10 pax gathered for the 4th episode of Swole on what turned out to be the best weather we’ve ever had for the gear workout that is still in it’s infancy.
The Thang:
Quick Warm Up:
10 SSH, 10 IW, 10 Windmills
10 RDLs each leg
5 rounds of 90 seconds of waiter carry(spend 45 seconds with one arm going one direction, switch arms and turn around for 45 seconds)
5X5 Double Cleans with heavy KBs
5X5 Double Front Squats with Heavy KBs
End of planned weinke so YHC had to get creative….
Kettlebell Tunnel of Love(all kettlebells must travel through the tunnel of planked pax, about 30 bells ranging from 30-62 lbs) #crowdpleaser
24 LBCs(for Kobe RIP)
1 minute of elbow plank
1 minute of hollow holds
A little more than 1 minute of glute bridge
COT
Moleskine
Better weather, more pax. Pretty simple.
The two workouts we are alternating with RDL/WC/2xcClean/2xSquat vs Press/Swings/FC and it seems the former consistently takes less time to complete than the latter. YHC knew we’d have to have an extra 10 minutes or so of goodies to finish up with. That led to KB Tunnel of Love. I’ve pulled it out for Tweet and Meat in the past but it is more fun with more pax and kettlebells.
Voodoo provided the tunes for this week. He has been doing a better job of picking good music than I have.
Announcements:
Pray for Madison’s daughter as she has an MRI on Friday and pray for Doc McStuffins during his heart surgery on Wednesday
Program continues this week at Meathead(Calvary) on Wednesday and Olympus(Elizabeth Lane Elem) on Saturday.
Plenty of Qing opportunities(ie every week is open) for Swole. Because it’s a WIB at this point, perfect opportunity for newer pax looking to cut their teeth at Qing or more seasoned pax looking to up their Qing totals in 2020.
Voodoo warned YHC that rain was in the forecast this morning. I didn’t believe it would be that bad but knew there was a large amount of covered space on campus, and if it rained, not many pax would show up. YHC was also fighting a stomach bug, and thought I would be recovered by morning. Unfortunately, I was wrong about everything.
At about 5:27 YHC directed all the cars from the bus lot to the cafeteria dock, which ended up being a solid group of 11 pax. As the bells were unloaded from the cars, some pax decided to seek the cover of the loading dock while others opted for more room in the rainy parking lot.
The thang;
Warm up: 10 SSH, 10 IW, 10 Windmill, 10 Arm circles forward, 10 Arm circles backward.
10 Double Romanian Single Leg DeadLifts
5 waiter carry holds(each arm) for 30 seconds each(led by Voodoo)
5X5 Double Kettlebell Cleans
5X5 Double Kettlebell squats.
1 Min of Elbow Plank
1 Min of V-Sit Hold
COT
Moleskine: The loading dock would be ideal for 5 or so pax, not 11.
Sometime during the Cleans and Squats, a cafeteria worker arrived for her shift to be surprised by 11 men lifting kettlebells. We originally though we were getting displaced but she was ok with us finishing the weinke when she learned we would leave in the next 15 minutes.
YHC was in charge of the music again and tried to do better keeping the rock n roll more PG rated than last week.
Voodoo did some recon after the workout and learned that there is more cover in the shopping center behind the school, which will serve as our rainy day spot moving forward.
Announcements: Go to Meathead(Wed at Calvary) and Olympus(Sat at Elizabeth Lane) to continue your progress in the strength program.
Next Monday is the MLK Holiday. Swole will stay open. Stay tuned to find out what time we’re getting together.
YHC will be celebrating my 7th year anniversary but I have an odd distinction in my time in the gloom, I’ve never Q’ed a Friday workout before*, despite plenty of posts at Centurion, the Brave and Cerberus. There was that one time Champagne and Madame Tussauds asked me to Q the Brave but it happened to be the day before the USMC Mud Run(when that was still a thing) and no one showed up, leaving my Friday Qginity intact.
Alf reached out to Slack yesterday asking for a last minute Q and I thought it would be a great time to break my streak.
Fast forward to 5:28 AM, Alf and YHC are the only two pax in the parking lot much to my disappointment…more on that later.
Ice-9 pulled in at 5:29 and after stalling for 2 minutes, we were off to the big parking deck for the main event.
COP Warm Up: IW X 10, Windmill X 10, Arm Circles Forward X 10, Arm Circles Backward X 10.
The Thang: Parking deck suicides Round 1: Lap 1: Run up first ramp, 5 merkins, run down ramp. Lap 2: Run up ramp, run around 2nd level, 10 merkins, run around 2nd level, run down ramp………………… Lap 5: Run all the way to the top and complete 25 merkins, Mary while waiting on the 6.
As predicted, Alf and Ice-9 were smoking me up, down and around the parking deck but sometime between laps 2 and 3, C3PO and Shop Dawg showed up. O’Tannenbaum showed up between laps 3 and 4. After all pax got to the top, YHC needed to find a way to do a better job of keeping the pax together. So I revealed the 60 lb sandbag, 60 lb kettlebell, 45 lb kettlebell, and 30 kettlebell that were hidden before the workout.
Repeat the Parking deck suicides again with the “fast guys” carrying the weights and squats instead of merkins. This took a while and eliminated mumblechatter for the most part. Pax took turns sharing the burden and everyone was smoked. Then there was just enough time to carry the weights back to the launch point and about 3 minutes of Mary.
COT
Moleskine: At 5:28 AM, YHC was worried that the first two times I’ve Qed a Friday would result in only 1 pax posting. YHC was more worried that Alf and I having to carry almost 200lbs of sandbags and KBs back to the launch by ourselves. Thankful for 4 more pax joining in.
For the 2nd time in 7 days, YHC has been at a workout that has seen it’s total pax grow significantly AFTER launch. At Da Vinci on Saturday we went from 10 to 17 and today we went from 3 to 6. Thankfully the late pax were able to easily find the crowd and still get a beatdown in.
Ice-9 is a monster. I thought making him do the suicides while carrying a 60 lb kettlebell would help bring him back to mean a little bit. I was wrong. If anyone has a 100+ lb sandbag or kettlebell, bring it to my next Q that Ice-9 posts at.
Announcements:
New Gear Workout starting on Monday Jan 6 at McAlpine Elementary. Pax in attendance were not in favor of Kettlebros, Swole, or Deadpool.
NYE Convergence 12/31 at Swift/Bagpipe location(medical park next to Einsteins Bagels).
Stonecrest was gifted an hour without rain so 9 ghouls were given the disclaimer and wandered into the gloomy movie theather parking lot.
Quick Warmup
10 IW + 10 Side Lunges
Wild Turkey found a mysterious green bucket with exercises and a clue as to where to go next. The workout followed a pattern, find the bucket at the new site, perform the exercies, read the clue to find the new site, mosey on)
Trick(for pax who didn’t dress up): 50 burpess
Treat(for pax who did wear a costume): 100 merkins
Chipotle: Trick(100 step ups) Treat(100 dips)
Chick Fil A: Trick(100 lunges) Treat(100 squats)
Starbucks: Trick(100 plank jacks) Treat(1 min plank hold)
St Matthews Round 1: Trick(50 rock thrusters) Treat(50 RDLs)
St Matthews Round 2: Trick(50 tricep extensions w rock) Treat(50 curls with rock)
Target: Trick(crab walk the length of the shopping carts) Treat(bear crawl the length of the shopping carts)
Harris Teeter: Trick(50 monkey humpers) Treat(50 monkey humpers)
Stonecrest Sign on Hill: Trick(lunge walk backwards up hill) Treat(lunge walk up hill)
Mosey back to launch and it’s 6:15…COT with candy
Moleskin: YHC has wanted to Q a costumed workout for almost as long as he has been a part of F3. Last night the weather report was very scary but I’m thankful for the 8 other pax who decided to ignore the rain sounds as their alarms went off.
Not all pax wore costumes but there were some good ones. YHC wore a $10 wolfman mask that was very hard to breathe in. Wild Turkey was the Tooth Fairy. Olaf wore a Brett Favre Vikings jersey which oddly spawned more discussion about the New York Jets with Fireman Ed. Bucky was definitely the winner of the costume contest with his rendition of Martina Navratilova, complete with blonde wig, tennis skirt, and tennis racket.
Announcements:
Saturday is Q School at Da Vinci: 6AM Launch for Q School 101 followed by 201. All pax ready to Q or Site Qs are expected to attend if they can make it.
Sign up for the holiday party. We are getting close to the deadline. You’ll regret it if you miss out.
Who: Pax and Ms of SOB/A51. Other pax from surrounding regions are of course welcome.
What: Annual Holiday Party. Dinner catered by Brown Bag. Beer, wine, soda, tea, and water. And of course, some of the best musical fellowship around.
When: Friday November 22 at 6:30 PM.
This is the Friday BEFORE Thanksgiving!!
Where: Providence Downs South Clubhouse
1203 Venetian Way
Marvin NC 28173
…Same location as last year for the SOB party, Doc’s Clubhouse…
Why: Why not? You’ll regret not being there if you miss it!
Q&A
Q: How much does this cost?
A; $30 dollars per person. For those of you that aren’t good at math, $60 for a pax + his M.
Q: How do I sign up?
A: Send Mighty Mite $30 per person
http://paypal.me/wallacepoole
You’re not signed up until you send the money via paypal.
Q: What is on the menu?
A: Brown Bag will be catering. War Eagle has ordered the meal option that will include grilled chicken, steak, mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls, and brownies.
Q: BYOB?
A: We will provide a modest selection of beers, wines, water, sodas, and tea. If you’d like to bring your favorite drink enjoy and share, you are encouraged to do so.
Q: Dresscode?
A: Casual. Dress comfortably to spend time both inside the clubhouse and outside on the patio(weather permitting)
Q: Is there really going to be karaoke?
A: Yes. Come prepared with 2-3 of your favorite songs rehearsed. Burpee penalty for non-singing pax. JK….?
Q: When should I sign up?
A: Yesterday. Since you can’t do that, sign up right now!!
In all seriousness, it really does help the Qs plan this event when pax sign up in advance. If you know you’re probably going to be there, go ahead and sign up. Here’s the link again in case you lost it
SIGN UPS ARE CLOSED KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR LOGISTICS UPDATES
Q: What if I have any additional questions that are not covered here?
A: Reach out to War Eagle or Mighty Mite in the gloom or on Slack.
Who: F3 Pax along with their Ms and 2.0s.(event limit of 80 people)
When: Saturday July 27th. 4:30-7:30 PM
Where: Park Crossing Pool/Clubhouse
10201 Park Crossing Dr, Charlotte, NC 28210
Why: Summertime is the time for cookouts, why not have on with all your F3 friends? Plus, this is the evening after the Crane Relay, come out and celebrate another successful event….or if you aren’t planning on running the Crane Relay, come out and celebrate a successful night of sleep.
FAQ:
Sounds awesome. I’m in. What do I do next?
Sign up and reserve your spots by sending $10 per person(pax + M + 2.0s) to Mighty’s PayPal
As previously mentioned, there is an event cap of 80 so if you know you are going to attend today, reserve your spot today so you don’t miss out!
What does my $10 buy?
A smorgasbord of traditional summer cookout delicacies(ie. Burgers, dogs, salad, chips, cookies, fruit, sodas, water etc.), access to the pool/clubhouse/cornhole/volleyball facilities, and a donation from F3 SOB chapter to the Park Crossing Club for being our generous hosts.
My 2.0 is a newborn, do I need to pay 10 bucks for them and count them towards the 80 person total?
Let’s say that 2 years old is the cutoff.
What can I bring?
If the above menu doesn’t jive with your tastes or dietary restrictions, you can bring any additional items to throw on the grill.
You can bring your own beer or wine in NON-GLASS containers. Cans, boxes, and plastic bottles are cool. Bringing any glass beer, wine, or liquor(looking at you Frehley’s) bottles could result in your drink being thrown away or you being asked to leave. Park Crossing is being very generous by letting us use their facility and we are going to take their rules very seriously.
Comfortable clothing for cornhole/volleyball or swimsuits for the pool.
15 Pax showed up at Stonecrest confused about who was on Q. Little did they know, they were in store for the OG Q of The Maul with some new up his sleeve.
The Thang:
Mosey to the corner of the parking lot for a quick warm up.
20 SSH, 10 IW, 10 Windmills
Mosey to the top of the Murderhorn and AYG Sprint to the bottom.
IT PAYS TO BE SLOW
Based on the pax order of arrival at the bottom, they are given proportionate reps of exercies on the upcoming lap up and down the horn. Ie. Fast guys do 8 merkins at each light, a little less fast guys do 7, ……fastish pax do 2.
Same concept for the next round, this time with jump squats.
Same concept for the 3rd lap, substitute jump squats with burpees.
After everyone finishes, mosey to the back of the theater. Pax hold people’s chair until its time to Balls to Wall Walk w/ Verkins(new exercise) at each sidewalk crack #crowdpleaser. Once the hand stand walk is complete, hold peoples chair again. Plank walk back with a merkin at each crack.
Mosey over to hill near parking lot, break into two groups.
Group 1 lunge walks backwards up the hill, Group 2 holds plank, flapjack.
backwards bear crawl, six inches(with feet)
Front lunge walk, plank
front bear crawl, six inches
Run out the clock with some Mary led by LogJam, HeartBreaker, and No Show and a minute of elbow plank.
COT:
Dredd on Q at Da Vinci Saturday. Frehleys on Q at Stonehenge. Happy Hour on Thursday at Blackfinn Ballantyne 530 PM. BeerRun 3 Saturday 5.18, join the slack channel to learn all the details and to HC.
Moleskine:
It’s always nice to Q The Maul. It’s where YHC got to cut my teeth on learning how to Q. A couple of the pax(Mic Check, Frehleys, Market Timer, WingSpaceMan, and Strawberry) in attendence today have been posting at The Maul since it’s inception. The long standing friendships were evident by the pointed trash talk and bathroom humor.
In a couple of my last Qs, I’ve been trying to challenge all pax but make things more challenging for the guys who usually lead the pack. I did so by giving the guys who run faster, more reps. This backfired a little on me by the end where pax were openly conspiring to all finish at the same time once they picked up on my pattern. However, it must have worked at least a little bit because Mic Check, Teddy, and Happy Meal were still finishing first. Maybe they should get even more reps next time.
50 pax converged upon Da Vinci. With dozens of pax expected to post, most cars were parked in the Petsmart/Best Buy lot. Which is where we mosey for a quick disclaimer/warm up.
10 SSH
10 IW
Split up pax by their birthdays Jan-June goes with Wild Turkey. July-Dec goes with Mighty Mite. This is probably they way we should split large groups up in the future. It was quick and worked really well at breaking up a large group fairly evenly.
WT Q
Q1Since Mighty Mite didn’t plan much of a run, I figure I could add some mileage to the workout. My plan was to run from launch at Best Buy and head up Blakeney-Heath Rd to Playground for some traditional bootcamp exercises. What really happened was we ended up taking way to long to get up the hill and barely enough time for a bear crawl in the grass. We managed to squeeze in some ‘mericans, mountain climbers, shoulder taps and brief wall workout. Adding to the mayhem was a spill by Bucky who was tripped up by a recently plowed road sign. I didn’t hear too much complaining, but I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
Q2From the Fountains of Suburban Soft Rock we went under the archway for a series of partner stair climbs. This was a much better experience format. The sets included partner-slap ‘mericans, sit-ups and burpees, 10, 20, 30, respectively. A bear crawl catch me if you can and finally a cumulative 200 squat circuit. The stairs helped air out the pax and keep everyone relatively together.
Do you want any commentary? Jokes? I’m not sure if you are doing a more rah-rah – go F3 or a more “who can believe Fire Hazard has friends” route?Seriously, that was a successful morning! Big crowd, lots of fun and good workout. Thanks for organizing!
MM Q
Mosey to Blakeney Playground for a Partner Murph. Pax one runs to fountain and back while Pax two performs exercises to get to the total(100 Pull Ups, 200 merkins, 300 squats). Both groups finished a little early, so the time was filled with mary and planking for the entirety of the Rocky Theme(more on that later). As 0730 approached, all pax returned to the Chick Fil A and ran out the clock with some burpees.
People always say that you love all of your children equally. But I definitely liked the first group of pax that completed the murph more than the second because they were much more complimentary of my 80s montage playlist. If I wasn’t already punishing the 2nd group with a murph, I would have punished them more. Billygoat and Escobar were particularly vociferous, claiming they would rather run than be motivated to improve by the great lineup of songs….which was
Hearts on Fire: Rocky IV
You’re the Best: Karate Kid
Be a Man: Mulan
Push it to the Limit: Scarface
Eye of the Tiger: Rocky III
Dangerzone: Top Gun
Gonna Fly Now: Rocky
For some reason, I had a hard time hearing War Eagle’s name and he had to repeat it several times. Weird.
After COT, we welcomed 4 new FNGs, which is more than we’ve had in a while(more on that later). Stormy(brought out by Haggis), Brexit, Bad Call(brought out by Fire Hazard), and Escort(Boitano). Great job EH-ing these new guys. Hopefully we’ll see them out in the gloom.
After the main even was completed, the pax entered the Chick Fil A for breakfast. I didn’t do an official count but it seemed like pretty much every pax that posted enjoyed some chicken(which is better than bagels) at CFA after the workout, it was PAXED in there. Additionally, several other pax who were nursing injuries were on hand to catch up with their friends. Because we blitzed the CFA, the line to order food was long, so I spent some time talking to the pax at all the tables, and that was probably my favorite part of the morning. I was part of several different conversations that broached a variety of topics; getting together to watch some March Madness later in the day, coaching kid’s sports, helping eachother with yard work, preparing for an upcoming race, getting excited about a neighborhood garage band concert that afternoon, planning an outing to a baseball game, or just catching up with an old friend. These conversations reinforced that F3 is having an impact with everyone in attendance. This is more than just a “workout cult” as a lot of people jokingly refer to it. The gloom has forged great friendships that have transcended the couple of hours we spend together in the morning. It would be great if we could have an FNG day where we bring out 20+ FNGs(and we should always keep trying for that) but for pax that have been in the gloom for several years, a good deal of their best male friends are already part of F3 Nation.
We must be swift as the coursing river
With all the force of a great typhoon
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon
MM