Author Archive Swiss Miss

Like fine wine or whiskey, good backblasts take time

Beaver sent this BB to me minutes after the workout, but it was to my work account which sits inside a WordPress-proof firewall.  So I emailed it to my home account and got to it as quick as I could remember.  Which is lame, I know.  But at least I got er done (finally).  So with apologies to Beaver, and no further ado, I give you the long-overdue Gumby BackBlast!!

Devotional

 

Warm up:

Sitting hamstring and calves stretches – varietals

Butterfly stretch

8 Brocades (Ba Dua Jin) Qi Gong practice –

  • Two Hands Support the Heavens
  • Wise owl turns its head to eliminate fatigue
  • Bending over and wagging the tail to calm heart fire
  • And another one

 

The Thang:

Mountain

Sun Salutation (x3)

  • Arms reaching overhead
  • Full fold (heavy body)
  • Up to halfway lift
  • Into plank
  • Down into up dog/cobra
  • Move into Down dog (walk the dog)
  • Step into Lunge, then move into full fold
  • From full fold to mountain

Back to Mountain

Begin Sun Salutation until Plank

  • Warrior 1
  • Warrior 2
  • Peaceful Warrior (repeat warrior flow on other side)
  • Starfish

Pigeon – both sides

Brocade – forward fold, with backward stretch at top

Standing/Stretch to Corners Pose – Right and Left

Dead Pigeon

Happy Baby

 

Moleskin:

 

Today’s Gumby was mostly easy stretching and included a bonus stretch at the end!

 

Great to see Taquitos and Cocktail!  It was an honor to lead.

 

Qi Gong time at Gumby

Devotional

Warm up:

8 Brocades (Ba Dua Jin) Qi Gong practice –

  • Two Hands Support the Heavens
  • Two Hands Press Apart
  • Drawing the bow and letting the arrow fly
  • Wise owl turns its head to eliminate fatigue
  • Bending over and wagging the tail to calm heart fire
  • Punching with angry gaze to increase strength

 

The Thang:

Mountain

Sun Salutations (x3)

  • Arms reaching overhead
  • Full fold (heavy body)
  • Up to halfway lift
  • Into plank
  • Down into up dog/cobra
  • Move into Down dog (walk the dog)
  • Step into Lunge, then move into full fold
  • From full fold to mountain

Back to Mountain

Begin Sun Salutation until Plank

Warrior 1

Warrior 2

Peaceful Warrior (repeat warrior flow on other side)

Warrior 2

Warrior 1

Lunge with quad stretch

Starfish – flapjack

Pigeon – both sides

 

Moleskin:

 

We started with a Devotional (Galatians 6:8) – the main idea being that he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

 

After the Devotional, the Pax warmed up with the 8 Pieces of Brocade (Ba Dua Jin) Qi Gong forms and strengthened our energy flow.  YHC overdid it and needed a “10 count” after a couple of Gi Gong forms. 😊

 

After the warm-up we went into the sun salutation yoga flow and ended with the always popular Pigeon pose.  Next time we try for King Pigeon.

 

Great work by all Pax.  It was an honor to lead.

4-5-45

The air was chilly but still warmer than average for early January as YHC stepped into the Scout Hut and cranked up the heat to “sweltering” in preparation for this morning’s workout.

Disclosure was given and Devo started as Pax continued to filter in (not calling you out here, you know who you are).

Devo: Three New Year’s Resolutions to Keep by Ann Marie Chilton

Warm-up

Imperial Walker – 10IC

Low-but-not-so-slow Squats – 10IC

Slow Giant Arm Circles – 5F/5B R/L

One-legged side-straddle-swing (AKA “agility test”) – 10/leg

Vinyasa – 1X slow together with 10 calf raises in DD position

Vinyasa – 1X together at regular speed

Vinyasa – 1X OYO

 

Main Thang:

All movements are 4 times at 5 secs hold, then 1 more time at 45 secs hold.  (4-5-45)  Vinyasa between each stretch.

Low lunge

Seated forward fold w/strap

Quad stretch

Gate pose

Prone shoulder roll

On your 6: Dead pigeon then straight leg cross-body stretch

Toes pose

TIME

Announcements:

After a long and distinguished tour of duty as Site Co-Q, Tweetsie passed the mantle (and importantly, the keys) to our new Site Co-Q Julip.

Moleskin:

Good crowd for today’s edition of Gumby.  YHC wanted to mix it up a bit with “different” music, a few minutes of actual warm-up (never stretch a cold muscle), and an approach to stretching modeled more on what you’d get at Physical Therapy then a yoga studio.  I’d love feedback in comments here or DM on Twitter @SwissMissF3 or Slack.  (Already noted: standing quad stretch seemed to go better with wall support.  “Agility test” in warm-ups was a bust.)

Check out the full devo in the link above.  Good stuff that we should all take to heart and make part of our life this year.

Thank you to Tweetsie for being a great site co-Q for a long time (over two years, I think).  His millennial technical prowess saved this near-Respect’s bacon from getting tossed into Q jail too many times to count.  Fortunately for me (and all of us, really) he’s not going to disappear even though he’s moved.  He’ll still be in the Q rotation at Gumby and probably other A51 AOs.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead and try new things,

Swiss Miss

Tranquil Beaver

After a solid Devo (see bottom), we got going with –

Warm up:

8 Brocades (Ba Dua Jin) Qi Gong practice –

  • Two Hands Support the Heavens
  • Two Hands Press Apart
  • Drawing the bow and letting the arrow fly
  • Wise owl turns its head to eliminate fatigue
  • Bending over and wagging the tail to calm heart fire
  • Punching with angry gaze to increase strength

The Thang:

Mountain

Sun Salutation (x4)

  • Arms reaching overhead
  • Full fold (heavy body)
  • Up to halfway lift
  • Into plank
  • Down into up dog/cobra
  • Move into Down dog (walk the dog)
  • Step into Lunge, then move into full fold
  • From full fold to mountain

Back to Mountain

Begin Sun Salutation until Plank

Warrior 1

Warrior 2

Peaceful Warrior (repeat warrior flow on other side)

Starfish

In Mountain, beginning balancing poses

  • Tree left and right side

Right leg in, reach for left toes (switch)

Butterfly – push legs with elbows

Pigeon – both sides

Moleskin:

We started with a Devotional about letting go of fear and not looking at fear, but looking to God to help us overcome fear.  

After the Devotional, the Pax warmed up with the 8 Pieces of Brocade (Ba Dua Jin) Qi Gong forms and then moved into yoga and stretching for the main beatdown.

Thanks to his millennial mentor (Tweetsie), YHC upped his Gumby game by using Spotify for some delightful Reggae music and new Devotional app.  

It was an honor to lead.     

(POSTED FOR BEAVER by Swiss Miss, who also took the liberty of titling the workout.)

My legs are supposed to go where?

POSTING ON BEHALF OF VQ HOMER:

Devotion on Self-Discipline

Workout:

(each stretch held between 20 and 60 secs)

Arm Swing – 10x each arm forward and backward

Neck Stretch – Each side pulling head with hand to shoulder and then chin to chest

Shoulder Stretches – elbow up with hand pushed down over shoulder and then arm across chest – both shoulders

Forearms – arm straight out with palm up and then palm down – other hand pulling – both sides

Camel – Open the chest

Prone twist – stretch the chest – both sides

Butterfly

Hamstrings – laying on the back, pulling each leg up to chest 

Lower back stretch

– Both legs pulled to chest – rocking side to side

– Both legs over head with palms flat on ground (plenty of groans here)

Gluteal stretches – on ground with one leg crossed over the other but both shoulders flat on ground 

Posterior chain – leg across other leg at 90 degree angle pushed by bottom leg and pulled by hands

Mountain

Malasana (AKA Third World Squat)

Sun salutation – 1 together, 3 oyo

Table top

Cat/cow – 4 times oyo

Child’s pose – shift left and shift right

Sun salutation into pigeon on both legs

Finished!

The group did well with only a few stretches causing creaks, groans, and farts from the men in attendance – Camel, Legs over head, Malasana. Thanks for the opportunity to lead the group!

Homer

Cow time

Another picture-perfect day for stretching at Gumby: about 73 degrees, no humidity, and a fully-charged Bluetooth speaker. YHC kicked things off @ 0530 with a half-baked disclaimer, then went on with a well-cooked weinke.

Devo about Anger

Sun salutations: 1 together 2 more OYO

LEFT: Lizard 45s
Hammy stretch 45s
Lizard Quad 45s
REPEATO RIGHT
Vinyasa 1X OYO

Meet in Table Top
Cat/Cow OYO
LEFT: Side Split 45s
Twist Side Hip 45s
REPEATO RIGHT
Malasana 60s
LEFT: Pigeon 60s
REPEATO RIGHT
Seated twist 30s (L/R)
Prone shoulder flip 45s (L/R)
Cross shoulders 45s (L/R)
Toes pose w/neck stretch 20s (L/R)
Vinyasa 1X OYO

Single knee hug 45s (L/R)
Supine twist 45s (L/R)
Dead pigeon 45s (L/R)

Low lunge w/IT Band stretch 45s(L/R)
Vinyasa 12X OYO

Cow face closer

TIME!

Announcements:

BRR is happening, get on board

Tweetsie is promoting a special 30th milestone at the end of September (if I was paying better attention, I’d have more details, but as it’s further out than I care about today, I think this mention will be fine.)

Moleskin:

YHC ran the usual stretching routine hitting hips, quads, IT band, shoulders, hammies and plantar. Tabata style. Tunes courtesy of Amazon Prime (not Unlimited) “Queen Station.” Cows came home at the end with our heroic attempts to twist our legs into impossible shapes, while not falling over. It was awesome. Should have taken pictures, but then the timer stops and we’d have been stuck.

Thanks for posting this morning, gents. Looking forward to a day when I can use my left shoulder again so I can SYITG.

AYE!

Topless and sweaty

When the pre-dawn temperature is already over 70, and humidity is high, sometimes a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do.

Or in our case, most of the guys gotta did. Details below.

Weinke was pretty simple: go to the Crestdale track. Run around it for a while. Then come back for COT.

(there was a “mixed workout” option, but Gipsy’s sweaty tats proved too strong a lure, and everyone went with the “run only” option.)

The THANG: 2/1/30 2 minutes at a recovery jog (or walk/jog), 1 minute at a 10K race pace, and 30 seconds of speed. Repeato. Goal was 10, but only had time to do 9 on the track. Then did some kind of equivalent 2/1/30 on the way back to the school.

Moleskin: I logged somewhere around 6.6 miles. Funky Cold and Joker(?) lapped all of our slow butts, then still had enough gas in the tank to take the lead on the run back to MES. So they probably got point something more miles. Although FC rolled in after we had already exited the parking lot, so everyone but him got an extra few hundred yards as we circled the church playground to go pick him up. (Quick aside: Did you know there are steps on that sidewalk? We found out. Thankfully no Pax were harmed making that discovery.) Good bit of chatter with our fellowship pace mosey to the track. Then the whistle started, and the chatter stopped. Almost got our 10 sets in, but YHC made the call at about 2 past to get going back to the school – the other school. Good thing we did, as we rolled in with about 40 seconds to spare. Just long enough to watch the final few Mary of the Peak crowd but not so soon that we felt obligated to join.

Oh, and about the title for this BB: we left the parking lot shirted. When we got to the track, almost everyone stripped to the waist. So maybe the headlines were more exciting than the rest of the story, but I’m sure you’ve never been lured into something by a good line before.

Funky and hip

After an extended session of “who’s on Q” earlier in the week, YHC realized it would be him. So with a Tweet and Slack #Run reminder to get stretched last night, I came to the Scout Hut ready to lead. Fortunately, a few Pax, probably hoping to see BooYah (scheduled Q), posted, so YHC didn’t have to get that “what am I doing???” #sadclown feeling.

Here’s how it went down:

Devo based on Job 33:4
The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.

Vinyasa once together, then 2X OYO.

The Main Thang:

LEFT: Lizard 45s

Hammy stretch 45s

Lizard Quad 45s

Vinyasa 1X OYO

REPEATO RIGHT

Vinyasa 1X OYO

Go to Table Top

Cat/Cow X5

LEFT: Bird dog/Cheetah 5X

Side Split 45s

Twist Side Hip 45s

REPEATO RIGHT

Vinyasa 1X OYO

Malasana 60s

Vinyasa to Down Dog, then…

Step back into Pigeon:

LEFT 60s

REPEATO RIGHT 60s

Seated twist 30s L, 30s R

Prone shoulder flip 45s (L/R)

Cross shoulders 50s (L+R)

Neck stretch in toes pose 30s L, 30s R

Single knee hug 30s (L/R)

Supine twist 45s (L/R)

Dead pigeon 45s (L/R)

Happy baby 30s

Shoulder across chest 30 L, 30 R

Half Cow Face one leg over other 45s

Flapjack 45s

Time!

Announcements: (none… wha??)

Moleskin:

T-claps to Chopper for demonstrating amazing form with the Lizard and Pigeon.

Hope the tunes didn’t offend. It was New Orleans Home Cookin’ on Amazon.

Thanks for coming to keep me company and hopefully getting some good stretching in for yourself, to boot.

AYE!

Back to school at Peak Elementary

Disclaimer, opening announcements, first bell: GO

1st period: PE – Mosey to church lot for calisthenics

2nd period: Math (11s on the hill to the playhouse: Merkin @ top, Plankjack @ bottom)

3rd period: Science – gravity and space/time (pull-ups/hang)

4th period: Music (Sally squats *class favorite*)

5th period: Recess (circle up for “ring around the Mary”)

6th period: Lunge (Eat lunch and run around.  Lunges: split into 1st and 2nd lunch.  1st lunge lunges ~ 2min while other half mosey around perimeter of bus lot, flapjack around 2min mark)

7th period: English (ABCs: Alternating shoulder taps from plank, Bicycle, Crunch, Dolly, Extra-slow Merkins)

8th period: Social Studies (WWII situps, air presses, Grandpa Jacks)

9th period: Art (plank chalk art)

Announcements:

Joe Davis run is March 9th and if you haven’t signed up yet, you suck.  If you can’t go, donate and/or get the shirt.

Moleskin:

I like a good 0530 beatdown as much as the next guy, but really love it when you’re having too much fun to mind the pain.  So YHC did his best to come up with something fun that pushed us.  I hope you had a good day at school.  Be sure to leave your comments with Principal Sensei or his secretary, Miss Lois.

-SM

Apologies to the men who posted: I recorded names during COT, but didn’t push “Save” before I closed that app. I’ll add names in comments if I can’t get help before publishing.

You’re not *in* traffic…

LIGHTING: Mood

TUNES: Lofi hip hop radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnkWkRXgk1w

DISCLAIMER: Given

DEVO: Mindfulness in Child Pose:  https://today.reframemedia.com/devotions/mindful-gratitude

STRETCH THANG:

Sun Salutations:

1 together

5 OYO

Shoulders:

Shoulder Pigeon (5 breaths per side)

Low Lunge with Bound Arms (8 breaths per side)

Kneeling Eagle Arms (8 breaths per side)

Puppy Pose with Tricep Stretch (8 breaths)

Sphinx (8 breaths)

Dolphin Pose (5 breaths)

Hips:

Down Dog (5 breaths)

Low Lunge Left to Low Lunge Quad Stretch (8 breaths)

Child Pose (5 breaths)

Low Lunge Right to Low Lunge Quad Stretch (8 breaths)

Child Pose (5 breaths)

Lizard Pose Left (8 breaths) 

Lizard Pose Right (8 breaths)   

Pigeon Pose Left Forward Bend (8 breaths) 

Pigeon Pose Right Forward Bend (8 breaths)     

Legs:

Down Dog (5 breaths) 

3-Legged Down Dog Left (5 breaths) 

Twisty 3-Legged Down Dog Left (8 breaths)

Down Dog (5 breaths)   

3-Legged Down Dog Right (5 breaths) 

Twisty 3-Legged Down Dog Right (8 breaths)

Mountain to Forward Bend (5 breaths)

Extended Side Angle Left (8 breaths)

Reverse Warrior Left (8 breaths)

Mountain to Forward Bend (5 breaths)

Extended Side Angle Right (8 breaths)

Reverse Warrior Right (8 breaths)

Cool:

Tabletop (3 breaths)

Cat/Cow (5 times)

Extend Left arm, Right leg from Tabletop (8 breaths)

Tabletop (3 breaths)  

Extend Right arm, Left leg from Tabletop (8 breaths)

Corpse Pose

MOLESKIN:

Thoroughly enjoyed my Broga VQ and am looking forward to more. Thanks to the Broga pax for their patience while I sorted out a couple sketch transitions. Thanks to Swiss Miss for putting me on the Roster and for showing up at Peak 51 last week to let me know I was on deck as he had an ancient email address for me and I would have been AWOL this am. Shout-out to my M who graciously set aside her Netflix Ted Bundy Serial Killer Episode last night, got down on the floor, and whipped out her Pinterest and crafted this broga sequence for us. She also let me use the “nice” mat. Shout out also to Tweetsie for closing BOM with a loopback to the mindfulness topic from the devo. Nice work. Carry mindfulness with you using this little mantra of mine…

“And always remember, you are not *in* traffic…you *are* traffic.”

Dora out.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Joe Davis 5K