War Games



War Games

Some Q’s just stick with you. Some because they are hard, others because they are impactful. One in particular led by Jingles over a year ago has stuck with me. While at Weddington for Watchtower, Jingles took us near the track and pulled out a deck of cards. One at at time he turned over a card that corresponded with a certain exercise. I don’t remember the all the exercises, but it was something like Hearts are Pushups, Spades are Squats…and so on. The one thing I do remember is Aces were a lap around the track and I hated them. We also got delt a Jack, 9, and Queen back to back to back that resulted in 29 straight push ups. After the workout was over, I was spent…..and we didn’t move from a single spot with the exception of the aces lap around the track.

I found it to be a great Q. Simple, yet effective. And its been nagging at me ever since, how could I take that great idea, and build upon it. Make it better. Make it competitive. What if the Q didn’t deal, but the pax did. What if the pax were competing against each other…..and then it struck me while playing the card game War with my daughter…..we need to play WAR!

So with that in mind, I split the pax into two teams. Ability, size, strength; none of that mattered. Each person on the team was given a role. One was the dealer, one was the winning card collector, and the rest of the pax were given “running pax” titles. It was their job to determine if their team won, where the group was running to next.

Here are the rules and what each card exercises were:

HeartsExerciseDiamondsExerciseClubsExerciseSpadesExercise
2Merkins2Jump Squats2Dry Docks2Burpees
3Merkins3Jump Squats3Dry Docks3Burpees
4Merkins4Jump Squats4Dry Docks4Burpees
5Merkins5Jump Squats5Dry Docks5Burpees
6Merkins6Jump Squats6Dry Docks6Burpees
7Merkins7Jump Squats7Dry Docks7Burpees
8Merkins8Jump Squats8Dry Docks8Burpees
9Merkins9Jump Squats9Dry Docks9Burpees
10Merkins10Jump Squats10Dry Docks10Burpees
J30 Gas Pumpers + 30 LBC’sJ30 Gas Pumpers + 30 LBC’sJ30 Gas Pumpers + 30 LBC’sJ30 Gas Pumpers + 30 LBC’s
QFour 50 Yard SprintsQFour 50 Yard SprintsQFour 50 Yard SprintsQFour 50 Yard Sprints
K20 In/OutsK20 In/OutsK20 In/OutsK20 In/Outs
ARun 1/4 MileARun 1/4 MileARun 1/4 MileARun 1/4 Mile
JokerPartner Push & PullsJokerPartner Push & PullsJokerPartner Push & PullsJokerPartner Push & Pulls
RULES: 
Same card number, you do both excercises as a triple nickel.
Same card suit, you double the reps of the higher card.
Same color card, you do both excercises.
1/8 mile run in between cards.
Team with most cards at end decides fate of losing team.  Exercise count not to exceed 20 reps.

Moleskin:

Lots of lessons learned today. I thought adding a competitive flair would spice things up. But there was really no competition. As Chipolte pointed out several times.

Speaking of Chipolte, he seemed extra ornery today. Several times asking if it mattered that we turned over cards – lets just do some exercises and run. Perhaps not the best person to ask to deal for our team.

Another lesson learned – maybe best to have waited to do this Q when it was warmer. The gloves slowed the dealing down.

I expected more exercises, but it ended up being run heavy. Jingles Q left me sore. This Q just left me tired. Perhaps the next pax can take off from this and improve upon it some more.

The triple nickel sounded good on paper, but the only two times we had “war” (Same card dealt), it was running cards (Aces and Jokers). I had to modify to add some body weight moves in.

Posse showed up 15 minutes late (as usual for Asylum). I’m beginning to think his alarm clock doesn’t have the ability to set an alarm before 5:15.

Thanks to the pax that showed up today and stuck with me. I wanted to try something new and often times new means lots of explanation (not my strong suit) and bugs to be worked out.

Also, thanks to Jingles for that first Q over a year ago that got my wheels spinning.

I’ve got another workout in my head I’ve been wanting to try that combines can jam and ultimate frisbee with cinderblocks (goalee). Anyone with a can jam set want to co-Q with me?

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