#CORE EXERCISES ARE THE WORST

[daz4i]

as i'm getting in a better shape these days i can now even more confidently say that anyone who tells me that exercise is a quick way to feel better is fucking lyinggggg that shit sucks so hard. it no longer makes me feel like i'm gonna break after 2 minutes but it's still just bad. not a single positive aspect of it (emotion wise)

[duncebento]

we shouldn't have to feel grateful for so much of this, man. as valuable a virtue as gratitude is, i don't want the world we've made to be one in which my prayer of thanks for anesthesia at the dentist is anything more than a novel acknowledgement, rather than resultant of seeing so many people lack that "privilege." i'm a senior at a polytechnic rn; i don't want to be grateful for the continued existence of the school, the fact of its concrete walls still standing. i don't want to be aware of the fact that the toddlers in my family are in one piece; i don't want a contrary example of limbless infants to live in my mind. the softly-suffered deaths i've mourned have provided more than enough suffering on their own!

but such is the world we've built. while some well-fed mouths in the imperial core shut their eyes and cover their ears and make crude jokes and question whether such suffering really is realistic at all, the virtuous of us, those interested in good, refuse to look away until we've changed it. part of exercising that continued gaze is providence. if your life has ever been happier on account of a living sibling or a standing university or a cat sleeping on your stomach or a warm home, see whether you can't provide for miriam baalou, who, like me, has a tumblr account-- @freepaleatine95 -- and who, younger than i am, has had all of these things taken away as collateral for the continued comfort of the imperial core.

in this empire, whose current is an evil one, even to remain in one place requires discipline, labor, capital. to do good requires even more. but let us work heartily against the worst selfishnesses of our worst ancestors.

the baalous’ campaign has been vetted by 90-ghost, who's work in making palestinian campaigns more legible to outsiders i am grateful beyond words for.

[oaksgrove]

Pilates Punishment

pairing: Platonic!TF141 x Reader

synopsis: It all started with an offhand comment about your Pilates routine—Soap and Gaz were convinced it was nothing more than "old lady stretches." So, naturally, they insisted on joining your morning workout.

warnings: Extreme secondhand embarrassment, excessive whining, Soap and Gaz making bad decisions, Ghost suffering in silence, and Price enjoying the spectacle.

word count: 746

It started with Soap’s big mouth.

“What’s this I hear about your morning workout?” he asked one morning over breakfast, grinning around a spoonful of cereal. “Some kinda yoga, eh? Nice and relaxing?”

You smirked over your coffee. “Pilates, actually. And it’s not as easy as you think.”

Soap raised an eyebrow and turned to Gaz. “C’mon, mate. Pilates? Sounds like old lady stuff. How hard can it be?”

Gaz, ever the enabler, chuckled. “Yeah, we’re not talking about running a marathon here.”

Price, calmly stirring his tea, chimed in. “I suppose you think your weightlifting makes you invincible.”

Ghost, who had been silently eating in the corner, let out a quiet snort. “Wouldn’t hurt them to stretch. Their hamstrings are tighter than their shooting groups.”

Soap bristled, puffing out his chest. “Alright then, let’s see what all the fuss is about. We’ll join you tomorrow morning, yeah?”

Gaz grinned. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Price sighed, shaking his head. “You two are gonna regret that.”

The next morning, you were up early, as usual, setting up your mat in the small gym space when the Dead Men Walking stumbled in.

Soap stretched lazily. “This is gonna be a breeze.”

Gaz rolled his shoulders. “Just tell us what to do, boss.”

Price leaned against the wall, arms crossed, sipping his coffee like he had front-row seats to the show. Ghost, in full tactical gear for no reason, stood at the back—watching. Waiting.

You smiled sweetly. Predatory.

“Alright, gentlemen, let’s get started.”

The warm-up was deceptively easy—simple stretches, light mobility work. Soap and Gaz smirked at each other like they���d already won.

Then, you transitioned into the real routine.

“Plank position. Hold for a minute.”

Soap barely lasted twenty seconds before groaning. “This isn’t bad… but…why does my core feel like it’s on fire?!”

“It’s called working muscles you don’t usually use,” you replied, biting back a smirk.

By the time you moved into side planks with leg lifts, Gaz’s face was red, and Soap was visibly shaking.

“Who—who invented this?!” Gaz wheezed.

“A sadist, obviously,” Soap panted.

“You’re doing great,” you said, voice dripping with faux encouragement.

Ghost, to his credit, was holding up better than the others, though his breathing was heavier than usual. Price, the smartest of the bunch, had joined for stretches but wisely opted to observe the harder moves.

Then came fire hydrants.

“Thirty reps each side,” you instructed.

Soap got through four before collapsing.

“I can’t feel my legs!”

Gaz flopped onto his back. “Why does everything burn?”

“You two skipping leg day?” you teased, raising an eyebrow.

Even Ghost had slowed down, his movements stiff and deliberate. Price, still against the wall, chuckled.

“Told you lot to stretch more.”

Then came glute bridges and it was the final straw.

“Feet flat, lift your hips, and squeeze,” you instructed, holding the pose effortlessly.

Soap attempted one rep before throwing his arms over his face. “This isn’t exercise—it’s torture!”

Gaz made it halfway through before rolling off his mat in defeat.

Ghost was silent, but from the way his knuckles flexed against the mat, he was suffering.

Price, watching the carnage, sighed. “Pathetic.”

You grinned as you held the pose effortlessly. “You’ve been humbled.”

Soap groaned from the floor. “Never again.”

Gaz, still on his back, wheezed. “This was an attack on my pride.”

Ghost, still catching his breath, simply muttered, “Bloody hell.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

By the end of the session, the gym looked like a battlefield, they were panting and groaning like they’d just survived a warzone..

Soap was sprawled out like he’d been shot. “I’ll never mock Pilates again,”

Gaz lay on his side, staring at the ceiling in existential dread.  “How do you do this every day?”

“You’re tougher than you look.” Ghost sat up slowly, rubbing his aching legs, looking vaguely like he wanted revenge. 

Price clapped you on the shoulder. “Good show, soldier. You broke them.”

You grinned, grabbing your water bottle. “Maybe next time you’ll stick to what you’re good at.”

Soap groaned. “There’s not gonna be a next time.”

“Not unless you want to end up like this again,” Gaz added, pointing to his limp leg.

Ghost, rubbing his shoulder, muttered, “I hate you.”

“You don’t.” you said grinning like a madwoman

As you walked out of the gym, their dramatic moans and vows to never skip leg day again followed you.

A small victory.

One you’d savor for weeks.

taglist: @honestlymassivetrash @pythonmoth @kittygonap @rainyjellybear @anonymouse1807 @twoandahalfdimes

[idiopathicsmile]

this happened my senior year of high school.

i had recently gotten into my dream school (which was also the only school i applied to; kids, don't be like me) and was feeling kind of buoyed. so buoyed, in fact, that when the topic of my dream school came up and a boy i'd never met before (he was cute, which will unfortunately be relevant) expressed his interest in going to the same school, i said, "sure, you should apply, why not?"

to which he expressed his chief concern, which was that his ACT score was pretty bad. (for those of you who didn't have to take the ACT, it's a standardized test used for college admissions in parts of the US).

he then told me his ACT score.

it was not good

but as i said, i was buoyed

and as i said, he was cute

so i cheerfully told him, "hey, you could still have a shot. i mean, i got in, so how hard could it be?"

and he replied, "yeah, but you're, you know, a girl."

at which point, of course, about nine things happened in my head simultaneously. i hesitate to describe all of them, like, can you render in words the force of an explosion by naming each individual piece of debris?

yes, i did instantly downgrade his appeal from "cute" to "oh god not in a million years"

this was during the end of affirmative action at the school in question which i think(?) was what he was referring to???

except of course there was never affirmative action for the category "girl" and if anything there might have been a slight tilt towards accepting boys bc they're the ones colleges historically have a harder time getting

but jesus, how rude

"you know" is the part that actually gets me; he was tacitly telling me to sign off on my own supposed unfair advantage

what a mindframe with which to move through the world, like i can't stress enough that i had never met this dude before in my life so why would he just ASSUME the only way i could've gotten in was by leveraging my sex

and yes, mixed in with my shock was some awareness, which would only be sharpened by the four years of liberal arts education i was about to receive, that my shock was itself a privilege, that most people who get accused of being diversity hires or whatever live in a world in which they are always kind of tensed and waiting for it

ever get so angry you feel like lasers are gonna start shooting out of your eyeballs?

ever know, to the core of your soul, that if you express an eyelash of the anger you're feeling, you are gonna lose the other person in your next breath, and he'll just walk away shrugging "wow what a bitch"?

anyway, what i said was, "well, that's probably not why i got in. probably i got in because—"

at which point i told him my ACT score

and look, i think we can probably all agree that the whole notion of assessing someone's college readiness through a standardized test is, at best, a waste of fucking time and at worst, a racist and classist exercise in which only the privileged can access the resources necessary to pass the damn test in the first place

(i certainly agree)

but while it is in no way whatsoever a measure of a person's intelligence or other college-ready skills, i can and will absolutely kick a standardized test's ass.

my ACT score was a full ten points higher than his

if you took the SAT or another test like it, that might not sound like much, but bear in mind: the ACT is only out of 36

like, you do the math (i won't because i'm not being tested)

i don't remember what he said then. i suspect not much.

"which is bullshit," i said, because it was and is. i guess we all agreed because that is the end of the memory.

anyway, the moral of the story is: before you make that self-deprecating comment, always remember, you're giving your audience the option of agreeing with you.

[theambitiouswoman]

Please share a master list or tips on rebuilding self-esteem

Mindset—

Stop doubting yourself—would you let a friend talk to themselves that way? No

Talk to yourself like a friend or someone you love— “I’m not good enough” into “I’m growing every day” progress > perfection

Give yourself credit—you’ve survived 100% of your worst days and you will continue to do so

Establish core values you believe in

Self love—

Start your day and end your night with gratitude—name 3 things you love about yourself

Look in the mirror & hype yourself up over and over

Keep a Wins Journal—write down every little accomplishment and thing you are proud of

Set boundaries and honor them, if you are right or wrong, its a learning experience

Pamper yourself with facials, bubble baths etc

Confidence—

Take care of your body— eat clean foods, exercise, go on walks

Dress in what makes you feel good—even if it’s just to stay in the house or run quick errands

Learn something new—mastery builds confidence

Let go of—

Over explaining yourself—you don’t need to justify your worth

Comparing yourself to others

Toxic people & environments

Invest in yourself—

Get good sleep

Learn new things/skills that interest you

Dedicate time to your hobbies

Consume content that inspires you

[adviceformefromme]

YOUR RE-SET

So your life isn’t looking and feeling how you envisioned. You see the TikTok and IG girlies living that life. You dream about luxury travel, pilates on a Saturday morning, drinking overpriced green smoothies, driving a sexy car, and living your fullest most authentic life…But in comparison, you’ve grown to mostly hate spending time with your friends, you’ve out grown them and notice how much they complain about life and generally are low vibes, you’ve spent all of this months wages already, and still have 2 weeks left until payday so your bank balance is no way supporting the life you dream of, to add, your dating life is a mess not consisting of your dream guy that provides for you. No, instead it seems too much effort for him to message back, let alone take you to that sexy spa you’re dying to visit. So in short your life is a far cry from what you want. The life you’ve created right now is absolutely not what you would want for yourself for the next year, or even five years. So in order to completely shift from where you are to where you want to be. You need a fucking RE-SET. 

The re-set is basically your metamorphosis. Think of being the caterpillar, heavy, slow sluggish (currently you right now). In order to become a beautiful butterfly you need to completely transform, undo, take time to reorganise so you can re-emerge as nature intended. 

The Re-set might look slightly different for everyone so take what you need from this: 

2-3 months stepping back from the people around you. 

THE CORE ESSENTIALS FOR YOUR RESET - A DAILY PRACTISE  

Meditating daily to clear you mind so you can hear yourself, your own voice and drown out any external noise. (I recommend insight timer app, or mind app both for meditations)

A journal, to document your feelings and emotions, empty your thoughts, and a space where you can become your own best friend and create a connection with yourself. 

Movement. - you need to move your body this is KEY, you might pick up running, stretching at home, pilates, yoga, HIT, whatever it is just fucking do it. Your body needs the movement to replenish its energy and move you out of stagnation. 

Healthy diet. Less alcohol more greens. If it’s processed, if its fizzy, if its sugar, if its cake, if its chocolate, if its ice cream (you get the picture), cut that shit OUT. You need food that supports you, cleanses you, energises you in order to thrive and clear your energy. 

FAITH in something bigger than yourself. If you’re religious, great lean into your faith with prayer, scripture, faith music. If you’re not religious maybe you believe in the universe, the love all around you, faith in something unknown, something guiding you, protecting you, even if you believe this is part of your own psyche - lean into this. Your faith is your support system. Your faith is the unseen that will guide and protect you on this journey. 

The above might seem overwhelming, and it will be if you don’t already incorporate those things into your day already. The worst thing you want to do is try and do everything at once and feel disappointed when you don’t succeed. So start with one thing if that’s all you can manage and focus on doing that one thing consistently and then add from that. 

The purpose of the first 2-3 months is the cleansing. You want to start slowly removing what doesn’t serve you, and start creating space for yourself, your thoughts and visions so you have space to start planting new seeds of the life you want to live. 

What your first steps in your journey might look like: 

Saying no to going out for drinks with friends, instead you go for a long walks in nature listening to an empowering podcast, go home journal and meditate. 

Weekends might look like not seeing friends, maybe even family. Doing exercise, making healthy food, researching recipes, creating a vision board on Pinterest and doing a guiding meditation, affirmations and mirror work. 

Having a prayer practise, reading books/ passages that support you in your journey 

Deleting your social medias or even doing a detox day / weekend so you have a break 

PART 2 - COMING NEXT….(Here)

[qqueenofhades]

fwiw: a lot of people follow @roach-works who just reblogged yo ur comments on history, books, and authoritarian regimes' inability to indoctrinate entire populations.

I'm an ex classics major with a lot of history under my belt, who knows Rome sutmr under a corrupt oligarchy even when it coughed up a hairball like Nero or Commodus. (Of course, it helped that Rome worked on the pragmatic principle, "How can we keep society and infrastructure functioning, given that positions of power tend to be occupied by the rich & corrupt?" I like to joke that Western Rome never fell; it just became the mafia.)

At any rate, my tendency to see the US through the lens of Rome makes me a pessimist: I assume we'll manage even in a dystopia.

I'm working on expanding my knowledge of world history to counteract that, but it's great to check in with a sane historian who will help me resist crowdsourced panicmongering.

Look, as I have said, I 0% blame anyone for being scared. I'm scared. With no exaggeration or hyperbole, Shit Real Bad, and it's undoubtedly going to get worse, at least in some ways, before we have a chance to make it better. It was completely avoidable, but half of America decided they didn't want to avoid it, so here we are.

Nonetheless, as my last reblog also pointed out, there are still basic historical and critical-thinking skills that we can use here, and to acknowledge that even if it is obviously unprecedented to us, it is not unprecedented to others, and we can study those lessons and think about how to apply them to our own situation. Rome is the obvious model for a world empire brought down by corruption, oligarchy, imperialism, endless foreign wars, income inequality, economic upheaval, excessive militarism, etc etc, but it's not the only one, and the "fall of Rome and start of the Dark Ages" is one of those narratives that gets my premodern-historian rant especially exercised. By the time Rome "fell" in 476, the city of Rome wasn't even the capital of the Empire; the western capital was in Ravenna, northern Italy, and the eastern capital was in Constantinople, where it endured for another thousand years. Roman successor kingdoms were founded in Visigothic Spain, Merovingian Francia, etc., and often imported Roman law, religion, bureaucracy/administration, and nobility relatively unchanged, which is why Latin was the legal, ecclesiastical, and educational language of western Europe until as late as 1962 and Vatican II. The "Dark Ages" are likewise at best an extreme simplification and at worst exceedingly misleading imperial-nostalgia propaganda. Etc etc. I will restrain myself.

Rome dominated the (European/Near Eastern/north African) world in the way that the 19th-century British Empire dominated the actual world and American empire dominates now, at least for the moment, and thus we have to recognize that similar dynamics are at play here in a late-stage imperial decline. However, Rome did not just up and vanish in a puff of smoke one day and never appear again, and we also have to recognize that the end of empires is generally a good thing, historically speaking. Yes, absolutely a turbulent, dangerous, and traumatizing time, especially for those living within the imperial core, but still. There's also the blunt fact that America itself has been responsible for a lot (a LOT) of violent regime change, coups, overthrows, bombings, and other disastrous foreign policy interventions for almost the entirety of its existence, and we can't pretend that we are just the shining beacon of unproblematic truth, freedom, and faith that most conservatives, and a lot of saccharine American-exceptionalism liberals, tend to think. If that comes back to bite us and we have to experience the kind of political and social upheaval that we have arrantly and unrepentantly inflicted on other places in the name of our Superior Right... well.

As for the post about history books (here), that was another attempt to push back against the kind of broad-strokes fearmongering that is often prevalent right now. Again: for completely understandable reasons, but still. There is literally no way on earth that the practice of academic history, or the procession of human events, is going to be destroyed because an orange dumbass and his idiot followers took power in America for eight nonconsecutive years. Even if by some miracle he managed to do it in America and the only thing ever officially published was Heritage Foundation balderdash, a) historians in countries other than America would still be writing books about it, and b) again, literally impossible. To return to the history of Soviet totalitarianism that I was addressing in that post, I suggest that people look into the samizdat, the contraband news and literature widely shared in the USSR. They faced far more stringent conditions than we ever will: the KGB controlled access to all word processors and copiers, precisely because they could be used to spread non-regime-approved information, and dissidents had to write and circulate it by hand. If they were caught, they could be disappeared, sent to the gulag, confined in a psychiatric hospital, subject to intensive "state education," etc. But they still managed to pass it around and read it, and it would be literally impossible for this collection of Trumpster chucklefucks to exert even a fraction of this logistical and physical control, when every citizen already owns a laptop and a smartphone. The history books aren't going anywhere.

That all said, of course we are all hyper-alert and anxious and afraid, and we don't want to miss anything that might be important or dangerous or anything else. I get that, I completely do. But we still have to pace ourselves, we still have to apply critical thought and learn how to educate ourselves when something seems huge and scary and unstoppable, and I am attempting to do a small part of that on a niche blue hellsite that won the social media competition by literally doing nothing while its peers all fell face first into being corporate Nazis. The bar is low. But hey, I'm here, and you're here and you're reading it, and we will get through it. I promise.

Courage, etc.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

I know you made shorts for Sora, Riku, and Kairi, but do you have any other thoughts about Kingdom Hearts?

Ik this is kinda vauge and you get these kind of asks all the goddamn time, but I hyperfixated on those games for most of elementary and middle school and its always cool to see your favorite Youtuber talk about stuff you really like. Not to guilt trip you into answering this one or anything, just. . . I'm very tired and it would be very cool lol.

Again, saving my character design thoughts for some more shorts, but I adore Kingdom Hearts. Like, the first game really ISN'T much more than a cross-promotional branding exercise for Disney and Square, same as any of a dozen other similar crossover centric franchises; it's a Saturday morning cartoon show that wants to get you invested (or keep you invested) in a bunch of fancy IPs to buy toys of, but it's a really good one of those.

And it's a game that understands that the central thing that's going to hook people IN to that kind of thing is characters that are willing to believe in what they've got going on with one thousand percent sincerity. Which I think is the thing they nailed more than anything. Sora cares SO MUCH, and he wants to find his friend and his love interest (Kairi and Riku, respectively) SO BADLY, you can't help but root for the poor kid and want to believe in it.

Then, with the first game successfully managing to hook a solid fanbase, the creative team went "hey what if we had even MORE extremely earnest cool anime people getting deep in their feelings?" and now we're off to the races with Organizations and Oblivion Castles and fractions of 358 days.

And the thing that makes all the hyper-convoluted wheels-within-wheels plot machination nonsense WORK is that down, deep down, right at the core of what the franchise is always trying to say, is that love will save us. Yeah yeah hearts and darkness and unversed and nobodies and keyblades and blah blah blah (to be clear: I adore all that nonsense), but all of it is top-to-bottom in service of that singular central thematic clarion call.

Love will save us.

What holds Ventus together after Xehanort tears his heart apart? The love of Sora. What keeps Roxas the nobody from fading into Sora? The love of Xion and Axel, and Hayner, Pence and Olette. What brings Xion back? The love of Axel and Roxas. Hearts ring together and resonate and bind themselves to each other and there is no darkness so deep, no tragedy so absolute, no villain so foul that the cry of a loving heart cannot defeat it.

Roxas is a nobody doomed to darkness? Fuck you, Kingdom Hearts is love, no he isn't. Xion is a mere replica puppet, a failed experiment that nobody will remember? >>EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER<< get seasalt icecream'd on top of a clock tower at sunset, IDIOT.

Over and over again characters sink into despair and loneliness, they fear that their connections are fake or fading, they fear being forgotten or left behind (Riku in the first game, the breaking of Ventus, Aqua and Terra, Roxas thinking nobody would miss him, Aqua in the Realm of Darkness), and over and over again they are proven beautifully wrong. There is always a hand reaching out, there is always someone who will miss you. Love will save us.

And this absolutely gets hokey, of course it does, it's a saturday morning children's cartoon. It's a bit simplistic, maybe a bit naïve, but honestly in a world where you can't walk two steps without bleak-minded doomer cynicism forcing the assumption that nothing truly good is possible and that the worst will always happen, Kingdom Hearts is a story so absolutely drenched in hope, sincerely held, that it feels like a fucking balm.

Also, LITERALLY where the fuck else are you going to get Woody from Toy Story reading an edgy anime villain for absolute filth? Nowhere, that's where. ONLY Kingdom Hearts.

None of this is to suggest I don't have criticisms of the franchise or that it's faultless. I could talk for several hours unbroken about all my gripes and problems, chief among which is LET KAIRI DO THINGS OH MY FUCKING GOD the franchise is low key misogynistic towards its female characters sometimes but I am talking about the things I love here let me just be happy for a second.

[justwinginglife]

Hi!Can I have a request of Soshiro with operations manager fem reader?Where soshiro gets jealous and possessive because some recruits tries to hit on her during subjugation exercises or breaks but reader’s oblivious to it which frustrates hoshina more cause he’s the vc and needs to act more professional.

thank you in advance and also feel free to ignore this if you’re not up to it:)) have a good day

I'm always up for it! Thanks for the message, you have the best of days!

Whoever said jealousy was a bad thing never met Soshiro Hoshina- that man makes anything look sexy, especially jealousy.

Today, he was especially attractive the way his breath was heaving in his muscled chest and his knuckles were white from the sheer effort he was putting into clenching his fists. His eyes were darting back and forth from the part of your lips as they laughed to the blush on the officer's cheeks as he heard your laugh. Hoshina thought his bottom lip might bruise from the way he was piercing it, anxiously waiting for you to wave the officer away. You never did and he drew blood.

He sucked in a sharp breath as he watched you, the taste of iron flooding his mouth. But focusing on the bitter taste was keeping his possessiveness at bay, so he pressed his tongue against his dripping lip and continued to sulk in silence. He was the Vice Captain, his time was important and he couldn't afford to waste it fighting men off of you, much as he'd like to. If it was up to him, no man would even breathe near you let alone talk to you, make you laugh like that. He should be the one making you laugh like that, he bristled.

He could tell the officer was soaking in the sound of your voice and for a moment, he couldn't really blame them. He'd fallen in love with the sound of your voice over the comms. That was how he'd met you, after all. You had taken over for Okonogi one day while she was sick and his surprise at hearing a different voice in his ear was quickly overtaken by pleasure as he heard you barking out orders. You were so much more assertive than Okonogi. You'd tell an officer when they were making a dumb move- "Your combat power is no match for that honju, fall back and reinforce the rear, you're still injured after all," and you had extensive kaiju knowledge, always reciting where you thought the core would be and directing the best method of attack. You had no fear, you were always confident that the officers would perfectly carry out your plans so you didn't waver in your instructions.

Hoshina always thought you were meant for more than operations manager, you should be at Director Shinomiya's side strategizing battle. But he was thankful you stayed in the Third Division where he could keep an eye on you. And honestly, he was grateful that you were there to keep an eye on him as well.

When he was fighting Kaiju Number 10 and he got slammed against a wall, unable to speak from the force of taking such a hit, and everyone including Okonogi thought he might be out for good, you alone stayed seated in your chair, arms crossed. You watched as everyone leapt up, worry-stricken, as they yelled for him to answer. You just leaned back even further in your chair and said simply, "He's not done yet, just watch." You knew better. You would never underestimate the Vice Captain.

The Vice Captain had taken on many tough beasts and cruel challenges in his lifetime, but the worst thing he could ever endure was now happening right in front of his eyes. The officer was now asking for your number. Your eyes widen in surprise, "Don't tell me you didn't know what he was talking to you for," Hoshina hisses under his breath. Then he can't take it anymore.

He strides over to the both of you, trying to keep his movements even and his breaths smooth. He stands up straight as he looks down at the other man, sizing him up.

"Officer. Don't you have better things to do than bother her?" He demands, the edge in his voice cutting through the air like one of his swords.

The officer shrinks in his presence and you smirk.

"Ah but we were just getting to the good part." You tease, trying to see how far you can push him.

Hoshina's nostrils flare and his eyes burn down at the man before him. He can't bring himself to look at you, knowing he's being unreasonably territorial, so he takes it out on the poor officer.

"Is that so? And here I thought you were supposed to be training. Here, let me help you with your training, give me 50 push-ups." He spits out.

You roll your eyes and set a hand on Hoshina's arm, feeling his muscles flex at your touch. "Alright that's enough, he's learned his lesson." You look down at the boy, who has started shakily doing his push-up's. "You can go now. Just don't let the Vice Captain catch you asking for my number again, okay?" He nods quickly and runs off.

"Happy now, love?" You ask him.

He pulls you into his arms. "Immensely."

You laugh but sink into his arms anyway. "You know I'm all yours, dumbass."

"Yeah- how 'bout you tell everyone else that?" He growls against your neck.

You shake your head. "Nah, I think this is significantly more fun. You're sexy when you get jealous." You pull back a little so he can see you wink at him.

He groans, rolling his eyes at you before pulling you back into his embrace.

"You're going to be the death of me."

[cloverapple]

Thank you for posting! Reading your stuff is a lot of help, and your shifting method is awesome sauce i've been using it for the past two nights (the reasons for why I didn't shift i'm self-aware of and will proceed accordingly, not writing it down here because i feel like it's unneccesarry and don't think you can say much abt it) what I was curious if you could give advice about is: fear of shifting? Don't get me wrong i really want to shift. Been on this journey for years for a reason! And i think soon i'll finally do it, as i've never been as consistent, putting in actual work, as I am and as I do now. Last night, when body was truly asleep and it was just only me, I did my thing trying to shift. And suddenly this weight settled on me, as if the world was too big and too heavy, and i immediately thought "I can't do this" and rolled over with the decision to just simply sleep. Today i talked with a friend about this, and he said it's probably "a fear of shifting, a fear of responsibility", and honestly I agree with this take. Of course I will try again tonight, and will keep doing so until I can push through this feeling and actually shift, but i was wondering if you had a word of advice? Thank you <3

• The way I see the fear of shifting is like: that fear you felt right before the shift wasn’t a failure, it was a sign you were right there.

• Think about it: why would your mind suddenly scream "I can’t do this!" and slam the brakes when you were on the edge of what you’ve been working toward? It’s because, on some level, your subconscious knew shifting was about to happen.

• It accepted it as real, as possible, and that’s exactly when the fear kicked in. That fear isn’t about shifting being impossible, it’s your mind clinging to the familiar, trying to protect you from stepping into something that it's your current reality. Our brains are wired to favor what we know, even if what we know isn’t what we want. It’s like standing at the edge of a cliff with a parachute—you know the parachute will open, but the ground beneath your feet still feels safer.

• So, no, you didn’t fail. Don’t look at that fear as a blockage because it’s not. It’s a precedent to progress, a signpost that you're on the brink of success. Fear is just your mind’s way of saying, "This is real."

To work through it: First, understand that fear is just another form of anxiety—and anxiety, at its core, is the same physiological response as excitement. The only difference is the story you tell yourself about it. When you feel that fear creeping in during the day, don’t shove it down. Let yourself feel it, but flip the script. Visualize the moments you’re genuinely excited for in your DR. Happy, comforting, exciting things that make you want to shift. Feel how easily that fear morphs into anticipation. Emotions are malleable, and once you start associating that tension with excitement instead of dread, you’ll find it easier to move forward.

What you really need to do if fear is your issue, is let go. Stop putting shifting on this towering pedestal. Yes, it’s amazing, but it’s also normal. The more you treat it like this huge, mystical event, the more your mind will see it as something to fear. Shift your perspective. Talk about it like it’s just another part of your day, think of it as routine, affirm it as something natural. Trick your brain into seeing shifting as regular and unexciting, and it’ll stop resisting. Because at the end of the day, shifting isn’t some impossible feat. It’s just you becoming aware of another space you already belong in.

• But let’s go even deeper, to stop that freeze response from hijacking you the next time you’re at the doorway to your shift. We’re going to eliminate the fear before it even has a chance to rise. (yes I'm giving you optional homework because I'm the worst 😁)

The "Normalize Your DR" Exercise

1. Document Your CR Routine. Write down your current daily schedule in your CR. What time you wake up, eat, work, study, relax, everything. Create a schedule.

2. Now create a parallel schedule for your DR. You could do this for the day you're going to wake up in your DR, or next day, depends on what you scripted and feels better for you. What are you doing at each hour? How does your morning routine look? Who do you see? Where are you?

3. Sync CR Time with DR Time. Match your CR schedule to your DR schedule. For every hour in your day, mentally check in with what you’d be doing in your DR at that exact time. This repetitive syncing normalizes your DR in your mind. It becomes part of your routine, not some distant, unreachable dream that your mind fears shifting to.

4. Visualize Throughout the Day. As you go through your CR, take moments to pause and visualize your DR. The more your mind gets used to the idea of being in your DR, the less foreign—and therefore less scary—it becomes.

I hope you can take something from this. Good luck! 💚🩷🫂

[charliegyrth]

Your Flat Ass

A Skinny Guy Wants to Grow

You hate your ass. It’s so flat. The rest of you looks great. You’re proud of your lean body and you like your handsome face. Guys always notice you, and most of them like what they see, but you always notice the look of disappointment when they check out your nonexistent backside.

You have noticeably wide hip bones, especially in comparison to your narrow shoulders, so from the front, it looks like you’d have a nice bubble butt. But you don’t. All flat.

Your boyfriend Nicolas thinks you look great. As a bigger guy (tall and solid), he loves having a boyfriend small enough for him to scoop up and carry around. But that doesn’t stop you from feeling self-conscious.

One day, you finally tell him. He catches you looking at your reflection from the side, both hands on your butt.

“What’s wrong, babe?”

And you unload on him. You tell him about all the squats you do at the gym, all the supplements you’ve tried, all the anxiety you feel.

He listens, a little bemused. And then he tells you something that really strikes a chord. “Well, it’s because you’re so skinny. If you allowed yourself to gain a little, then you’d grow a nice, big ass. You certainly have the hips for it.”

It’s that last part that really affects you. You don’t want to get fat, obviously. You think bellies are gross. But with your body type, your ass will definitely grow before the rest of you does.

So yeah. Why not?

You tell Nicolas that you want to gain a little, and he’s weirdly excited about it. Maybe he doesn’t think you're as handsome as he says. Maybe you’ve always been too skinny for him and he just didn’t have the heart to tell you.

So that night, he serves you a huge meal (twice what you’d normally eat) and he makes sure you finish every bite.

He does the same thing the next night, and the night after that, and the night after that.

He also buys chocolate bars, because he knows they’re your favorite. Whenever you enter the living room, he kisses you and says, “Have some chocolate.”

Over time, the huge meals become easier to finish and the chocolate turns into a craving.

You check out your reflection in the mirror every night. You don’t see any changes after that first week, but after the second, you notice that your stomach is softening while your ass looks exactly the same.

You tell Nicolas that it’s not working, but he jiggles your cheeks and says that they’re definitely softer. You just can’t see it yet. That gives you motivation to keep going.

After a month, your stomach is visibly bigger. This makes you self-conscious. But finally, your ass is a little bigger, too. You ask Nicolas if you should keep going, and he gives you an enthusiastic yes. You notice he’s a lot more handsy now. He loves touching your stomach, and even though you don’t like how big it’s getting, you like the attention.

Just in case, you start doing core exercises at the gym. Every night, you do crunches before bed. If you could just firm up your middle a bit, then you won’t have anything to worry about.

But it doesn’t firm up. It just keeps growing.

By the second month, you have a full-on belly. It’s not drooping yet, but it’s visible in all your shirts. And the worst part is, your ass keeps getting softer but not bigger. If anything, it looks smaller in comparison to your rounded stomach.

You double your crunches every night. And when you’re working on your computer, you tense your stomach muscles every couple minutes. It doesn’t help.

You tell Nicolas that you give up. No more gaining. You still snack occasionally, because you’re used to it now, but you no longer overeat at dinners. Because your body is now accustomed to a surge of calories every evening, you go to bed with your stomach grumbling every night. Sometimes, the hunger is too much, and you sneak into the kitchen for a midnight snack.

After another week, your midnight snacks become a regular event. You feel guilty every time.

Eventually, you start eating bigger dinners again just to avoid the nighttime snacking. That usually works, but every once in a while, you still wake up for a snack anyway.

You really don’t like the way you look now. It seems that every part of your body has grown except your ass. Even your thighs are thicker. You used to have a thigh gap, but now your legs just squash together. You’d think that some of that fat would make it to your backside, but nope.

You’ve lost total control of your appetite, too. You can’t concentrate unless you have chocolate in your mouth. You can’t go to sleep unless you’re completely stuffed. And you can’t even do crunches anymore because your belly gets in the way.

You tell Nicolas that you want to start taking diet pills, but he’s adamantly against it. He says it’s an unhealthy way to lose weight, but you know the real reason. He likes you like this. He likes playing with your belly in bed. He likes that he can’t carry you around anymore.

And the more he touches you, the more he tweaks your moobs or fondles your love handles, you feel yourself giving in. Even though you don’t like your appearance, you definitely like the way your body feels when he wobbles it.

After months of gaining, you study your reflection. Your belly droops over your waist and your thighs have gotten massive. But when you stand to the side, all you see is a straight line where your ass should be. Well, maybe it’s a little bigger, but not by much.

Nicolas catches you again. He smiles at what you’ve become. He calls you “manlier.”

“But I don’t want a gut!” you say, embarrassed by how whiny you sound.

“Your ass has definitely softened, though,” he assures you. Because you can’t really see it in the mirror, he takes a video of you from behind and then plays it for you. “See?”

You’re completely disgusted. You had no idea that you’d grown so much cellulite back there. You’re lumpy and cratered. And your crack is squashed together in an irregular line. Your butt hasn’t grown, but it’s definitely gotten fat.

You start to cry.

Nicolas guides you to bed. He sits next to you, his hand over your shoulder. “I think it’s beautiful,” he says.

“It’s lumpy!”

“Yeah. With fat. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“No!” You sob. You’re too upset to say anything else.

He pushes you onto your back and climbs on top of you. He plays with your moobs and runs his fingers through your belly folds. “You’re beautiful,” he whispers. “I wish you’d see that.”

He won’t stop touching you until you give in to the wonderful sway of your belly under his fingers. You can’t deny that your belly feels good, that you like how it moves. And your chest? God, it's so sensitive now.

His touching leads to sex, but he’s slower this time. He wants you to concentrate on how your body moves under him. How it shifts and wobbles. And by the time he’s done, you finally start to like what you’ve become.

You don’t actively gain after that, but the weight still piles on. Every few days reveals a new level of softness. Your belly droops more and more, and you actually like the changes. You enjoy walking with Nicolas around the block, feeling your thighs rub together and your stomach flop with each step. You even like the added difficulty, the constant gasping for air, though you don’t know why. Sometimes, you get hard just from the constant, unintentional friction. And the sweatiness. You start to like that, too.

Now that you know your ass is changing, you have Nicolas take videos of you from behind. His phone becomes a slideshow of your worsening cellulite. After a while, your ass has actually gone concave, just a series of dimples and lumps leading into your much-thicker thighs.

And now here you are, sitting on the couch and stuffing your face with chocolate. You’re well over 300 pounds. (Probably closer to 400, but your scale is broken.) Your stomach flows out of you. “Oozing” is the word that comes to mind. It drapes shapelessly over your lap and spills over your sides. Your moobs hang over your first belly roll, with nipples that have widened and darkened over the last year. This is what you look like, what you were destined to look like.

Nicolas walks in with a milkshake to go with your chocolate bars. “Hungry?” he asks.

“What do you think?”

He doesn’t give you the milkshake, though. He sets it on the coffee table, just out of reach. “Come on. Let’s check out that ass.”

He pulls you to your feet. You stand shirtless in front of him as he strips off your tight sweatpants.

You spread out your arms and turn around for him, modeling your body, appreciating his hungry look. You know it won’t be long before you chug that milkshake and he takes you into the bedroom.

When your back is to him, he whispers, “Damn.”

You don’t need him to take videos anymore, because you know what you’ll see. Under your love handles and back fat, over your wide, dimpled thighs is the ass that you’ve built for yourself. Flat and lumpy and absolutely perfect.

The (Rear) End.

You can find all my stories here. This was included in my anthology You Ruin Your Perfect Body, which includes my first 10 "you" stories. They're slightly more explicit than my usual stuff. Check 'em out if that's your thing.

[doeidawn]

18+ MDNI

yeah i'm hoping on the ex!price bandwagon. so what.

your car breaking down now was probably the worst possible timing in the world. sure, it was a miracle the piece of junk ran as long as it did, but it's not ideal for it to sit unmoving in your driveway when you've got a job to work and a life to live.

as if it could get worse, you realize that no one you know is available at this time; they're either working their own jobs or they live miles away. but while scrolling through your contacts and internally debating whether or not to call a shop out of your budget, you come across that number you should have deleted a long time ago.

you hate how much you hope he’ll pick up as you listen to the line ring. even more, you hate the jolt of warmth that shoots through you when your name is the first thing to come out of his mouth. you've barely given john the time of day since you left him, and now here you are calling him for help. you can't decide if you're grateful or not when he says he's coming over.

you thought sitting and waiting for him would be the worst part, until you see an all too familiar car pulling up in front of your house. your stomach churns when you see him; of course a man of such routine would look the same as always. he still towers over you and the sound of his voice nearly shakes your core. at least he has the decency to be civil. this time.

it doesn't last long, though. after the small talk and asking what'd happened with your car, john's moved on to asking where your boyfriend is and why he couldn't help you out. you don't miss the way he smirks when you inform him you don't have one. you ask if he's found another woman to terrorize only find yourself more relieved than you should be when he says no.

john, out of the kindness of his heart (kindness he never much cared to exercise in your relationship), says he has no problem helping you out. he's cheaper than a shop, more hands-on than any professional. besides, you wanted him here, right? that's why you called him, after all, and who would he be to deny you?

the subject of payment inevitably arises, and john is sure to let you know that he doesn't need your hard-earned cash. you know that his job pays him well enough anyway. he doesn't bother being sweet—knows he doesn't have to butter you up like he used to—a quick fuck should cover the labor just fine.

you hate how quick you are to agree. you hate even more how you were secretly hoping that was what he wanted. and you know he notices how little you fight it when he bends you over the side of the sofa, but you can't bring yourself to care. not when you're this wet from the sight of him (something he's adamant to point out when he strips you down) and his thick cock fills you so perfectly.

stomaching all of his taunts and teases is only possible because of how good he feels lodged balls deep inside you. it's a sensation you missed more than you'd ever care to admit. and given how quickly john's pace stutters and he spills inside you, you assume he felt the same. you'd tease him about it if he hadn't made you cum the hardest you have since the last time you were with him.

yeah, he'll fix your car up, but he might need a follow up session afterwards for all his hard work. c'mon, you know you want to.

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: The Reckoning Virus

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

War with the Interaxie was an inevitable outcome for humanity and the entire galaxy knew it.

Border disputes, clashing rights over trade, subtle threats between delegates and near constant animosity between the two powers all but assured that they would come to blows. Along the entire shared border between the two powers a sense of dread and waiting could be felt on every world as if they could sense the brewing storm just over the horizon.

Yet humanity could not afford to be the aggressors for a change.

Unlike their previous conflicts the Interaxie had a well-organized military and an industrial power base to support them for decades of sustained combat. They had dozens of worlds to draw upon near limitless manpower reserves meaning any conflict could be drawn out into a bloody stalemate. While the humans were not unfamiliar with this style of warfare it was an outcome they did not wish to see realized.

To prevent this outcome humanity put a plan into motion called “The Reckoning”, which when completed would hand them victory in the war within a few months at best.

While the Interaxie were gathering their strength and hiding their growing fleet strength behind ‘military exercises” a series of shipments were being delivered to the core worlds of the Interaxie. They arrived at trade ports and were moved to waiting warehouses as their paperwork was checked only for the shipments to mysteriously vanish. It wasn’t unheard of for a shipment or two to go missing at such facilities, and though on some of the world’s their disappearance was noticed and investigated for the majority of others they were written off as clerical mistakes. The trade network between worlds was after all vast and overwhelmed by bureaucratic red tape so it was not unheard of for a shipment to be mishandled.

Such trivialities were soon overshadowed as the eventual war broke out and trade quickly shut down between the two powers. What had been mild border conflicts broke out into ruthless fleet sized engagements that turned entire systems into orbital graveyards of ships overnight. Human Hammerhead dreadnoughts were taking on entire swarms of Interaxie drone swarms in space while the Terran Marine Corps were barely holding their own against Interaxie armored divisions on the planets of Theta, Primus, and Dollore.

The fighting was intense and just as predicted the Interaxie began to call upon their vast manpower reserves early in an attempt to simply overrun human opposition and claim a swift victory. Legions began mustering on their core worlds waiting for transport to the front when the war took a turn for the worse for the would-be alien conquerors.

Without warning several viral outbreaks began to be reported from the Interaxie core worlds. Infected individuals began showing heightened states of aggression and delirium with the worst cases quickly devolving to bouts of madness and rage. What made it worse was when local officials quarantined an area in hopes of isolating the infected a new series of outbreaks would happen somewhere else entirely leaving containment out of the question.

It did not take long for civil unrest to break out as the virus spread into major populated areas and shortly after states of emergency to be declared. Factories ground to a halt as the workers fled the infection to protect themselves and their loved ones, farms and fields left unattended as their caretakers no lay lost to the grips of the disease leaving shelves unfilled and empty. Fights broke out for what supplies remained and though provisions could have been supplied from off world spaceports were soon overrun by those wishing to flee. When the infected reached a critical state of the virus’s development they began lashing out at anyone and everyone within arms reach resulting in the near total collapse of order on worlds as waves of infected ran through the streets

The legions that had been mustering to be sent the front soon found themselves being redeployed for containment or worse, becoming largely infected themselves and losing all combat effectiveness. Interaxie warriors were forced to put down many of their comrades who had succumbed to the virus leaving them horrified by their actions. It was worse for those deployed as part of containment teams who gunned down thousands of infected civilians on the quarantined worlds, many of which were related to the warriors by blood.

Within a month a dozen worlds had been locked under quarantine with another handful now desperately holding on as infection rates continued to rise, all the while the war with the humans continued. The sudden loss of manpower and war material was certainly noticed on the front and the humans shifted tactics. Every engagement they forced the Interaxie into using whatever reserves they had left as much as possible. Soon it was not uncommon for three Interaxie soldiers to be rationing one power cell for their rifles while their fleets lay in high anchor above their worlds due to lack of fuel to move them out of system.

Unable to meet the current demands of the war and handle the outbreaks spreading through their core worlds, the Interaxie soon sued for peace. The humans were not sympathetic with the Interaxie plight and their demands were steep.

1.       Three border systems would be transferred over to human control.

2.       A DMZ would be established from the newly taken territory and the remaining Interaxie domain which no ship from either side would cross.

3.       The Interaxie would be forced to repay a war debt to humanity in the sum of three trillion credits over the course of the next twenty solar years.

4.       Human monitoring stations would be placed inside Interaxie space to prevent future acts of aggression.

Had it been at any other time the Interaxie would have rather fought on until the bitter end than accept such harsh terms, but with the virus continuing to cripple their military and economy they were left with no choice but to relent and agree to the terms.

With that the Interaxie/Human war came to an abrupt end and the Interaxie redeployed their entire military forces to combat the growing viral outbreaks, all the while Terran Special Services watched from afar and grinned.

Several months prior to the war they had been responsible for shipping a number of unremarkable containers through a series of dummy corporations and unaffiliated alien trade networks until they arrived on the Interaxie core worlds. They bore no human markings and their paperwork was all in order leaving nothing for suspicion. Once they had been moved to the warehouses for processing TSS operatives quietly removed the containers and began distributing the contents across the worlds.

Industrial factories, mining complexes, agricultural farms, super markets, water treatment facilities, power plants; any and all critical infrastructure locations were located and seeded with the contents of the containers before the operatives quickly fled off world.

When war finally broke out a signal was remotely sent and each of the packages cracked open releasing their deadly contents. Swarms of tiny mosquitos genetically bred to carry what was known as the Reckoning Virus were soon released and began spreading the virus with every victim they came into contact with.

It was an ecological disaster of unimaginable proportion. Not only did the insects infect the personnel of the facilities they were placed in, but they also began to spread outwards and begin breeding in new areas. Any source of water soon became a deadly petri dish for them as they reproduced at an alarming rate releasing further swarms of insects. On these alien worlds they had no natural predators and what wildlife did attempt to eat them soon became deadly sick with the virus as well leading to rampant overpopulation of the bugs.

The Interaxie were well aware of the seemingly good timing the outbreaks had been for the humans and long suspected their involvement but could not prove anything as the TSS had planned for such eventualities. None of the devices used were of human origin and even if they could track down how they had arrived on world the series of dummy companies and alien trade networks used to ship them there resulted in a labyrinth of legal networks and commissions needed for even the slightest scrap of information that would lead nowhere.

For almost ten years the virus remained effective before the Interaxie were finally able to find a way to not only cure the virus but also eliminate the invasive species of mosquitoes, but by then the damage was already done. Both their military and trade had been crippled by the viral outbreaks and with several of their primary manufacturing worlds now defunct the flow of goods to the remaining worlds was almost a trickle. Extreme measures of rationing were implemented which only led to further discontent and civil unrest which in turn was brutally put down by military forces. What had once been a galactic power now had been reduced to a third rate kingdom barely able to hold a trade agreement out of their domain let alone ever again extend their power through military force.

[astrosouldivinity]

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒗𝒊𝒍 𝑬𝒚𝒆: ⁺⋆🧿⋆⁺ (𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚃𝚠𝚘)

Practice Discernment: 👁️

Trust your intuition to identify the source of energy around you. Visualize yourself skillfully maneuvering away from the negative energy, much like a clever fox evading a trap. Stay adaptable and flexible; they can’t control what they cannot access.

Transmute Negative Energy: 🦋

When others project negativity, they are still sending you their energy. Use this to your advantage by transmuting their negative energy into something beneficial for yourself. For example, any negativity directed your way can be repurposed towards your own abundance.

Mantra: "I release all negativity sent my way; only positive energy flows to me."

Visualize: “I am surrounded by a shield of light; negativity cannot touch me."

Embody a Karmic Mirror: 🪞

Reflect back to others their true selves at their core. Their disdain for you often stems from their own self-loathing. Consider the concept of Dorian Gray’s painting; you become a portrait that reveals their darker aspects.

• Exercise caution with this tactic, as it can provoke the worst in people, so be prepared for backlash. Some individuals will retaliate by attempting to silence you, while others express their hatred openly, or do so more covertly. Identify the type of person you’re dealing with and respond accordingly. Fortunately, some may choose to distance themselves out of cowardice, which can work to your advantage.

Example 1: If you choose to call them out, they may avoid facing their own shadow and simply choose to avoid you. Problem solved. People who dislike facing the truth or who are non-confrontational will most likely react this way.

Example 2: They may react with anger and could initiate a smear campaign aimed at damaging your reputation. If they can’t control you, they will try to control how others perceive you, or they will attempt to undermine you in any way possible. There are many different ways people can harm you, which I will talk more about in the future.

-How to Deal with a Smear Campaign: Ignore it and allow it to run its course. If they can’t trigger you they have no control over you.

Utilize Strategies With Caution: ⚠️

Interacting with egos requires a strategic approach. This is essential when navigating the spiritual and psychological battles that accompany the influence of the evil eye. Remember that many individuals are often unaware of their own energy, so it’s important to display compassion towards them.

𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 1

𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 3

𝙼𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝

𝙽𝚘 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚣𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔 𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚍. 𝙷𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛, 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚐𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚝: @𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢 🖤

✨ ✨🧿✨✨🧿✨✨🧿✨✨🧿✨✨🧿✨✨

𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚌𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚗 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚙𝚜𝚢𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚏𝚊𝚛𝚎. 𝙷𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎, 𝙸’𝚖 𝚕𝚎𝚊��𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚘 𝚗𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚐𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚎𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚢. 𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚢 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜. 🙏🏿

©𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚁𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜 𝚁𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚎𝚍.

[fitnessadvicethatfitsinyourlife]

This is a Sit-ups and Crunches hate page. Worst exercises ever. They frequently result in injury, and they're not even that great for your core.

Push-ups on the other hand are a great exercise, just unfortunately one that is actually very hard, and often nearly impossible to perform correctly if you don't already have a lot of muscle mass.

Planks should be the staple core exercise instead. They're easily adaptable to most levels. You can do them from hands or knees, and from the floor or a wall or any surface in-between.

And studies show they have a much more robust effect on strengthening your core than sit-ups or crushes. So if you choose to exercise, consider focusing on exercises that are working for you.

[ficsandgiggles]

Core Muscles (Natasha x Yelena x Reader)

“Ahh so pleased your prompts are open again! I’m not great at asks but how about reader x one of/a combo of the Marvel girls (actors or characters, up to you) training in the gym. Reader is working on core strength and one of the girls points to the muscles reader should be working on and reader loses it because their stomach is their worst spot so of course the girls go to town. Have some fun with it!”

A/N: I really hope this is okay! I have no knowledge about these types of exercises although I wish I had the motivation to learn/do them 😂 but I hope you enjoy! ❤️

Word count: 1255

Warnings: None

“So you’re working on your core strength today?”

You jumped when you heard another voice, but relaxed when you recognised it, turning around to see Natasha enter the gym, wearing a tank top and gym pants with her hair up in a ponytail.

You vowed to yourself that you would start looking after your body more, as you knew that sometimes you needed more than just your powers in a fight or for self-defence in general.

You nodded in response to Nat’s question. “Yeah… I heard that having a stronger core can do more than just give you abs, it can help balance and stuff.” You replied, briefly looking at the mirror, you had some insecurities with your body, but you could see improvement. But now you regret wearing a crop top since you were no longer alone.

“You’re learning your stuff,” Natasha commented with a smile, going towards the punching bag. “If you need any help, give me a shout, I’ll be here for a bit.” She told you before beginning her workout.

“Thanks…” you replied quietly, trying to concentrate and return to what you were doing. You decided to do the classic plank, despite hating it, there were a lot of benefits in doing it. So you got down and stretched into the position. You went into your own little world, trying to stay there for as long as possible. You were so zoned out that you didn’t notice that Yelena had walked into the room.

“You are putting yourself through torture by doing the plank you know.”

You snapped out of your head and collapsed, turning around to see Yelena smirking. “I was getting to my record time!” I whined, getting up to shove at her.

“Oh boo hoo, if you’re looking at strengthening your tummy muscles I can show you a few more exercises you can do.” She offered, and you immediately nodded, anything that avoids doing the plank.

“Okay, so you will need to be on the floor on all fours, then you stretch out an arm and then the opposite leg and switch. It’s called the bird dog.” She chuckled as you followed her directions.

You could definitely feel your core muscles working and got more and more confident as you tried to extend your limbs higher and higher, thus arching your back a little.

“You do not need to stretch high, it’s about control.” Yelena guided, putting her hands on your ribs to gently move you back to the original position, making you flinch and briefly bring your arm back.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” She asked, you immediately shook your head, smiling innocently.

“Oh, no, I just didn’t expect you to touch me.” You replied casually, doing a few more rounds of the exercises before giving yourself a break.

Your eyes flickered towards Natasha, who was watching the two of you, she gave you a brief smirk as if she had already figured out why you reacted the way you did when her sister touched you.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I will be more careful next time.” The blonde apologised. “Another classic exercise though is called the dead bug, and you need to be on your back for this one.”

You nodded, rolling over so you were lying on your back, Natasha had now stopped her workout completely to observe you and Yelena, but you didn’t say anything and listened to the blonde.

“So it is basically like the bird dog but you’re on your back and you are bending your knees toward you instead of stretching it out.” She got on the floor and gave you an example, you quickly understood what she was doing and started doing the same.

“You are arching your back a little,” Yelena told you, already forgetting what she said about being more careful when touching you and putting her hand on your tummy to gently push you back down flat onto your back.

Once again, you flinched and dropped your arms and legs, blushing as Yelena gave you a confused look.

“Are you okay?” She asked, concerned that she had hurt you again.

“They’re fine, they’re just like you,” Natasha replied on your behalf, coming over and skittering into her sister's ribs briefly, causing her to yelp and slam her arms down, before smirking over at you.

“Oh, that’s what it is?” Yelena asked, lighting up a little as she knelt next to you and put a hand on your shoulder to hold you to the floor so you couldn’t escape. “Are you ticklish, Y/N?”

Your eyes widened, shaking your head as you tried to wiggle away, but it only made Yelena skitter her fingers into your ribs with her free hand.

“Pretty sure they are,” Nat replied, smiling a little before sitting on your ankles, not doing anything just yet but it was enough to make you gasp and wiggle even more, despite knowing that you couldn’t throw the Black Widow off your legs.

Yelena grinned, now just going for it and using both hands to skitter up and down your sides and ribs, causing you to arch your back with a giggly squeal. “Hehehehey nohohoho!”

“It seems that you’re right, Natasha, very ticklish indeed, and laughing helps with strengthening core muscles as well so this could be a part of your exercise routine!” Yelena beamed and now scribbled into your belly, causing you to squeal with laughter, especially since Nat started tickling your feet.

“GUHUHUHUYS QUIT IHIHIHIHIT!” You screeched, scrunching your toes up whilst shoving at Yelena, shaking your head helplessly.

“Yelena is right Y/N, laughing is highly beneficial, so I think this needs to happen more often,” Nat commented loud enough for you to hear as she held your toes back to scribble underneath them whilst Yelena now experimented with a raspberry.

You blushed, your laughter going silent as Yelena blew the raspberry, you weakly pushed at her head as you squirmed around as much as you felt able to.

Eventually, they let you up, and you immediately curled up, taking in deep breaths with the occasional giggle slipping out.

“That was… so mean…” you huffed out, making the two women chuckle fondly, Yelena ruffling your hair.

“I don’t think it was, I think you loved it more than you know.” Yelena teased, to which you flipped her off.

“Hey!” Yelena gasped and briefly dug under your arms the second you sat up, making you shriek and slam your arms down. “You know I’m right!”

You remained quiet, looking at Natasha and watching for any judgement. The redhead just smiled fondly and nodded, putting a hand on your shoulder.

“It’s okay, Y/N, it’s quite sweet if it’s true, we’re happy to do it whether it’s to strengthen your core muscles or just to cheer you up.” She reassured, pulling you into a hug, which was swiftly joined by Yelena who didn’t want to feel left out.

“This is not the last time I’m going to tickle you because it was just plain adorable.” She teased, suddenly raspberrying your neck to make you squeal before letting you go.

“Now come on, I’ll challenge you to a planking contest, all three of us.” Yelena grinned as the two women pulled away and got into position, followed by you doing the same.

Of course, you lost, and happily accepted the punishment for being the loser. But you didn’t mind, it brought you closer to the Widow sisters whilst enjoying the feeling of just letting yourself laugh for a bit.