Eight pax gathered to start the week off on the right note, by swinging iron and celebrating the music of America’s greatest rock and roll band, Van Halen. This was YHC’s first Q since Eddie Van Halen passed away earlier this month, so I wanted to pay tribute to the band that has provided the soundtrack to many of life’s best moments. The playlist consisted of YHC’s favorite song from each of the band’s studio albums. Live albums, best of albums, and one offs from movie soundtracks were omitted.
The warmup was basically ceremonial and lackadaisical due to the Q’s general indifference to warming up. We jumped in to the main event consisting of sets of 20, 15, 10, and 5 swings paired with merkins, then deadlifts, then curls, then triceps extensions, then weighted crunches. Some various core exercises were interspersed to break up the rounds. Following five rounds, we had completed the requisite 250 swings, but since you can find an extra gear and do anything while listening to Van Halen, we did an extra 50 swings. I hope Eddie would’ve liked that. Next was three rounds of goblet squats and clean and presses. Some weighted carries and bonus swings were enough to get us to 6:15 without having to do the dreaded elbow plank and hollow body hold.
If it seems like YHC rushed through the portion of the backblast about the workout, then that is correct. I really just want to write about Van Halen, my favorite band and one who’s music has brought me massive amounts of joy throughout my life. I remember the first time I heard a Van Halen song like it was yesterday, even though it was in 1984 and I was about six years old. It was a Sunday morning and I was watching a music video weekly countdown show on broadcast TV (we didn’t yet have cable). The video for Jump came on and it was like nothing I had ever heard. From that moment on I was hooked and would devour everything the band ever recorded. In junior high and high school my pregame hype music was Van Halen. When I got my driver’s license the first CDs I played in the car were Van Halen. You can hit 90 mph in a Toyota Tercel when Panama comes through the speakers. The morning of my wedding I played Van Halen II a couple times through. I think we all have that band or singer that resonates with us for some reason and sets off a tuning fork in our souls. It’s incredibly sad that Eddie is gone, but any opportunity to celebrate the music left behind makes for a good day. Rest in peace Eddie, and thanks for everything.
Playlist:
Runnin’ with the Devil (Van Halen I)
Dance the Night Away (Van Halen II)
Take Your Whiskey Home (Women and Children First)
Hear About It Later (Fair Warning)
Where Have All the Good Times Gone (Diver Down)
Panama (1984)
Summer Nights (5150)
When It’s Love (OU812)
Poundcake (For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge)
Can’t Stop Lovin’ You (Balance)
Without You (Van Halen III)
Tattoo (A Different Kind of Truth)
Holy moly I slept awful. You would think I would be better prepared for my 51st Q but it’s been a hot minute since I led. The excitement of Qing on a Monday morning mixed with the fear of oversleeping was just too much. However I got extra time on the bidet and almost nothing is better than that.
It was beautiful cool, crisp morning and I’m happy for that because whatever material this costume is made of is going to be hot.
It’s looking like a good crowd! DiCCS given. An FNG. A quick pep talk to focus on form. Let’s roll…
THE THANG
Mosey to the front of the high school. Circle up for….
1. 20 x SSH IC
2. 20 x Imperial Walker IC
3. Jimmy Dugan
4. 10 x Merkins CC
5. Calf Stretch
6. 20 x Mountain Climbers IC or plank jacks. Whatever.
7. Leg Stretch
8. 10 x Deep Slow Squats IC
Mosey to side of high school for a classic Merkin Air Press Webb. 1 Merkin & 4 Air Presses up to 10 & 40.
Mosey to circle by track and form a tight circle. Time for some Lt Dans. 1 deep squat & 4 jump lunges.
Only half completed….
Mosey towards large HS parking lot. 1st light, 10 x Speed Skaters and back. 2nd Light, 10 x Speed Skaters and back. Out to end of parking light, 10 x Speed Skaters and back. 10 x Monkey Humpers between each round.
Mosey towards stairs. 1 x Big boy sit-ups. 4 x LBCs. 2 x Carolina Dry Docks between each round. Half completed and let’s roll out…
Mosey to back of middle school picnic tables. 30 x dips. 15 x In & Outs. Repeat but with only 15 of each exercise. Complete round 6 & 7 of each previous webb.
Mosey back towards, line up at the front of the middle in two lines. True Indian run back to COT with 2 minutes to spare. Completed round 8 of Webb’s. All done!
MOLESKIN
Decided to start the week with a gang of Webb’s. Decent distanced moseys in-between to keep the HR up and high rep exercises to burn out specific parts of the body was just perfect. Also a bit cruel but after my 4 weeks off I need a crash course in kicking my own ass.
Thanks to everyone for joining me this AM and thanks for pushing through. Apologies on my inability to count and/or give proper instructions. 5 days left to go this week.
Welcome FNG Waterboy and thanks for taking us out Chastain!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
• Freed to Lead! Passionate about ways to lend a helping hand or clean up something in our community, take charge. We will follow!
• Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 5k or 10k – sign up today! This is wife and family friendly so click Chicken Little’s link
• THIS FRIDAY – everyone is encouraged to dress up for a special workout we have planned. Let’s do it!!
6 of 8 F3 Waxhaw Board members met early Saturday morning to discuss how we can continue to move forward and invigorate Male Community Leadership in our area.
Reminder of WHY we do a lot this “stuff”: The money We are doing it for other men (the “sad clowns”). If you don’t have excitement to get guys involved and for helping your community, then time to step back and recharge the batteries. If you DO have a passion for helping others and want to do more within F3 Waxhaw, you are “Freed to Lead” a new project, but also encouraged to reach out to one of the Board members to see where you can get plugged in. Stop waiting for somebody to ask you.
1st F Update (Functional Qs Dasher and Chastain):
2nd F Update (Functional Qs Zinfandel and Gerber):
3rd F Update (Functional Qs Shop Dawg and Centerfold):
MISC ITEMS:
F3 is special. This Waxhaw Region is special. Let’s not take it for granted. You might not think about it, but it actually takes a lot of effort to get what we have. And it will take more effort to keep it going and keep it GROWING! Are you willing to give a little more effort . . . To help a guy who needs it? Some guys in leadership need a break so we need you to take a turn.
8 PAX posted at Commitment and 8 PAX are gonna hear the timer in their dreams for a while. That’s right, the ever popular EMOM (every minute on the minute) timer from the IPC made an appearance this morning.
60 seconds to go, so DiCCS provided and then a brief explanation of the timer. Every Minute, On the Minute we’ll be doing 2 Burpees. Stop what you’re doing and do your Burpees, then pick back up where you left off. “How long are we doing that for?” they asked. Well guys, Commitment is an hour long workout. You do the math.
Warmup
Mosey up the road towards the school and stop to do SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Moroccan Night Clubs, Calf Stretches, and Burpees of course, along the way.
The Thang
Starting in the parking lot next to the school we did another throwback to the IPC:
Mosey on over across the playground and find some wall for some Donkey Kicks. A Chastain favorite, we start with 10 Donkey Kicks, leaving your feet on the wall after the 10th and do a 10 second countdown. Repeato with 9 DKs and a 9 second count until we get down to 1 DK and 1 second count. Oh yeah, don’t forget about the Burpees
A handful of regular and pistol LBCs then a mosey back to the first parking lot and find a spot on the curb for some suicides. First curb and back then 10 Mike Tysons. Second curb and back then 10 Bonnie Blairs. Last curb and back then 10 Flutters (2=1).
Back past the playground for another round of the IPC stuff from above. Now it’s race time! Take a lap around the lot BUT vary your speed:
Follow this up with 10 T Merkins, 10 Squats, and 10 American Hammers all in cadence
Run another lap then follow it up with 10 Spider Merkins, 10 Bomb Jacks, and 10 American Knock Outs
Run one more lap then mosey to the other parking lot and back on the curb for another Chastain favorite: the Bear Lunge Broad Jump. 8 Bear Crawls, 4 Lunge Walks, and 2 Broad Jumps (feet together) to the first curb and back. Then repeato for good measure
Mosey back to the entrance road for some Paula Abduls with 5 Dry Docks up and 5 Squats back at the trees on the left.
Almost there! Circle up in the COT lot for one more round of the IPC work. 4 minutes left?? Partner up and do Dips on the picnic tables and partner two runs around the building.
Back to COT and finish our last 2 Burpees.
Moleskin
Whew! No one but YHC knew they’d be doing 120 Burpees today. Poor Deep Dish died a little inside as soon as I mentioned the timer (he was the only sucker PAX that did that with me 2 months ago when I Q’d Dromedary). J-Woww kept threatening to pull his Site Q card and overrule my weinke, but I know he secretly enjoyed the Burpees. Great job Doughboy coming back from the COVID and jumping right back into the workouts. Kinda feel a little bad for Ghosted as well. The guy started F3 week 1 of the IPC and kept coming back. He was probably glad it was finally over only for me to bring it right back out this morning.
Doughboy was the 6th man this morning. Bottlecap brought him out a couple years back and he went to the July 4th challenge and started with 100 pull-ups. He still came back the next day and has been a regular ever since. He also got his name from from the Kentucky Throwboy. Pretty cool. Thanks Doughboy!
Nobody felt like doing announcements this morning, so YHC took us out
Having recently attended Site Q School, YHC knows that the goal of the Site Q is to not Q his own site. But when one is Site Q at such a fun, dynamic and opportunity-filled site like The Body Shop, that guideline is a negative. With that, YHC was excited to open the garage this week.
WARM-UP
3 burpees OYO before heading out.
Short mosey to a nearby lightpole.
THE THANG
Paula Abdul time!
Rock work with a lifting rock
Head to the lower playground for swerkins!
MOLESKINE
As mentioned above, YHC was excited for the opportunity to Q today, but there’s also a bit of trepidation and wondering how the group will react to the workout. Some of the weinke was made up on the fly, like any good mechanic’s solutions to an unexplained tick or knock.
The PAX were strong today and gave big effort, and it was exciting to see some faces from distant Waxhaw lands in Rudy and Chastain. Smuggler earned the Chain of Pain today when he took the “brisk run” to a new level and chased down Chastain in the repeato by going to full-on sprint. Sledge just doesn’t quit out there, and One Star’s mouth doesn’t quit either, making for entertaining mumblechatter throughout. YHC’s tennis arms were ‘a painin during the rock work, but a glance over at Deep Dish’s persistence and was the motivation to not wimp out on his weinke. YHC loves the difficulty of the swerkins and hinted at those on GroupMe the day before — they continue to bring the pain and he commends those not afraid of such a terrible exercise.
In usual garage and YHC fashion, this job finished a little later than expected, but was delivered with a smile and a money-back guarantee.
In the coffeeteria afterwards, One Star and Smuggler expressed some positive comments about the workout and that was highly appreciated. As mentioned, there’s often a little nervousness heading into the Q, but this was a clear reminder to YHC that some positive reinforcement and kind words go a long way and he’s committing to do that more often.
One Star brought major rock work to the Body Shop, and Posse added to the pain with some creative exercises with rocks. There may have been tears shed.
For the second time this week, Chipotle brought some major ab pain to Waxhaw. Following his ab-tastic work at Bushwood on Tuesday, Chippy laid some more gut pain on the PAX. And a welcome to FNG Runway.
Beautiful morning for some Monkey Humpers. They weren’t originally on the weinke but when Posse came sliding in on 2 wheels while the rest of the PAX were warming up it seemed the right thing to do. Actually, it was a preceded by the instruction for all PAX to “aim” at Posse while performing the called exercise. Damascus showed up 15 minutes late but we’re so used to that he didn’t get anything special.
Warmup:
SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Calf stretches, weird yoga poses, and the above-described Monkey Humpers
The Thang:
Today was another round of Uncle. For those unfamiliar with the rules, one person is the leader and does the called exercise with a coupon. The remaining PAX use bricks for the called exercise instead. This time I let the PAX choose their own exercise (except J-Woww) as long as it allowed for the use of the coupon/bricks. Once ready, the leader begins the called exercise and does as many reps as possible until exhaustion and then says “Uncle!” Rotate around the circle with a new leader and new exercise.
Exercises included: Curls, Squat Thrusters, Clean and Press, Weighted Squats, Shoulder Presses, Chest Presses, Tricep Extensions, and probably some more I’m forgetting.
There were ALSO a few, uh…less conventional exercises chosen by certain PAX that appeared to be designed to circumvent the rules of Uncle. For example: Captain Morgans (one foot on the coupon/brick and squat with the other leg) are much tougher for the PAX with the bricks. It’s supposed to be tougher for the leader with the coupon. Another example: some sort of one-hand-in-front-of-the-other-merkin-up-and-over-your-brick/coupon thing that J-Woww threw at us. That one got shut down pretty quick.
Two rounds of Uncle was enough, so we moved on to a Merkin/Calf Raise Webb on our coupons. Finally, we wrapped up with a smattering of Tysons, Merkins, American Hammers, American Knock Outs, and a 15 second Have a Nice Day
Moleskin:
COT – 6th Man – Posse tried to start the count off first, but J-Woww was to my left and I gave him the “pick a number, non-inclusive, between 0 and 2”. That got the “One!” out of him and thusly Posse got stuck with number Six. Glad he told us his story, though, because his 5+ years in F3 has allowed him to grow in his leadership abilities as well as helping others to grow in theirs.
Lots of mumblechatter this morning, per the usual Diesel/MASH way. When you aren’t running you’re stuck talking to each other. It’s a ton of fun! Give it a try!
YHC needed a nap afterwards, so a nap is what I got. Highly recommended. Back on Q tomorrow at Commitment!
Announcements:
Events – Stepping up for Staci – Thanksgiving virtual run/fund raiser – see Chicken Little/GroupMe for details
Hot Wheels – Tentative Date 11/7. Making improvements for ramp/sidewalk for Brittany who is wheelchair bound. Stay Tuned.
17 Pax at Hydra. Burps. Merks. Russians. Squats. LBCs. Backward Runs. Peter Parkers (thx Deep Dish).
Closed with AC/DC’s Thunderstruck + 33 burpees and a few scowling faces.
A few guys were scared-off by the pre-workout announcement on Slack the night before.
Promised Icky Shuffle there would be no burpees next time I’m on Q.
Think I missed tagging two guys on this one. (iPhone recording of sign-off = FUBAR.)
Thank you @Sprokets for asking me to Q. My first boot camp on Q.
“Let’s turn on the juice and see what shakes loose.” – Beetlejuice