Jevlar
Joust
50 Merkins
50 Squats
Partner up with like size and speed
Partner one plank, partner two decline Merkins…flap jack hit 100 as a team
Partner one piggy back partner two for squats…flap jack hit 100 as a team
Mosey to track…stopping for 20 diamonds every 40 yards
Half-Mile race by 200s – Start at the bottom of the hill – Race your partner to the two hundred mark. Winner does 20 Dry Docks, Loser does 40. Winner does jumping lunges until Winner gets done. Race back to the bottom of the hill. Winner sprints up to the top of the hill, Loser sprints up to the Blue Door. Winner does jumping lunges until Loser gets back.
Lunges until everyone is finished.
Mosey to field for shuttle runs by 10 yards to the 50 yard line. Loser does 30 single leg squats, winner does 20.
Bear Crawl shuttle races by 5 yards to the 15 yard line…do 5 Merkins at every 5 yard line mark.
100 yard race of partner to other goal line. Winner does 40 LBCs Loser does 60 LBCs. Repeat
Mosey to base of bleachers for severe decline Merkin Eternal Flame Waterfall X 5
Mosey back to parking lot stopping every 40 yards for 20 Diamonds.
8 minutes of Mary
50 Flutters in cadence
Extended Protractor
30 high crunches
20 Heels to Heaven
50 Merkins
The boys were out in force today and lit up Charlotte Christian! Great pax and all were flying today. Great first convergence of Joust and Kevlar, Header was very hospitable as always. Not much mumble chatter, though the pax were not huge fans of the 70 degree eternal flame decline merkin waterfall. A few of the normal pax were not present…assuming the golf tournament wore a few lads out.
Plain Awful
Merkins until late comers get out of their cars and join us.
Grab a partner with like sized bell.
Mosey to soccer field and line up along the side line.
SSH X 20
Jog to far side of field and back
20 KB swings
20 body weight squats
1st Pyramid
(1) Two handed swing, single(S) righthanded(R) swing, single lefthanded(L) swing, SR clean, SL clean, SR clean and press, SL clean and press, SR highpull, SL highpull, R snatch, L snatch, then lunge walk with KB above head to first cone (about 15 yards) and back, sprint to far side of field and back.
(2) of above
(3) of above
(4) of above
(5) of above
20 Sumo squats with KB
Use your partners bell for doubles of the following…parter without bells does Merkins until Parnter 1 is finished. Everyone sprints to the otherside of field and back.
(2) double swings, double cleans, double clean and press, double high pulls, double snatches
(3) of above
(4) of above
20 Sumo squats with KB
50 swings on your own with the last 10 being high swings.
Mosey back to parking lot and 20 Diamonds for fun.
Moleskin:
Great group of 28 out this morning, and judging by the fact that there was almost zero chatter, the men had clocked in fully committed and did some serious work. Well done boys! It is always bad when on Q and you look at the clock thinking you are running out of time and there is still 15 minutes to go but you would like the workout you planned to be over. I added in a few things not mentioned above, but honestly I don’t remember what they were due to an anerobic/hypoxic brain. Love the Skunk Works crowd, it is always a workout that I look forward to! Thanks Harley for keeping it going and allowing me to lead!
Please keep Tackling Dummy’s brother-in-law and sister-in-law in your prayers for faith, trust, peace, and hope for a miracle that only Christ can do. Thank you Tackling Dummy for supporting and loving them well. Their faith in a greater plan that is above our ways will ripple through many that know them and hear their story, regardless of the outcome. May Christ’s name be praised!
The Turkey Crusher
The Workout:
Mosey to Parking lot, Merkins mixed in along the way.
20 Swings
20 Merkins
30 Swings
30 Merkins
20 Two Handed Push Presses
Run a lap around the Church
5 Clean and Press each hand, Sprint hill, do 20 Merkins at the top, and back to bottom of hill.
5 Clean and Press and 5 Snatch each hand and 2 hill sprints and do 20 Merkins at the top and back to bell.
5 C and P, 5 Snatch, 5 High Pull each arm, 3 hills and 20 Merkins at top and back down
5 C and P, 5 Snatch, 5 High Pull each arm, 10 Upright row to 2 Handed Press, run 4 hills, 20 Merkins and down back
10 C and P, 1 hill, 30 Merkins and back
10 C and P, 10 Snatch, 1 hill, 30 Merkins and back
10 C and P, 10 Snatch, 10 High Pulls, 1 hill, 30 Merkins and back
10 C and P, 5 Snatch, 10 High Pulls, 20 Upright Row to 2 Handed Press 1 hill, 30 Merkins and back
Mosey back to Main Lot, Merkins and Diamonds along the way.
The High Notes:
Great time this morning as usual! I will say this was a bit more of a smoker than I thought it would be. I hope you lads felt that it met your Skunk expectations and prepared you to grub like crazy tomorrow night or Thursday…I am about to eat my arm already! It seemed that the first round was painful, but the second seemed to take it to another level with muscle fatigue. The hill sprints quickly became hill jogs (that is of course with a soft J) after a while with the progressions and started to feel like recovery since the bell work was brutal towards the end. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am thankful for all of you, and I pray that you love and lead your families well this Thanksgiving, and let them know how blessed you are to have them!
Diamond Smoothies For Breakfast
20 Diamond Merkins on your own, mosey, 20 Diamonds, mosey and zig zag up and down long stretch of hill to the end.
20 Diamonds, mosey once more to get the legs warmed up.
Get in groups of 4, and 4X4 it was for a team hill sprint competition up and down the ladder at the steepest grade, do your sprints and tag your teammate through your 4 man team.
1st place – 20 Diamond Merkins
2nd place – 30 Diamond Merkins
3rd and 4th place – 40 Diamond Merkins
1x up – at top do 10 jump squats, group at bottom does Merkins – after team finishes pay your penance based on place
2x up – at top do 10 jump squats, group at bottom does Dry Docks – Pay Penance
3x up – at top do 10 lunges, group at bottom does Supermans – PP
4x up – at top do 20 jump squats, group at bottom does Ab Squeezers to Flutters- PP
3x up – at top do 10 jump squats, group at bottom does Merkins – PP
2x up – nothing at the top, group at bottom does Dry Docks – PP
1x up – nothing at the top, group at bottom does Merkins
Mosey back to parking lot
20 Diamonds upon arrival
20 Dry Docks
5 Diamonds
The 16 lads that showed up tested their chesticles to see what they were made of…exhaustion was acheived, not sure about the exuberation. It is always fun to throw something competitive in to make sure people are pushing to their running limit. I will say, I saw some boys flying today fo sho! Even the big men were hauling up and down the hills. Very impressive effort today, the Kevlar boys always drop the hammer! We did a little shuffling of the teams part of the way through to even out a few of the boys who seemed to always only have the 20 Diamond Penance. Thanks for the honor to lead as always, you men of Area 51 are why I come out each time!
Shoe Drive – bring your shoes to Shoe Shoedio
5s and The Blue Door
The Thang:
30 Merkins OYO
Grab a KB and lets mosey, stop and 30 Merkins OYO, mosey, 30 Merkins OYO, mosey to track, 30 Merkins OYO and put Kbs in the corner, 30 Merkins OYO
Head to the bleachers, split into two groups and get to the bottom steps of the outside bleachers. 1st person starts bear crawling up steps, at every 5th step you stop and do 5 incline Merkins…get to the top go to next set of stairs and do the same going down and every 5th step is 5 decline Merkins…when finished move to the next set of stairs and go up with every 5th step doing 5 Merkins and meeting at the top. When waiting for the stairs to open up you are doing jump squats touching your heels on the way down for good ROM.
Move to the end of bleachers and notice the 4 brick columns plus 1 Blue Door (5s). Weave up and down Mini-Gma to touch each column and back down to the bottom after the fourth so you get the full ROM of the Blue Door…halfway up to the Blue Door, your quads should feel like they are about to explode or fail.
Mosey back to gym equipment and half of pax does 20 pull ups while the other half does 40 Dry Docks…flap jack.
Head down to the track, sprint to the KBs in the far corner.
>45lb Kbs do 50 swings, <45lbs do 100 swings…when done do Merkins until rest of pax is done.
80+% around the track back to the bleachers.
Up the stairs to repeat the 5s to the Blue Door. Back to the gym equipment and Merkins until all the pax arrive.
Back down to the track…get in lines to bear crawl 5 steps and then 5 Merkins, repeat for about 40 yards.
Sprint to Kbs to do 40 two handed push presses.
Sprint back to bleachers for severe decline Merkins/handstand pushups with feet on top of the railing…as many as you can for 1 minute.
Sprint back to Kbs and mosey with Kbs, stop 30 Merkins OYO, mosey, 30 Merkins OYO, mosey 30 Merkins OYO back to start.
30 Merkins (requested by Mall Cop)
50 crunch squeezers OYO
30 Merkins
Extended Protractor
30 Merkins
As many Diamond Merkins as you can in the last minute.
Moleskin:
Beautiful chilled morning, 29 Pax came out in force to honor Stone Cold's past leadership as the Joust site Q, and welcome in the new site Q…the infamous Header! Thanks for stepping up to lead Header! The pax crushed it this morning, and there were a few asking where the SSH and IWs were after the 3rd set of 30 Merkins. The mumble chatter was left to mere groans for the majority of the workout, but some (Brown) still were able to throw in their hilarious as always quips throughout the workout…mainly questioning/making fun of why more pain was added. I am definitely not one to want anyone to leave a workout feeling like they wasted their time, or it was too easy. Hopefully that was accomplished today…
The 5s to the Blue Door was almost added in a 3rd time, but I wanted to make sure we got back to the start on time. Next time we will take it to 5 repeats of 5s to the Blue Door and ditch a few of the other that was mixed in…if that doesn't improve your hill running ability on pavement, nothing will.
I noticed how much the Merkins were wearing on the pax when we were at our 2nd stop on the mosey back and stop for 30 Merkins, when people finished their 30 got up and were sprinting with their Kbs back to the parking lot so another stop for 30 would be averted. Thanks to Mall Cop for requesting more Merkins once we got back…requesting may not have been really what he was doing, but I wanted to make sure he and the pax got their monies worth, so a few more were included.
Thanks to everyone that came out, it is a great site, and hopefully we can keep supporting it!
Announcements:
Welcom to FNG: Smokey (Brad Childers)
Joe Davis Run in January, sign up and support.
Support F3's drive for athletic shoes "SOLE REDEMPTION" for the men at the Charlotte Rescue Mission…TR is already on the board for 10 pair…he said he will donate one pair for every person that Joust has at a workout for the next 3 Fridays over Kevlar. Today: Joust 29 – Kevlar 19 Thanks TR for leading and trying to help Joust grow in numbers, and provide shoes for some men that are in need of support in many areas!
Just Plain Hard
The Thang:
Partner up with someone of similar speed and strength.
10 by 10 Merkin Burpees
20 Bear crawl steps, 20 Merkins, repeat all the way to the other side of the field going lengthwise
20 Crab walk steps, 10-20 Diamonds, repeat all the way to the other side of the field going lengthwise
MTJ walks all the way to the other side of the field going lengthwise
Now that we are warmed up, time to go down the ladder racing your partners, loser has to do the previous number of reps:
50 Dry Docks, sprint across the field lengthwise, 40 Dry Docks, sprint across the field, 30, 20, 10
50 Lunges, 40, 30, 20, 10
10 by 10 Merkin Burpees (just for fun)
50 Squats, 40, 30, 20, 10
50 Flutters, 40, 30, 20, 10
50 Merkins, 40, 30, 20, 10
Mosey to parking lot
30 Merkins in your own to make 500 total
Extended Flutter right into overly extended Protractor
20 Diamonds for good measure
Moleskin:
A humid morning brought out 20 pax, and 5 for preKBs. TR brought out his inflatable KB that read 48 kg, or 105 lbs for the non Englishmen in the pax. Oh, it was fun to take a pull of that bad boy! Anyone that can do the Beast Master is insane! It was amazing how there was zero mumble chatter from the get go when the 10 by 10 Merkin Burpees were called and it stayed that way until the lunges. Well, we YHC decided to throw in another 10 by 10 just for fun…that took care of it! The pax pushed hard and it was a pleasure as always to hear people question others’ form on certain exercises. Hope everyone has a great weekend and all the best to the BRR boys!
Swerkin’
Swings + Merkins + Runnin’ = Swerkin’
The Thang:
Pick up your bells and mosey to the parking lot below…the mosey is your warm up.
Line up at the bottom of the hill and do the following x 40 rounds on the minute:
15 Kettlebell Swings
10 Merkins
1 Hill Sprint up and back
If you do not finish the above by the sound of the next minute timer…penalty of 20 Burpees for that round.
Total workout = 600 Swings, 400 Merkins, 40 Hill Sprints
Mosey back to upper lot
Moleskin:
Thankfully it wasn’t nearly as humid today as it has been recently. The total work put in today seemed to have many pax hunched over gasping for air and trying to find a way to get their grip back from all of the swings. A special congrats to the men who used 50 and 45lb KBs out there today, and to those who stepped up in weight from their usual KB, and especially Horsehead who chose today to be his first day moving from a 35lb to 45lb (that is super impressive for a guy that could barely do 10 pushups before he came to F3 less than a year ago!). For those of you who have been at the same KB weight for a year or more, it really is time to move up…as TR has said in the past, “In the Russian army, women use a minimum 16kg (35lbs) and men use a minimum 24kg (53lbs).” A quote from the 10,000 Swing Challenge (which consists of 500 swings per workout…we did more than that today), “If you feel you’re able to do a second workout in the same day, then you are “underbelled” – you’re either not going heavy enough or not training with maximal effort.”
We did fall a few rounds short because of time spent going to the hill and back, but we made up for the swings and merkins along the way back and only fell a few short on the hill sprints.
Well done today, and thanks Brown for the send off!
Welcome back Frostbite and Matlock!
3rd F Aftermath – Wednesday 6:30 Chapter 11 of Blue Like Jazz
Paincave 300
Find people with like sized bells, circle up near them…these will be your brothers in suffering today, but also I hope they will be your brothers of encouragement. In life you need people to encourage you, but also it is important to have people encouraging you that are going through the exact same thing, or have already gone through it before and can help guide you through. We often don’t realize how one word of encouragement can be the one thing that gets us through when the waves are crashing down all around us and we don’t think we can take another step.
Everyone turn in their watches so no one knows how much time is left until the workout is over.
The recipe to find your Paincave:
Warm up with 15 two handed swings and 15 two handed push presses.
50 Two Handed Swings
50 Single Handed Push Presses total (finish with two handed if needed to reach 50)
50 Lawnmower Rows
50 Tri Extensions (finish with Diamonds if needed to reach 50)
50 Single Handed Curls total (finish with two handed if needed to reach 50)
50 Merkins
Repeat until time is up…enjoy!
Moleskin:
It was a warm, humid morning, but the Pax seriously brought the heat! It is always and honor to lead the fine men of the South. It was great to see the regulars, Pickle made his long awaited return after baseball season, and one FNG (Hot Wings) made his debut at a very non-FNG friendly workout (It was impressive he made it through!). The workout definitely did it’s job, and seeing many hunched over or on all fours cathing their breath spoke that there was no running needed. With the work everyone put in, many found themselves in their own paincave. Semi-Gloss’ jaw may be a bit more sore than his muscles…but he was still getting after it in between his sets of talking. How many sets did you do today Semi?..of talking that is. It is always a good sign that the muscles are exhausted when people ask to do some running so they can have a recovery period. Brown has quickly become one with his 50 pounder and will be buying Tiger Rag’s 60 pounder in no time since he doesn’t show up to use it. Header used TR’s 45 last Wednesday and decided to fly to Philly to make sure he wasn’t peer pressured into having to use it again. Bulldog claims to have a “lower back injury” to which Bananas asked if Bulldog even had a lower back. While timing next to Stagecoach at a swim meet last night, he thought he might fartsack because of it ending late due to lightning delay…I guess he is a man of his word. Not sure where Goodhands was this morning, he’s so strong he probably opted to workout on his own so he would get one in worth his time instead of my rubbish. Fletch skipped Fast Twitch and showed up this morning to bust it out to show he’s still got it. A couple of times I thought Night Court was walking away to his car to go home, but he always turned and came back for more with determination to beat his bell. Robinhood showed what a man of years and conviction could do by being the War Daddy that never quits. Congratulations to Chanel on the healthy birth of his new youngin’…isn’t that what they call them out there in Waxhaw and if you are a friend of Brown’s?
Sign up ended for the CSUP Olympics and pool party yesterday…so I guess you are out, or call Runstopper (who also didn’t show up this morning…) to see if he will allow you to come to his shindig.
Encourage those around you, you never know what is going on and what a spoken word of encouragement can do for their lives.
Busch Sprint Series (per Bulldog)
Operation Overlord in honor of the upcoming Anniversary of D Day on June 6th. Show your appreciation to a serviceman/woman if you see one!
Get into groups based on speed 4 Waves of 5
Fastest group to the slowest
Bear Crawl Merkins down the parking lot in cadence…123 down for a count of 4 Merkins till the Q calls it.
Warm up with jog down to the lower lot around the course in our lines 4-5 abreast 4-5 deep.
120 yard sprints from cone to cone in parking lot. First wave goes off, second goes off when previous group is 5 seconds out, etc.
Winner of each group does 50 heel touch squats while the losers do 60 single leg squats 25/25. If a loser beats the winner in exercises, winner does 10 burpees. Do lemon squeezer abs until everyone is finished.
Continuous for 10 minutes.
If someone from the group behind catches anyone from the group in front of them the entire group that was caught must do 100 jump squats
50 Merkins/50 Drydocks/50 Diamonds OYO
When finished with exercises do crunches until all pax finishes.
Repeat above 120 yard sprints with winner doing 50 heel touch jump squats and losers do 50 lunges 25/25. Do Supermans until everyone is done. Continuous for 10 minutes.
50M/50D/50D again.
Sprints again with distance reduced to 50 yards continuous for 5-10 minutes based on time. With winner able to rest while losers do 50 heel touch squats.
Jog back to upper parking lot for Bear Crawl Merkins.
Finish with 3 minutes of Mary – Flutters with extended time Protractors.
Moleskin:
It was a great cool morning with the Pre-KB pax getting a massive sweat on during Bulldog’s KB Swing-o-rama of Pain. Most were smoked before the workout even started…especially Big Brown with his two week old 50lber…but he is swinging it like a champ! The mumble chatter started when people were trying to sandbag which speed group they would get in. Nothing like a warmup of Bear Crawl Merkins to get the mumble chatter going in high gear. Folks were asking for some SSHs and IWs but that was nowhere on the horizon.
Once the pax arrived at the starting point for the sprints and they saw the distance between the two cones, there were some people that disagreed to the distance. Once we finished the first sprint, mumble chatter became worse than mumbling, and some were drooling. This continued to degrade as the pax truly pushed themselves to the limit today…I would say Level “11” was achieved, especially when Harley starts complaining about how hard the workout is because he wants Skunkworks to be the hardest and Kevlar to be a coast of a workout. There were some folks, (ahem…TR, Bulldog, Donkey Kong) taking some interesting lines during the sprints to make sure they won or cut off others so they couldn’t win. It was a great time, thank you all for working so hard and making the mornings fun! I love the comraderie we have in Area 51, the Brotherhood! I do feel a bit bad for Turkey Leg running a 10K race tomorrow, and Far Side riding a metric century in the mountains tomorrow…probably not the best taper!
As I write this, I just received a text from A51’s greatest comedian, Brown, that his first customer this morning asked him, “Why are you walking like you are trying to carry a corn cob without using your hands?” Thanks for the laugh and material Brown, glad the workout did what it was supposed to do!
Sign up for F3 Golf 5/29
ThirdF Aftermath is starting a new book next Wednesday, “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller, come on out to the Starbucks next to Trader Joe’s in Piper Glen.