A Successful Chiseled Launch

A Successful Chiseled Launch

15 Pax came out to see what this gear workout was all about.  Thanks for the support today guys.  I was worried what the numbers would look like since there was an already successful site open on Wednesday’s and Briarcrest’s finest (Hollywood) was on Q there.  From what I hear, they had 19 so combined both sites had 34…Impressive for a hump day!

I arrived to the site at 10 til 5:00 not knowing how long set up would take and full of launch day jitters.  I arrived to find Shake N Bake in the middle of the parking lot stretching for his pre run…alone, oh so alone.  I had things set up within 10 minutes and had to decide, do I continue to look busy and wait on pax to arrive or do I suck it up and try and find Shake to join him in on the prerun.  About the time I was about to decide to look busy, up comes Rubbermaid and Tupperware.  Rubbermaid to join in the prerun and Tupperware to help set up equipment.  I couldn’t tell if Tupperware was happy there was not equipment to set up or upset that he now had to prerun…either way, thanks for coming out early to help.  Enough of the preworkout details….lets get to the good stuff.

WARM UP

Lengthy disclaimer given about not dropping equipment on the pavement and not suing the church.  I then explained to the pax that we would be running the last kilometer for Samantha Davis who passed away at a local cross country meet this past Saturday.  A very sad story.  Many schools in the state will be running a last kilometer today in her honor.  Thank you to Hooch for keeping us up to date with that story.  I’m not sure who’s idea it was to run for Samantha Davis today, but thank you for the suggestion.  Hopefully the link below to the map of our run in her honor will show up: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cf8m7d0fwft2te9/IMG_5390.PNG?dl=0

Off we go on a .62 mile (or 1 Kilometer) run.  Headed towards the 5 stones entrance which I thought there and back would get us to the .62 miles….it didn’t.  Leaders circled us out around the side of the church, back to the cars, and then I saw Deadwood (distance keeper) come to a stop and fidget with his watch.  He called out done.

Circle up for ACDC Thunderstruck.  Mountain climbers during the song, merkins on the word thunder.  I read somewhere online that if you were using this as a drinking game, it would be 34 shots.  I mentioned that we would be doing 34 Merkins and halfway through the song was met with several jeers that we had done way more than 34 merkins.   During a long interlude that I knew didn’t include the word Thunder, I called out a modify and we did air presses until Thunder came back into play.  It was just long enough of an interlude to where the air presses were burning.  Good work from the pax as this was my first time trying this and it was much harder than I had bargained for.

THE THANG

The rest of our time would be spent doing station work with equipment.  Being that I made 90% of this up on the fly, it makes it that much tougher to remember what we did for the back blast.  As I’ve already said, gear workouts are so much harder to plan for.  Will we have 6 pax or 26.  The difference in numbers can change things dramatically.  Anyways, I digress.  First round went like this:

• Military Press with either 20’s, 35’s, or 40’s.  Modify to one 40 pound dumbbell once you were wore out – which for me was after 10 reps.
• Up right row with a stone paver or 25 pound keddle bell (bring hands up to your chin working your lats).  I think the stone paver weight around 20-25 pounds.
• Bent over fly with bricks.  Bricks were roughly 10 pounds.
• Front Raise with Landscaping block.  Block was around 15 pounds.
• Side Raise with dumbbelle or keddle bells.  15 pounds each.
• Good Mornings with the large block.  In this exercise you keep your knees relatively straight and bend at the hip.  It works your hamstrings.  The block was around 30 pounds.
• Supines on the railing.  This proved a little trickier than Weddington’s rails as they went down steps with flat steps on one side and a sloped hill on the other.  We made it work.
• Partner Pole Squats.  This is a new exercise I introduced to the group that we use to do when I played baseball.  Using a 2″ PVC pipe about 2 feet in length, one partner squats all they way to the ground (seated on the ground) while his partner helps to safely lower him down and help him back up with the pvc pipe then flap jack with the other partner squating.  In theory if done correctly, one partner gets a deep squat workout while the other gets a little bit of a squat and some row action.  Both should have tired forearms from holding the pipe.  In reality…we had a lot of guys lay out on the ground laughing after falling.  In high school we used a smaller broom stick which I’m not sure worked the fore arms more or less, but I know it had a heck of a lot more grip than the slick pvc pipe.  Thanks for being good sports and letting me try something new.  My guess is Money Ball is currently laughing a body part off now thinking what other insanely dumb exercises did my baseball coach have us do – the answer is plenty, but not as much as my football coach.
• On to the pit of misery as it will now be named.  One legged step ups.  Switch legs however you prefer (ever time or 10 each leg).
• Foot release squats.
• Dips
• Back out of the pit of misery to our timer exercise.  Chariot Runs.  One partner is inside the weighted rope while the other one holds the ends to add resistance.  Run to last island, flap jack and run back.  If done right, it was a killer.  Some pax turned it into a rope carry.  Either because the Q didn’t properly explain, or because they were lazy…my money is on Q fail.  I originally called them partner pulls, so thanks to the pax that renamed them Chariot Runs.

Once everyone completed every station, I gave them a short break to explain our next series of work.  At some point in the station work above we lost Shake N Bake, Bread Bowl, and Hooch.  Was it really that tough???   Nah, just a bathroom emergency and getting kids to school.

• Curls (20, 35, or 40 pound dumbbells)
• Tricep Kick Back (Bricks)
• Good Mornings
• Supines
• Diddle Merkins (Wide, Regular, Diamond, Regular, Wide).  Sorry Shake N Bake….you left too soon for your favorite exercise
• Step ups.
• Foot release squats
• Dips
• Rope work.  1 partner alternating rope waves while the other does 25 LBC’s.  Switch when partner finishes LBC’s.  Timmer when both partners finished LBC’s.

We didn’t quite get through all our final stations before time ran out, but did get more than halfway.

MOLESKIN

• Thanks again to everyone that came today.  Hopefully you enjoyed a little change of pace (actually a lot less pace and a lot more lifting).  The quick change out of stations added with the Chariot Run had my heart rate rocking the first round.
• Thanks to Rubbermaid who made a solid donation towards the site.  Deflated – if you were able to get the weights you posted about I will get you Rubbermaid’s donation.
• As you can see from the first stations – we have plenty of equipment and space to grow.  I had stations ready to go for 12 groups or 24 total people.  Based on equipment we currently have, this site has no problem supporting 25-30 pax.
• Thanks to Southern Belle for bringing some “big boy” dumbbells.   He had 20, 30, 25, 40, 45, and 50 pound dumbbells in his truck and made the Q smile when he saw the extra big boy equipment there he hadn’t planned for.
• Thanks to all those that donated equipment.  Dasher’s weighted rope has been a fixture at the soft launches and official launch and is much appreciated.  Other equipment in the works are pull up bars to hang trx bands, a tractor tire to flip, and some additional weights (keddle bell, dumbbell, and plates).  Hopefully soon we will be able to store equipment on site which will make set up and break down easier for Q’s.
• And Speaking of Q’s.  If your interested in Q’ing a gear workout, please let Banjo or I know.  I’ve reached out to some directly already and have a few more on the list I’d like to get Tee’ed up.  Don’t wait on me though, if you have interest….let us know.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Keep Samantha Davis’ family and friends in your prayers.  They are going through a difficult time in the sudden and unexpected death.
• Keep the 6 year old boy from Gastonia who has been missing since this weekend in your prayers.