Josh wasn’t very keen on the idea. Ever since grade school, he had a lean torso, like the kind those fashion models have. But, he didn’t want to disappoint the coach. So, he threw himself into building abs of steel. He put on two inches of solid muscle around his waist that year. At 32 inches, it was still small, compared with his growing upper body. But, where he used to have a skinny six-pack, he now had plates of armor.

Of course, because his waist still was small, you really couldn’t see the results of all of his ab work when I was around. Josh didn’t like that. So, one day, he borrowed a pair of scissors from coach and cut off my bottom half! Without even asking me! Now I only covered his upper torso—his abs were free for the world to see.

He celebrated by doing a set of sit-ups on the inclined bench. Just one set. One LONG set. I stopped counting when he got to sixty. Each one was perfect. He SLOWLY curled up, squeezing his abs tight so that his waist looked like a cobblestone road, stretching and contorting as though pushed by some titanic earthquake. Every rep was just a little slower than the one before, as Josh pushed himself to failure. After he finished the set, he stood up and looked at himself in the mirror. There was a sheen of sweat on his abs that made them stand out even more. Josh flexed them once more, just for good measure, then he rubbed his big hands up and down them, feeling how hard they had become. He just nodded his head and smiled. •