Topo Chico Hard Seltzer in Stores March 29th

This morning at Anvil we had thirteen PAX including one FNG and were greeted by the first morning of the season that felt downright pleasant.  I think the gloves can safely put away until November or December, and maybe even washed.  I was thrown for a bit of a loop right from the start because based on the usual attendees of Anvil, I was expecting three things to happen:

• To be heckled mercilessly
• Refusenik-ing galore
• Very little participation in cadence counting

Instead, the group was very affable and good-natured, so I had to adjust my expectations and press on.  We began with a jog to the Astroturf pavilion and upon arriving the sign out front let us know that we had entered a designated mask zone.  Outside.  Really.  Seeing no Karen Fauci types around to scold us we warmed up with the usual group of exercises.  Surprisingly, we had nearly full participation in the side straddle hops, sans Hops.  Far be it from me to judge (kidding, I love judging) that’s a weird exercise to boycott.  I save my refuseniks for truly dumb things like burpees.  Following the warmup we set off for the Avenue of Trees.  Four rounds of a hard run to the end for merkins, squats, and Freddie Mercurys (20x, 15x, 10x, 5x reps) and a recovery jog back.

Next up a run to the hot box for bench work.  First up was 50 dips then run to the end of the sidewalk and back.  Next up was 20 incline merkins, 10 decline merkins, run out and back.  Third round was 20 split squats, out and back, and lastly was 20 step ups.  We had about 15 minutes to go in the workout by this time, so the instructions were given to run to the rock pile.  Someone asked me if I meant the pile on the way back to launch or the far away one on the other side of campus.  Bro, have you met me?

Upon arrival at the rock pile we had another question, asking if we were getting lifting rocks or running rocks.  Again…I thought you people knew me.  First exercise was the Sots Press, which is the overhead press while holding the squat position.  Look, you people can give me all the dirty and disapproving looks you want, but I’m going to keep calling the Sots Press because it’s a great exercise and everyone should do it more often.  Next up was the overhead squat and four rounds of curls and triceps extensions.

Lastly return to the launch lot for some Mary, mostly the usual exercises but I mixed in some of the isometric holds we do at Swole/Meathead/Olympus.

Mumblechatter seemed light this morning, which usually provides me fodder for backblast titles and material.  I didn’t hear much that would give me an opportunity to go off on a rambling, loosely tied together tangent.  However, it was good to see that some things remain constant.  Snowflake still runs in and out of workouts, Rachel is still really fast, and Puddin still farts loudly during Mary.  In an ever changing world, it’s nice to have some things remain constant.  With little inspiration to work with, I’ll use the title of the backblast to pass along song useful information that I’m sure Clover (Area 51’s hard seltzer Q) would want everyone to know had he been there this morning, which he was not.

We had one FNG this morning, who we named Poblano.  His last name is Scoville, like the heat units used to judge peppers and hot sauce.  He is also a former collegiate baseball player at the state university of New Jersey, so we had a few areas to work with.  The creative juices were flowing about as well as molasses rolling uphill in January and the suggestions flamed out quickly, much like the Big 10 and ACC in the NCAA tournament.  We settled on Poblano because it’s a fun word to say.  Not many announcements today, but please keep the Palmer family in your thoughts and prayers.  Check Slack for some upcoming challenges/events.  High Tide has a functional strength challenge later in May, with divisions for Respects, Meatheads, and mortals.  Flipper has a couple things out there as well that I haven’t been able to read all the way through yet because, Flipper.  In closing, we’ve hit that short stretch of perfect weather for afternoon patio happy hours so hopefully we’ll see some organized via Slack/text/email soon.