As part of my DiCCS, I added that I had no Plan B if the rain picked up beyond the drizzle we felt at the start.
The Warmup
None. No opening mosey. No stretching. Just getting after it (with MASHers joining in).
The Thang
We’ve all done Webbs before. Even some workouts that were just going from one station to another doing webs. I wanted to spin that one more way. I took all the Webbs I knew and combined them. All the 10 & 40 reps are done at station 1; all 9 & 36 done at station 2; and so on. In planning this, I thought I needed a plan B in case we ate through all that before 45 minutes was up. But I was wrong. We only got through 3.5 rounds. Don’t think we even clocked a full mile.
Merkins (10)
Air Presses (40)
Squats (40)
Lunges around the World (40)
Bear Crawl (40)
Dry Docks (10)
Big Boy Sit Ups (10)
American Knockouts (40)
Mike Tyson (10)
Donkey Kicks (40)
Bobby Hurleys (10)
Speed Skaters (40)
Heels to Heaven (40)
Rosalitas (10)
Burpees (10)
If there was a (10), then we took one rep off at each station; (40) had us take 4 reps off.
For merkins, I added some variety: round 1 = low slow; round 2 = T; round 3 = hand release; round 4 = wide arm
Stations 2 & 3 had rock piles (there are a bazillion rocks at The Body Shop!). So when possible, we added rocks to the above exercises.
Stations 1 & 4 were with the MASHers.
Moleskine
Virtually no chatter because practically everything was done in some kind of cadence. I was prepared to do exercises over again to ensure Pax respond to my cadence calls. Thankfully, though, Site Q’s Point Break & Das Boot were leading by example. Still, if you’ll allow me a
<SOAPBOX>
If you are not responding to the Q by not counting “1” to his “1, 2, 3”, I would encourage you to change your ways. I would also assume you don’t Q that much, either.
* This call & response is a way for the Q to hear that you are engaged and you are with him, even when he can’t see your face. If everyone starts strong & the voices fade, the Q can tell the exercise is working and he knows when to wrap it up.
* If you have a Q who’s pushing himself by pushing you, your responses give him the energy he needs to keep going. This also applies to the man next to you. If he hears you answering the Q, he is likely to have more energy to complete more reps than struggling in silence.
* Being able to speak (even if only a single syllable) while exercising will build your aerobic capacity while helping you control your own breathing.
</SOAPBOX>
Afterward, I asked DB & PB to give me some feedback on my Q. They pointed out that some of those exercises were counted out too fast, resulting in bad form. They were absolutely right. I had internally felt like some of those exercises went on too long, so I was speeding the cadence to hurry it up, thus resulting in bad form. This gave me something concrete to change for next time. When I do this again, the lunges, donkey kicks & speed skaters will start at 20 & go down by 2’s to help with form.
Giving feedback is a difficult but necessary part of the Site Q / Q relationship. We’re great with giving attaboys, but that rarely improves our Q-bility. This was difficult for Das Boot because he asked me to Q 2 days ago. Maybe he feels like he owes me, so he can’t give me full, honest feedback? This was difficult for Point Break because he came to Q School last quarter. Maybe he felt he couldn’t criticize one of the guys who taught him how to Q? Yeah, it’s difficult. And they did a good job when I put them on the spot like that. As Site Q, it doesn’t matter if the Q is way more fit than you, or has more years of F3 than you do; you owe it to him, to your site, and to your region to make him better for his next Q. Maybe he has a blind spot that no one has ever called him out on (in love)? Maybe he thinks he’s doing better than he really is because no one will give him feedback?
Giving feedback is a skill, not a talent. It can be learned & it can be improved. See Site Q School announcement for how to start or how to improve this valuable ability.
While it is still a work in progress, this weinkie will now be my Plan B whenever I need to step up to Q at the last minute. That’s gonna save me some time on the BB writing, too!
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