History

History

Of the 24 men who posted today, only three were there when we kicked it all off on May 15, 2012 (Me, Stone Cold, Joker).  It was only the third workout in A51 at the time (Area 51 at McKee was the first; Death Valley was 2nd, having been freshly evicted from the bowl in front of the Siskey Y that spring).

Stone Cold and I had only two objectives for Skunk Works:  1) It was to be a kick in the teeth each and every week, and 2) It would push the envelope, try new things (hence the name).  Harley has taken the objectives to heart, and the Skunk still delivers after all these years.

What would an anniversary workout be without a quick stroll down memory lane?  For the benefit of the newer pax, the Skunk Works timeline can be divided into three distinct Eras:

Yard Sale Skunk

May 15, 2012 to Oct. 31, 2012.  This was back when we’d bring anything laying around the yard and make it into an exercise.  Sand bags, sledge hammers, slosh pipes, plates, tires, chains, ropes, lead pipes, jumping boxes, heavy bags, cinder blocks,5 gallon buckets of sand, dumb bells, screw drivers and beach towels, and even a gallon of bleach.  Those were the days of elaborate set ups, stations, and hoping that more than 16 or so guys didn’t show up.  But they did, and then some.  As a result, Skunk evolved into the…

Iron Skunk 

Nov. 6, 2012 to Jan. 6, 2015.  The very first Skunk KB workout looks fairly pedestrian now but it ushered in an age of tremendous conditioning gains. Not (yet) Mad Gains, however….Whereas Skunk 1.0 was inspired by Diamondhead, Skunk 2.0 took a page from Combine (we still lived in Metro’s basement at that point and many 51 Pax made regular journeys north of Fairview).  KBs and running or, some would say, running and some KBs.  Either way, KBs added a steel toe, as it were, to the Skunk’s weekly kick in the teeth.  Skunk In a Bag was so bad that I had repressed it (and the encore) from short term memory until Young Love ripped it off a few weeks back at Foxhole. Let’s agree to never do that again….Still, lots of great workouts in the Skunk 2.0 Era, from Farmer’s CMIYC around the loop road, to hairburners around the same.  Median suicides and turning the knob all the way to 11.  Stumbled upon this gem of a BB from a Bananas Q that got 27 comments–most of which were recommendations on Sanka’s name.  Prancer dodged some bullets that day.  It’s a wonder why the “lay down overhead pullover” or the “feet straight up locked arm crunches” didn’t sweep the region, you just never know what’s going to go viral.  Like doubling up on bells, for instance….

Heavy Skunk

Jan 13, 2015 to current.  The day we chucked caution (and our hamstrings) to the wind and embraced doubles.    We should have loaded up on Muscle Driver stock because the bell count in A51 has likely, er, doubled since Christmas.  And it shows.  Guys who were afraid of upgrading 30 pounders are regularly swinging doubles or the same or more.  #MadGainz are upon us.  But it need not be at the expense of running or pre-KB gear.  We’ll always have strong ectomorphs like Fletch trying to run into the ground, and the pax rejoiced greatly when Alf scooped up another set of plates for hairburners.  Heavy Skunk is just a combo of all its predecessors–the best, and worst, of each.

All that to say that each section of today’s workout was a nod toward each Skunk Era:

• Non KB gear on the tire hairburners across the grass
• Single KBs and Sprints, and
• Heavy / Doubles

Hope everyone this morning enjoyed the short trip in the time machine. Looking forward to see what the fourth year has in store.

ANNOUNCEMENT

It’s “Dress Like Sussudio” day at Joust-Kevlar this Friday, as we pay homage to our favorite bald be-knickered Brit. Run by Gymboree for a pair of kid sweats and leggings and make sure to keep your vital organs warm with one of the 25 Adidas jackets in your closet, the ones that you got for mercilessly hectoring coaching the U10 lads.  Shaved head optional, but encouraged.