given, off we mosey
Run to the parking lot in front of Old Navy, circle up: SSH, IW, Hill Billies, LSS, Merkin, MC, then a few minute of stretching: can opener, downward dog, arm circles, hip rotation and head rolling for loosening up those neck muscles.
Informed the PAX we’ll be traveling the mountain range of Mt Suck today. First step, at the base of Mt Suck is one of the suckiest of all exercises:
Mosey across street to medical plaza, add an exercise even suckier than the burpee:
Mosey to to the day care building for a far less sucky exercise:
Mosey again. You get the idea. We traveled this range of Suckiness up to:
SSH was next, but time was short, so we ascended in a hurry back to COT. Maybe next time we’ll make it to 50.
I’m not sure what I’d change to try to make this routine better as it had a good balance of abs, arms and legs. Each change was a relief, but also I was growing to hate each exercise as we got further up the mountain. 15 is a lot of Merkins, and the ever present Bonnie Blair is a personal weakness, so getting in a lot of them really sucked – in a good way (at least that’s what I tell myself).
On Thursday Odd Job kindly reached out to warn me that the weather would probably be wet, to confirm I did not have any concerns. I wrestled with various responses (a lecture on core principles, how soft does he think I am, etc) and settled on pasting his face on the children’s game called Sugar & Spice & using that for marketing on Slack for 400 SOB members and about 200 in Waxhaw.
The weather is only going to get worse, so everyone needs a reminder it really isn’t an issue when you’re sweating your ass off running all over doing awkward exercise and navigating various obstacles. When in doubt wear an extra layer or two and shed those as needed. The worst weather has a way of creating some of the best memories.
Nice seeing Palm Olive again, he didn’t seem to have an issue keeping up and I think he’ll be leading in no time. Omicron is also turning into a Da Vinci regular – he’s pushing himself along very nicely. The newest PAX was Crabwalker (or Luke Crabwalker?!) who joined last week was also not afraid of the chance of rain. He thinks he’s out of shape, but he is way ahead of most PAX on their 2nd time posting. As expected, Odd Job & Soft Pretzel were the two that I had to keep up with. Soft Pretzel even corrected me when I mixed up the order of reps. Good work by all. It is always a pleasure to take the lead at DaVinci.
Christmas party & blood drive in December (I think)
Prayers for those impacted by Ian.
DISCC for all 3 of us in attendance, all Appetizer regulars.
We started with a mosey around the school and warm-up in parking lot with SSH, LSS, merkins & stretching. Mosey to other side of the parking lot for some ab exercise. Into the woods we use the benches for step ups, dips and derkins, all 15 reps each.
Next we ran to the track and alternated with running laps and I honestly forget which exercises.
Next, mosey to the rock pile and down the road for a suicide circuit of thrusters, run to next point merkins, back to thrusters, run to merkins, then to next stop LBCs, etc.
And wrapping up with some H2H while Twinkle Toes did a quick lap around the parking lot I assume because he wasn’t hot enough, or perhaps had a mileage goal I deprived him of meeting at that point.
Very light attendance most likely because it was about 90 degrees and felt closer to 100. We stayed in the shade most of the time but could not avoid the heat. I’m most likely going to be out of town the next 2 weeks, and with attendance so low lately & heat so high, we may put the Appetizer on hold for a week or two. See GroupMe for updates.
Prayer requests for Samantha awaiting test results & also my mother recovering from a non-covid virus that hit really hard
Apologies for not getting this out sooner.
T1000 isn’t setup to post backblasts and I’m tardy in filling in for him. Getting credit to the PAX who posted.
He planned a nice weinkee (sp?!) for his second time Qing and then absentmindedly left the weinkee at home. So for his second Q he did it all off the top of his head and the PAX didn’t notice a thing.
Lefty lead mosey to the back parking lot, some standard SSH, LSS Merkins and stretching. Mosey around school with 5 reps of your choice at each turn along the route. Next head to rock pile for an arm smashing grinder with pair taking turns doing rifle carries or endless reps of curls, presses, extensions, rows and one other which I refuse to recall as I only remember the pain (but in a good way). Lastly we returned the rocks and headed to the track for more partner alternating with P1 running a lap & P2 performing Bobby Hurly, Squats, Merkins and more.
We then took turns with PAX lead Mary to wrap things up for a solid workout lead by a kid who didn’t even have his learner’s permit yet.
Pathetically late in posting this, but that’s not going to stop me so the pax at least get credit for showing up. The main part of the workout was a circuit of pulling with resistance bands at varying heights.
We don’t enough pulling related exercises and the point was to start changing that. I bought a cheap pair of resistance bands online for $30 and they’re holding up nicely. I also bought some Rogue bands and their nice too, but not worth the extra expense.
The bands weigh about nothing, travel anywhere and add about a bazillion different things you can do with them, most of which hit muscles we neglect in F3. So IMHO we need to get on board with the bands and make they more common than coupons.
Discc
Before starting, each PAX grabs a resistance band (thickness doesn’t matter #twssNever). I notice the number of bands is exactly equal to the number of PAX (obviously I planned this incredibly well).
Mosey half the parking lot stopping in the middle for 15x: SSH, IW, LSS, LSS with band overhead, MC, merkin, can opener stretch
Take a few steps to the row of handicap parking spaces in front of the theater, each with a parking sign. Each PAX attach their band to a pole, half at shoulder height, half at ground level. Two of the thinner bands are paired up so there are at total of 8 poles with bands. The routine is a circuit where each PAX pulls on the band while facing either toward the pole, away from the pole, or with the pole to his left or right (rotate 90 degrees each time you change poles). With the bands placed at high or low positions, and with the different band sizes, we are sure to hit every angle of pulling upward/downward for a complete shoulder workout with a few other muscle groups along the way.
The timer is the 9th man, who runs the half-lap around the parking lot while the 10th man just does burpees until relived by the timer. When the timer replaces the 10th man, he moves to the first pole and everyone moves to the next pole and moves their body position 90 degrees, except the 8th man who is the new timer. When the timer reaches half-way, those doing a one arm pulling switch arms (body stays in same position relative to the pole).
We got in two rounds of the circuit + one more lap just for Wingman because I forgot where I started I knew he wanted to push himself with an extra lap (you’re welcome).
Next two quick rounds of B.L.I.M.P.S. (5 burpees, 10 lunges 2-is-1, 15 IW, 20 merkins, 25 plank jacks, 30 squats), and leaving 3 minutes of Mary (flutter, LBC, heals to heaven).
Like Isaac Newton’s 3rd law of motion (every action has an equal and opposite reaction), there must be a corresponding law in fitness (every exercise motion, has an equal and opposite exercise motion). Ideally when we work one direction we will also work the opposite and develop strength equally in both directions.
While F3 is great in many ways (understatement of the year), with our limited resources (whatever the AO has to offer) too many bootcamp exercises challenge us in one direction (pushing) and do not have equal challenges to work the opposite direction (pulling). Expensive gyms have complex machines that get at these hard to expose muscle groups. But in F3, with our $0 cost of membership, we miss some areas and risk developing imbalances.
Consider the merkin and its opposite the row. How many reps of merkins are in a typical workout versus rows? Merkins are all but mandatory and come in the dozens. Rows, if any, are usually with a rock or coupon and nothing close to the weight you move doing merkins. Overhead presses and pull-ups are another pair of opposing exercises. I’ve been in many bootcamps pressing rocks or coupons overhead but far less with pull-ups. Not to mention pull-ups are too heavy for most PAX so we often skip these pulling muscles. Curls and tricep extensions are the only exercises we regularly perform together, with the same weight and reps, but this is the exception far more than the rule.
Resistance bands are often marketed to help assist with pull-ups (a weak area for the majority of PAX human beings) but they have much more potential. Bands are insanely versatile in where they can be attached and used. They are not as cheap as coupons (but what is) but they are affordable ($30 for a set of 4), and they don’t take up much space, weigh almost nothing, last for years and don’t break when dropped.
Across F3 we should add these to our toolbox and make them more common than coupons. They’ll add variations to our exercises and will help attack our lack of pulling and other exercises that will benefit us all. I won’t always run a complex circuit as I did in this workout, but I will bring resistance bands and I will challenge the PAX with some exercises I know they we all need.
I challenge all PAX to make the small investment in resistance bands (the cheap ones work as well for me as the high-end) and find some new exercises to share with the PAX the next time you Q.
(And as Midriff pointed out, if we include rocks, we’ll have a rock band workout.)
June 12th – Saturday – 6:30AM Da Vinci Bucky Convergence & 3:30PM 2nd F at Bradshaws
June 19th – Waxhaw Blood Drive – 9am – 1:30pm @ Five Stones Church – there are 12 10 spots left to fill up for the blood drive. Sign up here if you haven’t and share on Facebook or wherever with friends, family, and neighbors : https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=f3
August 13th – Crane Relay (starts at 9PM?!) details/sign up here – https://forms.gle/PYo3XvwAhorvSEdN7
We started with the usual warm up in the parking lot, which is almost a tradition for the appetizer.
We then did a bear crawl run circuit around the school, running two corners then bear crawling.
After that we did a circuit on the track, with rows, merkins, step ups, big boys, american hammers, squats, and one team member running around the track as a timer.
For a finale we went up to the back field and did a die circuit there, where the number rolled on the die is the number of cones you had to. Number 4 was burpees, and Rigley made sure that I knew.
— T1000
Moleskin (C3P0 – version 1.0)
Great seeing T1000 take on the challenge of his VQ. A month ago it seemed unthinkable but as all the other 2.0s were leading (most younger than him) he knew he couldn’t avoid it. He wrote the weinkie on his own and only asked if I thought he covered enough time (he did). He made use of the cones we had, making it even easier to execute and the dice to add some fun. My contribution was writing down a few exercises on the paper sheets he left with the cones. Clearly his processing power is significantly upgraded from this 1.0 version.
Discc
Mosey to back parking lot and circle up for 20x SSH, IW, get into a plank for stretching with can opener/runners stretch. Then 15 slow merkins (4 count, descend on 1-2-3).
Run one lap around the school stopping at each corner to do 5 merkins. A little confusion on exactly what defined a corner, but a few extra merkins didn’t hurt anyone.
Next, mosey to the rock pile and partner up. One rock per pair, rifle carry to the track – swapping rock half-way with your partner.
At the track, P1 runs a lap, P2 does exercise. Exercises as a team all with the rock: 100 Bentover rows, 50 burpees, 100 squats. On paper this didn’t look too bad, but halfway through those burpees (with the rock) and my heart rate was in the red zone. Some 2.0s finished early and occupied themselves on the swings. As PAX wrapped up we did some flutters and LBCs to the end. That was harder than expected for such a simple routine.
Rifle carry rocks back to the pile for our last round. P1 holds a plank, P2 runs one leg of a suicide to the cones. Partners alternate each lap of the suicide. The cones didn’t seem that far apart initially, but that added up too. We had just enough time to return to COT and knock out a few Big Boys.
About a month ago, Johnny 5 was there when SpeedBump Q’d a complete workout at Clyent Dinner. Johnny 5 commented afterward that now he really didn’t have any excuse to not Q, as SpeedBump is literally half his age. So with the April Q challenge I reminded him about SpeedBump and let him know he’s on the schedule and there’s no backing out. He wasn’t happy, and he didn’t start on his Wienke until about an hour before, but it was a solid plan. I gave him a few pointers about transitioning and being prepared for calling an audible, but it went without an issue and he had a very successful VQ. Does this mean he’s going to Q again really soon? Let’s put the pressure on him to step up again as he did so well the first time.
Thanks to all the SOB & Waxhaw PAX who came out, many with their 2.0s to support this young man’s VQ. It made me proud as a dad and as a member of F3 and as it was so cool to see the support for him. I’m feeling the love. Sorry to Midriff & Wingman I didn’t get your 2.0s names, hopefully they’re not bummed for not getting credit.
• Downtown Waxhaw Clean up this Saturday at 8am!! Will take about 20-30mins and then coffeeteria at Crossroads. This is M and 2.0 friendly.
• WTF – running trails CSAUP, get details at GroupMe or Slack – 40+ now registered
• SOB Wars – Stone Chicken Episode 1 on 4/24. Starts at 5PM if you’re doing the whole thing, but joining mid-way is an option for the less insane ambitious
In trying to continue the high standards of creative fun we’ve been having in these 2.0 friendly evening workouts, I knew I had to bring my ball-crazy Pomeranian to a workout eventually. We have a tennis ball launcher which is perfect for the kids to have some fun (no you can’t shoot at the adults) and at least that part went according to plan. The rest, well….
DISCC
Mosey around parking lot to the back where we circled up. I heard we had some FNGs so made sure to explain what I was talking about and not rush. IC SSH x15, IW x15, LSS x15, Merkin x20, hold plank then stretch with can opener left/right, then up into some cossack squat to sun worshiper 4-5 times each side.
Knowing we might have cars starting to pull in but not wanting to forsake any use of the rocks I instructed the dads to go to the rock pile and grab a rock then meet the kids and I at the basketball court. The kids (great listeners that they are) half of them followed the dads, but they were quickly corralled and followed YHC to the basketball court.
Everyone grabs a piece of cement or nearby sandy grass patch.
Listening to Linkin Park’s Bleed it Out (a fine motivational tune), hold plank, do 1 merkin for every “bleed it out” or “throw it away” you hear (the song ends with a flurry of those, surprise). We had a number of FNGs and 2.0s, so I encouraged resting on your knees a couple of times.
45’s: That’s 45 seconds of an exercise while we listen to music (more 2.0 friendly music than my typical angry metal). We did two rounds of 6 exercise: superman, hollow body, crab cake, squat, side plank left, then right (with all that mutinous mumblechatter I cheated planking to 30 seconds each side).
Dads and kids get into groups of 3 for partner rotations.
Round One
Dads: P1 mosey track, P2 plank, P3 thuster with rock
Kids: with their trio, rotate between: swings, slide/monkey bars, Dog Racing
What is “Dog Racing”? Using a tennis ball launcher, each kid has a turn to shoot the ball into the field while the other partner(s) run to a cone and return before Chloe gets the ball and returns. That shooter wasn’t going far enough, or the cone was too far, or that dog is just too fast. I don’t think the kids won once, but they all had fun trying.
Round Two
Dads: P1 carioca track, P2 LBCs, P3 hernia (V-Up with rock, thank you Twinkletoes)
Kids: same as round one
Wrapping up, dads take your rocks to the rock pile and kids follow me. Some how half the kids ran ahead to the rock pile, fortunately traffic was light. I redirected them to COT and lead the kids in SSH while we waited for the dads to catch up. Having some fun, we started the cadence at 80 and got up over a hundred before all the dads straggled in.
With a workout this complex, groups rotating various activities, I’m lucky it wasn’t more chaotic. I focused on keeping the kids occupied, and the dads were OYO. Looking at some of their faces I saw they got their work in and the kids definitely had fun blowing off a lot of energy. So it wasn’t pretty, but mission accomplished.
Big lesson I need to remember is to give the PAX a written reminder of what they’re doing. With a piece of paper listing the exercises at each round and it will be so much smoother.
Also, at my next adult Q, I’ll recycle Bleed it Out, but with Mike Tyson’s at each “throw it away” & and no breaks. I’m looking forward to the mumblechatter of discontent.
Good to see Pennywise back out again and all the Appetizer regulars (you know who you are). Magi also isn’t shying away (Clyent Dinner again too?) and his former FNG Overdraft as well (actually you guys are regulars too). Also some new faces Nails, Raven, and Schedule-C who brought in FNG Open House, welcome!. Honeycomb didn’t make it tonight, but he still got two FNGs to show up, welcome John Deere and his 2.0 Wipeout. Also, welcome, welcome! And pseudo-FNG, came back for a name adjustment, the formerly Fatso is now Redacted.
Other than Redacted the other 3 FNG names were already in the PAX listing. So TBD if those are active, and in which region, ugh. Note to F3Nation, please make an app that’ll retrieve PAX names, per region, with last time posting, and maybe some alternative name suggestions, TYIA.
Also thank you to my enthusiastic co-Q High Hat (if you build it they will come, indeed) and my animal trainer assistant Johnny5.
Nails made a strong pitch for Christ’s Closet and the impact it has to families in need in our community. Come and help out & donate. Contact Nails (aka Jim Hendrix) on GroupMe or slack for details on how and where you can help
Rooster On Saturday, or convergence at Stonehenge with Dark Helmet on Q
Asked to substi-Q yesterday as the planned Q needed some R&R, rather than trying to shoulder the burden on my own (not that it is much of a burden) I went the other way and asked for help. Enlisting my 2.0s and neighbor Dwight I asked each to cover just 5 or 10 minutes. Reluctantly, some more than others, they accepted the task. All had attended Q school, but now we’ll see if they were paying attention. I won’t call this their VQ (no such thing as a triple VQ right!), but it did give them a little taste, I hope preparing them for the full entree. #swidt
DISCC
SSH x20, then jumped right into the theme of the evening, sharing the load. Inspired by the Wolf lead beatdown on a recent rainy Saturday (feels like 27 degrees), I explain that I’d start off counting 1-2-3, Pax “1”, 1-2-3, Pax “2”, then move to the next person (Fusebox) who’ll count 1-2-3, Pax “3”, 1-2-3, Pax “4”, and we continue to the next person, up to “10”. We did SSH, LSS, IW, Merkin & MC. Despite so many young kids and FNGs, it went impressively well (at least compared to the seasoned PAX on that Saturday morning).
I turn over the lead to Johnny5 who takes us to the rock pile. Adults grab a partner and a rock, kids grab a partner. One partner does burpees (adults use their rock) while the other partner runs down the road to the first cone, then back. This continues until each pair does 50 burpees. Rock’s team won for the kids (not that surprising, he’s growing into his name). Overall it was pretty awful and we’re better for it, thank you Johnny5.
Dwight, lead us to the basketball court. Everyone claim a space and we get into position for a Dwight lead ab attack. Dwight’s been a regular at the Appetizer & DaVinci for a few months now, and apparently he wants a washboard by summer. He impressively lead a lot more reps than many of us wanted to do. I think it was BigBoys, H2H, LBC, Merkin, Freddie Mercury.
Next up YHC. Everyone into a groups of 3, and do a circuit of P1: run a lap, P2: squat to pull-up, P3: grab sides of swing, and lean back and use arms to pull yourself up in rowing motion. Two rounds of that, and it got pretty messy with the various teams. Well at least the younger kids had fun in the playground.
Finally T1000 took over and we continued in groups of three, P1: run lap, P2: bear crawl, P3: ab exercise OYO. This is when it really got messy with PAX bear crawling in all directions, and a hodgepodge of ab work being done. Those who were hungry for more pushed themselves and most of the kids were just having fun.
We were running low on time so I called everyone in for 30 seconds of side planking. We finished the 30, which was probably 40 thanks to Twinkle Toes really slow counting (at least it felt that way), and oh the mumblechatter when I said now to the other side. Who wants to do side planks with just one side?! Hate me if you wish, I apologize for nothing.
About 5 minutes left we’re off to COT for the final minutes of Mary, Peter Parker and more. We circle up, and finish the way we started. I called out Tumbleweed to carry the cadence and she shouted it out with ease and continues on to her 1.0 Trickle. We got in some Peter Parkers, Big Boys, Flutters, and a couple others before we wrapped up with about 30 seconds of more planking and finished with Have A Nice Day (modify as needed).
To be honest it was a fairly sloppy Q, as you might expect with so much VQ-ing. And it wasn’t as fun as many earlier workouts (Fusebox set the bar high 2 weeks ago). But I was happy to see how well the kids handled the pressure of calling the cadence when it was their turn. We got in some reps, and knocked out some burpees and bear crawls and pushed ourselves just a little with some 2.0s taking it all in. As usual it was good to see the regulars keeping at it, and the new faces seeing what the Appetizer has to offer (this was just a sample). Come back in future weeks and you’ll see we have quite the variety – not to mention some Clyent Dinner style 2nd Fs on the horizon.
– Book collecting (any book, for young or old) for Tumbleweed’s book collection. Can bring to the Appetizer, or anywhere you see Trickle (Tumbleweed’s dad)
– Welcome Home Kits, plan to donate financially or with variety of household basics to build a kit given to the recently homeless settling into a new home. More details to come, but the target is for each AO to fill at least one kit (total value roughly $300)
– Welcome FNGs: Overdraft (brought by Magi), Girltano (2.0), Tangled (2.0), Fancy Nancy (2.0) and Black Beauty (2.0)
– As stated by my eloquent Co-Q High Hat, it’s great to see so many PAX taking their kids out enjoying this time together and taking advantage of the opportunity offered at this AO and also at Clyent Dinner. It lifts our spirts and is a great way to end a day that might not have been so great until coming to an F3 workout with your brothers and their 2.0s.