Monthly Archive July 2016

Around the World in Twenty Merkins

Friday morning saw a welcome break from the oppressive heat wave that July has brought.  The pre-dawn hour and the wind chill combined to bring the temperature down to a brisk 92 degrees.  Twelve set out to get some work in before gunning for their tour cards at the golf tournament later in the day.  The disclaimer was probably mostly correctly given and we set out to play Frogger across 51.

Warmup:

  • Mosey to the Jack in the Box parking lot at a sensible pace for COP
  • 20 SSH IC
  • 15 Mountain Climbers IC with bonus criticism of the Q’s form
  • 10 IW IC
  • 5 Diamond Merkins IC
  • Mosey to the front of Amalie’s for the next phase

Around the World:

YHC wanted to find some new bits of ground to explore at Centurion, which was challenging since the regular rotation of Q’s does a phenomenal job of utilizing the CCHS grounds, the shopping center where Panera is (YHC can’t remember the name, probably Carmel something or other), Carmel Crossing Drive and accompanying hills, and the practice fields and parking lots in the immediate vicinity.  Carmel Commons seemed ripe for the picking since we sometimes utilize the Jack in the Box and McDonald’s parking lots but not much else.  So, while driving the 2.1 to daycare one day and sitting on 51, YHC took stock of the various eateries in the plaza and came up with this bit of nonsense called Around The World.It consists of running along the shopping center sidewalk and stopping at every restaurant that  serves the cuisine of a different nation to perform 20 merkins, 20 LBCs, 20 squats, 20 Russian twists, and 20 plank jacks. We began at Amalie’s which sounds like a French place so YHC gave the PAX the option to substitute monkey humpers for any exercise to punish the first stop for the sin of being and/or sounding French.

After the first circuit run to the Greek place called Zoe’s, pausing along the way to wave to Purple Haze on the elliptical at Planet Fitness.  #LunkAlarm  #TurnThatThingOffYouJackwagonsDumbbellsAreLoudWhenYouRackThem  Repeat the circuit then run to the Thai place called Bangkok Ocha and do the circuit.  Longish run to the end of the shopping center to the Chinese place cleverly named Great Wall of China and do the circuit, then run literally four feet to the Mexican place Cabo’s for the 100 rep circuit.  Finally run back to McDonald’s which we used to represent the greatest country in the history of countries, and the lone superpower on Earth, these United States of America. Being the American station, and being McDonald’s, the PAX were instructed to supersize the circuit and do 25 reps of each exercise.  The hashbrowns smelled delicious and deere lowered YHC misses carbohydrates.  Did McDonald’s actually need to pay McKinsey or some other high priced consultancy seven figures to tell them that all day breakfast was a good idea?  The executives could’ve simply gone to any store at 10:25 am and seen the mad rush for McMuffins and McGriddles and saved the shareholders some money.  Take one last inhale of carby, grainy, deliciousness and run to the picnic tables in front of CCHS.

At the tables find a bit of bench and perform 50 single leg split squats and 50 dips.  Once finished run to the mouth of Tartarus, the region of torments.  Go up the short ramps alternating between sprints and lunge walks until ascension of the summit, then run down the steps.  Seeing we still had a few minutes to spare after completion, we ran up the stairs and down the short ramps alternating between hard charges and recovery paces.  Run back to launch lot and circle up.

YHC likes to outsource Mary to the PAX under the guise of getting everyone involved.  The dirty little secret is that YHC’s form on most core exercises is as sloppy as Ole Miss’ recruiting in recent years.  #SeriouslyHughFreezeYouAren’tFoolingAnyoneYouFlthyCheater  We did the usual suspects for Mary ending with a plank and YHC’s favorite, zero burpees OYO.

Thanks to those who came out before golf and the site Q’s for the opportunity to lead.  YHC tried to get out of the proverbial comfort zone and lead a boot camp workout without relying on lifting rocks.  CCHS removing the rock pile was also a catalyst in that.  After careful consideration, the Rusty Onion was left off the Around the World roster since YHC felt that including a bar/pizza joint as Italy might cause consternation among any PAX of actual Italian descent.  Roll Tide.

Game Night (day version)

Warm-Up
Side Straddle Hops
Daddy Elevators
Fight Club shadowboxing
Jab/Cross
Hook
Upper Cuts
2.0/KO with burpees

Games, Games, Games
Smaug the Drag
Red light/green light
Night at Museum
Daddy Wolf
Shoe Relay (don’t do this)
Limbo
Capture the Flag

Pledge of the Alliegence/ BOM

Capture the flag was the highlight of the day. We played two full  rounds with LOTS of running. By the end there were a lot of sweaty kids with big smiles. Thanks for all the dudes and kids who came out for fun day. My kids and I really enjoy the hanging out with all the kids and playing outside games.  Thanks to Honey Bee for organizing and the weekly Qs for providing the all 3 Fs.

Horsey MchorseArse Preblast

A few laps to loosen the legs up, some suicides to get the lungs working, and then a dedicated stretch of time on Big Yuca to shred your quads. Come join the fun!

Worthless the Rest of the Day

9 pax posted for the promised (via pre-Tweet) strength-focused workout.  With YHC’s lack of kettlebells recently, he decided to share with the pax some ways to up the intensity of familiar exercises.  Plus, a few KB exercises ’cause, well duh, YHC is on Q.

The Thang

Disclosure

COP

  • Parking lot lap
  • Imperial Walker
  • Merkins
  • Side Straddle Hop
  • Mountain Climber
  • Prying Squats
  • Farmer carry to playground with two kettlebells (KBs) each

Playground Swing Set

  • 100 KB swings – 10 sets of 10 reps – go with a heavy bell, using impeccable form – mostly 2-handed, with a few 1-handed swings thrown in for good measure

Concession Air

  • Extended Arm Merkins – 5 per side – one arm in regular position, one arm extended to the side, using primarily the arm in regular position and the extended arm only as much as needed
  • Hollow Hold – 10 count hold OYO – supine on the ground, raising extended arms and legs off the ground
  • Constant Tension Air Squats – 15 – like a regular squat but eliminate the almost imperceptible pauses at the top and bottom of each rep and maintain constant tension in the muscles
  • Rinse & repeat 4 times total

Playground Redux

  • 50 snatches – 10 sets of 5, going with a heavy bell, alternating sides each time

Concessions Coming Up

  • Elevated Carolina Dry Docks – 5 reps – our familiar CDD, with feet elevated as high as possible (pax elevations ranged from knee-high to near shoulder height), back straight and near vertical
  • Pistol Squats, to benches – 5 per side – one legged squats to bench, down and up, modifying as needed
  • Old School Situps – 10 reps
  • Rinse & repeat 2 times total (audibled down from 4 sets due to time)

Playground Exploration

  • Challenge Pullups – AMRAP with max difficulty (for you) pullups – if you normally do supine rows, try an assisted pullup; if you normally do assisted pullups, try unassisted pullup; if you do standard pullups, try adding a weight (hanging a KB from your toes) – strive for 1 to 5 reps (if you can do more than 5, increase the difficulty)
  • Bulgarian Split Squats, with KBs – 5 per side
  • Rinse & repeat 2 times total (audibled down from 4 sets due to time)

Six Minutes Mary

  • Freddie Mercury – 5 IC slow, then 5 IC faster
  • Cumberland Co Viaduct – 10 IC per side
  • Flutter (no KB press – Q fail) – 10 IC
  • Russian Twist (again, no KB – so ashamed) – 10 IC
  • Dolly – 10 IC
  • Farmer Carry two bells back to the cars

Done

COT

Thanks, Fugitive, for taking us out.

Announcements:

  1. Area 51 & SOB Pool Party – August 20 – sign up here
  2. BRR – fill-ins needed
  3. Ragnar Trail Run
  4. Southern Discomfort
  5. Area 51 & SOB Christmas Party
  6. F3 Golf – 2017 – sign up

Moleskine:

The goal today was to lower the reps and pace, focus on good form, and up the intensity of some of our more common exercises.  Hopefully, you all had a chance to explore some options for strength work without resorting to weights, and when you did have a KB in your hand, you tried a heavier kettlebell, too.

A few audibles were made today due to time – cutting down from 4 sets to 2 on a couple of rounds and completely eliminating another set of 100 swings.  Let’s blame it on the heat/humidity as the reason our rest breaks were longer than planned.  Despite that, YHC was useless for much of the day thereafter.  Today, as this is dutifully scribed, there is a comfortable twinge of soreness in a few spots – the mark of any good strength workout.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead, and t-claps to each of you for really pushing it with the higher weights and more challenging variations of the exercises.

Aye.

Green Pastures, No Rest

Grab your water and off we go to green pastures led by Shepherd. Whether he wanted to get this over ASAP or ate his wheaties, I don’t know, but he was two lengths out from and pulling away. Stopping his flock in an unfamiliar locale for COP he quickly put us at ease with his “windmill in a tornado” impersonation…

COP in cadence
Windmills
Squats
Merkins (oyo)
Here comes The Count… 10 burpees oyo
Hillbillies

Off we go to the hayfield formerly known as the practice soccer field for 4 Corners….
For (20)
Run, LBC, bear crawl, merkin, reverse crunch, crab walk, squats.
Repeato with 30 count
(I thought shepherds were supposed to protect us from bears)

To the field house for People’s Chair and air press, followed by BoC’s and DnC’s (donkey kick terminology coined by GJ).

Indian run a lap around the parking lot as we dodged cars, then a little Lt Dan to make up for yesterday’s visit of Jack Webb. (I lost track of the count after my quads went numb – maybe it was 8 or 9.

Handoff to The Late Show and over to the obstacle course.

A quick tutorial on how to use the kettlebell and chains pulley system hook up. You load your weight (1,2, or 3 25# kb’s) and then pull the kb’s up and then lower down. That’s 1.

The man on the pulley is the time keeper while the pax does the called exercise. When the man on the pulley completes 3 he chased us down, we all head back to the start line and another man takes a turn on the pulley. The exercises (from what I recall and in no particular order) were: lunge walk, bear crawl, sprints, jump squats, partner carry, panther crawl, partner decline merkins.

A 3 man team collects the kb’s and back to the flag while the pax collects some cones that we (sadly) did not have time to utilize.

Meet at the flag for some plank work and done.

Thanks to HB for taking us out.

Announcements:
Reminder of Tuesday, Thursday, Friday workouts and the 3rd F Grindstone meeting at GJ’s restaurant of choice.

The Moleskine
Huge work by Jabberwocky and The Count, both coming back from medical timeouts this past week.
Kudos to Happy who did everything with one arm today. Some bailing wire and duct tape will fix that shoulder up toot sweet.
EE had to split early… Had to go home and shower and get his legs iced down to kick that bass drum for an (outside) church event today.
Good to see Good Luck, strong work, looks like climbing the hills around Asheville has him back into football shape.
Good hustle from Bernanke, he lapped us all on the 4 Corners, and nonstop work by our resident, self-labeled Clydesdale, Hairband.
I think Woody got more of an ab workout during the partner carries than he bargained for.
Shep led us to green pastures, but we didn’t find any rest.
Glass Joe should run for president.

TLS out….

Damascus knocks us off the ass

Today was my Q but Damascus decided he wanted to step of his game and take the VQ,  this was no easy feat. He hit this week hard, Brave, Commitment, Thursday beat down at my house.  Pretty sure he was on his 6th straight day.  So here is the work out he led and planed while his 2.0 (not so 2.0) laughed and said it was going to crush it.

Warm up
side straddle hop (40)
merkin (15)
mountain climbers (30)
LBC (25 oyo)

The Thang:

Mosey to parking circle

Station one (partners)
partner 1 run runs a lap /partner 2 does merkins
Switch and repeat
partner 1 run runs a lap /partner 2 does squats
Switch and repeat
partner 1 run runs a lap /partner 2 does planks
Switch and repeat

Mosey through trail to the track

On the track alternate pull-ups (max) and LBCs (25) on one end 15 burpees on the other – total 4 laps
If you’re waiting for the pull-ups you do plank slaps

Mosey to bridge with partner
Wheelbarrows at the far side of the bridge to the top of the stairs

At the top of the stairs partners complete a total of 100 dips

Mosey to hill

5 Hill runs with 5 burpees at the bottom

Mosey back to the parking lot + jail break last 100 yards for stretch and end

Moleskin: (written by Transporter)  So Damascus and I chatted briefly last night about his maiden voyage. Told him not to sweat it, if he ran out of a work out plan, one of us would help him out.  Not the case, no help needed and clearly everyone got there work in.  I think Stuffed Crust thought he would walk circles around his Dad’s plan and MMMMM not so much, he got destroyed like the rest of us.  I think the wheelbarrows to the school pretty much used up the tank so the 5×5’s burbee’s on the  hill was a struggle for all of us! Nice work Damascus, I’m cooked! Also learned that F3 is cheaper than Fracks Zumba membership:)

 

Announcements:

Union County F3 Shirts – f3mudgear.com/products/f3-union-county-pre-order

F3 Sanctuary- 7:30 Westley Chapel Brooklyn Pizza  Book- Act Like men.. By James MacDonald Read Chapters 1-3

David Phelps- at First Baptist Church

 

Shiny Happy People

9 happy souls took the challenge this morning despite the hot, humid conditions and decided to improve their abilities.

The Thang:

Jog over to ‘muscle beach’ for COP. Perform SSH, IW, arm circles, MC and 10 monkey humpers with your backside facing muscle beach.  I’m sure our Schwarzenegger-like brothers appreciated the view.

Jog over to the soccer fields where YHC had conveniently placed flags in a similar shape to a regulation size football field.  At each flag perform the following exercise while sprinting the length of the field and mosey the width. Increasing reps at each flag until complete and lunge-walk to next flag after each round.

Round 1: Merkins: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25

Round 2: LBC: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50

Round 3: Burpees: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10

Run over to rock pile. Grab a lifting rock to be proud of and perform the following for 3 rounds:

  • 20 curls, 20 triceps extension, 30 American Hammer with rock

Jog/mosey/walk as YHC is beginning to wane over to the playground and perform the following:

  • 10, 10-second decline pull-ups with forward facing grip
  • 25 donkey kicks
  • 10, 10-second decline pull-ups with underhand grip
  • 25 donkey kicks

Walk/Mosey to the side parking lot where the roundabout is located for the Stack.

  • Run to roundabout, perform 5 HR merkins. Run back to starting point
  • 5 HR merkins, 10 V-ups, run to roundabout.
  • 5 HR merkins, 10 V-ups, 15 squats, run back to starting point
  • 5 HR merkins, 10 V-ups, 15 squats, 20 LBCs

Undo Stack in reverse order.

  • 20 LBCs, 15 squats, 10 V-ups, 5 HR merkins.  Run to roundabout
  • 15 squats, 10 V-ups, 5 HR merkins. Run back to starting point
  • 10 V-ups, 5 HR merkins. Run to roundabout
  • 5 HR merkins.

Mercy.  Return to cars.

Moleskin: The heat and humidity took a toll on the Pax from the very beginning.  However, the Pax was strong and pushed forward with great attitudes.  Nothing fancy today. Running, merkins and core work. Some mumblechatter regarding the pullups, but then again, no one likes doing pullups.  Good time was had by all.  Thanks to Brew for taking us out.  Well done gentlemen, enjoy your afternoon nap!!

Fight gone bad

It was my pleasure to lead joust in headers honor today!

He had to leave soccer tryouts so I was happy to step in, heard his son was injured at the tryout, praying for his recovery!

The thing:

Quick warm-up, side straddle half and Imperial Walker.

Next up was a quick 800 to get the legs ready.

The meat and potatoes with something like this… Five stations each with a different exercise.

Merkens

Wall sits

sprints

Pull-ups

Plank

Divide up the PAX and each take a turn on every station one minute maximum effort.

Three rounds of that, with a 30 second break in between, and we were ready for some Mary.

All in all, a tough workout.

Always feel so #blessed by this community, guys like stinger, Sky walker making it out to support me is a family better than words can express. F3, we are lucky to have it.

ISI- Dolly

Pre-Golf cop out

11 dudes came today and I’m pretty sure the golfers showed up today just so they could tell people that they posted this morning AND played golf. “Yea, I keep slicing the ball today….probably because I did so many wide arm merkins this morning at Kevlar.” Well, gotcha sucka, we didn’t even do wide arms today so no more excuses why you’re still bad at golf after 15 years.  While I don’t play golf I think it’s fun every once in a while, the same way I think pin ball machines, juggling and laser tag are fun every once in a while.

COP:

SSH, Merkins, Plank Jacks, Low Slows

Run to Pavilion – Whoop (Chris Berman style) – still too scary/dark so we kept running across the street to the neighborhood hill.

Hill – Jacob’s Ladder

3 Burpees at the bottom each time

1 jump squat at the top

Back down the hill (3 burpees), back to top of the hill and do 2 squats

Keep going until we get to 7 squats.

Back to Pavilion – Partner Up 

Partner 1 runs to cone near cemetery

Partner 2 does SSH

Flap Jack

Partner 1 runs to cone

Partner 2 does hand release merkins

(This was about the time Tiger Rag left to “set up” for golf leaving Pop Tart all alone)

Flap Jack

Partner 1 runs to cone

Partner 2…can’t remember

Run to Church Wall

Partner Suicides

Partners alternate running to the next median until the last parter runs to the top of the hill and back. Parter waiting did wall sits the first lap and then shoulder taps in plank position on the second lap.

Run to field and group in 3s

2 on one side of field and 1 on the other. One of the two sprints to the solo guy and keep alternating as the guys waiting do plank, LBCs and merkins. We did this until the end…

Moleskin: 

Horsehead said we went right up to 3 miles – he’s got an injured wing but he keeps making the push being as he seems to be the only site Q at Kevlar (Hey Bulldog, where you at son?). We kept moving around the site and everyone kept up. Young Love was absolutely hauling on the last group of sprints. After accusing me of training in Afghanistan he seemed to be the guy with the most steam in the end. I called several audibles today based purely on facial expressions and moans. Donkey Kong ignored my last one on the Jacob’s ladder and made sure he did all 7 – props. Cotton Tail was running hard on the cemetery run and Rhapsody, as always, was seeting the pace. Yes Tiger Rag bailed out early to set up for golf – he was already modifying the junk out of my Q and it seems his go to is LBCs with a side of Flutter. That’s alright because he and Horsehead did a 5am pre-run that didn’t sound fun to me at all.

Thanks to HH for taking us out.

Announcements

F3 Golffff…..errrr…..sorry just a habit.

There are some Q spots available at Kevlar through the rest of the year, ask Horsehead

Out.

Four Corner’s

18 Pax showed up for a weekly dose of pain at Rebel Yell. Here’s what happened.

The Thang

A quick mosey to circle up for a warm up.

Windmills x 15

Imperial Walkers x 15

Low Slow Squat x 15

Mountain Climbers x 15

Plank Jack x 15

Merkins x 10

Mosey over to the parking islands in front of the movie theatre for a warm up run in a four corner formation. Karaoke down, Side-Shuffle across, Backwards Run back and Side-Shuffle across. Four (4) times around.

Count off to create four teams. Each Team was assigned one corner of the movie theatre where there was an exercise posted.

Corner 1) Wide Arm Merkins x 10

Corner 2) Monkey Humpers x 20

Corner 3) Diamond Merkins x 10

Corner 4) Jump Squats

Between the corners, run the length of the theatre and Bear-Crawl halfway of the width. Four (4) times around.

Huddle up for a brief 10-count and mosey over to the Cantina Restaurant. Partner up for a shared exercise of leg lifts. 75-Right Leg (Only) Lifts on the wall, while partner runs around parking island, Reapto 75-Left Leg (Only) Lifts on the wall and partner run.

Mosey back towards parking lot for COT. Stop midway to plank and an AYG Sprint back.

Moleskin:

The PAX did a great job on this steamy summer morning. It was great seeing Mike Check back at RY. Fahvre and Rachel kept trading the leading position on all of the exercises. (Nice Job!)

There was a a little mumble-chatter on the Windmill (AKA Jane Fonda), but the QIC is still on the mend from a calf tear, so all warm-ups were ‘calf friendly’. The chatter quited down considerably after four rounds of karaoke/backwards run. I believe the Four Corner exercises were good, but the Bear Crawls were pretty terrible. Thanks to Chippy, PaperJam, Morning After and Coyote Ugly for pushing me during the four corners.

Welcome to our new FNG, Situation and to Coyote Ugly for bringing him out. Way to hustle out there Situation!

A big Thank You to Heartbreaker and Strawberry for their continued support of Rebel Yell as Site Q’s. I enjoyed leading the PAX today!

Announcements – Fight Club at Elon Park on Fridays, come see Chipotle.