Ring the Bell, School’s in Session

Ring the Bell, School’s in Session

It was (somewhat obscure) history of rock day at Meathead as we continue to get back to our roots sans spreadsheets, where the Q has the liberty to design the workout rather than be beholden to our Excel overlords.  The only guideline was at least 250 swings, which left plenty of time to come up with the rest of the plan as well as curate a corresponding playlist.

The warmup knocked out 75 swings interspersed with typical warmup like exercises.  Speaking of warmups, it’s nice that shorts are a viable option in the pre-dawn hours during the dead of winter.  I’ll never understand why people choose to live in places that have actual winters.

Next up was 5 rounds of 5 clean & press each arm, 5 goblet squats, and 20 swings.  Following this complex was 5 rounds of 10 merkins and 10 swings, leaving just 25 swings to reach the magic number.  Finish the 25, then grind out the final few minutes with carries & Mary.

Today’s playlist was inspired by a documentary I watched the other day about musician Saul Hudson and his upbringing in the Sunset Strip section of Los Angeles.  You probably know Saul Hudson by his stage name of Slash.  The documentary spent a lot of time exploring the time before Slash was rock royalty and the bands he played in before hitting it big.  Therein lies the inspiration for today’s playlist, which consisted of little known bands that featured major rock stars before their big breaks.  We heard from:

• Hollywood Rose featuring Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler of Guns N’ Roses and Tracii Guns of L.A. Guns
• Hawkwind featuring Lemmy of Motorhead
• Generation X featuring Billy Idol
• The Runaways featuring Joan Jett, Lita Ford, and one of the Bangles that isn’t Susanna Hoffs
• Geordie featuring Brian Johnson (the second lead singer of AC/DC)
• Montrose featuring Sammy Hagar
• Split Enz featuring the two brothers from New Zealand who would form Crowded House

I hope today’s participants received both a challenging workout and a greater appreciation of rock and roll history.

Announcements: There’s something about a blood drive but that’s common knowledge by now so I would like to use this forum to lament the decline of the once hallowed institution known as the backblast.  It has been on a downward trajectory for some time now, hastened lately by this Slackblast nonsense.  I liken the Slackblast to GrubHub and Uber Eats.  Yes, it’s possible to have Taco Bell delivered right to your door without having to move scarcely a muscle outside of your phone scrolling finger, but is it good for you?  Not everything needs to be easy and convenient.  Many things are better because they require effort.  Everything about a real Christmas tree is a bit of a pain in the butt, but it is infinitely better than an artificial one.  Easy doesn’t always equal good.  I shall climb down off my soap box now, though I don’t believe I’ve ever seen an actual soap box, and return to my room at the nursing home while trying not to break a hip.