more fun going to the gym with friends! Can't wait to start seeing some of the results and my band mates will be so jealous." Only a little, they were pretty cool though.

Thank god the shoulder lifts were over. They had been some of the worst exercises she'd done and she was including scales in that. Scales were the most boring thing ever. These were worse. She would beat them into the ground though. Nothing got the better of her for long. "Oh I plan to. I haven't gotten to this point giving up early and I'm not about to start now. Not with a great work out buddy cheering me on as well."

She was so looking forward getting to legs. That she was strong at and she knew it. Legs were always Cait's biggest strength and showing them off was always so much fun. That and they looked good.

This one was always one of the machines she liked the look of. It was simple, elegant and oh so effective. Very helpful for a little bit of gym creeping as well. The amount of guys and girls chests she'd gotten a peek of while they worked it was quite high.

Keeping all the info she was given and making sure it was locked into her brain, she had to marvel at the weight Rianne could pull. It was what 40 pounds more than she weighed? That was insane and it was all arms! It was kind of awesome to see it in action, able to watch someone that strong in action. "Jesus Christ, that is unreal Rianne! How long have you been exercising like this?"

Taking her own place and launching straight into the movements once she was seated, she did pretty damn well for a first time on it. By the time her arms just couldn't pull the bar down any further she must have done a minute and fifteen seconds. After her attempt at the shoulder press this was a damn good confidence booster.

"Oh yeah, now that's the stuff. Can't complain about that result now can I?" This was the best gym session ever.

Cait seemed ready to give it all she could in that and future workouts. Get her up to the weights Rianne had set that were too high and surpass them. Look out New York City, there might soon be a pair of Amazons running around.

It seemed Rianne’s back and biceps strength had impressed Cait so much she took the Lord’s name in vain. ”I started lifting in college. I got into lifting like this once I decided to join the force, so it’s been a few years.” And she had been active before she started lifting. She once worried about if she would look like a man if she were to lift like she did. Her need to be strong for work carried her past that to the point where she knew she could be strong and still not look like some muscle head man.

When Cait started her set Rianne watched her form while cheering her on. If she didn’t pull the bar down far enough it would end up being mostly an arm exercise when it was suppose to target the lats. More than that she watched Cait’s back, made sure she kept it straight. Some people had a tendency to roll forward as they did the concentric phase of that particular lift.

”Certainly can’t complain.” Rianne answered Cait, ”Looks like we found the right weight to start you on and you knocked it out of the park.”

It was then time for the main event. The heavy lift, the leg press.

Rianne led the way to the leg press and started sliding plates onto the sled. She stuck six plates on either side for a total of 540 pounds in addition to the sled. It looked impressive, but leg press would always have much higher numbers than squat. ”I love leg press. I get to throw on heavy weight and just go. Not to mention what it does for my butt and legs.”

Once Rianne was in position she started into the exercise. Heavy weight was always heavy. Rianne powered through the exercise, the sled slowing down over time as it got harder and harder for her to move it. Her face turned red toward the end and she had to remind herself to keep breathing. Finally, the sled came down and she could not move it back up to lock it back where it normally sat. This left it to sit with her legs closer to her chest.

She kept pushing and as her power gave her more strength she pushed the sled back into place and locked it in. Then she sat there and breathed. A minute and thirty-five seconds. She would need to add a little weight next time.

After a short breather Rianne climbed out of the leg press, her legs wobbly below her. Standing was the hard part, once she was up it was easy enough to stay up. She started pulling off plates to set the weight for Cait. ”Last lift. Then sprints. Then breakfast!”

Nothing could excite Rianne more at that moment than the thought of eating.

No she could not, that had been amazing. A good solid time and something to work towards after her previous failure. It felt great to get a measure of success. "Damn straight I did, not letting this beat me yet. Can't wait for legs though, now there I shine." She wasn't exactly weak with her arms, but there was a clear difference in her strengths.

Now the leg press she knew, although she'd never used it like they were about to. She was looking forward to see how far she could push it and how much she could really lift.

"Oh yeah, it's one of my favourites. Can't lie with the results either, when you're best features your legs, you have to work them hard." Cait didn't mention how much she'd noticed the parts Rianne mentioned, no matter how awesome they were. Didn't help that it was really hard to not check someone out when you working out together in pretty revealing clothing.

Wait, that couldn't be right could it? 540 pounds!? Was that even possible and more importantly, when could she lift that much? Apparently it was possible, and her friend was killing it, plowing through the exercise like a woman possessed. It was incredible to see and she was just a little awestruck as it went on, barely able to muster the cheering she'd done before. It was just, inhuman to see. She even pushed past the 90 second mark. That meant there'd only be even more weight next time!

"That, that was incredible Rianne! I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it first hand." Cait knew she liked her new friend for a reason, she was a walking role model of awesome.

Food sounded great right about now, but they weren't done yet, she had one last lift to do and then the cardio left. Well, sooner started sooner done. Sitting in the seat, making sure everything was good, she released the weights and began. OK, it was way heavier than she normally did but this was her machine, her work out, no way she was doing bad here. Pushing with everything as the clock ticked, her skin turning a similar colour to her hair, she kept going, and going and going. 60 seconds came and went and she was nearing 90 before her legs just locked up completely. They had nothing to give, at all. Releasing an explosive breath and forcing them into one last push, she locked off the weight and tried to stand.

That didn't work. "Erm, mind giving me a hand up, legs feel like I haven't stood on them for days." It was so weird a feeling, like her bones were made of jelly.

Once she at least standing, "Sprints might not be my favourite exercise, but the thought of breakfast after is more than enough for me. Shall we?"

”Oh, for sure.” Rianne said. Cait certainly did have some killer legs. It was obvious she worked them. Which was good to see, a lot of women didn’t seem to ever want to lift. Which was sad, appearance benefits aside it was highly beneficial to lift. Health benefits in the short term and staving off sarcopenia in the long term.

When Rianne had finished her set Cait was practically jumping. It was clear she was impressed. Rianne smiled at her, having Cait around as a workout buddy would certainly be a wonderful boost to self esteem. ”Thank you.” She replied still a little short of breath as she went to changing the weight for Cait.

After the weight was set Cait got into position and started lifting. Rianne cheered her on. When she seemed stuck as 90 seconds ticked near she called, ”One last push! Everything you’ve got! You can do it!”

Cait got the sled up and locked it in place. She then moved to stand, and stayed sitting. She asked for a hand up and Rianne helped her stand. She then stayed nearby to be something for Cait to lean on if she needed it.

”Yes. Let’s.”

There was a clear space in the gym. Next to a wall of windows, in front of the treadmills and ellipticals. ”We’ll start here,” Rianne said before walking off a distance, ”And sprint to here before turning back.” She walked back to the starting position. ”Sprint as fast as you can for one minute then we’ll rest for two minutes then do it again. Three sprints and then breakfast! And when I say sprint I mean hit it like a bear is after you, give it all you have.”

”Ready?” She asked before she looked at the clock and announced, ”Go!” Rianne tore off the starting line running like she was about to tackle a dirt bag to the asphalt.