Grandma Muscles: Part 1
By Merz
An older woman turns her family upside down when she comes to visit one summer


This whole thing started when I went next door looking for my little sister.
It was June, after my junior year of high school and my sister Melinda was
late getting home for dinner. My parents thought she was across the street
playing with her friend Angela Perry. My younger brother Mark was setting the
table so they asked me to find her and bring her home. I walked around to the
backyard when no one answered my knock and found the two kids along with an
older woman I hadn't seen before.

The woman was average height, with short curly gray hair and a deep tan. She
wore black stretch pants and a short sleeve Lycra top. She was leading the two
girls in some exercises using chairs from the Perry's dining room. I watched
as she led them through pushups off the chair seats. As she worked she
explained to the kids that as they improved they could increase the benefits
by doing pushups off the floor like the boys do, then move on to pushups with
their feet up on the chair seat so they'd really get a good arm and chest
workout. Then she started showing how to do dips with their hands on the seat
and their feet out in front of them. If that was too hard she said they could
start with their feet in closer, then as they improved they were to move their
feet farther away from the chair to increase the load on their arms. At that
point I think the woman spotted me watching them because she finished her
little class.

"And when you've strengthened your arms and shoulders enough you can use two
chairs and keep your feet off the ground completely," she told them. She put
two of the chairs back to back a couple of feet apart and started doing dips
with her legs tucked beneath her. She made it look easier than when I did
push-ups and I could see that she had big arms that were swelling and bulging
in her sleeves as she cranked off the reps.

She did a few and then said, "Melinda, I believe it must be your dinner time.
Is this your brother?" as she stood up and looked over at me.

"Yes, that's Chuck. Can we do more exercises tomorrow? This is so much fun and
I'm going to get so strong!" Melinda was saying as she and the woman walked
toward me. I was having a hard time guessing how old she must be because her
gray hair and wrinkles made her seem like she had to be old but she had a
really trim figure and had been working her arms harder than any woman I knew
could do. My face felt hot because I got pretty excited watching her doing
those dips.

"Of course we'll do more. I'm Madeline Perry, Angela's grandmother," the woman
said when they reached me. She held out her hand for me to shake, the way
grownups like doing when they meet kids to make us think they take us
seriously. I took her hand then got a shock when she squeezed pretty hard and
grabbed my upper arm with her other hand. "You could drop by yourself if you
want to get a workout and don't have anything else going on for the summer.
I'm ready to go by 7:30 every morning once my son and his wife head out to
work. I'll be here for a few weeks and we could get you set up on a program to
build your muscle tone before school starts again. You're what, 17? Not too
late to get started on a lifelong fitness program. It will be the greatest
gift you ever gave yourself. Work at it and they won't recognize you come
fall." She had a fast, direct way of talking and looked right into my eyes as
she spoke.

"She's Grandma Muscles," Melinda chirped to me. "She's real strong and she's
going to teach me and Angie to be stronger than the boys are." Melinda was
twelve, tall for her age and skinny. Her friend Angie was a few months older,
shorter and chubbier.

I finally got my hand back. Madeline stood with her hands on her hips and her
feet spread apart like nothing could move her. Her arms looked big and firm.
"Thanks, I'm going to be pretty busy this summer. It was nice to meet you. I
hope you enjoy your visit." I was babbling a little because I was flustered
from seeing that the old woman seemed pretty attractive even if she was a
grandmother, and from the way she just kept staring into my eyes and standing
closer than people usually stand. And I guess I was kind of excited from
seeing how easily she could do those dips. I started steering Melinda toward
home but she kept turning to get another look at the woman until we went
around the house and across the street. I was too embarrassed by my interest
to take another look myself.

A couple days later I was lying in the back yard enjoying the sun about 11
o'clock. I had pretty much forgotten about Madeline except when Melinda talked
about her at dinner. I had told Madeline I'd be busy that summer, but the
truth was I didn't have anything to do. I had sort of tried to get a job at
one of the local drive-ins, but wasn't very disappointed when nothing came of
it. My parents made me responsible for keeping up the yard which involved
mowing and edging and a little weeding once a week. Besides that I didn't have
anything I had to do. That day I had slept in late as usual, ate some cereal
and smoked a part of a joint left from the evening before when I had gone out
with some of my friends. Now I was lying beside our pool looking at a Playboy
another friend had given me. A couple years ago we moved into this house that
has a small swimming pool in the back yard so I have lots of friends. My
sister was off with Angela somewhere and my brother Mark was hanging out with
his friends so I had the house to myself.

The gate in the tall fence flew open and Madeline bounded into the backyard.
She was dressed for running in gym shorts, singlet and running shoes. Her skin
was gleaming with sweat and all her muscles looked taut like a big cat's. And
I mean muscles. When I had seen her before I could see her arms were pretty
big, but even when she was doing those dips from the chairs I hadn't really
appreciated how muscular she was. Now her upper arms and her thighs were
bulging and I could see thick veins running over her forearms and in places on
her lower legs. Her sweaty hair was pushed up almost like a steel crew cut.
She just strode over to me like she owned the place and planted herself at the
foot of the chaise lounge I was lying in.

"How's it going, Chuck? Melinda said it would be okay for me to drop over this
afternoon. I was out for my run and thought I'd stop by now. I hope I'm not
interrupting." She said the last part with just a bit of sarcasm, because I
had been slow sticking the magazine under a towel before she saw what I was
looking at. She went on before I could think of anything to say. "Melinda told
me you have a set of weights and probably wouldn't mind if we started using
them in our exercises. How would it be if we found them right now?"

If not for the pot I might have managed to act angry at her just barging in on
me like this, but I felt grateful to get us away from the towel where I had
hidden my magazine. "Uh, sure, they're right in the garage. Let me sh-show
you." I clambered up, then realized I had a huge hardon that she couldn't miss
under my trunks. I quickly turned my back to her and walked toward the garage,
trying to hide my stiff as best I could.

My dad had bought the weights when I was about twelve. He said he and I should
both get more exercise. That lasted about a month, then for a while he'd talk
just about my needing exercise so I wasn't so skinny and bad at sports, then
he let the whole thing drop. Mark, who is three years younger than me, dug
them out a couple years ago but he stuck with it about as well as I had. Now
they were just gathering dust in a corner of the garage. I led the way and
pointed to where they were. The barbell was set up with fifty-five pounds and
we had been able to bench-press that. One of the dumbbells had thirty pounds
on it and the other had twenty-five. We hadn't used them with that much
weight, but that's where all the extra plates ended up when we quit using the
set.

Madeline strode past me to the weights. She stooped and checked the collars on
the barbell, then grabbed it and lifted it overhead like it was nothing for
her. She did three or four crisp military presses and glanced over at me to
see my reaction. I tried to hide it, but I was hypnotized watching her big
arms working with all that weight. They were pulsing and churning like big
snakes. She shifted her grip and did some curls with fifty-five pounds, her
biceps rolling up into big round balls, then extending out long and lean.

"This feels so good. My son doesn't bother with exercise anymore and I haven't
been able to lift anything since I got here. Would you mind grabbing the
dumbbells? Let's take these outside." She carried the barbell curled up
against her chest and walked past me into the sun in the back yard. I followed
her, carrying the dumbbells like they were heavy suitcases down at my sides.

When I got outside Madeline had set down the barbell and was just in the
process of grabbing the bottom of her light shirt and pulling it over her
head. Underneath she wore a jog-bra that was about the same color as her tan
skin. My hardon had started getting painful when I was watching her lift the
weight, and now that she was standing there in the sun with most of her upper
body bare I could hardly stand it. The lifting had brought more veins to the
surface on her forearms and across her biceps. It seemed like she was
throbbing with power as she bent to grab the bar and started doing more curls.

"Our bodies were meant to be worked. They're the most miraculous engines in
the world. The harder we work them the more efficient they become and the
longer they last. If we don't work our muscles hard every day we're cheating
ourselves and insulting these miraculous creations. Just look at this," she
said, looking down across her own body. Every time she brought the bar up all
her muscles tensed, her stomach broke into hard ridges, her thighs tensed, her
biceps bulged, her shoulders swelled. She had done three or four pretty
quickly, now slowed and curled up slowly. Her eyes were closed and she rolled
her head back and side to side and kind of moaned.

That's when I came. I was just standing there hypnotized, watching this
incredible old woman going through some sort of orgasm of her own over her
muscles when I suddenly shot my wad. She looked over at me in a moment, saw
the stain on my trunks and smiled.

"I'm glad you got that off your mind. I thought you might be the type to
appreciate female muscles. My husband never could, or any of my kids." She set
the bar down and stood massaging her pumped up arms for a minute. "I got
strong during the war. All the men were away and I got a job in a shipyard out
in California, along with a lot of other girls. We were doing the same hard
work as the men and it made us strong just like it had all the workmen who had
been there before. In just a couple months I was able to see a real muscle on
my arm. At first it seemed like a sacrifice for the war effort, but then I
started liking how it looked and how being strong made me feel. After four
years of that my husband came home from the war. We'd married right before he
shipped out. I honestly thought he'd be proud to see how I had changed, how I
had built myself up for the war effort. It turned out he hadn't done any real
exercising after basic training. A few months after he got back I talked him
into arm wrestling me, so I could show I was almost as strong as he was. He
was so embarrassed when I won easily, and mad. He called me a lot of names and
threatened to walk out on me. Maybe I was lucky I got pregnant almost as soon
as he came home because in most ways he was a good man and wouldn't desert his
family. Eventually we had four kids. Raising them and helping them with sports
and their play because my husband was always too busy working kept me fit for
a few years. But I had almost got to the point where I wished I was soft and
girlish like the women I saw in the magazines and the movies when we got our
first TV. One of the shows I saw was Jack LaLanne and I just fell in love. Not
with him so much, with myself. Jack really appreciated how wonderful it is to
be fit and healthy. Everyday I made time to watch him and his great big arms
exercising on the television. The exercises he did were easy for me, but he
taught me to pay attention to what my muscles were doing when I exercised,
what it felt like. I started reading his books. Then I could figure out ways
to work the same muscles harder on my own. I've been doing that for thirty
years now. Come over here and set those things down."

I walked over near her and put the dumbbells I was still carrying in the
grass. She looked at me hard a moment, then flexed her big right arm. "Feel
this, Chuck. This is what women and men are meant to feel like. This is what
life feels like. Go ahead, grab on." I kind of felt her arm with one hand and
was amazed at how much harder it was than when I've flexed my own arms. I
could hardly believe it was really flesh and I started feeling with both
hands, trying to get my hands around her arm, trying to make a dent by
squeezing. She turned her fist back and forth to make her big ball move under
my hands. "You could feel like this and I'll show you how," she said bringing
her arm back down.

She strode over to the lounge where I had been relaxing just ten minutes
earlier. To my embarrassment she reached under the towel and pulled out my
Playboy. I hurried over to explain about the interviews and articles but she
was flipping through, shaking her head at the pictures of the women with their
huge Playboy breasts. "No muscle tone in any of them. In five years these kids
will have their boobs hanging down around their waists. Won't that look sexy,
now, Chuck? You don't have time to waste on this sort of unhealthy junk. Look
at this." To my amazement she dropped the magazine and pulled off her jog-bra
so she stood there naked from the waist up. "My breasts are firmer than any of
these girls, and I'm 62 years old." She cupped her small breasts in her hands
and the pale nipples were jutting out at me. I could instantly feel my hardon
coming back.

"You'd like to feel these, too, wouldn't you, Chuck?" she said invitingly. I
nodded and was reaching forward when she suddenly grabbed my wrist and spun me
around. Then she caught me in a full nelson. She linked her strong hands
behind my head and I could feel her big arms forcing my head down onto my
chest. Even though I was a couple inches taller than Madeline, she was holding
me helpless in her grip.

"No you don't. Not until you're man enough, and I'm not talking about age. I
save my body for folks who can appreciate it and can offer me something to
admire in return." She started walking me forward and then flung me into the
swimming pool. As I was bobbing around she retrieved the magazine and stood on
the edge of the pool. Her chest and arm muscles swelled as she ripped my
Playboy in half. Discarding the shreds she stood there with her hands on her
hips, stripped to the waist, watching me start to climb out of the water. "The
best thing for you when you get those urges is grab one of these weights and
work off the lust. You have a chance to start a whole new path for your life
this summer if you'll channel your energy where it will do you some good. Say
the word and I'll help you get started, but you need to take the first step.
Get off the drugs and don't waste your time with books and magazines you know
aren't good for you."

With that she turned and retrieved her singlet. She pulled it on but carried
her bra as she headed for the gate. "Melinda, Angie and I will be over this
evening to find a place to set up the weights where we can all use them. You
better get started yourself before those girls leave you in their dust," she
tossed back as she went out.

That pretty much spoiled the backyard for me that day. I went inside to watch
TV.