The Bench Life

12 PAX struck out from the parking area at Marvin Ridge HS into the gloom. No wait, here’s 13. Oh man, coming in hot, here’s 14.

The THANG:

Circle up with 1 minute to go. Disclaimer, and we’re off.
Mosey up to the top of the hump, Side shuffle back down to the cars to pick up one more PAX.
High knees up to the top of the hump. One more PAX joins in. Butt kicks down the other side and circle up.
Opening COP:
- Side Straddle Hop – ICx20
- Imperial Walker – ICx20
- Merkin – ICx10 – hold it
- Slow Mountain Climber – IC x 20
- Low Slow Squat – IC x 20
Let’s Mosey up the side of the HS along the main drive.
Each Street light up and around the globe we’ll do 5 Hand Release Merkins OYO. Plank for the Six.
Mosey to the long bench between the Tennis Courts. Find a spot on the Bench.
- 10 single leg step ups OYO (leg on bench doesn’t come back down). Flapjack. Plank for the Six.
- 10 single leg step ups 1 yard back from the bench OYO (more Hammy). Flapjack. Plank for the Six.
- 10 Burpee Jump ups to the Bench OYO. Plank for the Six.
- 10 Incline Merkins on the Bench back to a standing position OYO. Plank for the Six.
- 20 Dips on the Bench In Cadence. Recover
- Stay at the bench and Repeato OYO back through set starting at single leg step ups. Plank for the Six when done.
Mosey to the Football practice field and line-up on the end line. OYO BLIMP across the field stopping at each light post to progress through:
- 10 Burpees
- 20 Lunges (Standing, each leg)
- 30 Imperial Walkers
- 40 Mountain Climbers (Single count was called, but double count performed by some PAX was better)
- 50 Plank Jacks were challenging
- Plank for the Six
Mosey OYO around to Middle School to the porch. PAX do Plank Jacks until the Six is in. Circle up for:
- LBCs IC x 25
- Single Leg Bridge (not proper form – Q fail) IC x 10 right leg. Flapjack.
- Plank Twists IC x 10 (plank position, stack elbows parallel facing opposite directions underneath you, rotate core to side until torso perpendicular to ground with hand on hip).
Mosey back to the cars. Get in some Slalom on the trees down the parking lot.
Circle up to run out the time for:
- Diamond Merkins IC x 10 (almost a Q fail here)
- On your six for “Chorus Line” IC x 10. On your six, arms spread out from side (snow angel position), cross 1 leg as far as you can to ground under opposite arm, keep your six on the ground, return to starting position, other leg.
- Scorpion IC x 10. On your twelve (?) with your nipples and groin grinding into the asphalt, arms spread out from side as before, basically a reverse of the before with leg crossing toward opposite hand, tap foot to ground as far as you can, return to starting position, other leg.
COT!

The Moleskin:

When YHC arrived at 0525, there was Boucher, probably the only PAX that lives closer to the AO than YHC, already out and limbering up, but that was about it. One PAX sitting in his car. And then most PAX rolled in between 0528 and 0530 with even a few more coming after we were off into the Gloom. Just before we started, with no one signed up to Q, YHC (as one of the co-site Qs with Bananas) will take it for today, but that doesn’t stop YHC from at least asking one more PAX to share the Q. No bites. Well, YHC needed more of a recovery day from all of this Marathon prep, so hope the PAX are in more some body weight exercises, slow moseys, and lots of core. Can’t wait until the Marathon at Kiawah on 12/10. Perhaps at that point YHC will try keeping up with the likes of Doc McStuffins, Enron, and Frack who were out in front most of the morning.
Let’s circle back around to pick up Posse as he plants our Shovel Flag we’ve all been missing so much. Godspeed to Transporter making it back to Dromedary.
You can count on everyone pushing at their own level of ability at Dromedary. Each week the Q will challenge you with something different. If you want to be challenged by something else, such as bringing Gear (Strawberry may bring it next week, but where is Chanel with his bag of tricks) or carrying rocks (Grease Monkey) or doing endless merkins (Frack) or running forever (Rockwell AND DasBoot) or Musical COP (Posse) or exploring the campus more (Doc and Enron haven’t been everywhere), then you’ll have to sign up to Q!
Welcome again to newer PAX Loafer, Caddyshack, and Goodfella. YHC will have to get to know you more when not having to keep up with you
Kotters to ShopDog! Great to have you back. Respect!
The QIC spot is open in 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and then tentatively on the last week of the year. Sign up at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4baeaf29a46-dromedary
Most people think of The Bench Life from their younger sports days. On the Bench meant you were out of the game taking a rest, or you weren’t in the starting line-up, or you were just a fan up in the stands. Not really involved. At this point in our lives, many of us have an opportunity to be that leader on the Bench. Stepping up to coach your own child, lead a workout, or direct something else is a challenge. Much of what goes wrong will get placed on your shoulders, but there’s such a great opportunity to do something BETTER than just look at it that way. If Coaching a child, there’s impact WAY beyond just teaching a new technique in a sport, for example there’s the Charlotte Eagles and their soccer outreach through the YMCA. This is a plug for the Charlotte Eagles, and here is an example of their mission to Coaches that you can apply on your BENCH LIFE days:
- No single job is more important to the mission and vision of the YMCA than a youth sports coach. YMCA values: “To connect and engage people”; “Nurturing the potential of every child” and “Giving back and supporting our neighbors”, all require a core of committed youth coaches who have a desire to see their communities encouraged and players’ lives transformed.
  The Charlotte Eagles are very excited that you have chosen to be a coach. It is now our job to give you all the tools you need to be a great YMCA coach. We have done our best to make this easy and achievable.
  As a coach you have the opportunity to teach, mentor, motivate, encourage, and guide your players as they develop as soccer players and young people with character. As you coach you will see your players growing mentally, physically, and emotionally as they gain confidence in soccer and in life.
  In this booklet, all the practice sessions have been broken down in very simple terms, each with a soccer theme and a character quality that relates to life. We do our best to link together subjects like passing and teamwork so that it is very natural to teach and talk about both. On the soccer side, our practices follow a very easy progression of: warm-up; teaching a skill; playing a small game with that skill; playing a large game with that skill and then spending a few minutes teaching the character values of the day. This value will be applicable to the games you play in practice and in life!
Thanks to Doc and others for leading some core while the Six caught up.
Strong takeout by ShopDog!