The Muscle Shirt By Stan True story of how an athletic male discovers that his wife and sister are stronger than him I found the Valkyrie web site a couple of weeks ago and began reading as many stories as time permitted since then. Many stories involved men discovering that (1) they weren't as physically strong as they assumed they were and (2) some women not only could be strong but, in fact, stronger than the man she was with. This particular subject brought back actual events from my past which, although they occurred long ago, are still quite fresh in my mind and, to me the experience still remains as erotically exciting as when it originally occurred. Background Before beginning my story, I should provide some background as to the setting and people in my story. These actual events took place in 1981. This was before women's body building took off. In fact, if a story appeared of the same type as in this web site, then it was probably written about in Penthouse Forum for example. My name is Stan and worked in the accounting department of a large corporation. I was 28 years old and married to Barbara for 4 years. I am 5'7" and weighed approximately 150 lbs at the time. I was an excellent athlete, playing schoolyard sports such as touch football, basketball and softball. I never did any weight training. I was very aerobically fit, however. I could skip rope for 30 to 40 minutes straight without stopping and ran 2 to 3 miles when I didn't skip rope. I did this routine 5 to 6 days per week. I considered myself an above average male physically (for my size). My wife was 25 years old at the time and worked as a manuscript typist. She is 5'0" and weighed about 110 lbs at the time. She never participated in any sports. She exercised in our condo each night with stretching, crunches and pushups. Occasionally, she jogged with me at the track and mostly kept up with me. Any strength she possessed was purely genetic. Barbara's sister, Michelle (my sister in-law) was 28 years old (same as me). She worked as a nurse in the cardiac care unit of a large NYC hospital. She was bigger than Barbara, 5'2' and weighed 135 lbs. She had fairly wide shoulders for a girl but, since she never wore anything other than nurse uniforms (all white skirt, blouse and jacket cover with wide flat white shoes), comfortable sweat shirts and/or oversized tee shirts when she wasn't working, I never saw her physique in detail since I knew her. I knew she worked out at her apartment, belonged to Jack LaLanne and jogged but never knew the extent of her workouts. Her job was physically demanding, having to move patients and equipment now and then. The only type of physical activity I ever had with my wife was some rare "wrestling" in our bed. I believed that I was much stronger than Barbara and to make it even, I let her begin in a dominating position. The only time I "lost" was when she got herself in the position of straddling me while I was on my back and she was able to, after a fairly good struggle to pin my arms to the bed over my head. I didn't have the strength to push her off with my arms, but I could do so if I could get my legs free to maneuver her off. I never gave this shortcoming any thought until a short time later. And she never razzed me nor did she ever say a negative word about this. This is where my story now begins. The Story Michelle brings us a gift It was a Saturday morning in late July. Barbara, Michelle and I had planned to have a day outing at the Westchester County Fair which is held annually at Yonkers Raceway. Michelle arrived at our Yonkers condo at 10:30. When she entered, my jaw dropped. She was dressed more differently than I ever saw her before. (Even at our wedding, she was dressed in a flowing blue gown with a jacket cover so I never saw her physical attributes). Michelle was an incredible sight to behold. She was wearing a tight navy blue muscle shirt with a NY Yankee insignia, short white skirt and high heeled black sandals. Her breasts were extremely tight and obvious. Her beautiful black hair just reached her shoulders which were nicely developed and her upper arms and forearms showed some musculature, although nothing like today's female body builders. Her legs were equally impressive with nicely rounded calf muscles and impressive quadriceps. These muscles bulged with every step she took. Barbara, also surprised, commented to her sister that she looked to be in excellent physical condition. Michelle surprised us further by handing Barbara a small shopping bag. Barbara pulled out the items which turned out to be identical Yankee muscle shirts for each of us, red for Barbara and black for me. We both thanked her and went to separate rooms to get re-dressed for our outing. When Barbara and I re-entered, I noticed both Barbara and Michelle look at me strangely. I asked them what was wrong and they hesitated in saying anything for what seemed like an hour. After the pause, Michelle said that "you have a great physique, but your arms are not in proportion to the rest of your body". (I will never ever forget those words). Not knowing what she meant, I went in front of the large mirror in our foyer and was startled to see what she was talking about. The shirt fitted me rather snuggly and was form fitting to my upper body (like paint). I viewed my physique as a nice desirable V-shape (wide shoulders and slim waste), but my arms were extremely under-developed. There was no muscle tone at all and they just hung there like two strings. I never wore a muscle shirt or a tank top in my life, always loose fitting tee-shirts, It was the way guys I hung out with dressed during those times. Showing off one's muscles is a relatively new trend. I tried to act like it didn't bother me and I thought I succeeded as I made a small joke and both Michelle and Barbara laughed along with me. We all proceeded to the car for our day at the fair. As we were walking to the garage, I was slightly behind Barbara and Michelle. I realized that both of them, not only had larger arms than me, but better upper body muscular development as well. Barbara was a mini-version of Michelle (as I previously stated that it must be her genetics). She was also wearing a nice black short skirt and high heeled sandals which accentuated her nicely developed legs. Her shirt also fitted her tightly and it accentuated her excellent figure. I felt very inadequate and hoped that this outing would go without incident. I still had no reason to think that I was not physically superior to my two female companions. The way I was brought up was to believe that men are just stronger than women, period. Today's events would however, change that view forever. At the Fair There were a lot of interesting exhibits, farm animals, concession stands and the carnival area. We hit most of the exhibits, ate lunch and shopped a bit at the concession stands. We figured to end the day at the carnival where you can win stuffed animals and the like. There were the usual booths which displayed "hit the target" with baseballs and footballs at which I was successful so that my two lovely ladies did not go home emptyhanded. We then came upon the booth where you hit a padded platform with a sledge hammer to see if the steel ball in the shaft could be sent to the top (about 20 feet) to ring the bell. There was a very large crowd at this booth and we watched many of the contestants try to prove their strength against this machine. The sign stated that each contestant must be at least 16 years of age to participate. After watching about 10 contestants, a man, about my height succeeded to ring the bell. The attendant, who did commentary as each contestant tried to prove his or her strength against the machine, handed him a huge stuffed bear. The attendant, was very biting with his ongoing play by play and I'm sure this was intended to entice more customers. The crowd swelled even larger. For some reason, I felt confident and compelled that I could do this and wanted to win a prize for Barbara (and some self esteem for myself I guess) so I got on line. Michelle asked me not to "as the line was too long to wait" but I insisted. I think I wanted to do this because I wanted to rid myself of this weird feeling of inadequacy which I had since I put this muscle shirt on and gazed at myself (I also wondered why Michelle really asked me not to try). I felt that physically I could hit the bell despite how I appeared. We waited for about 15 minutes as two others hit the bell, another man who was about 6" and 200 lbs (he was the biggest of the contestants by far and appeared to hit the bell with incredible ease) and, just before my turn came, a girl succeeded in hitting the bell. She was a little taller than me, about 5'9" and maybe 135 lbs. She was dressed in a nice blue tank top. She did not look particularly strong as her arms did not show much in biceps development and that boosted my confidence further. As a matter of fact Michelle, who was standing next to me said that she was going to try it right after me. Now I had some more incentive to hit the bell. My moment finally arrived. I handed the attendant $3 for my 2 attempts and picked up the sledge hammer. It was a typical sledge hammer with a hard rubber coating and I was surprised how heavy it was having seen all the people before me swing it. I pulled it back over my head to my waist and then I pulled it up and forward, but I lost my balance a bit and missed the platform. The hammer hit the ground to the left of the platform. I was totally embarrassed at what just happened and I heard several people laugh loudly at my expense. The attendant's commentary was very cutting and I've since blocked out what he said, but I remember it wasn't very nice. I now wondered how many people in this crowd took notice of my slight upper body. I avoided eye contact with both Barbara and Michelle as I know they felt terribly for me. I looked at the attendant and asked him if I could get one extra swing as I "slipped". He allowed me to. In truth, I knew that I lacked the arm strength to hold the hammer at its end (for maximum force) as I saw all of the other contestants do and I thought that I would "choke up" (like one would a baseball bat) on the hammer this time to compensate for my lack of strength by sliding my rear hand up the shaft of the hammer. I began my swing and hoped that I could hit the platform solidly to redeem myself in Barbara's and Michelle's eyes. I was successful in hitting the platform solidly with my "adjustment". That was the good news. The bad news was that the steel ball lifted about one-third the distance to the top. Almost every contestant before me at least reached the half way point. Now I had one attempt left. I thought that this time I would try this same method over my left shoulder (I used to switch hit in softball). I pulled the hammer back and swung as hard as I could. I hit the platform again solidly but the ball again rose to approximately but not quite as high as my prior right-handed attempt. I moved away from the booth as quickly as I could to the back of the crowd where my lovely wife Barbara met me. I felt like I was two feet tall and wanted to cry. She looked sadly at me and I know she wanted to console me but said nothing. Michelle was now going to take her turn. She picked up the hammer at its bottom as I tried to do on my first feeble attempt and swung it in good proper form to solidly make contact with the platform. The ball rose quickly but stopped a few inches from the bell. This was extraordinary in my eyes. Here's a girl dressed in a sleeveless top with high heels who just showed that she was over twice as powerful I was. Now she was about to make her second attempt. (I was sort of hoping that she would fail to hit the bell as she already proved her strength. By winning, I felt that would add insult to injury to my very deflated ego). She took her time and pulled back the hammer. Her arms showed fairly developed biceps when the hammer exploded down. The bell rang. I couldn't believe it. She came back to us with a huge stuffed bear. I said nothing to Michelle as I was totally devastated. This went against everything I ever believed. My sister in-law was so much stronger that me. The walk back to the car was horribly long. Here it is.we all had a great time at the fair except, because of my lack of physical strength, I felt I ruined it for all. I couldn't wait to trash this shirt. I vowed never to wear such a thing again. When we got to the car, Barbara finally said to forget it. Hitting the bell doesn't mean a thing. She will love me no matter what. I never doubted that fact. It's just that I could not reconcile the facts with my prior beliefs of gender attributes. Michelle reiterated that I was and always will be her best friend (as she was mine), despite the fact that she was probably a little stronger than me. I though about her words "a little". I knew that she possessed twice my strength. I also thought that Barbara, upper body-wise was probably at least as strong as I was. I was going to find out about this soon. Their words of encouragement made me feel a little better and we continued on our day by stopping for a quick dinner at MacDonalds. Return to Our Condo We arrived at our Condo after dinner. Michelle agreed to stay and watch TV until Saturday Nite Live was over. While sitting in our living room I finally opened up a little about the events of the day to Barbara and Michelle. I told them that at first, even though I saw how thin my arms were compared to theirs, that I never really felt threatened at the possibility of being weaker than either of them. After today's experience, I thought back as to my play wrestling with Barbara and Michelle's amazing performance at the fair and realized that, I indeed was weaker. I decided at that moment that I was determined to at least build myself up physically and hoped that they both would help me. Michelle told me since she was off tomorrow to come over her apartment with Barbara to begin my training. Barbara said that many times over the past couple of years she wanted to encourage me to build up my body as I appeared to be too underdeveloped in the upper body but didn't want to start a problem between us where, apparently, none existed. She was right. Because I was so fit aerobically, I never even noticed that I was a weakling until today. The evening ended with my escorting Michelle to her car down the block from my condo which I always did whenever she came over and left late at night. On this particular day, however, I thought to myself that if we were attacked I would not be at all capable in protecting Michelle from harm. I would need her to protect me. My god! After she drove away, I ran back to my condo to avoid any possible confrontation. Training Begins We drove to Michelle's apartment in the Bronx to begin my "rehabilitation". I insisted on wearing my new muscle shirt since no one other than the 3 of us would be there and I could not be embarrassed any more than yesterday (or so I thought). Barbara was dressed in a pink tank top and a short denim skirt and. She looked great. We arrived at Michelle's at 9:00. She was dressed in a nice workout outfit. It was a low-cut black tank top which partially exposed her beautifully shaped breasts with black short shorts. She already had arranged her full weight set so that we could begin right away. Michelle insisted we all warm up with stretching, crunches and pushups. We watched Michelle demonstrate proper pushups with full slow up and down movements. She did 25 without any strain at all. Both Barbara and I got into pushup position and began. Barbara completed 20 as she slowed down at about the 15th rep. She rested for a minute and completed the final 5. I, on the other hand had another revelation. Having not done any pushups at all since junior high, I succeeded to perform 3 good extensions, but my arms began to shake and I was only able to complete 2 more as I could not lift myself off the ground for my 6th rep. I waited about a minute and attempted some more. I barely completed 2 more as I began to sweat. Michelle then told me to perform the remaining 18 using the modified (female) method, knees on floor. I then completed my 25 reps. She told me that when she began to do pushups several years ago, she had to do them the same way for quite a while until her strength increased. Hearing that, I felt a little better. Before beginning with the weights, Michelle decided to take my bicep measurements so that my progress could be charted. She also took measurements of Barbara and herself. Mine were unbelievable. My right arm, fully flexed was 11.25". My left was 11.0". Barbara's were 12.5 (right) and 12.25 (left). Michelle's were 14.25 (right) and 14.0" (left). As I said, this was before body building was popular. The next thing Michelle wanted to do was for each of us to arm wrestle each other. We did this on the carpet to negate any weight advantages. First she matched up with Barbara and put her down with each arm in a couple of seconds. After a few minutes, I matched up against Barbara. I was very nervous, having never done this with her before. As I said, the only thing we ever did together physically was wrestling in bed when she was able to pin my arms from the dominant position. We grabbed each other's right hands and began. We stayed stationary for about 5 seconds. We were both straining hard. She pushed my arm a couple of inches down but still was not able to go further as I furiously held her there. This position lasted about 10 more seconds, until I finally had nothing left and she put me down to the floor. I felt both embarrassed (and aroused). I honestly thought that I could beat her at this. A couple of minutes later, we tried the left arms. Barbara pushed hard and began to put my arm down steadily until it hit the floor in about 5 seconds. Yes, indeed, my wife was stronger than me. Michelle asked if I wanted to continue against her. Since she easily beat Barbara, we both knew that I had no chance and she really didn't want to embarrass me. But I am extremely competitive by nature and insisted. Michelle and I locked right hands. She allowed me to put pressure on her so that her arm moved about an inch but she stopped me and then put me down in a couple of seconds apparently without even trying. Her bicep didn't even rise fully. I gave her everything I had to no avail. We then grabbed left arms. Barbara said go and I was down in a second. By this time, my lack of self esteem had leveled out and I didn't feel any worse than from yesterday's shocking events. We all walked over to Michelle's weight bench. She laid down on the bench to demonstrate the proper way to lift. She said there was approximately 60 lbs on the bar and was a good weight to start at. She bench pressed the bar 10 times without strain, demonstrating how to breathe at the same time. Barbara went next. This was the first time she ever lifted. Michelle set the weights in her arms and she proceeded to lift the weight 5 times. She did this with some effort but did not waiver. She repeated the exercise again without faltering. My turn came. I laid down and Michelle put the bar in my hands. I pressed up and felt my arms shaking a little but I succeeded in pushing it up 5 times. In my second repetition, I tired after the 3rd lift and couldn't budge it any further. Michelle grabbed the bar from me. I had lots of work to do. We all proceeded to do biceps and triceps curls (Barbara and I worked with 10 lbs today). I felt the "burn" and Barbara noticed that definition had appeared in my thin arms finally. Michelle worked with two 25 lbs dumbbells for many reps. She looked outstanding. Before leaving this initial session that evening, I felt "great" and wanted to see my maximum bench press on my first day. I wanted to know how much I could lift before I got into training and progressed. Michelle set the bar at 100 lbs. I laid down for the attempt and she placed the bar in my hands. I struggled for a few seconds but could not lift this weight at all as it laid on my chest. Michelle pulled it off me by "curling" the bar. I could not believe how strong she was. She removed 20 lbs and replaced the bar in my hands. I pushed up the bar with a struggle and lowered it and attempted a second lift. Again, I struggled as Barbara and Michelle tried to encourage me and I just got it up as Michelle saved me from getting smashed by the bar as I collapsed fully exhausted. So here it is.a 28 year old man can bench press 80 lbs. Barbara tried her maximum next and amazingly began where I left off at 80 lbs which she hoisted easily twice. She ended up lifting 120 lbs with a struggle (similar to my last lift). Michelle had to "save" her too. I felt proud that my 5'0'' and 110 lbs beautiful wife could hoist such a weight. Michelle then gave us a demonstration of what she could do. Since we all realized that we would not be strong enough to remove the bar if she had a mishap, she said she would lift what she knew she could. She set the bar at 200 lbs. Barbara and I looked at all of the weights on the bar and couldn't believe our sister (not "brother") could lift this massive weight. Michelle set herself by lifting the bar without our help and lowering it to her chest. She took a couple of breaths and the bar exploded to its peak. She lowered the bar to her chest again and again lifted it without faltering. She set the bar on the bench safely. She obviously could have done more reps if she wanted to. We both gave Michelle a congratulatory hug for this feat of strength. I asked her about how much more she thought she could lift. She indicated that she never exceeded 220 lbs but thought that she could hit close to 240 lbs. I remember some football player friends of mine in college mentioning that the coach required each and every player to bench press 200 lbs. Michelle was probably stronger than some of those guys. Aftermath Michelle spoke to me in confidence a few weeks after our initial workout at her apartment and told me that she never mentioned her workouts and rarely wore sleeveless tops as she didn't like to flaunt her impressive strength. She said she was always very strong and used her strength more often than not at work (i.e. occasionally she has lifted patients by herself from bed to bed). She told me that ever since she first met me she assumed that since I worked out so much aerobically that I was physically stronger than her and never gave it a second thought. She had seen me for several years dressed in gym shorts and tee shirts but never focused in on my upper body parts in particular. She said I had a wonderful figure and looked extremely fit. She was shocked to see how weak my arms were. She insisted that she would help me gain enough strength to hold my own against her in arm wrestling at the very least. Michelle had a similar viewpoint as I did as to the strength differences of men and women and never expected to be physically stronger than a man. She has gone out on many dates and never had physical experiences (i.e. wrestling) with any of them because it never came up. Since the day she saw me in that muscle shirt, she said that she was turned on to my being a physical weakling and her opinion on the gender differences was no longer set in stone. Same with me. As to Barbara, she had seen me for years without a shirt on and always noticed that I looked extremely thin in the arms and chest but was reluctant to say anything because she was afraid to hurt my feelings. She really did not want to wrestle with me as the truth might have come out. She told me that although I outweighed her by 40 lbs, she could have pinned me at will unless I used my body weight against her. She said she wasn't strong enough to move my full body weight but that she could overpower my upper body at any time. She said she was glad that I never wanted to wear a tank top as some people might ridicule me and took a deep breath when I changed into that dreaded muscle shirt that day. She told me that she blocked out the vision of my weak arms for years, but that day after seeing me come out of the bedroom smiling with my new shirt on, she was speechless. She wanted to tell me to take it off, but the damage was done. She and Michelle discussed my shortcomings when they were alone that day and both of them insisted that they wish they could go back in time and start the day over again. Frankly, I'm glad it happened. I feel closer than ever to Barbara. We began a weekly Friday night wrestling match (2 out of 3 pins wins). We started on our knees to eliminate my weight advantage and went from there. As Barbara stated, she was stronger than me and I lost most of the matches for the first few months. The reason I couldn't win earlier was that she continued to work with weights also so that my strength gains were not enough to overcome her prior advantage as she gained strength as well. I finally won two straight pins after approximately 10 months of training. We still wrestle every Friday, and admittedly she can overpower me more often than not. But the shame of the past is long gone. I can accept being the weaker sex sometimes. I have not worked out that much the past few years and have lost some of the strength I did in fact gain. At my peak about 3 years after that day (circa 1983), I measured both arms at 13.5". At my very best, I was able to bench press 165 lbs for 3 reps and curled 40 lbs in each arm for 5 reps. I know this is not much, but I am a realist. I have a sedentary job and I don't perform in body building tournaments. I occasionally wear tank tops and muscle shirts. My biceps are still smaller than the average male, but there is still some definition there. I can lift room air conditioners and carry them to the closet (something Barbara always did since we were married). I was incapable to perform this normal task the day of the fair. My measurements today are about 13" at 160 lbs. I lift weights and exercise in my house about twice a week a week to maintain what I have. Barbara also continued to work out with me through the years and she was able to bench press a maximum of 180 lbs and also curled 45 lbs. Her arms grew to a maximum of 13.75" as her weight increased to 125 lbs. I feel proud that I have almost caught up to her. We have arm wrestled regularly since the fair and although Barbara has won the majority of our contests, there was a time that I won at least one out of every two matches until I stopped working out as much as I had been. Genetics again have taken over as Barbara's strength is naturally greater than mine. Michelle continued to train with Barbara and I and even she improved her measurements which were impressive to begin with. At 5'2" and 145 lbs, Michelle peaked out at 15.25" biceps and benched 260 lbs. She is sure she could have reached 300 lbs but didn't wish to try. She consistently curled 75 lbs in each arm! Needless to say, Michelle has never lost to me at arm wrestling. We have had over 100 matches over the years and I've never come close. She affectionately calls me her "weakling brother". I take no offense to that. What should I do, beat her up? I thank both Barbara and Michelle for forever enlightening me.